Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

I turned to beckon Colin to follow me, but he lifted his hand as a natural movement. “Phoebe.

hold on.”

With a resigned sigh, I took hold of his wrist, “Come on, let’s head home.”

“Hold tight and don’t lose me again,” he murmured under his breath.

I didn’t quite catch what he said and turned back to him. “What was that?” I asked.

Colin just gave me a smile, saying nothing more.

“Phoebe…” Stella’s voice suddenly called out from the hospital bed.

I paused mid–step, not turning back. Right now, it seemed better to maintain the guise of Foebe.

On the subway home, Colin kept hold of my hand.

I leaned against his shoulder and my eyes glazed over.

Colin didn’t question why I chose the subway over a car ride. I figured he was smart enough to have guessed why.

Rain always made me nervous in cars. The subway was crowded, and it made me feel safer.

Just as we emerged from the subway station, there was Eric with the driver waiting by the roadside.

Colin furrowed his brow and glanced at me, “Phoebe, let’s make a run for it.”

I was taken aback, “Run for what? To where…?”

Before I could get an answer, Colin was yanking my wrist and sprinting through the crowd.

Eric spotted us. He was trying to catch up, but ultimately lost us in the flux of subway commuters.

After a lung–busting run, we finally stopped.

“Why the rush?” I asked.. Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

Colin looked unfazed, not even out of breath. Well, he is quite a runner, I thought.

“Don’t want to go back,” Colin said, meaning back to the Langleys.

I guessed he too felt the Langley estate was more of a cage than a home.

“Eric’s got trackers on our phones, doesn’t he?” I said, half–defeated. I was carrying the Langley heir; Colin was the Langley scion. Either one of us missing was a problem, so Eric would find us soon enough.

Without a word, Colin fiddled with our phones for a bit before handing mine back, “One day off the grid won’t hurt.”

I wasn’t sure what had gotten into Colin and why he wanted to escape, but I agreed for the

moment.

If he took off on his own, I’d have no idea where to start looking.

“So, where to now?” I quipped.

“I want to sleep together with you,” Colin said earnestly.

I was caught off guard and only then noticed we were standing in front of a swanky five–star hotel.

“You want to ditch a perfectly good home to stay at a hotel?” I muttered under my breath.

Colin remained silent, gripping my hand, unwilling to let go or move.

Knowing him as I did, his sudden resistance to going home must have a reason – it was certainly not a whim.

Seeing his pitiful look, I wanted to refuse, but the words died on my lips. I turned and led him into the hotel as an inexplicable irritation washed me over.

Seeing Colin always brought back memories of the orphanage and the mental institution…

I couldn’t fathom what he’d endured. I just hoped the serial killings had nothing to do with him.

”

“You also know fancy hotels, huh? Weren’t you used to sleeping on piles of trash?” I teased as we entered the lobby, recalling his days of wandering and sleeping in shabby rooms at the orphanage. Yet now, he’d dragged me from home to a hotel.

“No,” Colin said seriously, shaking his head. “Phoebe deserves the best.”

I paused and was surprised. He’d made it clear he knew I wasn’t Phoebe Caldwell…

Was I now just basking in my own glory?

Once in the hotel room, I coaxed Colin to take a shower and then got a call from Eric:

“Ma’am, the CEO of the Fitzgerald Group has been at our house for two hours now, wanting to discuss a company project…” Eric’s voice held a note of helplessness.

I felt a twitch at the corner of my mouth, realizing Colin had anticipated Dexter would not let things go and had thus whisked me away to the hot