AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And it feels like I’m watching a new tragedy unfolding in slow motion as the staff scatter like startled mice into the walls.
Two familiar faces come strutting in through the main entryway.
Ros and Aleksander, clearly dragging themselves in from a night of hard partying.
Her rumpled bright-red dress gives me a heart-shot of sick rage and cold fear.
For a second, I’m seeing another beautiful young woman in red.
Emma Santos, dead on the floor of that little house where Delilah Graves was living.
Then Delilah herself, sobbing in the back of an ambulance in another red dress while Lucas held her so hard, all while she stammered out the shocking details of what happened for her police report.
Ros is right here, I remind myself.
She’s not in danger—yet.
She’s alive and well and God willing, I’ll keep it that way.
I just need to drive her away from that drug-addled, panty-sniffing fuck.
She doesn’t even notice me, completely absorbed in Aleksander, stumbling against him with clumsy movements and his arm holding her up.
Damn, are they always like this?
I can’t remember the last time I saw her sober. Had to be months ago.
Worse, she’s mooning at him like he’s a rock star, so awestruck she’s barely breathing.
Aleksander, he’s not looking back at her.
The prick stares at me, his green eyes glacial and unblinking like an alien winter.
His smile slow, cruel, and knowing.
Now that I think about it, I think it wasn’t drugs or booze in the bar that made him act that way. He wanted to show me a little glimpse of his real self. Selfish and reckless and arrogant as hell.
A young man who’s so used to getting his way he flaunts it in my face, sneering and asking,What’re you going to do about it, Captain?
That hollow smile says he’s making me a promise.
I just don’t know what it means or how I’ve pissed him off today.
As they stagger past, my blood runs cold.
Aleksander makes a big show of gathering Ros possessively close and kissing her right there in the middle of the grand hall.
Not just for me, I realize.
Because while Montero watches them, his eyes distant and thoughtful, his face changes.
His smile is all teeth and edges, his face a mask.
There’s no shaking the terrible feeling I’m witnessing something vile.
Like I’m looking at the face of the Devil himself, just daring me to stop him before it’s too late.
16
