Page 139 of Their Ruthless Sadist (Office Intrigue Duet 5)
A warm hand landed on my back, then another. I drew air into my lungs, grateful that I was still restrained. I wasn’t sure I could continue otherwise.
“John lived until two days after his seventeenth birthday. July sixteenth. It was the worst day of my life. I fell apart. Completely shredded by the loss. My parents tried to help, but there was nothing they could do to console me. I went over to see John’s parents a few times before they moved. According to Lee, John’s dad, they couldn’t bear to be in the house anymore, so they sold it and moved into an apartment in the city.
“I tried to move on with my life, but it wasn’t easy. And strangely, I missed spending time with his dad. Lee had been a connection to John that I hadn’t realized I needed.”
This was the hard part, so I took a moment, wanting to get through this without completely breaking down.
“Take your time,” Brax said softly, his hand sliding over my arm. “We’re here, baby.”
His sweet words nearly broke me but I held back the sob and forced myself to continue.
“I think I was that for Lee, too. A connection to John. Someone who reminded him of his son. About three months after they moved, Lee called and asked me to come over to the apartment. I told him I would since I had a car at that point.”
I felt the warmth of Brax and Zeke behind me, so I kept going. I had never told anyone this story and I needed to get it out.
“Lee seemed different when I showed up. Angrier than the man I remembered. When I got to his apartment, he admitted that his wife had left. Said she couldn’t come to terms with what had happened so she thought it would be best if they separate. I felt bad for him, hating that he was alone. So, we started spending some time together. Nothing weird happened. We would watch television and talk. Mostly about John.
“That went on for about a month. I went to his apartment at least three times a week until one day he called and asked if he could pick me up and I thought nothing of it. When we got back to his apartment, he was acting strange. I didn’t know what to make of it. That was the day my entire world changed.”
The memory rushed up on me, making me shake. I relayed the story as best I could even as I relived it.
“I want to show you something,” Lee said when we entered the apartment.
I glanced around, noticing all the blinds were closed. It was odd. Lee always kept the blinds open. Being that he was on the eighteenth floor, there was no one who could see in anyway.
I followed Lee down the narrow hall. The apartment had two bedrooms, but one had been set up as Lee’s office. When he opened the door, I noticed that the desk and the computer were gone. In their place … the room was decorated exactly as John’s had been. Right down to the same comforter and the posters on the wall. It took me by surprise.
“Come in here,” Lee insisted. “I wanted you to be the first person to see it.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why’d you do this?”
The pain I’d seen so many times in Lee’s eyes was still there. “I need to feel close to John. I thought this would help.”
It felt the opposite to me. As though he wasn’t allowing himself time to grieve. I knew we would never forget John, but with every passing day, it got a little easier to breathe. Not anymore. The second I stepped into the room, it took me back to the last time I’d been in John’s room with him.
“I need your help, Case. I need you to do something for me.”
I looked at him, noticing the pain in his face. He looked so much older than he had before. His face had aged a decade in the short time John had been gone.
Wanting to do whatever I could to help ease him, I said, “Sure. Anything.”
“I want you to lie down on the bed.”
“What?” I shook my head. “I… That’s… I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Just this one time. I want to feel like I’m with him again.” His eyes, so much like John’s, were pleading.
I found myself giving in.
Lee seemed pleased by my response, so he pulled back the blanket and fluffed the pillow.
“Lie down. On your stomach.” He smiled sadly. “I just want to remember the days when I would come in and wake him up for school.”
It felt weird, but my grieving mind understood his pain. I figured it couldn’t hurt anything, so I did.
“The next thing I knew,” I told Brax and Zeke, “Lee had overpowered me and I found myself restrained to the bed, facedown.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I hadn’t realized it right then, but John’s father had abducted me that day.”
