AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Close the deal,” the voice demands, and I feel my body slump, sweat popping out from every pore.
The man with the explosives looks at me, and I know he’s noticed the change.
“What are you using these for, anyway?” the man asks.
I think of the voice, how angry he always is. If I could adopt his attitude, maybe I could fake my way through this. “Why do you care, as long as you get your cash?” I mutter, avoiding eye contact. If he can see my eyes, he’ll know something isn’t right.
“I have to protect my connections. I can’t have you, fuckin’...blowing up the Space Needle, and then this shit gets traced back to my connection. It’s military grade with a fingerprint that might as well be a fucking phone number. Know what I mean?”
“It’s for a project.”
“What kind of project?”
“The kind that needs to be blown up. Why the fuck are you asking so many questions?” My voice sounds loud, a little out of control.
“Breathe, breathe, breathe, you mutant rat,” the voice coaches me. “I gave you the easy part.”
I look at the man and try to square my shoulders, make myself bigger—the way it feels when the voice takes over. “It’s a project that won’t attract attention,” I lie.
The man stares at me, then shrugs. “If it’s legit, it should attract attention.” I feel him back away inside his clothes.
“I meant not the law-enforcement kind of attention. Everyone on my property will know what’s happening,” I reason, pacing out my words thoughtfully. Sometimes talking slowly makes people think you’re sincere.
“You fucking idiot, think about what you want to do and tell him!” screams the voice in my head. It’s so loud I can’t hear what the guy’s saying. It doesn’t matter.
I clear my throat. “I have fifty acres. Out past the U District. I need to clear it.”
“Burn it, burn it, light the fire,” the voice chants gleefully, a strange edge to it I haven’t heard before.
“Are you a developer?” he asks. He sounds wary but interested.
“No. I just, I just, I just—”
The voice cuts me off. “Keep your shit together! Tell him the truth without naming names, you useless bag of meat!”
“—want to have some fun,” I say and try not to cringe. I don’t want fun. This started because of…because of… What did I want? A woman. A woman who was trapped and couldn’t get away. I loved her, but I couldn’t save her—
“Fuckin’ A, man!” the man yells, stepping closer to me now. “Blowing shit up is a rush!” He punches my shoulder.
The relief combined with his punch almost knocks me down, and I can barely stumble after him as he reopens his trunk. He’s talking to me like I’m a friend, but instead of responding, I fall backward like a ghost disengaging from its possessed body. I pass the reins over to the voice.
“Fucking A is right,” the voice tells the man with gloating excitement.
“You can fire them off one at a time, but it’s even better if you control a whole shit-ton of detonations with these babies. I’ll show you how to chain them—”
I tip my head back to fall away as fast as possible. I don’t want the weight of having to understand anything. As I recede, the contents of the trunk glow and follow me into the black with warm fingers. It’s comforting to let the warmth envelop me and then…sleep.
CHAPTER2
Hartley inhaled the lovely smell of the Cointreau in her cosmopolitan. She’d ordered it with Grey Goose, and she breathed deeply until the familiar hint of almond in the high-priced vodka made it through the citrus. She might not have any useful skills these days, but her sense of smell when it came to alcohol could not be denied.
Wait, she had gained the new skill of getting drunk to handle problems. That counted, didn’t it?
“Is it all right, Mrs. Meyer?” asked the server, looking at her cautiously after she’d almost sucked the cosmo up through her nose.
“It’s the exact aroma of perfect,” she told the chic woman in the smart outfit of the Delta First-Class Lounge. Hartley might not be flying private, but she could enjoy a certain standard while getting drunk in the airline’s hospitality suite.
“Good,” the woman replied. “Can I get you anything else? The menu, perhaps?”
