Page 354 of Eternal
I should vanish, let her believe I’m dead, maybe that would keep her safe.
But what if they find her anyway?
What if leaving only clears the road for them?
“You stay, she dies slowly,” the man says. “You leave, maybe she lives. But either way she’s a liability.”
I let the silence drag long and low before I speak again. “You think I don’t do my own research?” My voice is still calm. “You think I don’t dig into the people who hire me? I know everything about all of you.”
The line goes quiet.
“OfficerCharles,” I say, and I can hear him inhale even through the silence. “Fourty-eight. Georgetown. Medals you didn’t earn. Secrets you buried under a lot of payments. A daughter in private school, and a wife who hasn’t slept next to you in eight months because she’s seeing a man she met at a coffee shop. You keep her photo in your wallet, how sad.”
He exhales, shaky.
“You’re not safe,” I say. “None of you are. You think a stupid protocol will protect you from me if anything happens to her?” I laugh almost nervously. “If she bleeds, I won’t kill you fast. I’ll make you watch the walls close in. I’ll make you feel everything she ever felt before I end you. And then I’ll do the same to every name on the payroll that signed that order.”
“Viper…” His voice is brittle. “You’re threatening a federal deputy.”
“I’d threaten anyone,” I whisper. “You so much as breathe near her and I will burn down whatever’s left of your stupid little world.”
Click.
The line goes dead.
I lower the phone, my knuckles white around it.
The rain is back again. Fucking soaking through my jacket, running down my face, but I don’t move. I stand there, watching the entrance to her building, waiting.
I don’t even know what I’m waiting for.
The phone call is still ringing in my head.
Kill her. End this.
If I don’t, they will. But not quickly. Not cleanly. They’ll take her.
They’ll break her.No they won’t.
She’s strong. Stronger than all of them. And I’ll be here.They won’t.
I’m fucking going insane…
A figure emerges from the doorway.
Her.
She steps out, pulling the hood of her hoodie up against the downpour. She hasn’t seen me yet, but I can see her so clearly it hurts.
How am I supposed to consider leaving when she just exists in my world?
The rain darkens her long brown hair, soaks into her sleeves.
I could walk away now. Disappear before she even knew I was here. I should. Because if I do that, they’d have no link to her.
It’s the smartest choice. The only way to keep her a bit safe.
But I don’t move.
