by MINK
Shah lets out another meow from behind me. I turn to see him sitting on the island in the center of the room. He’s not looking at me. He seems to be focused on something. I follow his line of sight, curious to see what’s gotten his attention. He’s curious and I’m nosy, so we make a perfect team.
“Shah,” I gasp. “Is that?” I take a step closer. “I shouldn’t.” Even though I say the words, I still find myself moving toward the enticing sliver of light. “I mean, it’s open. Who wouldn’t look? Right?” I ask him as I reach out to grab the door.
He meows his agreement. I pull it open more before I can talk myself out of it. My whole world tilts when I see what lies behind it. This secret vault may be filled with untold treasures, but I pay attention to only one item. I can’t focus on anything else.
“There it is,” I whisper to myself. I stare at it and think it can’t be real. I start to reach for it, but pull my hand back. I’m unsure of what I should do. I’ve searched and waited for this moment for so long, but now that it’s here I hesitate.
He has my box. Why? I reach for it again, my hands shaking as I pick it up. Did he bring me here on purpose? Has he been trying to seduce me, too? Is this part of some bigger plan? He must know that he can only open the box with my key and that I won’t give it up. Unless he is willing to kill me for it. I take the box from the vault and place it on the closet island. My mind races with the possibilities.
I thought when I found it that there would be this mad dash to open it. That I would have an overwhelming excitement about finding it. There’s none of that. I close my eyes, not sure what I should do now. What if this is all a trick? What if Gaines doesn't want me at all and has been after my key?
Maybe he knows nothing about it. I hope that’s true, but it’s probably naïve on my part. This is his life. Hunting down treasures and lost, priceless things. He has to know. Then again, he could’ve accidentally fallen for me like I’ve done with him. I’m still a little salty that he might have been after me only for the key to begin with. Which is utterly ridiculous considering that was what I’d been doing. I don’t care. I’m still going to be salty about it.
I open my eyes. Worse, what if whatever is in the box tells me I’m not meant to be with Gaines? Then what? My emotions are all over the place. I pull the key out from under my shirt. I slowly move it towards the lock.
“Meow!” Shah shouts at me with his eyes on the box, too.
“Okay, I’m going.” I take a deep breath before I slip it into the lock and turn.
Nothing happens. I try to turn it again. My hands shake a little with nerves. I must have done something wrong. “Stop looking at me like that. I'm trying. It’s not unlocking.” I try again and again but it won’t turn. This shouldn’t surprise me; nothing I ever do is easy.
“It’s the wrong box.” Relief fills me. Gaines wasn't using me. I didn't have to face what finding the box could mean for me. I go to pull the key out, but again it doesn't budge. “What the hell?” I give it a hard yank. I let out a small scream and slip on the wet towel I’d dropped, my ass headed straight for the floor. I hold my hands up over my face knowing that my necklace will pull the box down onto me. But nothing happens.
I move my hands from in front of my face to see the box sitting on the edge of the island. The key is still trapped in the lock. The chain dangles from it. I scramble to my feet and rush over to the full length mirror.
“It’s gone.” I look back, still not believing it, but the chain and key are hanging from the box.
What have I done? My eyes sting with tears. The one thing I wasn’t supposed to take off. The only thing my grandma ever made me promise her. I had one job.
Is it because I slept with Gaines? That I let another have my heart? What did I do for my grandma to abandon me, to let the chain break?
I’d gone and fallen in love--and with a man who might be using me. I grab the box and hold it tight to my chest. I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I do know I need to get out of here. If Gaines is after me only for my necklace, he no longer needs me. I don’t like the thought of that.
I can’t let him have this box and the key. Maybe the necklace is broken, but I intend to keep my vow. That means I have to run.
Gaines can spend his life hunting me down. I’ll just always have to be two steps ahead.
20
Gaines
Pandora sits in the front room of her grandmother’s house. It’s a small, old cottage on a street in this small Louisiana town. She’s been holed up here for a few days.
The night she left, I watched as she fled from my house. My heart broke in those moments. Even though I should’ve known this would happen.
Of course it would. I gave Pandora a chance at something she’s been searching for almost as long as I’ve been searching for her. It was foolish of me to think she’d be able to resist. After all, I’ve never been able to turn down an artifact. Why should she?
All the same, it stung to watch her Uber’s taillights disappear into the dark. But Shah’s scolding meowing aside, I knew I’d be seeing her again. There’s no way I’d let her shake me, not when part of her lived inside me and always would.
And here I am, just across the street. The owner of this cozy bungalow was happy to sell to me for three times the fair market value.
Watching her has been a crash course in Pandora. She goes out every morning to pick up breakfast from the corner restaurant two blocks down. She sits on her front porch swing in the afternoons.
That’s my favorite time to watch her, because she’s totally unguarded. Her gaze seems to stray along the flowers that grow untrimmed in the boxes along the front walk. She’s done it the last two days, and each time I had to force myself to stay put. Because when I see the sadness in her eyes, it almost breaks me.
