Page 37 of Luca
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he shouted, his eyes wide and darting all around me.
“You have something of mine and I want it back,” I said quietly. Eerily.
He paled, hanging on to his towel around his slightly obese waist like his life depended on it. I threw the scissors in the air and caught it by the handle. I was smugly pleased with the revelation that I was still good at this. His eyeballs bulged.
“Thought you were gonna get one over on a young pregnant woman traveling alone, didn’t you?” I sneered, keeping my voice even and low. “Give me the cash and passport, and I actually might consider not killing you.”
Taking my size and condition as my weakness, his hand flew through the air. But I was quicker. I sidestepped him, flicked the scissors open to use it as a switchblade and sliced his right forearm vertically down all the way to his wrist.
His scream pierced my ears. He tumbled down to his knees and his towel fell off. My stomach roiled and I thought I’d scream. I hadn’t seen a man naked since that night in Vegas, but this was not how I wanted my dry spell to end.
“I don’t have your money,” he cried.
This time I sliced his other forearm. He watched me with a frantic disbelief.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
His blood dripped on the old tile, staining it crimson.
“Well, then we have a problem,” I commented with a dark smile. “Someone’s gotta pay me back.” I casually let my eyes roam around, feigning to look for anyone to pay that debt. “But there’s nobody here,” I remarked. “So I guess I’ll have to kill you.”
The last sentence triggered a full blown panic attack in the guy. I could see it in his dilated pupils. He reeked of fear. But desperation was stronger than his fear. He threw himself over the floor, reaching for the nearby drawer that was already open. His fingers wrapped around the gun, but I kicked him hard, knocking the gun from his hands and letting it fly through the air. I caught it. He lunged at me, trying to tackle me to the floor and I pulled the trigger, aiming at his gut. A bloodcurdling scream erupted through the air.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “You’re going to tell the whole goddamn city I’m here. I’m just going to slice your throat and end it.”
I threw the gun out of his reach and then pushed the scissors into his wound, piercing him, then twisted it inside his flesh.
“Wait, wait,” he choked out, pleading. “I have your passport and ten grand. Under my bed.”
I snorted. “Ten grand? Out of fifty. What happened to the other forty?”
Blood dripped, pooling around him. His whimpers and the terror in his eyes told me all I had to know.
He was speaking the truth. I was fucked.
But so was this fucker.
So in one swift move, I sliced his throat.
I calmly left the apartment and hailed a cab, letting it take me to a hotel right outside the city. I took their cheapest room and once inside, I took a shower, then ventured back out to buy a local cell phone. An hour later, I was back in the room. I used my old cell phone to type up a quick message.
*Arrived safely. All good.*
I clicked send. I didn’t want Aiden to worry. And he’d keep the twins from searching me out. Filling the tub with water, I dropped my iPhone in it and let it soak. Tomorrow, it’d be destroyed and untraceable.
Sighing heavily, I crawled inside the covers, closed my eyes, and let the dreams pull me under.
ChapterSixteen
LUCA
The clock ticked.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
It was loud, seconds turning into minutes, then hours and lastly days.
I had to admit. Margaret running away surprised me. Of course, I’d been able to find her itinerary within twelve hours of her disappearance. I immediately lined up men and women to watch her from the moment she stepped off of that plane.
