Page 40 of Double Edged Hearts
The gravity of the situation hits me hard as I make my way to my apartment.
I can’t believe Giles is dead, and I’m not really sure what to make of it.
I pull my keys from my purse when I get to the door, but my hand stills when I touch the lock and feel thatpresence.
It’s…inside.
Alex.
I must have been truly trapped in my thoughts to not sense him before now.
My heart races, and my pulse speeds up. Both gallop with anticipation. It’s nearly been a week since we last saw each other and I never expected to see him again.
I open the door, and there he is standing in the sliver of the moonlight just like that first night he came to me. Except this time, he’s inside already, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window.
I’m not sure how he looks more handsome than when I last saw him.
He looks at me, and a polite smile lifts his face. “Hope you don’t mind, but I let myself in. I’m not a fan of waiting by the door,” he says.
“I don’t mind.” I don’t, and while I should be cursing myself for feeling like I should just run into his arms and stay there forever, it’s good to see him.
He raises his hand, and I notice for the first time the brown envelope he’s carrying.
“This is a business call,” he says.
“What’s that?” My nerves spike, and my thoughts race. Did he find something on Matvey?
“The truth,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“Your head boss was murdered. Your records are wrong,” he states.
“What?” My eyes snap wide. “And you know about that?”
“Cora, you act like we just met. You should know me by now. I have my ways of finding things out, especially when I’m pushed to get involved.”
“What pushed you?”
“Don’t worry about that. Worry about this. Your records show that your boss was found murdered at his home. He wasn’t.”
A chill races down my spine. “What are you saying to me?” I can’t understand why anyone would lie about something like that.
He opens the envelope and hands it to me.
“I don’t like you looking at shit like this, but you need to see this. Maybe it will clear up a few things for you. Maybe you’ll question if you really are working with the good guys.”
My hands start to shake, but I take the envelope. The first thing to shock me is a picture of Giles and Zack standing by a black sedan. My lips part.
Zack… I heard he was away all weekend. Clearly, he wasn’t. The date shows this happened yesterday. Sunday at eight p.m.
The next picture makes me gasp. It’s a picture of Giles lying in an alleyway at the docks with a gunshot wound. The other pictures are close-ups. I feel sick when I see his missing eyes and look away.
I look back to Alex, who’s already staring at me.
“How did you get these? Why were you following Giles?”
“I wasn’t following Giles, doll. I had Zack followed. He seems to have a thing for you, and I don’t like it. My men lost track of him when he and Giles went down to the docks in separate cars, but they picked these images up of him dead just before an unmarked car came and cleared the body.”
Oh God… what does it mean?
“We were told Giles died at home,” I say more to myself than to him. He’s already mentioned that.
“Yeah. I guess your boy didn’t want people knowing he was more than likely the last person to see the boss alive, or maybe he was the one who pulled the trigger. I don’t know. What we do know is you need to be careful. Lies are never good, no matter who’s telling them. Obviously, there’s a little more to hide than what you think, doll.”
He steps past me, and I turn to watch him as he walks away.
He gets to the door and stops, then turns to me. “Be careful who you trust, Cora.”
That’s all he says before he leaves.
