Stooge #2 was waiting. I used all the anger and frustration built up inside me to power out a burst of pure energy, which struck the man and sent him back out into the hallway, slamming him into the wall.
I made it through the house in seconds and out into the driveway. I planned on running, but as I passed by his BMW Roadster, I changed my mind. Using the heel of my foot, I kicked out the driver-side window and let myself in.
Hotwiring it didn’t take me very long. Ninety years of practice made a guy pretty good at getting a car to go when you wanted it to.
G.R. rushed out into the driveway as I sped away. In his car. Before I pulled out onto the street, I stuck my hand out the window and gave him the finger.
Chapter Fifty
“Gun - a weapon consisting of a metal tube from which a projectile is fired at high velocity into a relatively flat trajectory.”
Frankie
I called Rosalyn to see if she was back in town, remembering that Olly told me she had to go away on business. She was just arriving back—her trip being cut short by a few cancelled meetings. I told myself her cancellation was good luck for me. Then I told myself it was wrong to have good luck when you were trying to murder someone.
I lied and told her Charming was still out of town and that he felt guilty about leaving her to do all the work and he asked me to step in and help plan the fundraiser. We agreed to meet at her house tomorrow for lunch where we could tackle what remained on her to-do list.
I was basically a basket full of nerves.
The moment I left the Reaper’s house, the reality of what I agreed to do sank in.
How was I going to do this? How was I going to look someone I considered a friend in the eye and then rob them of their future? The weight of it was crippling. How did Olly live with this weight? How did he live knowing he took countless lives?
He turned it off.
He turned off his emotions—his humanity. That’s how he survived all these years. His cold exterior when we first met made so much more sense now.
“What the hell happened in there?” Storm said as we drove toward my apartment.
I didn’t answer. All I could do was stare out the windshield, like I was on autopilot and going through the motions of driving the car.
I heard Piper explaining. I heard him exclaiming about how messed up it was. But I tuned them out. I didn’t need to hear how messed up it was. I already knew.
It’s true I had a choice here.
I could have walked away. I could have let Olly figure this out himself.
But he wouldn’t have walked away from me.
I knew what I was doing was wrong. But I was going to do it anyway.
I didn’t know what time it was when we walked into my apartment. It was very late and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.
But I couldn’t. I lay there and stared at the ceiling, contemplating things I never contemplated before. Like how to execute a murder.
I thought about all the movies I watched where there was a killer on the loose. I thought about all the crime shows on TV I never watched because it was too gruesome to bear. I was no shrinking violet, but there were some things not even the strongest of people should have to endure.
I heard Storm and Piper whispering out in the living room, but I didn’t bother to join their conversation. Piper had been relentless in trying to make me see I couldn’t do this.
I asked her what she would have done if it were Dex.
She didn’t say anything else after that.
It didn’t matter anyway. I made a deal. I made a deal with the Grim Reaper. There was no going back. If I didn’t do this, Olly would get Recalled and I would get killed. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to feel like a victim because the only real victim here was Rosalyn.
After a while I fell asleep, but it was fitful and I woke feeling more tired than when I lay down.
Piper and Storm were already in the kitchen when I surfaced for some coffee. Piper stared at me as I poured a mug full of the stuff, black, and took a big gulp.
I pinned her with a stare over the rim of the mug. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
She nodded.
We didn’t talk after that. I basically stared at the clock and counted the minutes until finally dragging myself off to shower and get dressed.
When it was time to go, I stared down at the gun that Charming had given me. If he had known what I would end up doing with it, he never would have given it to me. But it was the only way I knew to do this. It would be quick and hopefully relatively painless. I didn’t think I had it in me to do it any other way.
I picked up the gun and shoved it into my bag.
Piper was standing beside the couch when I went to the door. She couldn’t come with me. I had to do this alone.
And then I left. I didn’t look back.
Chapter Fifty-One
“Deal - to do business; trade.”
Charming
Please don’t let me be too late.
It was the mantra that repeated over and over again in my head the entire way to Frankie’s apartment. I knew I didn’t have long, that G.R. would be coming for me yet again, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going back into confinement.
Confinement was stupid.
Besides, I tried it twice, all in the name of keeping Frankie out of this mess, and that worked about as well as using leaves for toilet paper.
There was no way in hell I was going to let her kill someone for me. That kind of thing would ruin her life. The guilt would swallow her whole until she was just a mere shell of herself.
I illegally parked the stolen Roadster and ran as fast as I could up to her apartment and flung open the unlocked door. It hit the wall with a bang.
Piper jumped off the couch and Storm shot across the room to put himself in front of her. “Charming! How did you get out?”
“Where’s Frankie?” I demanded.
“She left,” Piper replied.
“The Target is here?” I’d been hoping she was still out of town.
“She got back last night. Frankie’s going over to her house now.”
“How long ago did she leave?”
“There’s still time,” Storm said.
Relief made my limbs weak. “Good, let’s go.”
The entire drive over, Storm argued with Piper about why she should have stayed behind. It annoyed the hell out of me. “Would you two shut up?!” I demanded, pulling up as close to her gated property as I could.
I was nervous because it took so long to get here. I prayed Frankie was having an attack of the nerves and wasn’t able to do what she came here for.
“It doesn’t matter if she came or not. We’re here and I’m sure as hell not driving her home.”