He held me firmly by my upper arm and dragged me towards my bedroom. He pointed to the foot of the bed.
"Sit." He demanded.
Fearful to deny him, I obeyed and sat down. My back felt cool against the iron frame. His gaze turned about my room until he found what he was looking for. Walking over to the wall, he pulled a red silk scarf from the hook and came over to me.
"Put your hands behind your back." He said.
Again, I did as I was told. He used the scarf to bind my hands to the bed frame. He tied several knots and once he was satisfied that the binds would hold me, he turned his attention to the large black tote I took to work each day. He ruffled through it and tossed it aside when he found what he wanted. He placed my laptop on the desk in front of me and opened it up. The lock screen appeared, casting a soft blue glow across his handsome face. He typed something in. The input box shook with rejection. He tried again. No dice. I had changed my password a few days earlier in fear of this scenario. I didn't want Micheal to see what was in my report. I didn't want him to see that I knew what he was doing.
He sighed. "What's the password, Alice?" I hesitated. Those documents were my only leverage right now. What would he do once he had access to everything? He reached down and backhanded me hard across the face. My head jerked to the side. A sharp sting spread across my cheek. I could feel a small, damp streak of blood appear from where his ring had cut in.
I looked up at him into his green eyes. They were stern and serious. He had always been quick to reprimand my disobedience, but even then his eyes would hold a hint of playfulness. Punishment always excited us both, but this time it wasn't a game. I could tell he was in no mood to negotiate my freedom. I bit my lip to hold back a whimper.
"Don't make me ask again." He said.
I relented and told him the password. This was not my chance. I would have to think of another way to escape.
He turned back to the computer and logged on. He moved quickly. Typing and clicking furiously to pull up my report and the numerous financial files linked to it. On that report was months worth of work combing through the company's last fiscal year. I had been hired on as an outside accounting consultant to confirm that the company's expenses and profits lined up. Unfortunately, towards the end of putting my report together I had found an anomaly and started exploring it. I had highlighted incriminating portions on my report in order to more easily see where money had been quietly disappearing into foreign accounts. Micheal was combing over these numbers. Changing them here and there to make the money line up. This clearly wasn't the first time he had laid eyes on my report. He knew what portions to change in order to cover up his illegal activity.
I leaned my head back against the bed and watched him silently. He was ignoring me entirely. Fixated on his work. I gazed out the open bedroom door towards the direction of my front door. The one story townhouse I was renting was a little over 1300 square feet. The front door was no more than 600 feet away from where I sat. I could make it there in a few long strides. If I could only distract Michael. Get him to leave the room or even if I could quietly sneak by him, I could run to the door. I would burst out of it and scream for help. It was late, going on midnight now, but someone might be up. Someone would come and help, right? They had to because... if he caught me trying to escape he would be furious.
Would he do to me what he did to Eric? I inhaled sharply at the thought.
I had no idea what he was planning on doing with me after he finished forging my report. I thought back to all that we had shared together during these last few months. All the joy and pleasure we had found in each other's company. He had told me he loved me and I had responded in turn with enthusiasm. But now, I couldn't help but feel like the man I was looking at was a stranger. He had revealed to me a new side of him. Dangerous and unpredictable. Had it all been a lie, I wondered? Was he just getting close to me in order to access my report?