Stalking Emily Saving Emily

The Golden Cage

EMILY

The bed was too soft. I could feel silk sheets underneath my fingers. I was wrapped in a duvet thick enough to smother an elephant.

My head pounded and my cheek burned where the intruder had backhanded me. My wrist throbbed. I sat up too fast and the room tilted.

This wasn’t Leo’s hotel suite.

I swung my legs off the bed. Cold marble bit my bare feet. I was wearing an oversized black T-shirt that almost swallowed me whole, definitely not mine. My waitress uniform was gone. My phone was gone. My pepper spray was gone.

My stomach dropped so hard I thought I might throw up.

I have been kidnapped

The man with the horribly familiar voice must have taken the phone while I was passed out in the alley. Leo’s voice in my ear had been the last trick my brain played before everything went black.

And now I was here, in a stranger’s mansion.

I looked around wildly. The bedroom was bigger than my Crown Heights apartment. It had a sitting area with a fireplace already lit and a walk-in closet I could see from the bed.

I was in a very expensive house. My mind went through possibilities and the only conclusion I had was I had been trafficked.

I ran to the nearest window on shaking legs. The latch needed a key. I grabbed the heavy crystal paperweight shaped like a chess piece from the nightstand and smashed it against the glass.

It bounced off with a dull thunk. My eyes widened in horror at the realization that the windows were bulletproof.

Who uses bullet proof windows for a home. Definitely the Mafia.

I have been sold to the Mafia?

I laughed, but it came out as a sob and went back to yanking on the handle again, using both hands, even though my wrist screamed. Yet, nothing.

Below me, a manicured lawn sloped toward a private dock where a sleek black yacht bobbed like it was waiting for its owner.

I was three stories up but I’d rather fall and break every bone than stay here and wait for my kidnapper to come back.

I made the sign of the cross and climbed onto the wide windowsill with trembling knees. The T-shirt rode up my thighs. Cold river wind seeped through the tiny gap where the window met the frame. I wedged my fingers into the seam and pulled with everything I had left.

“Come on, come on”

The frame gave half an inch. I jammed the crystal paperweight into the gap and levered it like a crowbar. My bruised ribs protested and tears blurred my vision.

I am going to die here.

Not dramatically on a rooftop in a polyester uniform.

Quietly. In a stranger’s bedroom. After he’d already taken everything else.

The window popped open another inch and cold air slapped me across the face. I laughed again.

“f**k you,” I whispered to whoever owned this house. “f**k you and your money and your perfect view and…”

“Emily.”

The voice behind me was terrifyingly familiar.

I froze.

Leo stood in the doorway.

He wasn’t wearing the suit from last night. Just dark sweatpants and a plain black T-shirt stretched across his chest. His hair was messy, like he’d dragged his hands through it for hours.

He took one step into the room.

I pressed my back harder against the open window and the sill dug into my spine.

“Don’t come any closer,” I said.

“Emily, get down from there.”

“You took me.” The words spilled out before I could stop them. “You or the man who attacked me, I don’t know which, but someone brought me here. To this… this prison.”

“You called me, remember?”

“ Yes I know I called you for help. But then everything went black and now I’m here. How did you find me?”

Leo took another step forward instead of answering my question.

“I swear to God if you touch me I will jump.”

His jaw flexed. For a second something raw and painful flashed across his face.

“I didn’t take you,” he said, voice low. “I found you in the alley. You were unconscious and bleeding. The man who attacked you ran when he heard my car. I brought you here because my penthouse is too public. I needed somewhere safe. Somewhere no one could trace.”

I laughed again. It sounded insane even to me.

“Safe? You think locking me in a mansion with bulletproof windows is safe? I don’t even know whose house this is!”

“It’s mine.” He took another slow step forward, hands raised like I was a startled animal. “There’s no staff here tonight. No one, except Jax downstairs. You’re safe here.”

“Jax?” My heart hammered so hard I could feel it in my teeth. “Who the hell is Jax? Your cleanup guy?”

Leo’s mouth tightened. “My best friend, he's ex-military. He’s the one who swept your apartment after the break-in. He’s downstairs running facial recognition on the man who attacked you.”

I shook my head so hard the room spun. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe anything anymore. You can't expect me to just… trust you?”

I turned back to the window, one leg already swinging out into open air. The drop looked longer from this angle. My palms were slick with sweat.

Leo moved faster than I thought possible.

One second he was five feet away. The next his arms locked around my waist and he hauled me backward off the sill like I weighed nothing. My back slammed against his chest. The window shut with a final, expensive click.

I fought like a trapped animal but he didn’t let go. He held me tighter across my stomach, pinning my wrists so I couldn’t claw at him. I could feel every inch of him pressed against me. “Stop,” he growled against my ear. His voice was rough. “Emily, stop. I’m not going to hurt you. I swear on every goddamn thing I own, I’m not going to hurt you.”

I went limp.

Not because I believed him.

But because my body had nothing left.

I sagged against him, breathing hard, tears burning down my cheeks. His heart hammered against my back. For the first time I noticed he was shaking too.

“The man who attacked you… Jax already has a partial match. We’ll know who he is by morning.”

I closed my eyes. I wanted to believe him but nothing was adding up. How he found me in time and why he owned a fortress secured like this.

One thing was clear: Leo was definitely more than a Hotel owner.

And now I was locked inside a beautiful cage with the only man who might be able to keep me alive.

Or the man who might be the reason I needed saving in the first place.

I didn’t know which was worse.

But I felt him go hard against my ass and a shiver ran through me that had nothing to do with fear.

Leo’s grip tightened like he felt it too.

“Emily,” he breathed against my hair, hunger for something other than food, sipping through his voice. “You’re not leaving this house until I know you’re safe.”

I swallowed hard.

I didn’t know if I wanted to kill him.

Or kiss him.

Or both.