Page 48 of Tough Luck

“Rick! I’ve got fresh boot prints over here!” Marcus’s voice echoed from a few aisles over. “And a smaller set. They’re heading toward—oof!”

A sudden, sickeningly wet thud cut Marcus off, followed immediately by a heavy, breathless grunt and the sharp clatter of his phone spinning across the concrete floor.

“Marcus!” I shouted, turning on my heel.

I didn’t care what was ahead, I charged through a gap in the heavy shelving, my phone light bouncing wildly against the walls as I sprinted toward the last sound I’d heard. I rounded the corner into the aisle, my light cutting across the floor until it washed over a horrifying scene.

Marcus was slumped against the base of a rusted support beam, his phone’s flashlight hitting a trail from a boot print leading into the dark. A thick, dark stream of blood was already leaking from a jagged gash near Marcus’ temple. His eyes were closed but, thankfully, he let out a low groan.

I knelt beside him. “Are you okay?” I whispered as I scanned the area.

“Yeah, he jumped me,” he said shaking his head.

“Stay put, call the police again,” I said as I swept my light upward, my heart hammering violently against my ribs as the beam illuminated the vast, shadowy expanse of the abandoned boiler room just ahead.

“Leonard!” I roared, the sound tearing from my throat, raw and lethal. I stepped past Marcus, holding the phone steady, letting the white light cut deep into the shadows. “This isn’t going to end well for you! Let Sofia go!”

For a long, agonizing beat, the only sound was the howling wind rattling the corrugated metal roof far above us.

Then a harsh, erratic laugh echoed from behind a massive, rusted copper tank twenty feet away.

“It already hasn’t ended well for me, Mylonas!” Leonard’s voice barked out of the darkness. It was unhinged, laced with a terrifying, breathless tremor. A shadow shifted, and the light caught the edge of his dark jacket. “She took everything away from me! My career, my reputation, my account! She has to pay for what she did. You both do!”

Chapter 20

Sofia

There was no way in hell I was going down like this. Not when I had so much to fight for still. Even though Leonard had overpowered me outside in the snow, I knew there was always a way out of every situation.

I just had to find the right opening.

At first, I’d tried to reason with him. But he was breathing heavily, his eyes wild and bloodshot beneath his hood. I wondered if he hadn’t slept in a while or maybe he was high. Whatever it was, he was obviously not in his right mind. Trying to reason with him was not going to end well.

That’s when I realized that he had a gun pointing at my ribs.

“What do you want?” I asked him.

“Payment,” he said over and over again.

He dragged me into the freezing darkness of what I knew was an old part of the plant, his grip on my arm tightening to a bruising clutch.

He held the gun to my side and dragged me further into the darkness, somehow knowing which way to go.

I stumbled on something and when it made a squeaking noise, I recoiled. His fingers tightened on my upper arm and jammed the gun further into my side.

“Stop this.” I kept trying to bargain with him. I was desperate and things were flying out of my mouth. “Leonard, we can work things out.”

“You are going to pay,” he kept repeating. “You ruined my life. You’re the reason. You lied to everyone. It was all my idea. Everything was my idea.” He was mumbling now.

When he turned his head for a fraction of a second to open a door, the gun slipped away from my side, so I drove my elbow back with every ounce of strength I had, catching him squarely in the ribs at the same time that I drove my heeled boot into the top of his shoe.

He wheezed and his grip slipped just enough for me to tear myself free as he doubled over to jerk his foot away from my weight.

“You bitch!” he screamed, his voice echoing violently off the rusted machines.

I didn’t glance back, I just lunged into the dark maze of towering industrial shelves, my boots skidding on the slick concrete as I scrambled into the shadows. Behind me, I could hear him recovering, his heavy footsteps pounding after me, paired with the horrific clatter of metal as he kicked over a row of steel pipes in his rage.

“You can’t leave, Sofia!” his voice rang out, entirely unhinged, booming through the cavernous warehouse. “Not until we settle this! You have to pay for what you did to me. What you took from me.”