Page 191 of Deep Cover

Since Cole had come into my life, explanations were less plentiful and the whole thing made less sense. I chafed at Cole's control. I'd come to learn that, no matter what, pain hurt.

Whatever the reasoning behind my desires, I'd find no explanations and no desires here. I'd created Lily out of whole cloth, fashioned her from girls I'd gone to school with and girls I'd arrested and other girls I'd seen hanging around with the dealers and the users.

I needed to do the same thing here. I needed to go undercover – deep undercover – and bury Annie somewhere safe. Lily wouldn't help. I didn't need opiates mixed into the hell that was Vincent Geddes and Kie.

I'd been eyeing the phone, wondering what Vincent would do about feeding me. The day before had been horrific. Now I was starving. There was nothing else for me to put on, so I wore the sweats he'd thrown at me back in Hollywood. There was no one else to ask for food, so I was going to pick up the phone and ask whoever was there what I had to do to get some.

There was no other way out of the room except the window that had proved I was on the third floor of a large house in a city that gave me no clues. So I'd have to find another way out. Undoubtedly there was an alarm on the window. I'd tried opening it and no one came, so maybe it reacted to weight on the sill or the screen being popped out.

Or maybe the fact that I was three floors up with a sheer drop convinced Vincent to skip alarms.

I sat down on the edge of the bed to figure out the parameters of the person I needed to create. Submissive, but angry. Obedient, but clearly only because she had to be.

So far? That was me.

But I needed to be untouchable. Stone-faced at any references to Cole. Scathing about his rules but not breaking them. I wouldn't be able to convince him that overnight I'd come to see the error of my ways and wanted to fall into line behind crazy Kie as concubine number two. But I could convince him I was going along to get along and to avoid beatings.

So far I was simply presenting Annie.

But Annie who logically accepted what was happening to her and waited to go back to Cole. Annie who believed whatever Vincent told her.

That Annie was the fake.

The real Annie was waiting for her chance. Her chance to run.

And her chance to kill Vincent and Kie.

I was still sitting on the edge of the bed when the screaming started.

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