I stopped a few feet away, every instinct screaming at me to run. But where would I go? He’d just find me again. He always did.
“I have your money,” I said, my voice sounding small and hollow.
Sebastian held out his hand, fingers flexing in a gimme gesture that made my stomach turn. I stepped forward and handed over the bag, watching as he unzipped it and peered inside.
His brow raised. Then his jaw tightened. “This isn’t what I asked for.”
“It’s ten thousand….”
“I asked for twenty.” He looked up from the bag, his hazel eyes going cold in a way that made my blood freeze. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Did you think you could short-change me and I’d just accept it?”
“I need more time.” The words tumbled out, desperate and pathetic. “It’s not easy to pawn jewelry and antiques from the house without getting noticed. The security is tighter now. My father’s been asking questions. I’m doing the best I can….”
“Your best isn’t good enough.” He dropped the bag, letting it hit the concrete with a dullthudthat echoed through the space. “I needed twenty thousand, Barbara. Not ten. Not fifteen. Twenty. And you brought me half, like that’s acceptable.”
“Please.” I hated the begging in my voice, but I couldn’t stop it. “Just give me another week. Two weeks. I’ll get you the rest. I promise.”
“Your promises mean shit to me.” He stepped closer, and I automatically stepped back. “You’ve been saying ‘just give me more time’ for five years. Five fucking years of excuses and delays and half-measures.”
“I’m trying….”
“You’re not trying hard enough!” His voice exploded through the building, making me flinch. “Do you know what I’ve been dealing with? The risks I’ve taken? The people I owe because I’ve been floating on promises that you’d deliver?”
“I’m sorry—”
“Sorry doesn’t pay my debts, Barbara.” He was towering over me now, close enough that I could smell stale cigarettes and something sharper—alcohol, maybe. “Sorry doesn’t keep me from getting a bullet in my head because I can’t pay back the people I borrowed from.”
“I didn’t know—”
“You never know anything!” He shoved me. Hard.
I didn’t have time to catch myself or brace for impact. One second, I was standing; the next, I was falling backward, my arms windmilling uselessly as gravity took over.
My head hit a jagged rock jutting up from the debris-strewn floor. Pain exploded through my skull like lightning, white-hot and blinding. For a moment, I couldn’t see, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except feel the agony radiating from the back of my head.
Then I felt the sticky warmth.
Blood.
I blinked up at the sky, or what passed for sky through the broken roof. Gray clouds swam in and out of focus. My visionblurred at the edges, going dark and light and dark again like someone was playing with the brightness settings on reality.
I tried to move, tried to sit up, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. Wouldn’t respond to commands that seemed to be traveling through water, reaching my limbs too slowly, too weakly.
The warmth spread beneath my head, pooling on the cold concrete. So much blood. Too much blood. I could feel it matting my hair, soaking into my clothes, stealing heat from my body with each pulse of my heart.
“Shit.” Sebastian’s voice came from above me, distant and tinny. “Shit, shit, shit.”
I managed to focus on him, my vision clearing just enough to see his face. He was staring at me with an expression I’d never seen before. Panic. Raw, undiluted panic.
“This wasn’t—I didn’t mean—” He ran both hands through his hair, pacing in tight circles. “Fuck!”
I tried to speak, but only a weak sound came out. Something between a moan and a whimper.
“You weren’t supposed to fall like that.” His pacing got faster, more frantic. “You weren’t supposed to hit your head. This wasn’t—” He stopped, staring at me with wild eyes. “Just like today, I didn’t mean to—I had no intention of killing you. Just like I had no intention of killing her.”
Her?
“Your mom.” The words came out strangled, pressured, like they’d been building for years and finally found an exit. “That night. I didn’t mean to kill her either. She caught me trying to steal files from Andrew’s office. Important files. Documents I needed to sell to pay off debts. She was going to tell him. Was going to call the police.”
