We could have lived a long and happy life far from here, on a small island surrounded by clear water, where the worst danger we’d face is sunburns. Hell, I would have caved in and given her as many children as she wanted if she’d asked. There’s nothing I can refuse this woman.
Not even when she sets up a plan so dangerous and insane that it could get her killed. I let her go. I let her risk her life again.
Why did I do it?!
My breath is so loud, but I can’t seem to control it. Closing my eyes, I focus on filling my lungs and emptying them slowly. I’m going to fucking die. If one of them opens this door, if Becker needs something from the small closet in his office, I’m gone. Dead.
I should have known that borrowing Paola’s key to check one last time was a bad idea. When she explained we were behind schedule, so she had to keep scrubbing the grout in the master bathroom, I should have stayed with her and helped instead of insisting I went alone. Now, because I’m an idiot, I’m not only going to die, but I’ll also get her in trouble.
I was so absorbed by that fucking safe that it took me several seconds to register Lex’s warning. But as soon as I got it, I grabbed my cleaning supplies and left. I was almost out of the hallway when I heard voices. Two men. One I didn’t know, and one I’ve heard during ourpreparation for this whole thing. Becker. He was here somehow. I snuck a glimpse, and seeing who the second man was nearly brought me to the floor, my knees almost giving out from fear.
Horvat was there. The man who put a bullet in me was right there, ten steps away.
While Becker might not have recognized me if I’d passed by him with my head down and carrying cleaning supplies, his interlocutor would. My fight-or-flight instinct took over, and I sprinted back to the office, then, after half a second to think about it, I locked the door as it was supposed to be and threw myself in the small closet.
I’m a sitting duck, in the dark, listening. I’ve never been this scared in my life. Not even when I got shot. My thoughts are clogged with sheer panic, and the sound of my blood beating in my ears is deafening. If they find me here, that’s it. I’ll be dead before the day ends. And they’ll probably use me to get Lex as well.
The scar on my shoulder, which hasn’t bothered me in weeks, tingles and aches. It’s like the trauma my body endured is resurfacing, triggered by the man right outside this door who caused it.
Tears fill my eyes, and I only notice it when they pool at my chin. I should have listened to Lex and quit when he asked. I pushed my luck too far, and now it might be too late.
Fuck…I don’t want to die.
I can’t breathe. My lungs aren’t working, refusing to expand, and all I can muster are shallow and short intakes. So fucking loud. Closing my teary eyes again, I force myself to calm down, focusing on my sternum to take deep, long, and slow breaths. In… and out… If I start sobbing or keep being so loud, they’ll find me.
For several seconds, all I can do is work on regulating my breathing to be as silent as possible. I don’t even pay attention to what they’re saying. But as soon as I’m calm enough, I come closer and press my ear to the door.
“So, do you have my butterflies?” Becker asks.
“Yes. All three arrived at the facility yesterday.” It’s the first time I hear the snake guy’s voice, and it sends icy shivers under my skin. His tone is coarse, like someone who smokes too much, and there’s something cold and lethal about it. “One of them is… feisty. I think you’ll enjoy breaking her,” he continues.
They’re definitely not talking about butterflies. This is some kind of code, and given what we know about Becker, it’s not hard to guess what it’s about. Women. Horvat supplies him with women. What does he do with them? Does he “break” them like he broke Lorelei Madsen? I suspected what he did to her wasn’t an isolated occurrence, but I didn’tthink he made it a sport. Is that his big, shameful secret? Regularly abusing women in a vile and brutal manner?
“Good,” Becker approves, audibly smiling. “It’s my birthday, after all. It has to be special.”
“I know. That’s why you wanted three. I have pictures if you want to see for yourself.”
My mind is still swarming with questions and disgust when Becker answers. “No, I want it to be a surprise.”
“Well, know you’ll be pleased.”
“I’m easy to please, as long as they’re pretty and young. You’ll get your payment upon delivery, and if I really am pleased, I’ll even throw in a bonus.”
“The usual time?”
“A little earlier. The guests will start arriving at eight, so be here before seven.”
Pressed as I am against the door, I face the wallpaper opposite the shelves. In the darkness of the room, I notice something I never saw despite looking everywhere thoroughly. There’s light coming from inside the wall. Rectangular in shape, just the rim of it. Something is there, carefully hidden behind the wallpaper. The safe! That must be the fucking safe I’ve been looking for these past three days. Hidden so well that I never saw it, despite passing my hands all over that wall.
I’m so relieved to have finally found it, I could almost forget I’m in mortal danger. I need to survive this. It’d be so fucking stupid to die so close to the end of this whole mess.
The conversation outside takes a turn that distracts me from my discovery.
“What of ourothermatter?” Becker asks.
“I’ll make another move on his girlfriend’s family soon. I tried with her mother, but I didn’t go hard enough.”
Jesus, fuck. They’re talking about us. We are the “other matter.”
