Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
It was just so unfair: he had all the power. He could stop by the bookstore anytime, but I couldn’t just show up at the front desk of Aristov Incorporated. And I needed answers.
I cursed, ran up the steps and grabbed the door just before it shut.
The lobby was much nicer than the one in my building, with a desk for a security guy—who wasn’t there—and thick red carpet. I could hear Radimir climbing the stairs, already a floor ahead of me. I guiltily wiped my feet and started after him.
On the third floor, he turned left and went to a door at the end of the hallway. I hunkered down on the stairs, watching him through the railing as he quietly inserted first one, then another metal thing into the door lock and fiddled with them. Wait. Is he...is he PICKING THE LOCK?
The door swung open and Radimir crept inside, leaving it open. I stared at the doorway. Okay, enough. Whatever was happening here, I wanted no part of it. I turned to walk back down the stairs. He’d never know I followed him and tomorrow, I’d go back to my normal, boring life.
Then I heard a grunt of surprise and a muffled yell from inside the apartment. The shuffle of feet, more grunting. A fight! What if Radimir was being attacked?
I crept over to the open door. I was looking across the apartment’s hallway and straight into a bathroom. Radimir was wrestling with a huge, bald man who was soaking wet and wrapped in a towel. He had his hand over the bald man’s mouth, muffling his cries. As I watched, Radimir forced the man to the ground. Then he took hold of the man’s head, lifted it—
Radimir brought the man’s head down on the tiled edge of the shower stall. There was a sickening noise I’ll never forget, like a boiled egg cracking. The man’s body went utterly still. I looked at his chest. It wasn’t moving.
And that’s when Radimir looked up and saw me.
13
RADIMIR
I froze. My brain just locked up with the impossibility of it. She couldn’t be there. She had to be a hallucination. I blinked, honestly expecting her to vanish.
She didn’t. She just stared at me, her eyes wide and her chest shaking. Then she was gone, sprinting out of the apartment.
Fuck. I launched myself out of the bathroom and out of the apartment, pulling the door closed behind me. I could see her on the floor below, already starting down the next flight of stairs, and I forced my legs to go faster.
It had all been going so well. The hacker I’d paid had disabled the security cameras in Borislav’s building and would delete the footage from cameras in other, nearby buildings. The guard was on his break, as planned. The lockpicks had worked like a charm. When they found the body, everyone would think Borislav had slipped in the shower.
Except she’d seen me do it.
By the time I reached the lobby, she was already running down the street. I raced out into the rain and chased after her. I had no idea what I was going to do. I just knew I needed to fix it, somehow.
I thought of that morning, at the warehouse, I’d sat straddling a chair, looking down at the naked and bloody Doyle and Yoz. “There’s something I’ve been struggling with,” I’d said slowly. “But I haven’t been able to tell anyone. I haven’t been able to...” —I’d looked at Doyle—“what do you British say? Get it off my chest. People would think I was weak. But I can tell you two.” I’d leaned closer. “I can tell you because I know you won’t leave this room alive.”
And I’d told them. I’d told them that I liked her. It felt good, to say it out loud, just that once. It made me sure that I’d done the right thing, walking away from her. And it made Doyle and Yoz understand what I was going to do to them, and why.
I’d picked up the pruning shears and made two quick snips. And then I’d waited until the screaming stopped and the blood slowed to a trickle, and they were dead.
I’d thought I’d never see her again. Now, somehow, she was here. I kept rerunning the look of raw horror she’d given me, my stomach twisting into a cold, hard knot. I couldn’t leave it like this. I have to catch her.
She was running with everything she had and even with my longer legs, it took me a full block to close the gap. Finally, I managed to grab her shoulder and tug her to a stop.
She spun around. “Get away from me!”
I staggered back. It felt like she’d emptied a shotgun into my chest.
“Get away from me,” she repeated, her voice shaky.