Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
She hurries off.
Reina’s cell rings twice before she answers. “So, you’re alive.”
“I’m alive.”
“The pilot?”
“Also alive, but very freaked out.”
“Freaked out is fine, yes? We can work with freaked out.”
“Listen, Reina. I need you to do something for me.”
She’s silent for a moment. “You want me to take her to the airport, don’t you? She mentioned this promise.”
“Please.” I close my eyes and feel myself slowly deflate. “I can’t do it myself and I don’t think she’ll go on her own. But I made her swear she’d go if you took her. I can’t come back until she’s gone. I’m going to ditch this car, get new clothes, and bring Galaki to your place in a couple hours. We’ll let the heat blow over and lie low for a few weeks. Please, make sure Adrienne isn’t there when I arrive.”
“Are you sure?” she asks. “I know what this means for you. It is a big thing, to send her away. It will hurt.”
“I killed my father, Reina. And there will be more blood before we’re done. I can’t let Adrienne be a part of this anymore. Please, take her to the airport and send her home.”
“Okay, I will do it, but I cannot promise she’ll be happy. I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive you.”
“I can live with that.”
“Good.”
She hangs up and I’m left with silence.
I feel empty. Bitter, broken, and twisted. This is the right decision and it still feels like I’m jabbing a spike through my own chest and using it to tear out my heart. It took me so long to finally make this happen, and in the end, I couldn’t even do it myself. I had to rely on Reina to do my dirty work.
I get back into the car, feeling sick.
Galaki keeps crying. “Would you shut up?” I snap.
He wipes his eyes, staring at me with a mixture of hate and fear. “That man was your father. And you shot him. What sort of person are you?”
“You’re right, he was, and just imagine what I’ll do to you. Now shut the fuck up. You’re acting like you’ve never seen someone murdered before.”
He flinches back and goes quiet.
I grip the steering wheel and drive. I have more work to do.
Chapter 22
Adrienne
Two Weeks Later
The ocean laps against the sand and I lean back in my chair. It’s late afternoon. Sunlight cooks my skin. I keep my eyes closed and let myself sink into the warmth and the gentle sound of the waves and the birds crying out up in the sky. A breeze cools the sweat and I flex my hands, stretching the fingers, my knuckles bruised and battered from working out on the heavy bag with Luca this morning. The pain feels good, but it makes me think about him.
“You’re gonna burn, you know.” Kacia flops down beside me with a sigh. “At least use an umbrella.”
I wave her off and try to smile but nothing happens. “I’m fine, honestly. I’ll cover up in a bit.”
“I hope you have on sunscreen at least.”
“I never leave home without it.”
She grins at me and leans back on an elbow. We lapse into comfortable silence as she takes out a tattered paperback and pretends to read. Really, she’s down here checking up on me and making sure I’m not losing my mind. Which is fair, I’ve been weird ever since I came back from Greece—even I can see that. I just can’t find the words to explain what I’m going through.
I know she wants to ask about what happened. I’ve been back in Avalon, New Jersey, ever since Reina put me on a plane and told me to never come back to Greece for as long as I live. I still haven’t processed everything, especially the end, and I don’t know how to explain it to Kacia. Even though she’s my best friend and, of anyone in this world, she’d understand the best, I still can’t put it into words.
I feel like I’m broken again.
Like I’m back in that Russian basement, battered, bruised, and shattered. I know I’m safe—but it’s like losing Peter and whatever we were building sent me back to the beginning again.
Even though my wounds have healed, it’s like I’ve been thrown down the steps, stomped on, drowned.
Reina put it like this: Peter loves you and if you die, it will kill him, so if you care about him at all, you will stop being such a selfish little child and get on the damn plane.
In the end, that’s what did it. Reina’s insistent stare, her disgust, her disregard for what I wanted. My promise to Peter. It all came together to push me into a decision I didn’t want to make. She got me in the car, she got me to the airport, and she dragged me to the gate herself. She waved as I got on the plane.