Page 73 of Coach
“She wouldn’t have found it if you had gotten me back in here sooner.”
Their voices started to get too far away to make out their individual words any longer.
Out to the vent, obviously.
Out to the vent… just a few feet away from my phone.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
What if Irina found it and came looking for me? I had to go.
I had to goright then.
I sucked in a breath, made my way to the door, and pushed it open. Thank God for big, heavy doors that moved damn near silently.
Outside of the walk-in, I could hear Irina keeping up a critical diatribe in the pool room.
I ran across the back room, grabbed the back door, and yanked it open safely, knowing I’d just oiled it two days before, so it wouldn’t squeak.
My stomach flipped as I flew out into the back alley. I wanted to slam the door so I could turn and run, but I forced myself to slowly pull it closed so it didn’t click.
It felt like it took ten minutes but was likely only five seconds.
The floodlights flashed on, illuminating the whole alley, putting a spotlight on me.
I had togo.
My footsteps skittered too loud against the cracked pavement, betraying me no matter how I tried to soften them.
Every scrape of gravel, each drip of water from a rusted gutter seemed amplified, suspicious—like someone was following.
My chest felt constricted, like everything I’d overheard was lodged there, threatening to choke me.
I wished I’d worked faster, had gotten out of there sooner. Maybe I wouldn’t have overheard something else I had no business knowing.
Now every shadow stretched too long, every corner seemed capable of hiding someone who was waiting to pounce.
I quickened my pace through the back alley of the pub, finding it empty for once, and I wasn’t sure if that was a relief or even more ominous.
My pulse whooshed in my ears as I slid down another, narrower alley in the building beside the pub.
It felt like it was trying to squeeze me out, brick walls pressing close, little juts of mortar scratching across my arms as I rushed through.
When I emerged, I was on the main street once again.
I chanced one look back toward the pool hall, but saw nothing. They hadn’t turned on the light. No one wanted to advertise that they were stealing.
There was a shuffling sound behind me, making my heart shoot up into my throat.
I whipped my head back, scratching my cheek on the brick, only to spy a long, scaly tail disappear behind an old discarded shipping box.
Just a rat.
Not someone coming to silence me.
Just a rodent looking for a meal.
