Page 32 of Knight

“Not really.” He sits back in the armchair, my phone returning to his hand. “But you need to eat, and I need to think.”

The pizza sits between us, steam rising from the cheese, and my stomach cramps with hunger.

“You’re not going to force feed me this time?”

He arches an eyebrow. “Do you need me to?”

I scoot forward, and take a slice of pizza, ignoring how my hands are shaking. “I’d rather starve than go through that again.”

“I mean … that can be arranged.” His attention returns to the phone in his hand.

I take a bite of pizza, and force myself to chew and swallow it. I need the strength food will give me. I need to stay alert. I need to understand how I ended up in this situation.

All the late night conversations I had with the man I thought was Knight go through my mind. Every message about Michael.Every shared moment of understanding, of support. Every little kindness made me trust him more.

“Why would someone do this?” The question slips out before I can stop it. “Why would someone spend so much time pretending to be you?”

“To get that phone in here.” He taps the top of it with his thumb. “The bigger question is what’s on it, and why did they need you to deliver it?”

“It’s just a phone!”

His gaze lifts to mine. “Is it?”

“What else could it be?”

“That’s what I intend to find out.” He reaches for a slice of pizza. “Eat your food.”

“Whatever you think is going on, it’s nothing to do with me.”

"Of course not." His voice is dry. “You’re just the perfectly innocent messenger. Someone who was prepped to walk straight into my apartment without any hesitation, because my alter-ego spent weeks making you trust them completely.”

The pizza turns to lead in my stomach. “Stop.”

“Why? Because you don’t want to face just how much you’ve been manipulated?Scammed?” There’s nothing but hardness in his voice. “They learned your patterns, your fears, and your desperate need to find your brother. Then they used all of it to make sure you’d follow their instructions without any question.”

“I said stop it!”

“They build the perfect trap, using your pain as its foundation.” He ignores me. “Every message. Every single conversation you had. How much information did you give them without realizing what you were doing?” He drops the phone onto his lap. “I bet you’re the kind of person who believes psychics know all the answers as well. Every moment of understanding they shared with you had one motive. To get you here, with this.” His fingers tap the phone again.

I launch to my feet, pizza forgotten. “You think I’m stupid. I get it. You don’t have to keep telling me.” The words tear from my throat. “I’m sorry for being desperate to find my brother. I’m sorry for trusting them. I’m sorry I thought I found someone who understood what I was going through. I’m sorry for believing that someone was helping, that someone finally cared about finding Michael!” My fingers are clenched, nails biting into my palms. My wrists are throbbing. The world spins slightly, then rights itself.

“And that,right there, is why they chose you.” His clipped response holds no compassion, no understanding for my position.

A sound between a laugh and a sob escapes me. “Because I was pathetic enough to fall for it?”

His head tilts, eyes moving over me. There’s nothing intimate about the action. He could have been looking over an inanimate object for all the emotion on his face. In fact, if I was a computer, he’d probably look way more interested.

“Because you’re genuine enough to make it work.” His voice is flat, the complete opposite to how I sound. “Your desperation, your hope, your trust. All of it makes you the perfect weapon to use against me.”

“I’m aperson, not a weapon.”

“Maybe not. But you are the sheath they used to hide one.”

I turn away, wrapping my arms around myself and look out of the window. “I want to go home.”

“Yeah, no. That’s not happening until I figure out what’s on this phone, and why someone went to so much trouble to get it into my apartment.”

“I don’t know anything about it!” My shout echoes off the walls.

---