Page 176 of Meet Me at the Metro

I briskly glance around, scoping every hidden corner and piece of furniture in sight that could be concealing him. The only place he could have retreated to was one of the several offices along the corridor I’m carefully approaching.

I slow my breathing as I step down the hall, following the trail of light seeping beneath one of the solid wooden—slightly ajar—doors.

It’s Kimberley’s office, but my instincts warn me not to go inside. When I’m mere feet away, I discover exactly why.

Kimberley’s voice pours out of the room—a low, snarled hiss—and halts me dead in my tracks. I crouch to keep from being noticed.

“Stop looking at me like that. You’re the one who’s fucked this all up. You’ve made an absolute mess, and it won’t be my job to clean it up.”

“We had a deal! You said you’d keep me out of trouble.”

“The deal is fucked, John. Absolutely fucked. You expect me to keep you out of trouble when you’ve gone out and got a warrant out for your arrest? You’re an idiot.”

“Fuck you!” John’s shadow swallows the light seeping into the hall as he paces the office back and forth. “You swore you’d help protect me from this. That you’d help me getherback.”

“Oh my, God. Enough about her,”Kimberley groans. “I swear, that’s all any of you even seem to care about anymore.Ellie. Ellie. Ellie. She’s got you boys wrapped around her finger, doesn’t she? It’s embarrassing.”

“You didn’t seem to take this stance when you propositioned me to do all this!”

“Because I was manipulating you, moron! I wasusingyou. You think I give a flying fuck about you two’s relationship?”

“You’re a bitch.”

“Better than being an obsessed, nefarious ex-boyfriend.”

“I refuse to go down for this alone! I’ll tell the cops everything. About our deal. About your plans.”

Kimberley laughs. “You think they’ll believe your word over my own? You’ve got no proof, and they’ll chalk you down to everythingyou’ve set yourself up to be. The heinous ex-boyfriend who murdered out of jealousy.”

“I didn’t kill Theo!”

“Clearly!You went and accidentally almost killed his friend instead. You bloody idiot.”

Every hair on my body stands upright.

“You’re fucking crazy, you know that?” John sputters. “I’m not helping you anymore. I’m not killing him.”

The silence that follows his words is crushing, closing down around me—suffocating me—until I’m forced to hear nothing other than the pounding of blood as it rushes to my ears.

I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t fucking believe it.

As if Kimberley could sense my lingering doubt, she uttered the words that hammered the final nail in the coffin.

“I don’t need you to do it anymore. You’ve proven incapable of handling the job.”

Heart pounding, I listen as her heels travel closer, her shadow finally joining John’s at the doorway. I hold my breath as she comes into view, watching with terror as she draws a pistol to the back of his skull.

“I’ll do it. All I need you to do is play the part.” She releases the safety switch of the gun. “Think you could do that for me?”

John begins to quiver, and I slowly rise to back away down the hall, every limb in my body trembling. I’m terrified to stay and watch for what might come next, and I refuse to find out what would happen if Kimberley were to find me now.

I have to get help. I’ve got to get to the police.

I run for the front of the building, but my flee for refuge is stolen from me as the corner of a chair in the lobby snags my foot. My body is sent sprawling to the floor, stirring up a series of commotion as a slew of other chairs go crashing to the ground with me.

Swift footsteps come stomping down the hallway as I clamber back up. As soon as I’m standing again, I bolt for the exit, not daring to spare a glance back.

The doors swing open the second I reach them, hitting me with force so hard my feet stumble back and threaten my balance. I regain it quickly, but the person coming through them has me weak in the knees.

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