Being able to see this whole mess from the outside as I'm writing it makes me feel less insane. I was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, I had to be. Why else would I have thrown myself at him like that? He'd stalked me, kidnapped me, and forced me to aid in his crimes. Not to mention, I was drinking and clearly desperate.

Declan Byrne was a criminal, he was only using me. I meant nothing to him, I was just a quick fuck. I was truly nothing to him. That's why he couldn't even bring himself to fuck me.

I chuckled bitterly, as I relived the feeling of being rejected by him. It hurt, I think more now than in that moment. Especially after everything that happened. Raking my fingers through my greasy and tangled hair, I breathed out threw parted lips before I continued.

My writing was interrupted by the orderly coming to the door of my room. They made sure to shake the ring of keys obnoxiously in front of the glass on my door before inserting it into the lock.

I did what was expected of me and put down my pencil, making sure that the orderly could see me placing it on the desk. Getting up from my chair I walked over to the rounded corner of the room, raising my hands to put them behind my head with my fingers locked. When the orderly saw me finish the routine he twisted the handle to the door and walked in.

Within a few moments I was frisked and cuffed at the wrists and ankles with a longer chain attaching them before I was then escorted out of my room and down to the office of Dr. Zaccardi.

"Ah, Miss Murphy. Sorry to take you away from your writing but you have a visitor." Richard said excitedly. "How is your writing going, by the way? You seem to really like it."

How cute, I thought. He's really trying to make this new guy believe he actually cares.

I looked to the man who was sitting in one of the chairs that was in front of Richard's desk. A potential new therapist, one who will actually help?

The orderly pushed me to move forward towards the empty chair, putting pressure on my shoulders for me to sit down once I was in front of it. I shot a glare up to the male nurse who clearly had a thing for causing patients pain.

Mystery man finally turned to look at me. He looked like the quintessential middle aged man, receding hair line with the top bits brushed over in hopes of hiding his thinning hair. Large plastic framed glasses to go along with his button up collared shirt and grey-brown cardigan.

He smiled over at me and reached out his hand, waiting for me to shake it. I looked down at his hand and then back up to him with a straight face. I wonder how long it would take for him to realize I was cuffed?

When I didn't shake his hand after a few seconds he finally recoiled it and wiped it across the thinning hair on the top of his head in a sad attempt to play it off.

"Right, well, it is a pleasure to meet you Scarlett. May I call you Scarlett?" His voice sounded so much like Tom Hanks I swear they could have been related.

He pursed his lips, deflating a bit when I still didn't respond.

"My name is David Adelman and I am the attorney who has been assigned to your case. I read over everything and you have a solid plea for temporary insanity. With that, you'll spend a few more months in here after the trial. From there it'll be house arrest, meetings with a probation officer, sprinkle a couple of therapy sessions here and there and you'll be off scot free." He clapped his hands together at the end of his explanation, his beaming smile was overbearing.

David and Richard stared at me, waiting for my response which didn't come. What was I supposed to say to all of this? A plea of temporary insanity, house arrest, parole? A few months ago I was a normal human being and now I'm going to be on trial for murder.

"But, there is something we would need from you..." Richard spoke, breaking the silence.

"Ah yes, the famous ultimatum." I mumbled.

David looked up to Richard, a sly look spreading across his face. What was he so happy about?

"You see, the people we work for are very interested in the information you have regarding Mr. Byrne and Mr. Kelly." Richard said, moving around his desk so that he was half sitting on the edge, his crotch angled right at my face. Pig.

"We want you to tell us everything. Where Declan lives, where Desmonds' little hide out is, names of businesses, banks, anything and everything about the Micks, I mean the Malone crime family." David scooted closer so that he was sitting at the edge of his chair, leaning over so that he was almost invading my personal space.

"I.. I don't remember..."

Richard snorted. He leaned over, putting his hand on the armrest of my chair to hold himself above me. I sunk back further into the chair in hopes of putting some space between us but he took that as an invitation to come closer still. "We thought you would say that."

"I am a very powerful attorney, Scarlett. On top of the fact that the Russians own the judge, the DA and most city officials, we can make it so you never leave this place. We could make it so you don't even exist anymore."

"But I'm telling the t-truth. I don't remember." But I do remember everything leading up to that night. I could give them all of the information to go against Desmond and bring all of them down. I could also give the judge all of the information I've gathered to go against their bosses, bringing down the Russian crime empire. Not that it would help though if the Judge is owned by the same people they are.

"Well then, I guess you're just going to have to try and remember." Richard sneered, sliding off of his desk and going back around to his chair.

"Sam!" He called out to the orderly who was waiting just outside the closed door. Sam came in and with a nod that he understood, came over to me and lifted me up from my chair.

"Take Miss Murphy back to her room, please."

Sam pushed me towards the door making me stumble. Before we got to the door, I dug my heels into the floor and turned, poking my head around Sam.

"Wait!" I yelled.

David and Richard both turned back to look at me. A hopeful look in their eyes thinking I would be willing to see the errors of my ways and spill everything to them so they could present it on a silver platter to their masters.

"Yes?" Richard asked, smirking.

"Can I have another notebook?"

The stitches on my leg were itching like crazy. Even though I had a bandage over them every time my pants would rub up against them it caused them to itch like nothing I'd ever experienced. Declan said he would take them out tonight, that my cut was healed enough. I was counting down the minutes at this point.

