"Fine," I snapped, hanging up the phone. I should have worked. I had shit to catch up on if I wanted to be able to spend quality time with Isa when she was ready to get more acclimated to her new life.
Instead, I snuck into the bedroom and changed the bedding while she slept. Then I tucked her into bed while she protested my touch on her in her sleep.
Like being stabbed in the chest, I fled the room before she became fully lucid. Leaving her to sleep alone for a few hours before I joined her.
I had a feeling she'd need the rest with the days coming our way.
7 Isa
My eyes fluttered open as the weight at my back shifted and Rafael's arm drifted off my waist. Feeling like I'd slept forever, I rolled to my back as slowly as possible. As my head turned to look at him, I half expected to find the shock of his eyes meeting mine.
Instead his remained closed, his breathing even as he slept. The shards of glass he'd left on the nightstand still remained, and I wondered at the level of trust he placed in me by sleeping soundly with a weapon so close by.
The smart choice would be to stab him while he slept. To rid the world of a monster and escape him once and for all.
But I proved I'd never been smart when I turned my gaze away from the glass, unable to even consider the reality of killing him. As horrible as he was, a world without Rafael in it seemed…
Empty.
Even if we weren't together, I didn't want to exist in a world where his overwhelming presence didn’t exist. Where I didn't think back to Ibiza and wonder if I'd see him if I returned.
He'd made doing that impossible. But that didn't mean I could kill him and the fantasy of it all at once.
Instead, I sat up in bed slowly. Swinging my legs over the side, I stood on the hardwood floor and ignored the pain making my feet throb. Keeping my eyes on him as I backed away from the bed, I didn't make the same mistake I'd made the first time I tried to sneak out in the night. I didn't waste time grabbing shoes, just moved straight for the door and turned the knob slowly. Keeping my body as relaxed as I could, I pulled it open and stepped into the doorway just as the bed creaked behind me and I froze solid.
"Are you going somewhere, Princesa?" he asked, echoing the same words he'd spoken what felt like a lifetime ago. With my heart in my chest, I turned my head to look back at him. Sitting on the bed with his feet on the floor, with his hands curled around the edges of the mattress violently as he studied me. With his face tilted down in the shadows of the night, all I saw was the vividness of his eyes as he watched me.
Like a panther staring out from the darkness, daring his prey to play a game with him.
I turned and ran down the hallway, nearly stumbling over my own feet in my panic to escape him. The house was enormous, a maze of hallways that I had to navigate.
City blocks with chess pieces flashed in my mind, driving me forward. Rafael followed me, his hands tucked into the pockets of his black silk pajama bottoms as he walked quickly to keep up. But there was no stress on his face.
Only confidence, and the realization made me stumble as I emerged from the labyrinth of back hallways to a main room. There was a kitchen and a dining room, and an enormous living area. The door loomed at the front of the house, calling to me as I sprinted across the open space. My bare feet slapped against the wood floors, sounding too loud in the silence of the night. When I grabbed the doorknob in my hand and turned it frantically, I dared a glance back at Rafael as he walked toward me.
He stopped in the middle of the room, tilting his head to the side as I fumbled with the locks.
"Remember what happens when I catch you, Princesa," he murmured, the words striking me across the distance between us. When the lock finally turned, I pulled the door open and sprinted into the night, despite the terror that built in my body from his words.
His warning that day at the waterfall echoed in my head, the question of what he would do loud and clear as I ran through the pavilion at the front of the house. There wasn't a person in sight as I raced down the hill, the pavement tearing open the wounds on my feet as the bandages slipped free. The driveway took me down a hill, making me stumble as I tried to slow my pace and not land on my face.
Still, he followed behind me at his brisk walk. His features stayed calm, his arrogance making me feel more panicked.
He knew something I didn't know, and whatever it was, I was left with the distinct impression I'd walked right into a trap.
"Somebody help me!" I screamed, the sound fading into the night when nobody returned my plea. I kept running, turning right on the road at the bottom of the driveway.
I ran, and I ran, and then I ran some more, until fatigue threatened to overtake me.
Until Rafael's presence at my back became a certainty that he would catch me, whereas before I'd had a distant hope. Just as my body sagged and desolation threatened to claim me, I stumbled into a
