Chapter 125
-Hailey-
The whiskey was doing nothing for me. The warmth of it felt like a lie against the cold dread sitting in my bones.
*Look up, Hailey.”
* 65%%
The three words were a splinter lodged in my brain. Festering. He’d been watching me somehow. He knew where I was sitting. The violation made my skin crawl.
I was acutely aware of the weight of the powered–off phone in my back pocket. I had to fight the urge to pull it out and turn it back on. To read those three words again… like they weren’t already seared into my retinas.
I scanned the room without really seeing it, automatically seeking out Logan. A habit now as ingrained as breathing.
But Logan was sealed behind the office door with Talon and the others, and that door felt like it led to another planet right
now.
I was alone with this, and the burden of it felt like it was crushing my ribs. Compressing my lungs.
My gaze drifted over the women next to me. They were my only option.
I couldn’t go up there alone. The thought of stepping back into that apartment… being enclosed in those four walls with whatever Anatoly had left for me… It sent a new wave of nausea through me.
Isolation was his weapon. He wanted me scared and alone, second–guessing every shadow. Well, fuck that. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
I studied them. This makeshift family I’d been absorbed into.
My sister was perched on a stool next to River. She was trying to look engaged in their conversation, but her fingers were twisting in the hem of her shirt. She’d always been tough, but the stress was obviously starting to get to her.
Scarlett was leaning against the bar between Laura and Trina, sipping her own glass of whiskey. I could tell she was still pissed about Logan trashing the bar. This place was her baby. Her zen.
Ruby was a few feet away, lighting a fresh cigarette off the butt of her last one. Her face was all casual indifference, but her eyes were cataloging every shift in the room. She’d be the hardest one to fool.
And Stella… poor Stella. I still felt the hot pinch of guilt in my side for dragging her into this mess. She sat a little apart from the others, hunched over a cup of coffee she wasn’t drinking.
She looked hollowed out. The trauma of the last however–many hours was etched into the new lines around her eyes.
She was the most vulnerable, but I needed her up there with me. She’d been in that house. She’d heard his voice. She understood the monster we were dealing with on a visceral level
This was it. My only window. While the men were strategizing while Logan was distracted the intimate, invasive threat that Anatoly had planted in our home.
I took a final, shaky breath, pushed off my stool, and walked over to the girls.
–
it was up to me to deal with
“Hey,” I said a little too loudly. They all turned to look at me, eyes full of concern and curiosity. “I, uh… I need to run upstairs for a second. I just want to grab my… my journal.
The lie was pathetic, but it was the best I could muster. A journal felt like something personal enough to need. Trivial enough not to question.
1/4
09:58 Mon, Feb 9 A
Chapter 125
Abby’s eyes narrowed. “Your journal? Since when do you keep a journal?”
* 3.65%
“Since lately,” I shot back, a little too defensively. I forced a weak smile. “It’s stupid, I know. But I just… I don’t want to go up there by myself” I let the real fear leak into my voice then, because that part wasn’t a lie. “It feels… creepy now. After everything.”
The admission spilled out of me. Laura reached out and patted my hand. “Oh, honey. Of course you don’t have to go alone.”
Scarlett set her glass down with a decisive thud. “Fuck it, I’m down for some exercise.”
“Me too,” Abby said immediately, sliding off her stool. Her protective sister instinct was overriding her suspicion.
Ruby exhaled a plume of smoke. “Well, shit, I’m not gonna just sit down here with the older gals. Count me in.” She stubbed out her cigarette, glancing at Laura and Trina. “No offense, ladies”
We all looked at Stella. She seemed to shrink under the attention, but then she gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
Safety in numbers. It was a concept we all understood intuitively
“Okay,” I said with genuine relief. “Okay, thanks.”
We moved toward the stairs as a unit. The few brothers who were still hanging around watched us pass with mild curiosity, but they didn’t intervene.
Just the girls, heading upstairs to have a naked pillow fight or something. Nothing to see here.
The hallway at the top of the stairs was dim and quiet. Our footsteps echoed on the floorboards.
Each closed door we passed felt like a potential hiding place for something – or someone
My heart was starting to drum against my ribs again.
–
terrifying.
My key turned in the lock. I pushed the door open. The air that rushed out at us was the same air I’d breathed a few hours ago…. but it felt different now.
I stepped inside, and the girls filed in behind me.
Their presence was a comfort… and a complication.
Scarlett closed the door, and the click of the latch seemed to seallus in. The silence up here was so fucking heavy.
My eyes were drawn immediately to the window. The curtains were still pulled shut from Logan’s frantic search. I could almost see the ghost of his outline there. The tension in his shoulders as he’d scanned the alley.
*Look up..
The command was a hook, pulling my eyes upward, toward the exposed metal rafters that crossed the converted warehouse ceiling.
They were just industrial beams, holding up the roof. I had laid on this couch tons of times, staring up at them while Logan watched TV.
Never thinking twice about what might be nestled in the shadows above them.
Now, they seemed like a perfect hiding place. High. Out of reach Invisible from the normal sightlines of the room.
