by Trisha Grace
“Master Black.”
“Okay,” she dragged out the second syllable. “Why hasn’t anything been cleared up?”
“Master Black’s mother insisted we leave it.”
“Is she still around?” Surely Liam’s mother would have made an appearance after all the ruckus she and Bobby caused yesterday.
“She’s been dead for nearly ten years.” Kelly turned to face her. “Do you need something, Miss?”
“Just call me Helena.”
“And what do you want, Miss Helena?” she asked, the annoyance in her tone skyrocketing. “Breakfast?”
Not unless Kelly was willing to let Helena watch her prepare the entire meal. Judging from Kelly’s curt tone, Helena seriously doubted it.
“No. I …” She let her sentence trail off when Kelly moved past her.
“Then I’m going back to my place.”
“Your place? You don’t live here?”
“George and I have a cottage out back.” Kelly switched off the lights in the kitchen.
So Liam had really been alone in this crumbling place the whole time he’d lived here? She had thought he was being dramatic. “Okay.” Her phone started ringing. “Hey, Jude,” she answered her friend’s call.
“Just checking in to make sure you haven’t been eaten by the beast.” Her friend chuckled on the other end of the line.
“I wouldn’t mind offering my brother up as sacrifice.” Helena had told Judith what happened when her friend texted her last night.
“I’m sorry. He’s … well.”
“Yeah.” Helena sighed.
“How’s things with Mr. Black?”
“Liam.”
“Ooh, you found out his name. So things are better?”
“Nope.” Helena rubbed her fingers across her forehead. “I don’t know. We keep fighting over … Actually I can’t remember what we fought about or how many times we’ve fought.”
“That doesn’t sound like you, so I’m going to assume that the problem is all him.”
“You’re a good friend.” Helena kneaded her neck. “Ouch.” She stopped and groped around in the darkness. “I don’t understand why is this place so dark. The curtains are all closed, the lights switched off …”
“You said he seemed sensitive about his scar.”
“Maybe. But I’ve already seen it. I’m sure his housekeeper and groundsman have seen it.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to see himself.”
Beast. Monster. Freak show. Helena licked her lips. Was that why he kept this place shrouded in darkness?
“Are you safe, though?” Judith asked. “If you think you could be in danger, I—”
“I’m safe. He hasn’t done anything to me.” Besides locking her up. He hadn’t tried that again, though. “I should cut him some slack. He came running in when he heard me scream.”
“I guess he can be nice, but why were you screaming?”
“Yeah. About that. You know the online stalker?”
“What did he do now?”
“He somehow hacked into my laptop and screamed in my ears.”
“What?”
“It might not be him. It might just be a virus. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” All Helena could think about now was how Liam had rushed into her room and tried to help her. She shouldn’t have lost her temper over his search. She didn’t appreciate him throwing her devices around, but she supposed they were both at fault.
“And how’s the illustration coming along?”
“Everything but the lead character is done.”
“I thought you were already working on those concept sketches.”
“I’m almost done, I guess,” Helena said. “But I’m not happy with the character concept. I can’t help but feel something’s missing. You have the whole game storyline worked out?”
“Almost there. Oh, did you get Priscilla’s text?”
Priscilla Morris, a friend Helena had gotten to know at GS Inc.
Helena winced. “I did. I forgot to reply to her. I’m not sure I can get away for lunch or dinner for a few days, though.”
“I figured. I’ll let her know.”
“Thanks,” Helena said. “All right. I’ll get back to work.”
“Me too. Call if you need anything, okay?”
Helena pursed her lips. She would love to get some stuff from her apartment, but Bobby might be there. She couldn’t make Judith go deal with him. “Will do.” She ended the call.
For now, she’d have to rely on Amazon Prime.
Chapter 6
Helena opened up the food she’d ordered and put the box down next to her laptop. She took a mouthful of carbonara pasta, then continued to make adjustments to her illustrations.
“Ugh.” She swallowed and bit on the tip of her left thumb. The character simply didn’t look right. Something was missing.
After stuffing her mouth with more carbonara, Helena moved her hand to the trackpad. The tips of her fingers moved across it, but the cursor didn’t move.
She frowned and tried again.
Still, the cursor was stuck. “Oh, come on.” She brushed her finger across the trackpad, then tried pressing harder.
Not working.
Worried that her laptop was going to crash and she would lose her work, Helena frantically tapped the command and S keys to save her work. She repeated that a few times, but nothing happened on screen. “Please save it. Please save it.”
It was the first time her laptop had done this. It had never crashed on her before, so she had never gotten into the habit of periodically saving her work.
Then, as she was about to launch into a lecture to her laptop, the cursor started going crazy. She sighed, thinking her laptop had momentarily frozen up and was now working again. She just needed to give it a minute to catch up with all the things she’d done while it was frozen.
