Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“Amelia, what’s wrong?”
“Oh nothing,” I say.
She raises an eyebrow and looks at me. “That’s clearly not true. Something’s obviously bothering you.”
“It’s nothing,” I insist. “It’s stupid really. My mom came by earlier asking me to give her another chance and I’m a little torn. See, my mom has a history of choosing bad men to be with and then siding with them over me. Her last one led me to leave altogether. Now she says she’s seen the error of her ways and it’s over. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my mom and I really want to have some sort of relationship with her, but I don’t want to fall back into the trap of letting myself believe things will be different this time, only to get burned again.”
“Oooof… that’s a tough one.” Justine agrees. “Families are complicated.”
“Damn right,” I say. “What would you do in my situation?”
“I don’t know, honey. That’s not my decision to make, but I will say this. Your mom, she’s probably trying her best even if it doesn’t seem like it right now. She’s made mistakes, but maybe she’s genuinely trying to make amends for them. And I’m not saying you should do this for her, because I genuinely believe that if you do decide to do it, I think you should do it for you. You know, just to stop that little voice in your head. The one that says what if.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I admit. “I’m afraid that if I give her another chance, I’ll just get hurt again. But if I don’t, then maybe I’ll regret it.”
“You have to follow your heart, Amelia. That’s all you can ever do with things like this.”
I nod. That makes sense. But my heart is keeping pretty damned quiet on this one. I figure I’ll feel better once I talk to Viktor about this. Maybe he’ll make it easy for me and push me in the right direction. Normally I wouldn’t let him make a call like that for me, but on this occasion, I really think I would. It would stop this dilemma in my head if nothing else.
Our conversation is interrupted by a loud crashing sound coming from the living room. I whirl in the direction of the sound, then turn to Justine and we just stand there, looking at each other in surprise for a second.
“What the hell was that?” I ask. “Is Lacey smashing up the house or what?”
“Lacey’s upstairs,” Justine answers.
It hits me then what the noise was. Breaking glass. It has to be the patio door that leads out onto the balcony. Someone must have climbed over the fence to avoid security. I don’t think in that moment; I just take off in anger in the direction of the living room.
“Amelia, wait. It could be anyone. Let’s call the police,” she says.
I shake my head. “Whoever it is, Viktor won’t want the police involved. He’ll want to deal with this his way.”
She runs to hit the alarm button hidden behind the fridge. “Just wait here, Amelia. The security guys will already be on their way to the house.”
That’s when we hear a loud bang that can only be a gunshot, followed by a scream of pain. This time, neither of us hesitate. The scream was Lacey. It sounds like someone has shot her. The only tiny bit of comfort I find in the situation is if she is screaming in pain, she isn’t dead.
I’m almost at the living room door, Justine a step or two behind me. I burst into the living room ahead of Justine and freeze in my tracks.
The scene in the living room is crazy. Broken glass litters the floor. The patio door has been broken completely out of its frame. Lacey is on the ground and she’s bleeding. Thank God, the blood seems to be coming from her leg. She’s sitting up clutching it. Tears are running down her white face, but she’s conscious and I think she’ll be ok.
But none of that caused me to freeze. I froze because I see who is in the room. Igor. And his gun is now pointed at me, and not at my leg but my chest.
“Don’t come any closer or I swear I’ll shoot you. Where the fuck is Viktor?”
29
VIKTOR
I really didn’t want to be late leaving the office and getting home tonight. In fact, I had planned on finishing work a little early and surprising Amelia by turning up early with her favorite take-out curry. I’d wrapped everything up in the office, and things were looking good for me getting away early when I got a call from Jerome.
He’d gotten word of a safe house where Igor was supposedly staying and the exact location of it. He found out it belonged to an old friend of Igor’s and Igor was the only person staying in it. I abandoned my plans for an early finish and told Jerome to come pick me up and head over to Igor’s.