Page 74 of Prey

With that, he pulled away and walked out the door.

I stayed where I was for a moment.

“He’ll come home to me,” I whispered to the empty room.

A part of me knew how stupid it was to get involved with a man like him. Dad would most likely disown me if he knew, but for the first time…

I didn’t think I cared.

I just wanted to be by his side.

* * *

The morning went by slowly.

I was slow to get ready, but I finished my work quickly after getting myself into gear. When Roman brought me my laptop and iPad back at the cabin, I took on two projects at once.

Working as a children’s book illustrator gave me some flexibility, even if I was working for a publishing house.

Though it was a little more work than I was used to, it helped to take my mind off what a mess my life had become.

I shut off my computer by three o’clock and stretched my sore muscles.

Things were somewhat getting back into the rhythm of normalcy.

I went to the kitchen and looked around at the fridge, but I had been gone for a little over a week. Some of the food had gone bad, and the others that hadn’t couldn’t really be combined to make a decent meal.

I wanted to make Roman something for when he got home.

I could fight him all I wanted, but I still had to admit to myself just how much I wanted to take care of him.

And I really did want to.

I quickly put on my shoes, grabbed my purse, and headed out the door to the elevator.

I thought about what I wanted to make for dinner with my very limited culinary knowledge. It would have to be something easy.

Something even I couldn’t mess up.

So lost in thought, I nearly jumped when the ding of the elevator rang out before the doors opened and revealed none other than Angelica.

Angelica, with two other girls, had been my roommate at a university apartment during my sophomore year. They had all been friends since high school, and they never let me forget it, making me feel like an outcast in my temporary home, as it was.

It was the night I drove them to the nightclub, thinking they genuinely wanted to hang out with me when instead, they just needed a ride, that I happened to hear Roman killing that man—the corrupt police officer.

The chain of events that had placed me straight on Roman’s path had started with them.

I didn’t know what happened between her and her friends, but Angelica lived in the building, and what was more, I didn't think she was using her own money to pay for the rent. She had someone. I grimaced over the thought of her and asugar daddy, and tried to neutralize my expression.

It wasn’t my place to judge, and it was her life.

We looked at each other for a beat, neither of us saying anything.

I had half a mind to let this one pass and take the next elevator, but no. I wasn’t going to run or hide from her.

Quietly, I got on.

She moved off to the corner, and I pretended she wasn’t there.

---