“Tierney…”
“Get out.”
He stayed rooted in place, a war waging in his onyx eyes. He’d probably never gotten thrown out of anywhere before. If he had, he wasn’t the kind of man to linger and try pleading his case. This solidified my suspicion he was here to kill me.
I scooted to sit upright, willing myself not to faint again. I searched for a panic button, so if he did finish me off, at least he’d get caught and spend his remaining days in prison, where he belonged.
How did he get past security anyway? Past the Irish soldiers at my door? Some things didn’t click, but my mind was such a jumbled mess, trying to piece it all together made my head hurt.
Achilles’s eyes traced my movements, and his face cleared, like a penny had dropped.“No.”
“No, what? I didn’t ask you anything,” I attempted a weak, pathetic laugh.
“I wasn’t the one who shot you.”
“Spare me,” I bit out. “I remember everything.”
“You clearly don’t,” he growled doggedly. “Break it down for me.” But again, the bite was gone from his voice, replaced with gentleness that made my chest tight. It reminded me ofmyAchilles.
The one I loved so hard and so deep, I was willing to take my own life to spare his.
“Leave,” I said.
“No, tell me,” he insisted, tone leaking desperation. “Tell me what happened. Play it back for me.”
He wasn’t going to leave until we did this song and dance. Just as well, as I was eager to remember more than him.
“We got to Prague…” I licked my lips, rolling the film back in my head. “I opened a bank account under the new name like you told me. Then walked across the street to meet with a real estate agent.”
“Yes?” The urgency in his speech was unmistakable. He leaned forward, like he was watching a soccer game, getting ready for his team to score. “And?”
“Uh…” His gaze on me felt like the first ray of sunshine I’d had in weeks, and I hated that it made me warmer than anyblanket. “The real estate agent and I went to the apartment—the one you told me to rent…” A headache started to form behind my eyes again. I kneaded my temples with a groan. “But at the last minute, he said he’d gotten a text to pick up his daughter from school because his wife was stuck in traffic.”
“Uh-huh.” Achilles’s tongue moved across his teeth in barely contained rage. It was the first glimpse of the Achilles I knew and remembered. “Sure. Daughter. Traffic. Carry on.”
“I took the stairs up because a man I didn’t know entered the elevator just as I arrived at the building, and I felt…queasy about it.”
The man in the elevator was a new memory. I guess my mind had skipped over that minor detail because it didn’t feel important before. But maybe itwasimportant. I remembered having the distinct feeling I didn’t want to be in close quarters with him.
“What did he look like?” Achilles shot off.
“I don’t know…” I squinted, desperate to remember. “Tall? Athletic build. Muscular but lean…” He wasn’t unpleasant to look at. But he gave off the same vibe Achilles and Tiernan did when they entered a room, supercharging the air with violence and malice.
“Did you see his face?”
“No.”
“Was he wearing a mask?”
I closed my eyes, feeling irritated, overwhelmed, but most of all useless. “I…I don’t know.”
When I opened my eyes, I caught his nostrils flaring with frustration. “Continue.”
“So I went up the stairs and opened the apartment with the key the real estate agent gave me. I kept it ajar, remembering he said he was right across the street and shouldn’t take long…”
I had looked out the window. Turned around. Saw Achilles…
But he wasn’t the one who shot me.