But I stay strong. That’s what she needs from me more than anything else. She has to figure this out, because she made a promise to her grandmother.
A car passes, pulling my attention back to my current vigil. It’s after breakfast but before lunch, which means that she’s in the living room trying to figure out the box.
I pull out my binoculars and watch as she tinkers with it and can’t help but smile when I read multiple curses on her lips. The box won’t open. The key is lodged in the lock, but what Pandora doesn’t know is that the mechanism to open it isn’t quite so simple. Much like my closet vault, the key is only part of the equation.
I sit back as Shah jumps into my lap and settles in. We’ll spend the next few hours right here watching my love through the window. Time well spent.
We’re about an hour in when Mrs. Pettyford calls.
“Morning,” I answer.
“She call you yet?”
“No.” I’ve seen her pick up her phone several times a day, start to dial, then turn it off. If I haunt her thoughts even half as much as she haunts mine, she’s feeling more than a little tortured right now.
“Why not? And why won’t you just go over there and give her all you got?”
“We’ve been over this.”
“I know. You told me your plan. I told you it’s foolish.” She snorts. “And Shah agrees with me.”
He looks up at me but has the good grace not to meow his agreement.
“She’ll come back to me.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“She will.” I grind my teeth and watch as Pandora gives up and plops down on her sofa.
“Why can’t you just go over there and toss her over your shoulder and make her yours?”
“Because it has to be her choice. I want her to choose me the same way I’ve chosen her. Not because I have something she wants, but because I’m the one she needs above all others.”
“That’s already true.” Mrs. Pettyford sighs. “I knew it the first moment I saw you with her. The two of you are halves of the same whole.” She sighs again, this one even more long-suffering. “But I suppose I can see your point. You’re being level-headed for onc
e.”
I want Pandora to come to me, but some things are true no matter what she does. “I’ll never let her go. If she stays in that house for the next month, I’ll stay right here across the street. Wherever she goes, I’ll be there, too. So don’t think for a second I’m above taking what I want.”
“I know you aren’t.” She snickers. “And that’s how I know you aren’t going to last much longer. Give Shah kisses for me, and I’ll see you back at home in a few days.” She hangs up before I can argue.
Shah rests his chin on his paws in a rather self-satisfied manner.
I shake my head at both him and Mrs. Pettyford. Pandora isn’t going to get away from me. But I have to admit, the urge to kick her door in and pin her to the floor until she moans my name is growing stronger every day.
“Patience,” I growl, mostly to myself.
Pandora sits up and fiddles with the box for another fifteen minutes before throwing her hands up and retreating to the small kitchen.
I can’t see her, but I know she’s likely boiling some ramen while stewing about the locked box. I’m about to get up and grab one of my prepped lunches (thanks, Mrs. Pettyford) from the fridge when my phone rings.
My heart jumps, because I’m hoping the unknown number just happens to be the landline across the street.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Gaines.” High pitched and covered in sticky saccharine, this voice can belong to only one person.
“Selena.”
“It’s time for you to make good on your date.”
“I’m busy.”
She laughs, the sound forced. “Too bad. The rules of the auction were that I get to name the time and place, and I choose tonight.”
I grip the phone so tight I fear I might break it. “No.”
“You have to.” Her tone sours.
“You can’t even afford that bid, and we both know it.”
“I won.” She leaves the too sweet tone behind. “And you’re mine tonight. If you renege, then I suppose I’ll have to inform the tabloids that your auction is fixed and the money doesn’t actually go to charity.”
“None of that’s true.”
“Doesn’t mean they won’t print it. You know how this works, Gaines. You take me out tonight, and we won’t have a problem. If you go back on our agreement, your charity will go down in flames.”
Shah jumps from my lap, his tail twitching.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Selena, it doesn’t matter if you force me to spend time with you. I don’t want you. I’m in love with someone else.”
“We’ll see about that. Tonight, eight o’clock, my place. I’ll text the address. Ciao.” The line goes dead.
“Fuck.” I slam the phone down next to me and look out the window at Pandora. She’s pacing beside the box.
There’s no way in hell I’m going anywhere with Selena, but I need to get back to the city to do damage control. She’s forced my hand. However, leaving my treasure unguarded isn’t an option. It looks like Mrs. Pettyford will get her way after all.
I stand. “Well, Shah, looks like we’re headed home.” I peer at Pandora as she pulls on her hair in utter frustration and yells at the box. “Right after we kidnap our girl.”
21
Pandora
My fingers trail along my bare neck. It feels weird not to have my necklace on. Now that it’s no longer locked around my neck, I want it back there. I wore it for so long that I can tell something’s missing. I know that’s not the only thing missing though. The absence of Gaines weighs on my mind more than I’d like to admit. “It’s my necklace, box. Give it back.” I smack the top of the box out of frustration.
“Careful what you wish for,” I mumble to myself.
