Binding Attractions

Chapter 4

The shower was still running. Nadiya could hear it even through the blood pumping in her ears. She knew she had to leave before Glisson stepped back into the room. Even if she returned the laptop under the table and returned to the soft, gigantic bed, Nadiya couldn’t even consider the possibility of playing cool. No. If she saw Glisson’s face, Nadiya wasn’t sure what her reaction would be. It was like finally seeing the face behind the mask; she couldn’t unsee it. Nothing about Glisson’s face would ever turn her on again or make her smile. She had to run. Now.

Her eyes landed back on the picture of the teenager who was supposed to die in less than twenty-four hours. Nadiya didn’t know her from a tree in the park and it would be easy to just walk away and mind her own business. But deep in her gut, she knew she couldn’t do that. Nadiya was no Mother Teresa. Selflessness had no place in her genetic makeup, but she couldn’t just walk away either.

Giving the closed bathroom door a quick glance, Nadiya reached for her necklace. Her jewelry looked ordinary enough that people never noticed that what looked like a simple gold heart locket was actually a flash drive. It was a very clever way to make sure she always had something on her in case of anything. And now it was going to save a little girl’s life.

She plugged her flash drive to Glisson’s computer and quickly transferred the folder with the gruesome pictures and then took a screenshot of the new job due tomorrow night and sent that, too.

Her insides quaked with every second it took for the files to copy to her flash drive. Thankfully, after a few seconds and it was done. Nadiya grabbed her necklace and was about to return the laptop where she had found it when another thought crossed her mind.

Without debating it, because she honestly had no time, she drew the laptop back to her and then forwarded the screenshot with the new job to the local police station and one of the largest media houses she knew would not ignore such a juicy scoop.

Her shaky fingers shut the laptop and returned it just in time to hear the water go off in the shower.

“s**t,” she hissed under her breath.

Nadiya scrambled off the floor and quickly reached for her crop top, which she could now see sticking out from under the bed. She didn’t bother to put in on, or her ankle boots, before she grabbed her tiny, black purse with her phone and made for the door that looked like it led out of the room and away from the killer she had just had s*x with.

Someone up in heaven must have been looking out for her, because Nadiya unlocked the door and stumbled into the hallway before Glisson stepped out of the bathroom.

Nadiya had guessed she was in a large, fancy hotel and she wasn’t wrong. Several doors with numbers blurred around her as she ran from the room and went straight for the emergency exit at the end of the hallway.

When she pushed the door open, she however realized just how large the hotel was and Glisson’s room had been on a top floor. Several stairs were between her and her escape, but nothing would have convinced her to turn around and head back into the hallway and wait for an elevator.

No. Nadiya took the stairs, running bare feet with her top and shoes still clutched to her chest. The steps were cold, and she almost missed her step twice, but she kept going, concluding that a twisted ankle was better than a bullet to the head.

Thankfully, no one else seemed to be using the stairs and she couldn’t see any cameras. But she knew the hallway outside Glisson’s room probably had some. That was a problem she would have to deal with when she got back to her apartment.

Nadiya paused when she finally reached the last step and stood in front of the door she assumed would either lead her to the main lobby in front of the reception desk or the car park. Breathing hard with sweat rolling off her temples and neck, she quickly dropped her shoes and pulled her top back on, ignoring her sweaty skin. However, the black crop top with one shoulder long sleeve almost proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The damn thing wouldn’t cooperate and angry tears filled her eyes.

“Dammit!”

Nadiya nervously looked up the stairs as though she expected Glisson to come charging down toward her with guns blazing or a butcher’s knife ready to gut her. Some of those pictures she had seen on his laptop hadn’t looked like clean kills. It was very possible they had been gutted like fish. Nadiya didn’t want to be gutted. She didn’t want to be dead, period.

But he wasn’t there. Not that she believed even for a second that he wouldn’t come after her if he knew what she had done, but it was a minor relief to know she had a few seconds to compose herself.

Nadiya took a deep breath and then tried to figure out her top. She ended up removing it, turning it and then putting it back on properly. Her ankle boots were more cooperative and within a minute, Nadiya was ready to walk out of the hotel with a semblance of normality.

As soon as she got out on the street, Nadiya knew exactly where she was even though it was the dead of the night. And her apartment wasn’t more than a twenty-minute drive away. Now if only she could find a cab.

Calling for one wasn’t an option because Nadiya had already removed her sim card from her phone, broken it and thrown it away before she even cleared the sidewalk in front of the hotel. Glisson knew that number.

So she walked, hoping to find a cab on the way.

The cool air blowing over her sweaty body made her shiver and the darkness in the alleys between buildings gave her the creeps. Fortunately, she had more pressing matters to think about than the possibility of danger lurking in the dark waiting for her.

For one thing, she was in desperate need of a shower. One hot enough to burn off a layer of skin. Nadiya couldn’t believe the man she had been f*****g for months was actually an assassin. Sure, she had her own secrets and wasn’t a saint, but she was no killer. And by the looks of things and all the expensive suits she saw in his hotel room, Glisson was making good money killing people. He was no amateur wannabe.

Another shudder rocked her body. God, she felt filthy and disgusted with herself. Glisson had touched her. They had kissed and f****d several times for months. How could she not have sensed something was wrong about him?

She was a pretty good hacker, one of the best if she wasn’t being modest, and she could dig up information on any one given time. But it had never occurred to her to run a check on her occasional f**k buddy.

Wrapping her arms tight around herself, Nadiya picked up speed. She needed to get home ASAP and try to wash away this memory.

Ten minutes later, the cab dropped her in front of her building, surrounded by darkness due to broken street lights never fixed. Her tiny apartment sat on the second floor of the old red brick building. For a moment, Nadiya looked up at the dark windows and realized how unsecure the place was. Anyone could get in. It wasn’t like they had a guard at the door or a locked entrance that only opened with a key or code.

When she had moved in over a year ago, none of that had mattered. She had just loved the location. It wasn’t too far from the business side of the city. She had running water and no thugs selling drugs on her doorstep. That had been enough to make the place a good choice. But now, she saw how vulnerable her apartment was. How vulnerable she was. The windows didn’t even have iron bars on them.

She quickly shook her head and refused to give such thoughts any more leash to pull her down. Nadiya tucked her head down and rushed to her apartment.

Once inside, she locked her door and then dragged over her small book shelf and pressed it against the door without even giving it thought. She had just acted on the instinct to protect herself. Nadiya looked at it and realized the seed of fear had already been planted and now she was a prey to it.

Putting off the shower, Nadiya grabbed her laptop from under the floor panels, where she usually kept it hidden when she wasn’t home. She removed her necklace and plugged it into the port and then hesitated.

Part of her didn’t want to get any further involved in whatever Glisson was into. She didn’t want to know more. But another part of her just couldn’t let it go.

She opened the screenshot with the teenage girl’s picture. Nadiya didn’t think the girl deserved to die. And even though she had already sent all the information to the police and media house, she still wanted to do more. Just to make sure the young girl got to celebrate another birthday.

Twenty minutes later, Nadiya knew who the young girl in the picture was. Jessica Parsons was the teenage daughter of a prominent politician, Matthew Parsons, who had been in the news recently for his firm voice against organized crime and drug trafficking.

Nadiya stared at the screen of her laptop, processing the information. Someone certainly hadn’t appreciated Mr. Parsons’ words and wished to make an example of his daughter. Probably to shut him up for good.

Somehow, the information made Nadiya think of Glisson as more of a monster than she had already concluded he was.

In the next beat, she also felt very sick to her stomach because she knew that monster would be after her now.