Li woke from his sleep drenched in sweat. He jerked up ready to move, ready to fight. But he couldn’t find what had startled him. The room was still dark. City lights provided enough light through the large windows to see most of the room, but everything was still draped in black and gray. Light shone from his computer and stereo set up. The eighty-inch big screen TV dominating one wall caught the glow of the city with an eerie shine.
His heart was slamming in his chest, shaking his whole body. It had slowed, but the aftermath of the nightmare was rippling through him. He could smell the stink of fear and the residue of s*x.
He looked down at the girl sleeping next to him, her young eighteen-year-old face like porcelain in the dim light. He hadn’t disturbed her, not that he enti
