Mr. Good Bad Guy

48 - Normal

I woke up the next morning, surprised to find myself still in my apartment, and not back at the mansion. Axel had an arm thrown over me, his warm body pressed against my back. I smiled, feeling content for the second time in weeks. I had never been the kind of person who needed someone to take care of them, but somehow, with Axel, it felt right.

I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake him. He looked so peaceful, so at home. I wondered how long it would take for him to get tired of having to be around me. To make sure I was okay. To pretend he cared. I didn't want him to get bored, to feel trapped.

I unlocked the door to my office, grateful to get something done. This would probably be my only chance to tell anyone what had really happened to me. Whether I'd been gone a full month or just a couple of weeks, I didn't want to have the weighing thought that no one would ever know.

I booted up my computer, ready to start typing. It took me a moment to pick a place to start, but once I did, the words flowed out of me like water from a fountain. I told them everything: about the first time I went missing, the NDA I had to sign, the mysterious visit in the hospital, the night I went clubbing with Nina and waking up in Isaias's house. I even told them about Jovani looking familiar to me, but never typed his name or provided a description.

When it came to describing the house, I went into full detail, noting how Ezra said it was owned by Erik McCarthy. When it came to calling out the person who was behind it all, I capitalized Ezra's name each time. I went into full detail about what he did to me and the condition Sarah Melendez had been in. I made sure to list every woman's name, whom I'd seen in the basement, and how Ezra and his goons had approached them.

I didn't forget to mention how before I'd come back, Rodrigo Melendez stopped by. It proved that he had everything to do with his wife's disappearance and sort of proved that the husbands who hadn't died probably had something to do with their wives' disappearances, too. I also made sure to add that I suspected someone else close to me was in on it. I didn't want to say Valery, but the way she had been acting made me think she knew something.

I finished my report with a plea for help. I knew it was a long shot, but I had to try. Maybe someone would believe me. Maybe someone would take me seriously. I pulled out a few flash drives, and copied the report over to them, making sure to encrypt the files so that only certain people could open it. I labeled the drives with names, making a note to hide them in places they could easily be found by whoever was meant to find them.

As I deleted the original file, I felt a strange sense of relief wash over me. It wasn't over, not yet, but at least now I'd done what I could to tell my story. I heard a knock at the door, startling me out of my thoughts. It was Axel, holding a tray of breakfast in his hands. "Good morning, hermosa. I saw you were too into your work to tell me if you'd eaten or not."

"Thanks, bebé." I smiled at him, cracking my knuckles. "Do you want to join me or do you have to work?"

"I have a later shift," he said, setting the tray on my desk. "You doing okay today?"

I nodded, taking a sip of the coffee he'd made me. It was perfect, just the way I liked it. "I'm good. I was just finishing up something important." I gestured to the tray. "What's all this?"

"I figured you'd be hungry after not sleeping much last night," he explained, taking a seat on the edge of my desk. "You were tossing and turning. Something still bothering you?"

I shrugged, not wanting to lie to him. "I'm just worried about what comes next. About what's going to happen to me."

He reached over, taking my hand in his. "Nothing's going to happen to you. Everyone is working their asses off to find out what happened to you and those women. They'll make headway somehow."