“Could you take me to him?” she asked. “Right now?”
Astonished delight spread over Bernie’s face. “Sure!”
He bustled her into the humanities building and down the Inferno stairwell at a pace she could hardly manage. As they went, he kept up a continuous patter.
He said, “We’ll need to jump,” and, “He’s overseas,” and, “He’ll be so happy to see you,” and then the corker: “Em, I can’t tell you how glad I am. He’s just not himself without you.”
“Wait,” she said, catching her breath. “You know I’m not trying to restart the relationship, right?”
His deflated expression not only said this was exactly what he’d thought, but it also told her how anxious he was about Hartgrave’s state of mind. “Why do you want to see him, then?”
“To have a better farewell—without rancor this time.”
He shook his head. “But to show up and raise his hopes, even if only for a moment ... Maybe I should go on ahead and give him a heads up that you’ll be stopping by to, what, forgive him?”
“That’s not exactly ... It’s more that he thinks I hate him, and I want him to know that’s not true.”
Bernie eyed her, biting his lip. “Whathappened?Besides you nearly getting killed—or was that it?”
She’d forgotten he didn’t know. That night in the hospital was on her mind so much, it felt as if the entire world must surely know about it.
“No,” she said. “Almost dying was my fault as much as anyone’s. The thing is, he hid his involvement with the Organization from me.”
Bernie groaned. “I’m sorry, Em, I thought you knew—”
“Of course you did.” She tried for a grin but couldn’t quite manage one. “I mean, I never once asked you how we had so much insider information.”
“When did you find out?”
“Well, it started to dawn on me at Organization headquarters. But I didn’t know the extent of it until he came clean at the hospital. He said our relationship was a mistake.” She stared at the interplay of darkness and light on the stone floor. “After he admitted he’d killed people, I had to agree.”
The Inferno went dead silent. She looked up at Bernie just as he grasped her arm.
“Let’s go,” he said, a steely tone to his voice that she’d never heard there before.
A terrible suspicion formed. “Bernie—”
“Ten, nine, eight ...”
She quickly thought of calming things.
When the world resettled around her, Bernie’s grim expression first, she said: “Please tell me you already knew about Hartgrave.Please...”
She trailed off as she noticed the place they’d landed looked uncannily like Kincaid’s first-floor hallway. Because it was, in fact, Kincaid’s first-floor hallway. Her heart revved up. Her throat felt too small. She had to get out.
Into this panic attack came Hartgrave.
He walked through the front door, caught sight of her and came to a stop so sudden he almost overbalanced.
“What’s—what’s wrong?” he rasped, staring at her like he thought she might disappear if he blinked.
“Hartgrave!” Bernie thrust a finger at him. “Who have you killed?”
She moaned and held on to the stairwell for support. Of course Hartgrave hadn’t told him. Had he kept the truth from Willi, too? Had she just destroyed his only friendships?
Hartgrave looked at Bernie, then at her, then back at Bernie.
“Come on—I wantnames,” Bernie demanded.
