Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I felt ill, remembering all the times we’d laughed together, all the secrets I’d told her. The whole friendship had been a lie. Just another way of hurting me when I found out the truth. It brought back every ounce of geeky paranoia I’d ever had. All shy introverts worry that my friends don’t really like me. Imagine finding out that your one friend, your best friend, was acting all along.
Focus. I dropped to my knees and pulled the dress box out from under the bed. Behind it was a smaller, unmarked box. I pulled that out and opened the lid…
Cellphones. Eight of them, still in their packaging. And a ninth, already opened and charged. I picked it up and pushed everything back under the bed, then crept back to my room. Just a few minutes later, the phone buzzed. Number withheld.
I answered, my heart racing. “I’m here,” I whispered.
“Were you stupid enough to tell JD about this?” asked Radoslava.
“No.”
“Good.” And she told me where to go. “If you come alone, I’ll let Cody go. If you bring the others, I’ll kill him.”
“Don’t hur—” I said, but she was gone. I disintegrated into tears again. Oh God. I hadn’t even gotten to speak to him. What if she—
The door burst open. JD looked at the phone. “Was that her? What did she say?”
I went to speak…and then said nothing.
JD slowly shook his head. “Lorna, you’ve got to trust me. Whatever she said, she’s trying to manipulate you.” He took a step forward.
I took a step back.
JD froze, going pale, and indicated the space between us. “No. No, no, this is what she wants. We’ve got to stick together, it’s the only way we’ll get him back. What did she say? Did she say to come alone?”
I bit my lip, torn.
JD’s voice shook. “If you do that,” he told me, “she’ll kill you.”
I knew he was right, but I had to get Cody back. Even if that meant me dying.
“Come here,” said JD gently, and held his arms out.
I shakily stepped forward. Put my own arms out, ready to take his hands and be crushed against that big, warm chest…
And then I ducked under his hands and ran past him.
62
JD
I spun around, big and dumb and slow. By the time I got myself moving, she was already in the living room, dodging around the rest of the team. I chased her through the gaping hole where the double doors used to be, both of us slipping on spent bullet casings. But she had twenty feet on me and the elevator was already there, waiting for her. She hurled herself inside and hit the button and the doors closed in my face. Shit!
The others spilled out into the hallway. “What the feck is going on?” asked Kian.
There was no time to reply. I ran for the stairs and started pounding down them, jumping the last five or six stairs of each flight, pinballing off the walls. Every few floors, I’d glance at the elevator indicator and see her pulling ahead of me a little more.
If I lost her now, I’d lose her forever.
Going down was a hell of a lot easier than going up but it was still fifty floors and I’m not as young as I used to be. By the time I reached the parking garage, I was dripping with sweat and my legs felt like limp noodles. I slumped against the wall for a second, heaving for air, then stumbled on. The elevator was empty and I could hear her heels hurrying across the concrete ahead of me.
Where is she? I passed the big company Mercedes we normally drove her around in, then her own car, a BMW. She hadn’t taken either of them.
Headlights went on at the very back of the garage, blinding me. An engine roared into life and then she was swerving past me in an old, mud-covered pick-up truck. She raced towards the exit and I put everything I had into chasing after her, knowing she’d have to stop for a second at the exit.
She slammed on the brakes, stopping with her bumper an inch from the red-and-white barrier. As I got closer, I could see the tension in her body: she was staring at the barrier, ready to floor it as soon as it rose.
I staggered up beside her and slammed my hand against her window. “Wait!” I begged. “Lorna, please! She’ll kill you!”
She turned and looked at me and I could see the tears in her eyes. But I was between a mother and her child. She shook her head.
The barrier rose. And she roared away down the street.
63
JD
The elevator doors opened on the fiftieth floor and I found everyone waiting for me. Their faces fell when they saw that Lorna wasn’t with me.