I’d come back home thinking I’d find something here that I’d missed. Maybe a clue that my grandma left behind, but I’ve had no such luck. I’m just alone in a house that doesn’t make me smile like it used to.
I should call him. Gaines would know what to do. This is his specialty, after all. He’d been after me because he wanted the key. Maybe he can tell me how to use it. Or would he just come and take it the same way he’d taken my heart?
I pick up my phone, starting to call, but drop it again. I shouldn’t call. Why hasn't he tried to call me? It’s probably because he knows I’m on to him. If he thought I’d only run out on him, he would’ve called by now. Right? This logic makes sense to me.
He knows I’m on to his games. He thought that he was a step ahead of me, but I caught him! Or maybe he’d caught me. Either way, I got away and he has no idea where I am, so I’m winning. But in reality I’m not, because I can’t get the box open! I’ve basically tried everything I can think of. But nothing. The only thing this box has given me is hours’ worth of frustration. I don’t even want to open it anymore. I just want my necklace back.
To be honest, I wish I could go back to never having even found the box. I want to escape back into the little world where I thought Gaines wanted me for me. If I could change the past, I’d stop looking for it. Stay with him. I would pick my own destiny, which would include spending my life with Gaines.
But it was all a lie. My eyes burn with tears. I fight them off. I will not cry. “What the hell?” I jump up from the sofa when Shah comes strolling into the living room. I blink once, twice, then three times to see if I’m imagining things, but each time I open my eyes, he’s still there. “How did you get here?”
“We have to go.” Gaines comes walking in a second later. I grab the box and pull it to my chest.
He glances at it, but returns his gaze to me. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Why does he always have to look so handsome? I'm a mess. I’m still in the same clothes I was wearing when I’d run from him. “How did you even find me?”
“That is what I do.”
Right. I knew that.
“I need you and you need me.” His eyes are focused on mine.
My heart does a little flutter wishing those words were being spoken about him and me being together rather than needing each other to open the box.
“The box is mine.” I throw that out there to let him know I’m not going to give it up easily.
“Not here for the box.”
I take a step back as he keeps coming toward me. He lifts me, box and all, into his arms. “I was trying to give you time, but you’ve run out of it.”
“Put me down,” I demand. I don’t fight him as he carries me out of my grandmother's house. Shah follows us out.
Gaines puts me into his car. Again, I don’t try to escape. What would really be the point? He would catch me anyway. Plus, he’s the only one that can open my box. It’s totally not that I want to go with him, because I don’t. I’m mad at him. I just need his box expertise.
He slips into the driver’s seat and takes off. I put the box in my lap so I can cross my arms over my chest. “Took you long enough to find me. Maybe you’re not as good as you think you are at finding things.” I watch as his perfect mouth lifts up into a smirk. I’d been gone for a couple days already.
He shoots me a full-blown smile as he lays out the details of what I’ve been doing for the last forty-eight hours.
“You’ve been watching me? Like a stalker!” I shouldn’t get excited by this, but the knowledge that he’d kept tabs on me does something to me. By his detailed description of my daily activities, I’d say he watched me very closely. I squeeze my thighs together trying to get myself under control. “You’re obsessed with me.”
“Can you blame me?” He speeds onto the highway.
“Well, no.” I look out the window to hide my smile.
He’s teasing me. I should be mad, but I’ve missed him so much. It feels good being near him again. We pull into a private airport moments later and right up to a plane. I don’t wait for him to open the door for me. I’m out and going up the plane stairs on my own. I mean, I’ve never been on a private jet before. I
might as well enjoy it. I bet they have really good snacks.
Maybe we have to go back to his place to open the box. He has the tools and what not. I’m not going to turn down this private jet opportunity, especially when it comes with a side of getting my box taken care of.
I take a seat in one of the extra wide comfy chairs. I’ve never been on a commercial plane, let alone a private one. This is going to ruin me. Like Gaines has ruined the thought of any other man for me.
Shah hops up into the seat with me. “And you’ve ruined any other kitties for me,” I grumble under my breath as I pet him.
Gaines takes the seat across from me.
I give Shah all my attention.
“Are you hungry?” Gaines asks.
I shake my head.
“Pandora--”
“Can you open the box?”
He pauses, but I still don’t look at him. It’s like I can’t, because if I do, I’ll jump into his lap.
Taking a breath, he says quietly, “I can.”
“You want to know what’s inside?” I finally look up at him as I feel the plane start to take off.
“I’m intrigued by the notion, yes.”
Wait, are we still talking about the box? The way he’s looking at me--I’m not so sure. My feels threaten to overtake me. I swallow them down. “Then we’ll open it when we get back to your place.”
“If that’s what you want.”
The flight is short, but the silence makes it feel long. This car ride is no different.
As we draw closer to his home, dread starts to weigh heavy on me.
“Are you sure you’re not hungry? Mrs. Pettyford is already cooking,” Gaines says as he opens the car door for me.
“It would be rude of me to not eat her food. I’m not rude like some other people I know.” I give him a pointed look.
