Page 31 of Taking Adalisa

“I need to find a way to disappear,” I whisper to myself.

But it’s going to take money, and I can’t just spend all my savings on it. Not when I have to think about hotels, transportation, and food. I groan and close my eyes for a couple of seconds. Maybe I can look this up online and figure it out myself. Someone has to have written about it before, right?

CHAPTER 11

MATTHIAS

Idon’t want to leave Adalisa alone, but I know I have to. I’ve promised Ethan that if Margery ever called the police, I would answer the phone and make sure the actual police didn’t get any more calls. He doesn’t want her to look bad when she keeps calling them about the stalker she thinks she has.

Chuckling, I shake my head and walk away from Margery’s house. It was easy to convince her that she has a secret admirer and that she was being paranoid from a known rapist coming after her. Ethan was not happy about that, but I was in time to save her.

That time.

I never want something like that to happen to Adalisa. Thankfully, she is a little more aware of her surroundings and can take care of herself, but I still worry about her. She didn’t know I was following her for months, didn’t know I walked into her store several times with slightly different appearances, and still doesn’t realize that I am following her around whenever I can.

But something inside of me enjoys that she doesn’t fully realizing it yet.

“She’s been talked off the ledge,” I tell Ethan over the phone. “I told her it was another secret admirer and that she was stressed about Diego coming after her. I told her to go on a vacation to relax and get over everything.”

“Thank you,” Ethan replies and promptly hangs up.

Now, I get to convince Adalisa to be with me, give her the chance to realize shegetsto decide if she wants to be with me or not—without fully knowing she doesn’t have a choice. I saw her, and now she is mine. No one else’s.

Mine.

Pulling out my phone, I look at the picture of Adalisa sleeping on my screen. “Soon, Little bit. Soon you’ll be at my house. Soon you’ll be fully mine.”

“Matthias?”Ethan calls out.

I make my way toward his office and say “Yes, boss?” as I walk into the room.

“Has Margery called you recently?”

“No, she hasn’t,” I reply.

Not since the last time she called. I talked her down from her thinking it was a stalker to believing it’s a secret admirer. It was relatively easy doing so when she was panicked, but I also know she still thinks it's a stalker.

Deep down, she knows it’s Ethan, but she doesn’t want to say his name. Not when she thinks he’s dead, and people will look at her pitifully.

“How did she react when you answered the phone and also appeared on her doorstep?” Ethan inquires.

“She was certain it wasn’t a secret admirer. She did question why I answered the call, but I gave a phony reply. One shebelieved in the moment. She thought I was the police,” I reply. “I wondered she would put together that police officers never answer nine-one-one calls, but she didn’t. But if she had questioned further, I had a whole list of things to say. Make her believe anything I said.”

A tiny part of me hates that I am helping Ethan do this to Margery, but we are fucked-up men. We don’t do things normally. Never have been and we never will be. Something I really like about us.

Ethan trusts me with this because he knows I can convince anyone of anything if I really want to. Adalisa is taking longer than I thought, but it is exciting that she isn’t just agreeing and doing what I say.

“And that’s why I send you on things like this when I can’t show my face.”

“I talked with her neighbors. Told them I was her cousin and that she was going to be getting the help she needs. Made it seem like she was crazy. They know not to call the police if anything happens,” I inform Ethan. “They won’t say anything, I don’t think. Not unless they want a bullet in their head.”

It didn’t take much convincing them to agree not to say anything to the real police or say anything at all. They believed my lie, and with the right incentive, they were happy to pretend like they didn’t hear or see anything.

“Good. One less thing I have to worry about when I take her.” Ethan relaxes in his chair.

“I told her the police have better work to do than to catch her secret admirer. The look on her face after I said that: priceless.” I lower to the chair in front of him. “Have you seen her recently?”

Ethan nods and chuckles. “I’ve been spending most nights at her house. Watching her sleep, running my hands through her hair, whispering things when she’s half-asleep. I like watching her sleep. So defenseless.”

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