Page 65 of The Right Woman

PIPER

My armsand legshurtfrom how tight my binds are, but terror surges through my body so viciously I can barely feel the tug. The blade of the knife presses to my throat. If I take too deep of a breath, it will cut me.

“Keep your eyes on me, Rosy. Don’t look away,” Adon says. When I glance over, his serious brown eyes narrow, and I latch onto them like an anchor in a violent storm.

In his hurry, Dennis didn’t attach my gag as well as he should have, and I manage to slip my jaw beneath it, responding, “Okay, boss.”

The professor’s alarmed expression takes me in, but he just grips my hair and holds the sharpened edge more firmly against my skin.

Rhodes clears his throat. “Maybe if you could just put the knife down, then we’ll all wait for the police in peace. Doesn’t have to be like this.”

“Sure, it does,” Mr. Harrison says, and I yelp as the cold steel digs in until it burns. “You barged in onmyfun time.”

“I’m not having a good time,” I say through clenched teeth, hoping he doesn’t cut my throat.

My boyfriend’s gaze doesn’t falter from my face. As soon as Dennis’s muscles twitch, however, Adon makes his move. With speed like I’ve only seen the night we were shot at, he shoves Sean at Rhodes, then makes a leap onto the bed, covering my body while knocking Dennis to the floor, the blade clattering on the wood floor behind him.

Adon kneels over my waist while Rhodes moves his aim, pointing the gun at Dennis’s head. “Don’t even think of reaching for that knife,” he says.

Adon’s fingers work frantically to untie my arms and legs. Dennis rests against the wall, huffing a few breaths while glaring at my boyfriend and his brother.

“She was a whore. Just like yours. Not worth it, Mr. Griffin. Women aren’t worth it.”

I rub where the bindings made my skin raw and irritated, then squat behind Adon as he sits on the edge of the bed. “So you killed her,” I say.

The professor’s face lights up with a laugh. “No. I just served her coffee, like usual.”

My eyes squeeze closed as I recall the details in the photograph he thought he had me delete. He was pouringalmondmilk into her cup…

“She was allergic to almonds,” I whisper, and the man twitches with a startle.

“What?” he asks, like he knows very well what I just said.

“What was that, Rosy?”

“He poured almond milk into her coffee and served it to her, knowing she was allergic to almonds…That’show he did it.”

Both of us look at the man who scrambles back against the wall as if he can escape. His complexion grows wan as sweat pours from his forehead.

“Hands up! Police!” A group of officers rushes in with weapons drawn and immediately leaps onto Adon, despite hisarms behind held high in the air. One throws me to the ground and all of us get handcuffed.

When they stand us up, Adon starts yelling at a few milling around. “Cover her up, for fuck’s sake!”

A sob cuts through my chest. Adon’s fierce eyes won’t leave my face, even as they wrestle him away. He calls to me, “Don’t worry, baby. It’ll be okay.”

One of the men obliges and uncuffs me for long enough for me to dress. After reading my rights, the officer in front of me asks what happened, and I relay everything from arriving to getting assaulted with the knife.

He releases my hands, and I stretch through the pain, then shiver with a chill and from residual nerves.

“I have proof of what Mr. Harrison did to his wife. It’s on my social media. He got my phone, but he never checked online where I posted the picture on Pixtagram.”

The officer looks at his screen and has me point to the one I’d posted with Maggie and me. “There he is! In the background, just over our shoulders. He’s pouring almond milk into his wife’s cup… The same she drank from and then died.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll pass this along.”

“Am I free to go?” I ask.

“You are, but we may be in touch for more questions.”

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