The clerk returns with a slip for me to sign, and I scrawl my name over the line. My phone buzzes, and I pull it out and see a text from Liza. I start to grin…but it freezes on my lips as I read it.
Andy stashed Kristen somewhere with a bomb. He’s here. I’m letting him in.
“No!” I cry out. My brain reminds me she can’t hear me. I type NO and hit send.
I have a gun. I can’t let him hurt her. She’s your sister.
I run a rough hand over my face. I can’t let Kristen be hurt, but not at the expense of Liza’s
safety. No, don’t! I call her. She answers after the fifth ring, my insides shriveling with every second that passes.
“Don’t even think about it, Liza!”
“Dominic, it’s the only way. I’ll be all right. I’m armed.”
“I don’t give a fuck. You don’t let him in, and if he somehow makes it to the penthouse anyway, shoot him on sight!” I hang up and turn to Antoine, who’s staring at me, dead serious.
“Kristen?”
“Andy supposedly has her somewhere with a bomb.”
“Fuck.”
“I gotta go. Call the cops and Tolyan. Save Kristen!” I’m already running.
“Where are you going?”
“To Liza!”
I have to reach her before she does something unthinkable. Like trying to save my sister by sacrificing herself.
Chapter Forty
Elizabeth
I aim the gun at the door, my palms damp with sweat.
Steady, calm. Don’t think of the other person as a person. Think of him as a rabid, out-of-control dog you have to put down for the greater good…and just pull the trigger, comes Tolyan’s voice in my head. He told me that over and over again when he taught me how to shoot.
It was a lot easier when I was aiming at a target. It’s something else knowing I’m about to put a bullet through a live human being, even if it’s someone like Andy.
The chime of elevator arriving rings in the penthouse like a funereal church bell. I lick dry lips, suddenly wishing for a glass of water. My throat’s parched from breathing too rapidly and harshly, and my heart is thundering like a thousand galloping horses.
Andy walks into the living room, a black T-shirt and navy jeans making him look like a guy out for a casual stroll around the city. Except I know better. He’s a monster under that human mask.
“Elizabeth, Elizabeth…” He sighs, caressing a button on a black remote with his thumb. “It’s not nice to point guns at your guests. Didn’t your grandmother teach you better?”
“Hand it over,” I say, my voice a tad shrill, goosebumps breaking out over my skin. Seeing him in person is a hundred times worse than seeing him on a small phone screen.
He tsks. “Why would I? You’re going to shoot me the minute I do. Why don’t you put the gun on the floor and kick it away before somebody gets hurt? It’d be a shame if I hit the detonator button by accident. But I do get twitchy around firearms.”
“You bastard. How about I just shoot you now?”
“And say what to the cops? You let me in. I’m not an intruder. California isn’t like those barbarous states where you can just shoot someone at will and get away with it. I have rights.”
“Maybe the right to a leash and some euthanasia. You’re an animal.”
“We’re all animals. And my thumb’s twitching.” He makes an exaggerated twitch with his hand and my heart almost stops.