Page 24 (2/2)

There’s only one place to take her now Holand coast

~~~

My driver picks us up from the airport hours later Sarai rode all the way to ainst the backseatShe never moved It’s the first time since I found her in my car in Mexico that I would welco questions But I get nothing fro for it

The first kill is always the hardest, the one you never forget But the first kill is also what drops the chances of living a norer in the fifty-fifty zone

I shouldn’t have left her there…

Carrying her across the cobblestone driveway and into the house, I take her inside and lie her down on my sofa It’s been a month since I’ve been here and it still smells as clean as the day I left and set out on a job to kill a man in Columbia It is because of jobs like that one that I can afford such luxuries But it’s a shame that because of what has happened with Sarai that I will have to leave here soon, too I thought perhaps I’d get to stay in one place for at least a year this time, but such is the life I lead, a dark and lonely path lined only with the solitude of death

Sarai lays on her side, her head propped against a couch pillow

I remove my suit jacket and drape it over the back of the chair next to et her soun ja in the arched kitchen entrance, I turn to look at her across the expanse of ain, slowly, breaking apart the button of o on She still doesn’t look atonly the scene as she relives it

"I’d be dead if it weren’t for that"

I walk closer, still keeping h sohts with my presence I break apart the button on the left cuff and roll up ht I was dead I just stood there waiting to die" She h to finally see un jaun in the back of my pants is in my hand and Javier is on the floor I didn’t hesitate It was like someone else was inside un She was the one who pulled the trigger Because I didn’t realize what had happened until it was over" She looks away again "I killed him," she adds distantly

"He deserved it," I say cal o, she wasn’t really seeing me at all It’s as if my voice just woke her

She raises up frolance I gli She curls her fingers towards her pales at me

"You left! You bastard! You left!" She cries out, beating her fists against my chest as hard as she can

I let her I stand motionless and let her until she can’t do it anymore and her body starts to fall exhaustively atmy ar on her tears, grasping the seaers "You left…," she repeats over and over again until the words fade into a whisper on her lips "You left…"

I hold her tight Aardly Because I’ve never done this before I’ve never experienced this type of sorrow and pain and have been the one to be expected to help mend it My mother was the only one who had ever held me like this when I was a boy and I can’t remeainst the top of her hair But I don’t I have the urge to squeeze her a little tighter and take her coher away so that I can see her eyes "I need you to tellDid Sae calls that she made mention of?"

Sarai’s expression distorts offensively

"You think she had so to do with this?" She pushes herself away froto do with it?!"

I sigh deeply "No, I can’t believe that she did Samantha was trustworthy But she and Niklas are the only two people besides you and me who knehere you were" I step forward and place my hands on her upper-arms in an attempt to make her understand and when she doesn’t push me away I’m relieved "It had to have been one of theet the facts"

"Then it was Niklas," she spats angrily at the thought of him Her eyes are wild and narrowed "He hatesme He all but said so when I was in the SUV with him I knoas hi away fro the other on it Rubbing my hand over the short scruff of ht Niklas is the obvious answer and although often the obvious turns out not to be the answer after all, this ti that makes sense

My brother betrayed ?" I ask as Victor starts for his jacket on the chair

He reaches inside the pocket and pulls out a cell phone I’ve never seen hi Niklas here"

Stunned, at first I just look at hirabbing him by the elbow

"No, you can’t let hi hi to do?"

My mind is frantic with scenarios, none of which I can envision ending happily

I zip my lips when he holds up his hand to hush me as Niklas answers on the other end of the phone