Puffing out my cheeks, I blew out a long breath, trying to regain some composure. Leaving my phone where it was, I walked through to the bedroom, closing the door. I didn’t know why… it wasn’t like anyone was here to watch me, but something in my gut told me it was for the best.
Once it was closed, I crouched in front of the large trunk I kept under the window, reaching around to the back. Smoothing my fingers over the wood, I felt for the crack in the panel, and when I found it, I pushed hard, opening the small secret drawer hidden there.
I bowed my head as I took out the burner phone, turning it on and putting in the SIM card that had also been hidden in there. I sniffed down the emotion as I dialled the one number stored in there, and as I rang, I wondered if I’d kept the trunk and its contents because I always knew today would come.
“Yes,” a familiar voice answered.
“It’s me.”
He let out a cold, low chuckle, as if he knew it was only a matter of time until I reached out to him. “I need a favour.”
I shivered, and it had nothing to do with my still-wet skin cooling in the room-temperature air. “I don’t do that anymore. I’m out of practice.”
He tutted, and I could imagine him rolling his eyes at my excuses. “You were born to do this.”
My arse hit the floor, and I pulled my knees up to my chest.
“Can’t you find someone else?”
There was a silence that lasted so long I had to pull the phone from my ear to check the call was still connected.
“No.” The word was like a wrecking ball to the carefully constructed walls I’d spent years putting up and reinforcing. My free hand balled into a fist as I contemplated how to get out of this situation.
“I worked my last job for you. We had a deal.” My words pressed themselves out through my clenched teeth.
“I let you walk away because you gave me little choice. But I always knew you’d be back.”
“I’m not back. You contacted me. Whatever it is, I’m not doing, and there is nothing you can do to make me.” I sounded braver than I felt.
He blew out a long breath, as if my outburst was annoying, before he continued, “Now, now. I’m not going tomakeyou. This is in your best interest though. I’m getting older these days, and I’m feeling a little loose-lipped, Hana. Old people like toreminisce, you know; tell stories from their past.” I swallowed audibly, my breathing coming in stuttered inhalations. “It would be a shame if I let slip a couple of your secrets. You wouldn’t want me to blow up your quaint new life in your crappy little diner, now would you?”
I sounded like a frightened child when I replied, “You promised I was done.” Tears pricked my eyes, and emotion burned in my throat, my past rearing up inside me, dragging with it years of memories and regret that I’d shoved into a corner of my mind and refused to revisit or even acknowledge were there.
“And you will be. I just need you to do one more thing for me.”
“No.” I refused to be played by this man. I’d fought hard for my independence, and I wasn’t just going to throw that all away because he demanded it of me after six years of silence.
“Hana.” He said my name so slowly it reminded me of a snake slithering closer, preparing for the kill. “Of course, you can say no. We all have free will, right? No one canmakeus do something. At the end of the day, the choice is in the hands of the person doing the thing.” I did not like where this was going. “Which leads me to my next point… all those things you did, Hana, regardless ofwhyyou did them or who asked you to do them, they were done by your hand, yes?”
I pushed my fingers through my wet hair, trying to ground myself, because right now, it felt like everything was about to implode.
“What are you getting at?” I hissed. “You’re going to tell people what I did?”
He chuckled, and I could imagine him grinning as he paced back and forth in his office. “As I said, I could tell stories, but where would be the real threat in that? No, you should know by now that I like a little more… leverage. Isn’t that what weused to call it?” He tried to make out as if he’d forgotten, but I already knew this fucker didn’t forget a thing. “So, I did what any crooked man would do, Hana. I kept receipts. Now, help me with this teeny, tiny problem, and I will hand them over, and I promise, you’ll never hear from me again. Or don’t, and I’ll drop an anonymous email to our friends at Scotland Yard and let them think all their Christmases have come at once.”
I pushed my tongue into my cheek as I tried to calm the tirade of abuse I wanted to throw at this motherfucker, and when I was finally able to speak, I replied, “How do I know you won’t keep copies and in six years’ time, I’ll be getting a similar call from you?”
He gasped dramatically. “Hana, please. I’m a man of my word.”
I scoffed. He was anything but, and I’d known this for a really long time.
“Now, now, don’t be like that. I allowed you to walk away from your old life. I didn’t say I wouldn’t keep any evidence of that old life to use against you in the future.”
Fucking arsehole.
“You didn’tletme walk away. I made you. I can also make an anonymous phone call to the police and send them in your direction. I might not have hard evidence, but I have a memory. I can give them everything I know.”
“Go ahead. I know, why don’t we both make the phone calls tonight and see who’s in a prison cell by morning?” His tone was cold and made my skin erupt into goosebumps because he knew, without evidence, no one would believe what this man had done.
