“You want to do this over a guy?”
“Doyouwant to do this over money?”
We were at a stalemate. I hoped not, because I wasn’t going to let him be killed. She could lose money, but I couldn’t lose him.
After about five minutes of staring at each other, she finally broke her silence with her eyes narrowed to squints. “If you want to leave, you can, but Sanctum will have to cut ties with you if you come for us. Nexovex hasn’t specified Ezra, but it’s obvious from what happened today.”
I knew something she didn’t, then. I knew those files were already taken. I knew the FBI had what they were trying their best to hide and keep secret. I just shook my head slowly and tried to control my mouth muscles from appearing like I knew something she didn’t. And she was able to read people well, but today, I couldn’t let that be true.
There was an ultimatum, and I didn’t like those. They weren’t ideal to give out, especially for something I would go feral for—something I would show people the true meaning of being a reaper for.
Standing, my chair almost went flying. “I’ll leave, I’ll protect him, and you do what you’ve got to do, Mercy. But ifmy friendshere come for us, I’ll have no issues putting them in the ground. And if you force my hand on this, you know where to send my money from my account.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said, reaching out for the file, but I snatched it away from the table. I’d only taken a brief glance, and I absolutely needed to know everything they knew. She let me have it. I was afraid it was a parting gift, but I knew leaving meant no comms, no eye in the sky, and no cleanup crew.
I was on my own.
6. EZRA
I waited patiently, anxiously. I waited, and I waited, my stomach almost sinking right out of my ass, but I did as I was told and I sat inside the wardrobe. It was funny at the time to tell Jacques I didn’t want to go back into the closet, but in reality it was probably the safest place for me to be. I knew that now.
A knock came at the front door, and I could only imagine it was another person with a gun. Another person trying to end my life—someone I’d seen, probably, someone I worked with. Someone who was desperate enough for me to stop this campaign against Nexovex.
The knock came again, followed by my phone ringing.
I answered without saying a word.
“Hey, it’s Kalen O’Ryan,” he said. “I’m here to collect you.”
In a whisper, holding the phone up to my mouth and breathing heavily, I whispered, “From the FBI?”
“This isn’t a secure line,” he said. “We’ve spoken before.”
We had. I couldn’t recall a face, but the name was something I remembered. It was a unique name, and I was recalling something about him—perhaps he was a redhead? I stressed my brain trying to pull the image out.
“Are you in the apartment?” he asked at my silence.
“Where are you?” I didn’t want to answer the door. I needed to wait. Ideally, I needed to wait for Jacques. He’d saved my life already from an intruder, and I knew he would do it again if he needed to. Jacques was coming back. I had to keep telling myself that, but I didn’t know what was going to happen.
“I’m outside your apartment,” he said, and I could now hear his voice coming through both the front door and the phone. My heart sank and skipped a beat.
From the closet, I lowered the phone just to double check that I wasn’t hearing things. There was only one person I could trust and he’d told me to hide and stay hidden. The last thing I wanted was to end up far away from him. Jacques was the immovable force I needed to help me. I hung up, hoping Jacques would call me again. I didn’t know what he was doing, but he’d promised to protect me.
“Your friend isn’t coming.” The loud voice came through the front door now, louder, alongside several heavy knocks.
There was something unsettling about the knocks, almost like they were gun shots, each one more aggressive, and each one more gut wrenching. I sat in the closet, trying my best to keep my breathing slow and easy. “Come on, Ezra, you’ve been to enough yoga classes,” I said to myself, letting out a snort of laughter. My mom was big into spirituality, and I was always there by her side when it came to all of it. I wondered what she’d think now about me calling on the spirituality while I was being hunted for death. It pulled my focus away from the life-threatening situation at least, just thinking that we might’ve been able to have some type of relationship. It had grown strained and distant since I’d come out as gay—and then she and my dad had moved to Korea to take over my grandparents’ restaurant. I only knew because my cousins from that side of the family posted photos.
Tears sprang to my eyes. Adrenaline fueled literally anything it seemed, and right now it was reminding me that I hadn’t spoken to my folks in years. They probably didn’t even care enough to know I was facing death—or had seen a dead body on my apartment floor.
“Ezra,” the voice came again. “Come on.” I hadn’t remembered him being quite so aggressive when he came to collect the evidence, and something in my gut told me he wasgoing to kill me. I needed to wait for Jacques; he was the only thing in life I needed.
My nerves were shot to the point that any movement ached and burned. Clinging my arms and legs around my knees, which were hunched up to my chest, I didn’t move except for the occasional rocking back and forth, or flinching from the now itchy shirt fabric as it touched the sides of my face.
They broke in.
They were taking me.
There was no stopping them.
