It’s so nice. Better than nice. Amazing. Amazing to be with a man who I don’t despise with every fiber of my being. A man who is good and kind. A man who helped save my life. Even if it’s just for one night.
And God, he’s a good kisser.
When it’s over, both of us are sweaty and hot and happy. Enzo puts his arm around me and I cuddle up beside him. “Is good?” he says.
“Really good.” I bury my cheek in his bare chest. “I didn’t think you felt that way about me.”
“I always did,” he says. “From when I first saw you. But I try to be, you know, good guy.”
“I figured you thought of me like a sister.”
“Sister!” He looks aghast. “No. Not sister. Definitely not sister.”
I have to laugh at the expression on his face. But just as fast, my laughter dies. “I’m leaving town tomorrow. You know that, right?”
He’s quiet for a long moment. Is he thinking about asking me to stay? I care about him a lot, but I can’t stay for him. I can’t stay here for anybody. He should know that better than anyone.
Maybe he’s going to offer to go with me. I’m not sure how I would feel about that if he offered. I like him a lot. But I need to be alone for a while after this. It’s going to be a long time before I can really trust a man ever again, although I suspect if there’s anyone I can trust, it’s Enzo. He has proven himself to me.
But he doesn’t ask me to stay. He doesn’t offer to come with me. He says something entirely different: “We can’t leave her, Nina.”
“Excuse me?” I say.
“Millie.” He looks down at me with his dark eyes. “We can’t leave her with him. It is not right. I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t allow it?” I repeat incredulously as I pull away from him. My post-sex euphoria has evaporated. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean…” His jaw tightens. “Millie does not deserve him any more than you did.”
“She’s a criminal!”
“Listen to yourself. She’s a human being.”
I sit up in bed, clutching the blankets to my bare chest. Enzo is breathing hard and a vein is standing out in his neck, and I suppose I don’t blame him for being upset. But he doesn’t know anything.
“We have to tell her,” he insists.
“No, we don’t.”
“I will tell her.” A muscle twitches in his jaw. “If you don’t do it, I will tell her. I will warn her.”
My eyes fill with tears. “You wouldn’t dare…”
“Nina.” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I… I do not want to hurt you, but this is not right. We can’t do this to her.”
“You don’t understand,” I say.
“I understand.”
“No,” I say, “you don’t.”
PART III
FIFTY-ONE
MILLIE
“Andrew?” I call out. “Andrew!”
Silence.
I grasp the cold metal of the doorknob once again and twist it with all my strength, hoping it was just a case of the metal sticking. No luck. The door is locked. But how?
The only thing I can think of is that maybe when Andrew left the room to sleep in his own bed （I can’t entirely blame him, given how uncomfortable the cot is for one person, much less two）， he locked the door automatically, thinking it was still a closet. If he was half asleep, it’s a reasonable mistake to make, I suppose.
That means I’ll have to call him and wake him up to let me out of the room. I’m not excited to wake him up, but it’s his damn fault I’m locked in here. I’m not staying trapped in here all night, especially since I have to pee.
I flick on the light, and that’s when I see three textbooks that are in the middle of my room, right on the floor. It’s the strangest thing. I bend down beside them, reading off the hardcover titles. A Guide to U.S. Prisons. The History of Torture. And a copy of the phone book.
These books weren’t here when I went to bed last night. Did Andrew bring them up here and stuff them in the room, thinking I would be moving out of here by the morning and he could convert this room back into a closet again? That’s the only thing that makes sense.
I kick the heavy books out of the way and search the top of the dresser where I plugged in my phone to charge last night. Or at least, I thought I had. It’s not there anymore.
What the hell?
I grab the blue jeans that I abandoned on the floor and start searching through the pockets. No trace of my phone. Where did it go? I rip apart my dresser drawers, looking for that little rectangle that has become my lifeline. I even strip the sheets and blankets off the bed, wondering if it got lost during our recreational activities last night. Then I get down on my hands and knees and look under the bed.