“Why are you saying hello like you think it could be a telemarketer?” Grim says.
I snort. “Just shut up and send the pictures.”
“Fine,” he says. “Hitting send now.”
At that exact second, the building makes a sound I don’t like.
A deep, mechanicalclickreverberates through the stairwell.
The lights die.
The phone in my hand goes black.
Everything goes silent except for my breathing.
“…Grim?” I say.
Nothing.
I stare at the dead phone, then at the darkness pressing in around me.
“Well,” I mutter, straightening. “That’s bad timing.”
Because now the power’s out.
And I really, really want to get out of this fucking stairwell.
And that’s how I ended up here—at the top of the world’s tallest building, a sniper rifle to my head, and a smug bastard who’s been living jealous in my shadow for years breathing heavy down my back.
“Even now,” Tex says, pressing the barrel harder, “with a gun to your head and every assassin in the world climbing this tower to claim your bounty, you still can’t admit you made a mistake.”
I smile.
“That’s what happens when your balls are bigger than your brain. You forget one simple little detail.”
“And what’s that?”
“That I’m Saint motherfucking James,” I say. “And I don’t make mistakes.”
I slam the wire.
The building answers with a furious groan, steel screaming as the first detonation blooms far below us. Then another. Then another. The explosions roll upward through the tower like a dying heartbeat, fast and relentless.
Tex swears as the floor shudders beneath our feet, the vibration throwing his balance just enough to matter.
“I’ve got about twenty seconds to get out of here,” I tell him, turning my head just enough to grin.
“But that’s plenty of time to kill you.”
I kick sideways hard.
The rifle jerks. He fires, missing me by inches as the shot blows out the window beside us. Glass detonates into the night, wind roaring in, ripping at my clothes and dragging smoke toward the open void.
He swings the rifle back up.
I’m already moving.
I crash into him, knock the barrel aside, and wrench the weapon from his hands. It skids across the floor and disappears into the darkness as another explosion rocks the building, closer now. Too close.