As expected, the cursor stopped moving a second later.
Helena was about to get back to work when the cursor started moving again. This time, as it moved, it left behind a streak of red. “Not again.”
She got up from her chair and stepped away from her laptop as the words ‘I SEE YOU’ were scrawled across her laptop screen. She tapped on the touch bar and muted her laptop.
Instead of silencing her laptop, her action triggered a piercing scream blasted at maximum volume. This time, it wasn’t a man’s voice belting out words like a heavy metal song. It was a horrifying woman’s scream.
The bone-chilling sound made Helena scream too.
But this time, she didn’t fall back over her chair. She had jumped up and was staggering back when her laptop turned black.
Helena didn’t want to wait around to see what other surprises her laptop held. She was about to turn and run when the screen started playing a video of Helena. She was sitting in front of her laptop, her eyes on the screen.
Helena froze. In the video, her hair was up in a messy bun, which meant she was working. But she was wearing a white and blue tank top instead of the army-green T-shirt she was wearing now.
Her hand moved to cover her mouth. This video wasn’t taken today. How long had this person been watching her? How much had he seen?
Her mind raced through all the times she’d changed clothes in her room. Had the laptop always been closed?
No.
Definitely not. Helena used her laptop so much she often left it open without even shutting it down.
As if the stalker knew what she was thinking, the video changed to one of her wrapped in a towel.
Her other hand flew to her mouth. She pressed both hands over her mouth, which didn’t do much. She couldn’t have made herself scream if she wanted to. Her throat had gone dry. Her voice disappeared.
The screen went black again and her cursor moved, leaving behind another trail of red-dripping words. I HAVE MORE.
The next video was another of her working. She was on her bed, in tank top and shorts. She had a tablet on her lap, and she w
as drawing on it. She glanced over at her laptop several times. She sometimes did that when she was using an image on her laptop to help in her drawing.
Turn around and leave, Helena told herself. But she couldn’t move.
In the video, Helena looked over at the laptop again. Her eyes turned red while a circle of darkness expanded around her eyes. Blood dripped from her eyes and onto the iPad when she turned her attention back to her tablet.
Helena’s body finally unlocked, and she spun around, only to crash straight into a wall.
No, not a wall.
Liam’s hands were on her shoulders, holding her steady so she wouldn’t tumble back. His gaze quickly landed on her laptop.
That was when Helena realized the shrill screams were still playing.
The screams made her want to shrink into herself. She felt as if she was six again, hiding in the closet while her parents and her brother screamed as they were attacked in the next room.
A paralyzing fear took over, as it did then.
And she couldn’t do anything when she started shaking.
Liam cursed and took a step to the side, but Helena didn’t want him to go anywhere. She flattened her palms against his chest and pressed herself against him.
He froze, and the muscles under her hands tensed.
If this were any other time, she would probably shrink away from his reaction. But she was busy trying to stop herself from shaking, which only seemed to make things worse.
Slowly, his arms wrapped around her.
Helena covered her ears.
“Who the hell is screaming?” George shouted over the screams from her laptop. “Oh.”
Helena didn’t look over at George. She didn’t want to move.
“Close her laptop.” Liam cupped a hand over her hair and held her firmly. His hold eased the shudders rocking her.
As the screaming ceased, the fear from her repressed memories ebbed away. “He has videos of me,” she said, and another wave of shuddering washed over her.
Liam’s arms tightened around her.
“He’s been recording me.” She shut her eyes as thoughts of what the stalker might have recorded flooded her mind.
Her hands returned to his chest. Her fingers curled as she tried to clutch his shirt, to hold onto something, but there wasn’t anything for her to grab. Reluctantly, she lifted her head and realized Liam wasn’t wearing a shirt and was dripping wet.
She stepped back. She felt a moment of resistance from the instant tensing of his arms, but that passed quickly and he released her. “You’re wet.”
“I was swimming, and I heard the screams. I thought you were screaming.”
She had screamed, but it was probably drowned out by the screams on her laptop. She glanced around, but George had already disappeared.
“Are you okay?”
She rubbed a hand up and down her arm. She wanted more than anything to close the space between Liam and herself. She wanted to feel the safety of his hard-muscled arms around her.
Now that she wasn’t blinded by fear, she could see the defined muscles on his chest and abdomen. No wonder she thought she’d run into a wall.
“Helena?” Liam remained where he was, studying her.
“Yeah.” She hugged herself. “I’m sorry for … umm …”
He arched a brow and waited.
“For jumping you.” She smoothed down her hair and couldn’t help peering over at his body again. This time she noticed the pale marks across his chest.
Most were small. Some were round. Others were diagonal stripes. Altogether too many to count.
Helena frowned.
A distant memory tugged at her mind as she studied the scars. Had she seen them somewhere before?
“What happened to you, Liam?”
