Echo (Bleeding Hearts #1)(14)
Since then, I’d done a lot of research of my own. I knew how situations like this worked. If there were no fingerprints, then there would be no way to trace this. And my blackmailer made a point to say this. If I went to the police, all the evidence disappeared. Whoever was behind this had been meticulous in their demands as well as their homework.
After sorting through the contents of the envelope in the privacy of my bedroom, I’d found a record of my entire life over the last five years. It made me sick how many times I’d been photographed without even realizing it. Whoever this was knew what they were doing, and I suspected they were watching me even now.
“I just have something I have to do, Nicole,” I croaked through the phone. “I can’t explain right now. But if I’m not home when you get here after work, please check the kitchen drawer beneath the microwave.”
I’d left her a note, on the chance things did go south.
“Brighton, you’re really giving me the heebie-jeebies, you know that?”
“I know.” I glanced at the clock. “But you just have to trust me.”
“Okay, well… ah crap,” she muttered. “Mr. Bennett is buzzing me into his office. I have to go. Whatever you’re doing today, be careful.”
“I will.” I lied.
I clicked off the phone and left it on the counter per my instructions. With a deep breath and nothing but a hotel key card in my hand, I closed the apartment door behind me.
***
It wasn’t as simple as I’d imagined. I thought if I told myself I was doing this for Brayden, it would help to ease my nerves. But that was a damn lie because my nerves were shot. I’d hoped I would be able to stay numb, to think about something else and get it over quickly. Like ripping off a band-aid. But that was na?ve and childish and completely impossible in my situation.
Two hours had passed since I’d arrived at the hotel room. I’d done my part to hold up my end of the bargain, but my blackmailer still hadn’t showed. I wore nothing but a dress and a blindfold as instructed, waiting on the middle of the hotel bed for my life to be turned upside down. My body would soon be in the control of a complete stranger. Someone who held the next twenty years of my brother’s life in his hands. That’s what I had to keep telling myself every time my stomach churned.
It made me sick to think anyone could do this to my brother, and I hated this man already. But I could get through this for Brayden, and I would. I had to. And whenever I had second thoughts, I would conjure up the image of him the last time I saw him in prison. The gaunt face and blackened eyes that stared back at me. What the other prisoners saw as just penance for his crime. Except it wasn’t his crime at all. That was what I couldn’t wrap my mind around.
Whoever was doing this knew that. They knew about Brayden, and they let him spend the last five years of his life rotting in prison. And now they had set their sights on me, for whatever unknown reason. Leaving me to tremble as I waited for them to appear. This had to be by design. They wanted me to be afraid. My anxiety was rising by the minute, and I wanted to scream.
Almost as if on cue, the sound of the electronic lock in the door beeped, followed by a soft click. My entire world came to a standstill as my chest rose and fell in soft measured breaths. I tried to stay calm, but it wasn’t working. Tears stung my eyes as footsteps padded across the room towards me.
“Hello, Brighton.”
Goosebumps skittered over every inch of my body.
The way he said my name. I couldn’t describe it, but there was something off about it. The emotion he conveyed in that simple word was almost too much, and yet not enough. There was a certain inflection that sounded so familiar, and yet his voice was unrecognizable. Low and soft. Calm, but forced. As if there was anger boiling just beneath the surface and he was very practiced at hiding it.
“I see you’ve followed your instructions,” he continued. “Does that mean you agree to my terms?”
I wanted to tell him to go f*ck himself. I wanted to tell him he was the most disgusting human being that ever lived. But instead, I swallowed my anger and responded as politely as I could muster.
“I have some questions first.”
“I thought you might.”
The bed dipped as he sat beside me, and I nearly jerked my arm out of the socket when he touched my shoulder.
“Are you going to hurt me?”
He hissed out a breath of air, and in that moment, I desperately wished I could see his face. To know what this stranger was thinking. What he planned to do with me. Knowing in my mind he was going to touch me and actually feeling it were two completely different things. Panic was setting in, but I couldn’t show him that. I couldn’t show him weakness.
“I don’t f*ck women who aren’t willing,” he snarled. “I thought I made that clear enough. Did you not read the agreement?”
“I did,” I croaked. “You want complete control of my body and life for six months. I just don’t really understand what that means.”
He wrapped his fingers around my ankle and pulled it into his lap, but instead of fighting him, I left it there as he stroked my skin. I gritted my teeth as I prepared for the worst, of the certain disgust I should feel. But his touch was gentle and warm, which confused me. When I came here, I expected something awful to happen to me. Something I might never be able to recover from. But if it meant Brayden not spending the next twenty years in prison, then it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.