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Of course. No need to tell the outsider all our secrets. But still…I groaned inwardly, knowing the number of questions he’d already thrown at me.
“Anyway,” Gerard said as he got up from his chair. “Talk to Annalise and find this attacker. The only thing I do know is that he isn’t one of ours.”
I nodded, feeling the weight of it all. It didn’t matter, though. Regardless of what I felt about this, it wasn’t even near as bad as it was for the three young men who lay in their beds like living corpses. Or Andrea, chained up and drugged in a basement somewhere.
Chapter 10
“I’m not convincedthis is a good idea,” Hansen said, sounding…well, like himself when it came to anything I said or did, really.
“If Will’s awake then you know the fed is as well,” I said, pushing open a door in the basement we were in. “He might be trying to find us, but he’ll never think I’ve gone here.”
“And Yorov?”
“They might be watching the place, but would you expect me to come back?”
There was a pause behind me, but I heard his footsteps following. “I wouldnow,” he said after a little while. I scoffed at him but said nothing.
We walked through a small parking garage, used by the residents in the building above us. I opened another door, never locked for some reason, and we entered another similar garage, though this one belonged to the building next door. It wasn’t noticeable from the outside, but the two buildings shared the basements.
“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” he asked.
“Not a good idea to live anywhere where there isn’t an extra way in,” I said, opening a door that led to the stairs. You learned things over time. Escape routes were dandy and fine, but sometimes you needed to go the other way.
“It’s nice,” he said as we walked into the apartment a few minutes later, “but small.”
“You seem surprised,” I said, kicking my shoes off while flipping through the mail I’d brought in. “What were you expecting?” I added, looking defiantly at him. I knew now that my lack of income was one of the things that had aroused his suspicions of me in the first place. He’d probably expected me to occupy one of the larger apartments in the building.
“Nothing,” he said, but I saw him taking it all in with curiosity.
It was a tiny apartment. We were, simply by entering, standing in the living room and kitchen, which occupied the biggest room I had. The kitchen covered the wall to our right, except for the door to my immediate right, leading into the bathroom. The living room wasn’t big, but I had a couple of hard chairs and a small mint-green rococo sofa, which faced a cluttered coffee table and a TV in the corner. The couch was a total knock-off, but it reminded me of my grandmother’s, so I had bought the thing despite it not being particularly comfortable. I was always careful with photos, having as many as I could hang on the walls, the ones no one could pinpoint any locations on. Other than that, it was a mix of things I picked up now and then. Things I liked. Plants as well, but I had a knack for killing them. Not because I didn’t know how to water a plant, but because of neglect.
“I don’t need much,” I told him. “I’m not here that often.”
He nodded, but there was still a crease of confusion between his eyebrows. “It’s colorful,” he said, looking at me a moment.
I took his meaning at once. Dressed in black jeans, a gray top, and a brown leather jacket, I was not. The only color I ever really wore was lipstick. I shrugged.
“I like it,” I said and left it at that. I slung the envelopes on the little shelf by the door. I pulled the tranquilizer gun from my waistband before putting it in the same place, and walked over to the kitchen. I was hungry. Dawn was breaking outside, and it had been a long night so far. Since we couldn’t head over to Annalise yet, it was just as well to eat something.
I found some cereal, which lifted my hopes. Since I didn’t spend much time in my home, food tended to be scarce or past its expiration date.
“Hungry?” I asked over my shoulder. With all the faults he found in me I sure wasn’t going to add bad hostess to the list.
“Yeah,” he said and came over. “That’s what you eat?” he asked immediately upon laying eyes on the cereal box.
“What’s wrong with it?” I asked while opening the fridge, hoping for drinkable milk.
“It’s full of sugar.”
I shrugged. “I like sugar.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Damn it,” I hissed as the sour smell of curdled milk hit my nose. I quickly closed the carton and put it back on the self.
“Seriously?” he blurted at the sight.
“What?”
