Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 68006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Exhaustion weighs on me, and I’m bone tired. So bone tired.
But I can’t fall asleep in the employee bathroom.
I have to at least wait until I get back to Leif’s apartment, where I can fall asleep in his arms.
I open my eyes—
And I gasp, my heart jumping.
Behind me stands a man.
A man with dark hair and dark eyes…and a white mask covering most of his face.
I don’t turn. Because I’m frozen. Frozen in time, my gaze locked on the mirror.
“Hello, Kelly.” His voice is the same. Not deep so much as dark. “Did you think I wouldn’t come for you?”
“How did you get in here?” My knuckles are white as I clutch the edge of the sink, not daring to turn around from my reflection. He’s only in the mirror. An image in the mirror. Not real. A mirage.
Except it’s not a mirage. Not a—
“I can get anywhere I need to be.”
“Please,” I rasp out. “Please go. Please just let me have my life.”
“You don’t understand, Kelly.” He steps closer to my reflection. “I want you to have a life. A life with me.”
“You…” My voice cracks. “You killed Brindley.”
“I only do what I must,” he says.
“She was no threat to you. She was so young.”
“But you didn’t like her, Kelly. You thought she was sending you the texts.”
“I was mistaken.”
“Were you?”
“I think that’s clear, don’t you?”
Then I shudder. I spoke harshly to him. He may not like that.
“There’s the fiery Kelly I remember.” His dark eyes burn into me through the silver glass of the mirror. “I never knew why they called you Opal. Opal is a gentle stone. That’s not you.”
“What do you want?”
“You, Kelly.” He takes another step. “You were always mine.”
“Then why did you choose others?” I can’t help asking.
“Because of the way it affected you. I wanted to see your jealousy.” He groans. “I liked it.”
My God, this man is sick. He’s sick and twisted, just like my mother.
“What is your name?” I ask.
He grins, his teeth light yellow against the stark white of his mask. “You know my name. I’m Mr. Smith.”
“No.” I will my voice to steady. “I want your real name.”
“It’s a little too soon for that.”
“How can you say that? You say you want me, but you won’t let me know who you are. How am I supposed to want you?”
“You already do. You proved that on the island.”
I gulp. “Why aren’t you in prison?”
“Because I’m smarter than the cops. Smarter than the Feds. And I have a lot of money.”
“How much?”
“Enough. Enough that you’ll never want for anything.”
“Please. Just let me go.”
He glances toward the door of the bathroom. “The time isn’t right, but when I have things ready, I will come back for you. And remember…” He pulls a knife from his waistband and then gestures to the bulge in his pants. “One will go inside you. It’s up to you which one. Goodbye.”
He whisks out the doorway.
He has to go somewhere. He had to come from somewhere. Surely Leif will see him.
But my hands are glued to the edge of the sink, my knuckles tense, my heart trying to jump out of my chest.
I can’t move. In fact, my breath… Can’t get my breath…
Until I remember…and I inhale sharply.
I swallow against the nausea, but my stomach cramps up, and I throw up in the sink. The filet of sole that I had during my dinner break and all the coffee I drank to stay awake tonight.
I turn on the water, trying to force the chunks of fish down the drain, but to no avail. The sink is clogged.
I lose my footing, and I’m on the floor.
And that is when the tears come.
More tears.
Because now? Now I have something to lose.
18
LEIF
“Do you need anything else before I shut down the kitchen for good?” Lois, the manager, asks me.
“No, thank you. I’m just waiting for Kelly.” I let out a giant yawn. “We’ve both been through some stuff and we haven’t had a lot of sleep in the last twenty-four hours.”
She clasps a hand to her mouth. “Goodness, why didn’t you just call me? We would’ve gotten someone to fill in for Kelly tonight.”
“I tried to get her to call in, but she wouldn’t have any of it. She wants to do a good job for you. Since it’s only her second night, she didn’t feel comfortable asking for time off.”
“She needn’t feel that way,” Lois says. “We all know what those women have been through. And the Wolfes are such good customers here.”
“I know that, but she doesn’t want any special treatment, and I respect her for that.”
“Certainly, I do too. But I’ll tell you what. Let me take a look at the schedule.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket and opens her calendar app. “Yes, Kelly is supposed to work tomorrow, but I’m going to switch her to Sunday. I actually have another server who requested Sunday off, but I wasn’t able to accommodate him. Now I can.”