Page 54 of Degradation
‘Where’s your coat?’ His voice is sharp, and it suddenly makes me recall that the stalker really could be him.
It makes me feel like a coward because all I want to do is go back into my room and hide in the closet.
‘Don’t have one,’ I say and gasp as he steps in front me, halting my progress down the corridor.
My eyes find his, and I don’t know what I’m seeing in them. Is he going to do something to me here in the hallway? Would I even be able to stop him? He had blood all over him the other night.
I bite the inside of my lip, so it doesn’t tremble.
What is he into?
BLAKE
‘What do you mean, you don’t have one?’
Her eyes are darting around like she’s really scared of me. Her breathing is coming in fits and starts. Her hands are off the crutches and trembling. What’s wrong with her? I know she’s angry from the other night, but she seems terrified.
I step away from her immediately.
Fuck, I hate this. Why did I have to go and fuck everything up when she was just starting to let her guard down around me? When I think of what I said to her, how I acted on top of the fact that she touched me and that’s such a big deal for her... God, I’m such an asshole. I don’t deserve a decent girl and I’m sure as hell not good enough for Daisy to even look at me. But she did, until I showed her how fucked up and evil I am.
Over the past four days, it’s like I don’t exist to her. The fact that Mav is in her room all the time, and I’ve even heard them laughing together, makes the way she’s being with me like a punch to the gut. He sleeps in there and she won’t even say a word to me. When she looks at me, it’s like she doesn’t even see me.
I run a hand through my hair, my eyes not leaving her.
‘Daisy,’ I plead. ‘I’m sorry for what I said the other night. I was an asshole.’
‘I understand,’ she says, not moving and still not looking at me.
‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine.’
She’s looking at the floor. Her expression is blank.
‘You’re not fine.’
‘Could you switch off the cameras at a certain time? All the cameras in the house?’
She changes the subject so quickly, I wonder if I missed something.
‘Yeah,’ I say absently, wondering where this is going. ‘I could. I don’t know why Iwouldthough.’
She frowns a little. ‘Could anyone else besides you?’
I shrug. ‘Yeah. I mean it’s closed-circuit, but yeah.’
She stares at me blankly.
At least she’s looking at me.
‘Everything is kept on private servers outside of the property. Someone could theoretically break in and look at our cameras, even turn them off and on if they wanted to. But they’d have to know what they were doing. I have this place locked down pretty well.’
‘But it is possible?’
‘Of course.’
I stare into her face, trying to glean something, but she’s a closed book when she wants to be, and right now she really wants to be. I’m getting nothing from her. ‘Why are you asking me this, though? Has something happened?’
