Page 44 of Black Hearts

Fear whiplashed through me as I watched Alex finally appear on a screen. He was in the parking lot, sneaking up behind the guard right at the end, between two cars. My heart was in my throat as he snapped his neck and dragged his body behind the cars, dumping him in the snow. I could hear his breathing through my earpiece, harsh and heavy.

“Anything?” he asked in a low murmur a few seconds later.

I glanced at the other guards on the various screens. “No,” I said, my pulse still racing. “Doesn’t look like any of them saw or heard a thing.”

I watched with twisting knots in my stomach as he took out the rest of the parking lot guards, one by one. The last guard at the front of the lot seemed to get suspicious when he took a few steps forward and poked his head out, obviously wondering where the hell all his colleagues had disappeared to. He went to grab his radio, but Alex was faster. He sliced his throat and knocked him down, leaving him to bleed out on the cold stones of the lot.

“All six down. I’ll start on the right side of the house now.”

Ten minutes later, both right-side house guards were slumped by the terrace doors, stone-cold dead. Alex stayed close to the wall and crept around to the front.

“Careful,” I said, staring at the screens with an agonized look. “These front guys look way more alert than the parking lot ones.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

He was right. He took out every front guard without any of them picking up a thing until it was too late for them. Then he repeated the same on the left side of the mansion.

“Just the back four to go now,” he said. “It’ll be easy from here. You head out, okay? Find the kitchen. You might be able to talk that cocktail maid into helping us. We need whoever and whatever we can get for this next bit.”

I exhaled loudly. “Yeah. I’ll try.”

This phase of the plan was the most precarious yet; the one that mostly involved using our instincts and ‘winging it’. It couldn’t be planned properly until we knew exactly what we were dealing with, which meant we could only come up with it after we—or at least one of us—got inside the mansion. Even then, it would be up in the air and prone to change at any moment.

I watched Alex on the screen for a few more seconds, and then I turned my attention to the inside patrol guard. He was on the second floor now, presumably checking to make sure the kids were still in their rooms.

I slipped out of the security room, shutting the door behind me with a soft click. Then I headed back down the hall in the opposite direction. From the CCTV footage, I knew that the kitchen was on the other side of the ground floor.

“Hey! Wait!”

I froze at the sound. It was the asshole patrol guard’s voice, somewhere behind me. Trying my best not to quake with fear, I turned around. He was striding toward me, his face like thunder. He must’ve just come down the stairs and seen me heading down the hall.

“What’s happening?” Alex asked, his voice edged with concern. “Do I need to come in?”

I ducked my head slightly and covered my mouth with my hand as I pretended to scratch my head. “I don’t know,” I murmured. “It might be nothing.”

The guard finally reached me, his dark eyes narrowed. “I know exactly what you’ve been up to, you stupid little bitch,” he snarled.

This didn’t seem like ‘nothing’. That black stone of fear was suddenly back, dropping through me again. “Sorry?” I squeaked, feigning confusion.

“All you little sluts think I was born yesterday, don’t you? You said you were going back to the kitchen earlier, but I just saw you heading this way, obviously from the library. You think it’s okay to let everyone else work while you slack off?”

I couldn’t exactly lie and say I’d already been to the kitchen. All he had to do was turn my pockets out and find the basil still in there to know that wasn’t true. It was better that I simply accept the blame and try to move past it.

“I… I’m sorry. I thought I could have a little break. I’ve been making canapés all day, and I was starting to get tired,” I said.

He slapped me across the face, hard, sending me reeling. “You take breaks when you’re given permission.”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry,” I said, touching my cool fingertips to my smarting cheek. For a second I was terrified the impact of his hand had sent my earpiece flying out, but with a cursory scan of the floor around me, I realized it was still intact.

“I’ll take you to the fucking kitchen myself so I know you’re there,” he said, roughly grabbing my arm. “And William will be hearing about this attitude later, believe me. I remember you now, Jessica.”

Well, at least he’d fallen for my act.

“I’m gonna have a lot of fun killing this bastard,” Alex murmured softly in my ear as the guard dragged me down the hall, to the opposite end of the ground floor. I couldn’t reply, but I let myself smile for just a second.

On our way down the hall, I turned my head to the left, and my heart nearly stopped as I realized where we were. A smaller hall ran perpendicular to this one, and if we veered left and took about fifty steps, we’d be right outside the huge carved wooden doors from my dreams and early memories.

Until now, it hadn’t properly registered with me that I was really, truly here in that same place. But at the sight of that hallway, it finally struck me, and thick déjà vu overwhelmed all my senses. The Circle were all so close, right through those very doors, and I could practically hear their chatter and smell that same cigar smoke from fifteen years ago.

I knew I should still be scared, white-knuckle petrified, but I wasn’t anymore. Adrenaline was bursting through me like wildfire, and I’d never been less afraid in my life.

I sneaked a glance at the guard’s watch as he shoved me through the wide kitchen doors a moment later. It was a quarter past eight.

I smiled again.

One more hour, and the Circle would finally be closed.

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