Page 35 of The Silent Note

The sound of his frantic heartbeat is, surprisingly, calming.Thud, thud, thud.

“I know it’s scary. I know it’s hard, tiger, but be brave like you’ve always been.”

Brave? I was never the brave one. If he’d met the two of us back then, he would have fallen for Sloane. Guaranteed. She was fire and light and beauty. She was a gorgeous smile and sultry blue eyes.

They would have clicked, flirting playfully with each other. Sloane would have tamed him just for the fun of it before cutting him loose.

“I’m here,” Zane whispers.

Shaken, I ease back.

Sloane is still on the floor. She’s stopped screaming but she’s crying—soft, pained sobs that shatter my heart to pieces.

“Are you ready to go inside?” Zane asks.

“I can’t.”

“You can.” He checks his watch. “Five minutes. We won’t have much time after this. We have one shot, tiger. It’s now or never.”

My throat hurts.

I want to throw up.

“He won’t hurt you. I promise. I won’t let him.”

Slowly, I nod.

I can do this.

Zane nods along with me as if testing more of my reaction. I have nothing else to give.

Grey, don’t go in there. Please don’t go in there.

Sorry, Sloane. Stay outside. I’ll be right out.

She doesn’t stop crying. I don’t know if she heard me or not.

Zane interweaves our fingers together and leads me into the room. The light is surprisingly bright. There’s a table and two chairs on one side of it.

A man in a wheelchair is on the other side.

Slavno.

I recognize him from the newspaper pictures, from the months I spent investigating him. He’s older now, but he’s still just as big and dangerous looking. Tattoos run up his neck and peek out from beneath the sleeve of his orange jumper.

“You got a death wish?” Slavno glares from his one good eye. A cut at the edge of his mouth is starting to scab. From a prison fight? Gosh, I hope so. I hope they break every bone in his body back there.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me again so soon,” Zane says as if he’s meeting an old friend.

“Marvba and his guys take orders from you now?”

“Me? No.” Zane smirks. “That,” he gestures to the wheelchair, “is your fault.”

”My fault?”

“I told you to be cooperative or the next time we meet, you wouldn’t be able to walk.”

Slavno’s eyes bulge and his entire body trembles with anger.

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