When Paige Summers woke up, she found that it was late at night.
Looking out through the carved window lattice, the evening gloom seemed even more oppressive than usual, a heavy blackness that felt as if it could press down and shatter everything on the ground at any moment.
She gave a sudden start.
Only then did she realize she had fallen asleep and woken up again. At some point, she'd been placed on the large bed Marcus Monroe had been using. He, however, was nowhere to be found.
Unfamiliar with her surroundings, she got out of bed and tiptoed toward the bedroom door.
She had just reached a plant stand at the edge of the living room, not yet having rounded the corner, when she heard Marcus Monroe snap, "Blackie! That's enough!"
Paige Summers stopped in surprise, instinctively silencing her movements.
Unaware of her arrival, Marcus Monroe was still fuming into the phone, "Can you stop being so nosy?!"
