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Ethan nodded. “I’ll email you tonight with a selection of moderately priced places and organize them according to the shortest distance to the town house.”
“Very good. I’ll meet with you at two p.m. tomorrow so that you have a chance to sign final paperwork and fill out your healthcare benefits.” Janice stood and extended her hand to him, but Ethan just sort of blinked at it in shock.
“Really? I’m getting health insurance? I thought this was only a three-month contract position.” He slowly pushed to his feet, his brain trying to catch up to what she was telling him.
“This position pays twenty-five dollars an hour on the assumption that you will be working a minimum of forty hours a week. Overtime will be paid as well. You are technically a contract worker, but Mr. Varik demands that all his employees have health insurance.”
“That’s…that’s just amazing. You have to fight most employers for health insurance, and contract workers don’t have a prayer.”
“Yes, well, thank you for coming in,” Janice said, giving him a tiny, stiff smile as if the act of smiling at him was painful.
Ethan hurried out of the office, not wanting to give the dour woman any excuse to steal back the job offer without Mr. Varik’s knowledge. He paused at the grand entrance to the four-story town house and looked around. As austere as the office was, the rest of the home appeared to be equally decadent and rich. The gleaming hardwood floors were draped in exquisite Persian rugs. Paintings covered the walls in heavy, ornate frames. There were vases and other ceramic pieces on little shelves and pedestals.
Fuck. This was going to take a long time to pack up. No wonder he was given two months.
But it was very unlikely that he was going to unpack all this stuff again.
Slipping out the front door, he hurried down the quiet residential street, immediately loosening the tie around his neck. He didn’t take a full, deep breath until he was several blocks away and surrounded by a crush of people hurrying from one place to another. Safe in the idea that he was lost in a sea of faceless nobodies in the bright summer sun, Ethan pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number he’d memorized for just this moment.
“Ethan?” a gruff voice demanded after the first ring.
“Yeah.”
“Did you get it?”
“I did,” he said, nearly laughing with relief.
“Excellent. That’s excellent, kid,” Carl praised and Ethan had to clench his teeth. He fucking hated being called kid. He was twenty-six. Not some kid. But then, Carl looked like he was in his forties. Probably old enough to be Ethan’s dad, not that he was. No one was anymore.
Ethan was willing to put up with Carl’s “kid” comments for now if it meant getting one step closer to the fuckers who slaughtered his family.
“When do you start?” Carl asked.
“Tomorrow at ten. I’m being put up in an apartment downtown so I can be close to the town house.”
“Great. Give us the address when you get it. We can set it up as a base of operations.”
Ethan frowned. “We’ll have to be cautious. I don’t know if I’m going to be watched. If too many people are seen coming and going from my place when I’m supposed to be working, Varik might become suspicious.”
“Smart, kid. We’ll save it for staging the final attack.”
He didn’t know about that either, but he wasn’t going to start a new argument with Carl. It wasn’t important right now.
“I saw him today. I shook Marcus Varik’s hand. Stared him right in the eye and he didn’t have a clue,” Ethan practically crowed.
Relief and joy were making him lightheaded. He could have danced down the sidewalk. The first step of the great plan was complete. He was inside Varik’s lair.
“Good job! Varik has no idea that he’s just welcomed his biggest threat right into his home. We’ll talk more later.”
Carl ended the call and Ethan tucked his phone into his pants. He stood on the busy street corner and tilted his face up to the sky. He blinked away tears of relief. One step closer.
His life had been a lonely, endless nightmare since that horrible night when he was only ten years old. All the love and warmth had been ripped out of his existence. Stolen away.
Killing Marcus Varik would be a start, but he knew he wouldn’t feel complete until he found the blood-streaked woman from his darkest memories.
More than sixteen years later, he could still hear her taunting, high-pitched voice.
Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Chapter Four
Marcus walked along, his hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks. The evening air still held on to the day’s oppressive heat as if it had gotten trapped in the narrow streets of the city. It was already well after midnight, and he had no desire to be out wandering, but he’d put off his task for far too long.