Liam turned to the side, as if he was trying to hide. Instead, it showed her similar scars on his shoulder.
Helena moved toward him and grabbed his arm when he tried to walk away. She stepped behind him and saw the same kind of scars on his back. “Who did this to you?” she asked. It wasn’t curiosity. It was pure rage. She wanted to find the person and inflict the same pain on him—or her.
“Stop.”
She looked up at him to find his angry glare on her.
“Stop looking at me.”
Her heart broke for him. “Who did this to you?” she asked, her voice soft.
“I don’t want your pity.”
“Pity?” Her brows rose. “I want to do the same to whoever did this to you.” She closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose. “Did Bobby do it?”
“And if he did?”
“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else she could say.
“I hate it when you apologize for him.”
She forced her eyes open and met his gaze. “I’m not apologizing for him. I’m just sorry for whatever happened to you.” She gave his scars another glance. “I wish I could do something to make it better.” She licked her lips. “I’m going to kill Bobby the next time I see him.”
Liam’s gaze grew intense. It felt as if he was staring right into her soul, and it made her so incredibly vulnerable she had to tear her eyes from him.
He hooked his finger under her chin and angled her face back toward him.
Their gazes met for a moment. Helena squirmed and glanced away. Her heart was pumping so hard she was tempted to press her hand over it to calm it down.
“Why do you keep looking away?” he asked.
“You just told me to stop looking at you.”
He laughed, which was enough to turn her attention back onto him. “And since when do you listen to me?”
His finger was still under her chin, and suddenly Helena felt they were too far apart. She wished he would draw her closer.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“I thought you were angry with me.”
Was she? Why was she angry with him?
“Just now, because I ran a search and found out about your parents.”
Oh, that. “I’ve never told anyone about what happened to my parents. I don’t ever talk about it. It felt like you did something behind my back.”
“That’s just the way I interact with the world.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Forget it.” He dropped his hand from her chin and stepped to the side.
She reached out and grabbed his arm. “I want to understand, Liam.”
“I find out things through the Internet. That’s how I live.” He strode toward the desk without waiting for her response.
“Why?”
“What do you mean?” He sat in front of her desk and opened her laptop, but she slapped it down. “I should’ve checked your laptop for viruses. I was so frustrated that I only set up a firewall. I thought that would be enough.”
Her brows drew together. “You did something to my laptop?”
“I should’ve done more.”
She cracked a smile. “I thought you just dumped everything back on me. I didn’t think you did anything to them.”
He scratched his head. “I’ll replace your things.”
“Why?”
“You were really angry about your laptop.”
“Because you threw them on the floor.”
“I dropped them.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me again?”
He raised his hands in peace. “I’ll buy you another.”
“I just got my laptop. It’s still on installment. I don’t need another. I just need you to stop throwing it around. And apologize.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her lips curled. “I forgive you.”
Liam tried to open her laptop again, but she closed it again. “Would you prefer I do this in my room?”
She licked her lips. “The stalker has been recording me. There was a video of me …” She felt the heat in her cheeks. “In a towel.”
The muscles along his cheek twitched. “Anything
else?”
“He wrote on the screen that he has more, but he didn’t show them to me.”
“If I find any of the videos, I won’t watch them. You have my word,” he said and paused for a moment before continuing. “Will you trust me?” It seemed to pain Liam to ask her that.
She cracked a smile and nodded.
Helena removed her hand from the laptop and wrapped her arms around herself. How pathetic would it be if she asked Liam to hold her? She hugged herself tighter as she shuddered.
“Are you okay?”
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Yeah.”
“You were shaking.”
“It’s creepy.” She glanced at her laptop and shivered again.
Liam stood and turned to her. He took half a step forward, and she thought he was going to pull her against him. But he stopped and held his arms rigidly by his sides. “Do you want me to give you some space?”
“No. I—Please don’t leave me alone.” She licked her lips. “You can totally say no, but …” She swallowed. “Would you hold me for a while?”
“Me? You want me to hold you?”
She dropped her eyes. “Never mind, I’m being stupid.”
Liam’s arms were around her before she could move away, and she melted against him. She usually wasn’t this needy. She was the one who got a handle on things. She was the one who fixed things.
But realizing that someone had been watching her, thinking about all the worst-case scenarios of what the stalker could have recorded and could do with the videos …
“What’s going through your mind?”
“He’s been recording me,” she said. “What if he has videos of me changing? What if he posts those videos online?” She closed her eyes. “Oh, gosh.”
She pressed a hand against her face and turned away from Liam. “What am I going to do?” She drew a deep breath through her nose as she felt her throat closing up.
Was she having a panic attack?
“Helena,” Liam said, his voice close by.
She turned back to him.
“It’ll be okay.”
“How?” She dropped her forehead against his chest.
“Has he posted them anywhere?”