AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alone.
It still felt dangerous. Maybe it was the anticipation of what he’d be told. No matter what, he wasn’t going to be overjoyed with any of Jordan’s news.
He wondered if she’d told him to get him involved. It would be the type of thing she’d do. Maybe she couldn’t for some reason. Maybe Jordan was the messenger.
That started to make sense.
He rounded the corner back to the sidewalk that bordered the busy road and ran across a sprite dogwalker with three large breeds towing him, making him prance and nearly have to trot.
Dogs on a mission. In a hurry. Like their owners.
Dog walking was a very good way for kids to pay for their college these days, he was told. If you liked dogs. And Dimitridid, except not other people’s dogs. Maybe if he got a dog, life wouldn’t feel so dangerous. But who would take care of the dog when he was away?
Which brought him around to the stark fact that he lived alone, because that’s all he could count on. Adding a dog would complicate things. Better to keep it simple. Lonely, but simple.
Oh, he wished he could feel better with the news she was still alive. Maybe Jordan was going to tell Dimitri she was covered from head to toe in scars or had all the flesh burned from her body and she didn’t want to show him. Or maybe she had an incurable disease. Maybe her beautiful brown hair had all fallen out. Maybe she was in a wheelchair most of the day.
It had to be something. Something important, because he couldn’t believe she just didn’t care. That was a bridge too far. Would she be ashamed of something about her? Surely she would know he would never feel that way. If she was only a torso, no legs or arms, he’d still hold her and tell her he loved her.
That made him chuckle.
You are such an asshole. How dare you think of her like that?
Maybe it was some of his anger coming back. Did he wish her ill for making him suffer so much? No, there had to be a reason she chose not to give him a chance, a reason he was not to be privy to the truth of her life. Had to be a good reason.
That was the only thing he knew for sure.
At last he circled back to his apartment entrance. He used his keycard after checking up and down the street. They’d had a rash of teenage thieves stealing keys from unprepared residents or, even worse, running inside and wreaking havoc in the gym, the hallways, or bathrooms, just making a mess and looking for things to take or people to rob. For the thrill of it.
No one was there. Once again, he reminded himself, he was all alone. The sounds of the city were all around him, but he was all alone.
The keycard gave him entry. The desk was unmanned this afternoon, as sometimes happened when the guard was doing rounds. Checking doors, the laundry, the gym, and the meeting rooms, checking the mini theater on the second floor where a group of residents rehearsed plays and sometimes performed for the house.
Most days, Dimitri could walk all the way to the elevator then down the hall to his front door and wouldn’t see a soul. Occasionally, he’d hear music, which was the only way he knew anything about any of his neighbors. Like his next-door neighbor who enjoyed jazz or another who liked concert hall performances. The rest of them lived behind light brown mahogany doors embedded with a peephole in the middle, apartment number on the left.
The keycard opened his door. It was cooler than he’d expected. His sliding glass door to the patio was open.
He hadn’t left it that way.
He quietly shed his shoes, reached behind for his Sig, unholstered it, and aimed it at the open doorway, sweeping right and left to check for any activity down the hall to his bedroom. Nothing moved. He stepped to the balcony, separating the sheer curtains with his right hand, still clutching the weapon in his left.
The balcony was empty.
He leaned around the corner of the balcony off his bedroom, and that door appeared closed. He turned to the left and leaned slightly until he could see his neighbor’s balcony and found a chair very close to the railing. A lightweight wooden chair. Not the type of chair to be on an outdoor place prone to high winds.Probably came from the kitchen, and someone made a mistake by leaving it there.
Or they wanted him to know they were there, since they also left the window open. Why would someone who chanced climbing over the railing be so stupid to leave a chair and open window behind?
They wouldn’t.
So they were not professionals.
Or they were, and wanted him to know this.
Or he almost caught them? Could that be?
He closed the sliding glass door behind him, being careful to bring all the billowy curtains with him. Tiptoeing quietly, he headed to his bedroom. The laundry was on the right, empty except for the stacking washer-dryer, folding counter, and sink. Two of his shirts were hanging in the pulldown rack over that sink, just as he’d left them this morning.
Back to the hallway, his Sig still out, he heard a noise. And then another. Sounded like someone brushing past him, like there was a ghost in the place, sliding to get by.