Work was slow today. It had been snowing on and off for the last two days, not many people want to walk around unnecessarily in the snow looking at cars. This meant that all of the sales guys were stuck inside either at their desks or pacing around the showroom, anxious for customers.

I sat quietly at the front desk, going through the list of calls I had to make to the people who had bought vehicles from us in the last month, checking to see how everything was working out for them and if they had any issues.

I hated cold calling. Lucky for me, it was eleven in the morning and most people were at work so I was able to just leave a scripted voicemail which almost no one ever answered back.

Finishing up with the last call I felt my cellphone vibrate against my leg. Pulling it from the pocket of my dress pants, I pressed the lock button and saw a message from Declan.

My eyes rolled subconsciously when I read his name. He's been ignoring me since the other night when things got heated between us. I felt a ping of embarrassment in my chest every time I thought about it his body on mine. How it felt to have him sucking and kissing my neck, how much I loved tasting his whiskey on his tongue.

I felt myself starting to zone out, getting lost in a daydream of him doing even more to me. Shaking my head, I cleared my mind of the thoughts. Not the place for this, Scarlett.

Declan: Any new information?

Me: I'm sorry but the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected.

Declan: Mike isn't in the office today. Now is a perfect time.

Me: He already caught me in his office. Not happening.

Declan: Stop being stubborn. I'm sending a couple of my guys down to the lot.
That will distract some of the sales reps.

Me: And if I'm caught?

Declan: Office. Now.

Locking the phone I tossed it on the desk in front of me. He was ridiculous. Just in time, I saw a car pull into the lot. Two of the top sales reps were on the visitors like a shark to a wounded seal, they barely had time to get out of their car. Moments later, another car pulled in and another seller was out the door.

Now it was just me and the last sales guy who was so deep into his phone I'm pretty sure he forgot he was even at work. Taking this as my cue, I grabbed my phone and made my way down the hall to Mike's office.

The moment I closed the door behind me I felt my phone buzz in my hand.

Declan: Good girl.

Me: 🖕

My first instinct was to go to his computer. After the last time he caught me going through his office I knew he would have moved everything linking him to any nefarious acts.

I jiggled the computer mouse which brought the screen to life revealing the lock screen. Great. What was his password?

My lips turned into an awkward smirk while I glanced around the room, trying to think if anything stuck out that he would use as a password but all I could think of was sarcastic things like "mob lord" or "the godfather".

Me: His computer is locked. Any ideas on a password?

I waited for a couple of minutes but there was no reply from his end. Even more great.

I started to type the random things I saw in the office like "ficus", "BMW" and "Mercedes. When none of those worked I started in on the sarcastic words that popped into my mind like "Drugs" but none of them worked. A pop up appeared on the screen saying I only had two more chances left before I would be locked out.

My palms were starting to sweat now, my nerves fully taking over. Realistically I had one more shot to try and unlock the computer. I didn't want to risk Mike coming back to see he was locked out of his computer, he would know it was me.

In a last ditch effort I typed in "Zenalyn". I hovered my finger over the enter button on the keyboard, debating if I should even try it. Taking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes and blindly hit the enter button.

Upon opening my eyes I was greeted by his desktop.

"Holy shit..." I whispered.

I started clicking away, opening up his most recent files to see if there was any incriminating things but all I found was folders with lists of inventory that was being shipped in and out of the country.

Wait a minute. Inventory being shipped in and out of the country. Clicking on one of the folders I read through the invoice. This wasn't even for cars, this was apparently for stuffed animals that were supposed to be distributed to traveling carnivals. Opening another file, this one was of luxury furniture, all with female names. Putting two and two together, I knew this wasn't actually furniture. This was trafficked women.

I felt my stomach churn. Grabbing my phone, I quick took a picture of the screen, making sure to get all of the information in the photo.

Closing out of those files I opened another one and did the same thing. A pop up appeared at the top right corner of the screen indicating that an email had come through. I would have ignored it entirely but when I took a second glance at the notification before it disappeared I saw that my name was the subject of the email.

It felt like a ton of bricks had dropped in my stomach. My heart started to race in my chest. Opening up his email I could see it right there at the top. My name was clearly spelled out, it wasn't my imagination.

I debated wether or not I should open it. What happens if it was something from a company regarding my benefits? Shaking my head at the stupid thought I sighed out loud. Not being able to think of any other excuses to not open it, I brought the cursor over the email and clicked on it.

Scarlette,
We know what you're doing Scarlett Murphy. We know who you're working with.

I felt like I was going to be sick. How would they know I got into Mikes' computer? How would they know what I was looking through?

My head whipped around the room, looking in every corner trying to see if there was a hidden camera somewhere that I hadn't noticed before. With a trembling hand, I bought my phone up and snapped another picture of the screen and ran from the room, not caring if I left anything open on the screen for Mike to see. Clearly, he knows what's going on and now they, whoever they may be, know that I'm working with Declan.

I felt bile start to rise in my throat. My palms were getting clammy and I could feel the room starting to spin. Oh god. What if they show up? What if they come here and try and kidnap me or worse...

I started hyperventilating. I needed Declan. I needed him here, as much as I hate him, I still have some faith in him that he would protect me. I sent the last picture I took, the one of the email to him.

Me: image
Me: How the fuck would they know?
Me: You said I would be fine!
Me: Now what, asshole?

___________________________________________

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