I couldn’t just stare. I needed a reason. I turned to Scarlett, trying to keep my voice casual, but it came out tight. “Hey, Scar? You know if there’s a ladder around here? Like, a stepladder?”
09:58 Mon, Feb 9
Chapter 125
Abby’s eyes narrowed. “Your journal? Since when do you keep aournal?”
65%
“Since lately,” I shot back, a little too defensively. I forced a weak smile. “It’s stupid, I know. But I just… I don’t want to go up there by myself.” I let the real fear leak into my voice then, because that part wasn’t a lie. “It feels… creepy now. After everything.”
The admission spilled out of me. Laura reached
hed out and pasted my hand. “Oh, honey. Of course you don’t have to go alone.
Scarlett set her glass down with a decisive thud.
“uck it, I’m down for some exercise.”
“Me too,” Abby said immediately, sliding off her stool. Her protective sister instinct was overriding her suspicion.
Ruby exhaled a plume of smoke. “Well, shit,
not gonna just sit down here with the older gals. Count me in.” She stubbed
out her cigarette, glancing at Laura and Trina. “No offense, ladies”
We all looked at Stella. She seemed to shrink under the attention but then she gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
Safety in numbers. It was a concept we all understood intuitively
“Okay,” I said with genuine relief. “Okay, thanks.”
We moved toward the stairs as a unit. The few brothers who were still hanging around watched us pass with mild curiosity, but they didn’t intervene.
Just the girls, heading upstairs to have a naked pillow fight or something. Nothing to see here.
The hallway at the top of the stairs was dim and quiet. Our footsteps echoed on the floorboards.
Each closed door we passed felt like a potential hiding place for something
―
or someone
terrifying.
My heart was starting to drum against my ribs again.
My key turned in the lock. I pushed the door open. The air that rushed out at us was the same air I’d breathed a few hours ago… but it felt different now.
I stepped inside, and the girls filed in behind me.
Their presence was a comfort… and a complication.
Scarlett closed the door, and the click of the latch seemed to seal us in. The silence up here was so fucking heavy.
My eyes were drawn immediately to the window. The curtains were still pulled shut from Logan’s frantic search. I could almost see the ghost of his outline there. The tension in his shoulders as he’d scanned the alley.
*Look up.*.
The command was a hook, pulling my eyes upward, toward the exposed metal rafters that crossed the converted warehouse ceiling.
They were just industrial beams, holding up watched TV.
the roof. I had laid on this couch tons of times, staring up at them while Logan
Never thinking twice about what might be nestled in the shadows above them.
Now, they seemed like a perfect hiding place. High. Out of reach Invisible from the normal sightlines of the room.
I couldn’t just stare. I needed a reason. I turned to Scarlett, trying to keep my voice casual, but it came out tight. “Hey, Scar? You know if there’s a ladder around here? Like, a stepladder?”
09:58 Mon, Feb 9
Chapter 125
命65%量
23 55 vouchers
She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Her eyebrows shot up. “A ladder? Yeah, probably. Hall closet, I think… Why?” Her blue eyes were sharp with curiosity.
“Just… need to check something,” I mumbled, already moving back toward the door. I couldn’t meet her gaze.
The hall closet was a few doors down. A narrow space crammed with club junk. I yanked it open and some dust wafted out.
There, behind a vacuum cleaner and a stack of old towels, was a folding aluminum stepladder. I dragged it out, wincing at the sound of the metal legs scraping across the floor.
When I hauled it back into the apartment, all four women were staring at me. Couldn’t really blame them.
“Hailey, what the hell are you doing?” Abby asked. Her voice was laced with that familiar mix of concern and impatience.
“I’ll explain in a sec,” I murmured quietly. I unfolded the ladder with clumsy hands and positioned it squarely in the center of the living room.
Directly over the spot where I’d been sitting on the couch when the text came through.
The first step was shaky. The second was shakier. My palms were sweaty. I climbed until my head was level with the rafters.
The air up here was warmer. There was a collection of dust, probably decades old, and there were cobwebs draped across the beams.
“Hailey?” Abby’s voice came from below, tinged with real worry now. “Kindly fill us in on what you’re doing?”
“Shh,” I hissed, sharper than I meant to. “Just… give me a second.”
The room went quiet below me. I carefully scanned the rafters, moving my eyes slowly from one end of the room to the other. I saw more dust. I saw a dead spider. A bunch of dead flies.
I made myself breathe slowly, in and out, trying to calm my frantic heart.
And then I saw it.
Further down the closest rafter, nestled right in the corner where the beam met the wall, was a tiny black object. No bigger than a pea. A perfect, dark bead against the bare metal.
With not a single speck of dust on it.
A chill washed over me, so intense it almost felt… peaceful. This was it. This was how that asshole had seen me.
In a split second, I made a decision.
I let my eyes skim over it. A casual, uninterested glance. Then I immediately moved my focus away, continuing my pretended search along the next rafter.
I couldn’t let on. Not yet. If this thing had a microphone – and why wouldn’t it? – every word we said was being fed back to him. I had to make this look like nothing. A whim.
I felt a bead of sweat run down my spine.
09:58 Mon, Feb 9
Chapter 126
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
