Page 101 of Tainted Blood
I have to keep going, though. I have to believe it’s a lie. I have to find that gun, kill Reece, and try to save Lola… That’s if she’s still alive.
Blinking back the tears, I swipe blindly for a handrail—my fingers connecting with the cool metal. Inching forward, I start to climb, following the rail as it coils around the corner and up to the next flight. Misjudging the distance in the dark, I stumble, my knees hitting the floor with an agony so sharp and unexpected I can’t help crying out.
Blinking back more tears, I pick myself up and keep going, finding a kind of jerky rhythm in my shallow gasps of air. My eyes are beginning to adjust. There’s a small skylight up ahead, and the emerging moon is trying hard to cast light into the darkest of places.
When I reach the thirty-first floor, I pause to catch my breath. That’s when I hear the soft click of a door a couple of floors below. A beat later, Lola’s screams are echoing up the stairwell.
Begging.
Pleading.
The recording shuts off again abruptly, and then I hear another door slam. I take the next couple of flights at a flat run, misjudging again. Falling again… In my head, I’m back in that maze, but this time it’s made of concrete, not yaupon holly hedges, and I’m bouncing off hard walls instead of sharp twigs that bite and scratch at my skin.
Reaching the penthouse, I stumble through the door and into Santi’s lobby, feeling a rush of smooth marble underfoot. Then, I’m tripping over something soft and solid lying on the floor.
Feeling around with my fingertips, I encounter loose hair, a nose, lips… I check for a pulse but there’s an ominous chill to Santi’s new housekeeper’s skin.
Shit, shit, shit.
The apartment is a blanket of shadow. The moon has hidden herself in fear again. Following a blueprint in my head, I feel my way down the hallway, past the living room where, once upon a time, I waited for my fiancé on my wedding day.
A man who is now dead.
Breathing through another crashing wave of grief, I reach the doorway to his bedroom, and then another spine chilling rendition of Lola’s screams are chasing after me again.
Oh, God. No.
He’s in Santi’s apartment.
Wrenching open the nightstand drawer, I sift blindly through all the crap, until my fingers are closing around cold, unforgiving steel.
With no time to lose, I fling myself across the bed and tuck myself into the darkest corner of the room. With shaking hands, I train the muzzle at the doorway, and then I wait.
And wait.
I hear the tick tock of a distant clock again.
I hear the heavy tread of his boots.
His labored breathing…
Tick.
Tock.
His huge outline finally appears in the doorway.
You helped kill my husband, you bastard.
I aim the muzzle at what I imagine is his head.
“I know you’re in here, Thalia… I can smell your perfume, angel. I can smell your fear.”
No, Reece, that’s the scent of anger and revenge.
That’s the scent of my shadows.
“I switched up the rules… I need to see the object of my obsession as I devour what’s left of her innocence, piece by luscious piece.”
