Prologue

PROLOGUE

DOLLY

A shadowed figure sat in a chair across the room from the bed I was in. It was clear it was a man by the sheer size of him. My breath caught in my throat, and my heart pounded so hard. There was a different type of discomfort that filled me as I focused on him.

He sat there just watching me. Those shadows surrounding him, created by darkness and moonlight, made him look ominous, even evil.

We didn't speak, and I sure as hell didn't move—not just because I felt like shit but because I was terrified.

Panic and terror filled me because I knew him.

I'd seen the man several times, wondering if he was watching me. He had been following me. And the way he observed me made it seem as if he knew exactly who I was.

He didn't move, didn't speak, and just kept staring at me, as if waiting for something .

Fear gripped me like a cold, suffocating weight atop my chest that made it even harder to breathe.

Who are you ? I realized I only whispered those words in my head.

I tried to push myself up again, my hands trembling as I forced my body to obey because I'd be damned if I was going to be helpless on this bed. But before I could move more than a few inches, he leaned forward, and I froze.

The air seemed to thicken, charged with something dangerous and unsettling. And it all emitted from this man.

"What do you want?" It felt so stupid saying those words, given that it was clear he'd brought me here… wherever here was… because I was the thing he wanted. It was for what, exactly, that I didn't know.

"I saw you," he finally replied, his voice low and deep and the scariest thing I'd ever heard.

My eyes felt bigger than my face as that tone sank in. And even though I already knew what he just told me—along with the next two things he said—hearing him speak them out loud sent shock waves through my system.

"I wanted you."

A shiver traveled throughout my entire body.

"And so I took you."

The finality in his words and the calm way he said them made my blood run cold.