Bind Me (Private Listing #2)

“Huh, yeah.” Hope smiles and snaps her fingers. “See, that’s why I’ll never make it as an entrepreneur. I don’t have that think-outside-of-the-box mentality.”

I chuckle. “That’s what I’m here for. To learn that.”

“Well, once you figure it out, clue me in.”

A knock comes from the door. I’m walking toward it when my phone buzzes. There’s a message from an unknown caller. Maybe the delivery person to make sure I know they delivered.

I open the door as I open the text.

Unknown:

Were you always afraid of the dark, little one?

There is a black-and-white picture of me in my sundress, standing next to the filing cabinet. My heart stops and I freeze, staring at the image of me with a Play button on it.

“Madison?” Seth’s voice reaches me, but I can’t move. Someone was there with me. Someone was watching me, stalking me. It was real.

Fuck, it was real. My hands tremble.

“Madison, are you all right?” Hope’s voice sounds closer.

I lift my gaze to Seth. He sets the bag of food on the floor before taking my phone from me. This isn’t my old phone. This is my new phone. My business phone that only a few people outside of this company would know.

“Fuck.” Seth breathes out as he glances at the screen.

“What’s happening?” Hope touches my arm, and I inhale deeply into my starved lungs.

Seth glances at Hope and sighs. “Come on.”

He turns and heads into the kitchen. Nodding at the chairs, he says, “Sit.”

We both do, and Hope puts the bag of food in front of us.

“What? I’m hungry.” She pulls out the containers and sorts them for us. “We’ve gotta eat no matter what’s going on. Is this about the roommate’s boyfriend?”

Seth shakes his head and sets my phone down on the island. His eyes meet mine. “Do you trust her?”

I know he means Hope. If I say no, he’ll usher her out while we deal with this. But I’m allowed friends. And I want Hope to be my friend. If I say no, I’ll hurt her feelings and I don’t want that. I want to trust her.

“I do.”

He leans back on the counter as he studies both of us. Apparently coming to some decision, he speaks. “Madison has a stalker. We don’t think it’s her roommate or her roommate’s boyfriend. But we don’t know who it is.”

Hope pauses with a plastic fork filled with noodles halfway to her mouth. “Stalker?”

Seth nods. “He first contacted her on her old cell phone. This is the first time he’s contacted her on her new phone, after we turned her old phone in to the police. He had a hidden camera in Madison’s old apartment.”

“That’s awful. So, what’s this message about?” Hope glances at me but asks Seth the question.

“We’re waiting for the others to watch it, but it must have been yesterday.” Seth glances at the phone. “That’s when she wore that dress.”

“I didn’t leave the building.” The words fall from my lips. I’m still trying to process everything. My fear yesterday. Believing it was my imagination, but now, knowing it wasn’t. I feel chilled to my bones, like no amount of warmth will ever heat me back up. Someone was hunting me in the dark. Shivers crawl down my spine.

My stalker was here. In our secure building. He cornered me, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Tears flood my eyes as I jab my plastic fork in my noodles. I try to hold the tears back, I really do, but it’s too much.

I’m still a little off from what Noah calls subdrop, and now this.

“Madison.” Seth steps closer and puts his hands on the island across from me.