Page 98 of Depths of Destruction
Please be in Tela.
It's the only place he would go. He wants his drug stash.
I drive as fast as I can to Tela. It gets dark out. I'm just getting to town when I see Darien get out of an SUV and open the passenger side.
Naomi gets out and Darien puts his arm around her.
He's a dead man walking.
My heart beats faster, but I hold myself back from getting out of the car and going after him in the lobby.
Instead, I stay outside, watching them check in through the glass and quickly enter the lobby once they step into the elevator. The hotel is older, and the elevator has numbers above it that move floor to floor until it stops on level five.
I forgo the elevator and run up the stairs, knowing it'll be quicker.
I get to floor five and carefully open the door and step out into the hall, just as Darien is shutting the door at the other end of the corridor.
As I walk to their room, I pull my pistol with the silencer out of my backpack and flip the safety off.
Stepping to the side of the door so he can't peek through the eye hole and see me, I knock.
Every second that goes by, my heart beats in my ear.
"Who would that be?" he asks.
"I don't know," Naomi's shaky voice replies.
Five.
Four.
Three.
The door opens, and I don't hesitate. I spin, and his eyes widen the moment I shoot him.
He drops to the ground and blood pools around him.
"Oh God," I hear Naomi mutter. Her hand is over her mouth, and she looks at me, as if in shock.
I step over his body and pull her into my arms, and she breaks down.
"You're alive."
"Shh." I kiss the top of her head.
She looks up and cups my cheeks. "Did they hurt you?"
"No. Naomi, we have to go now."
She nods.
I pick her up so she doesn't step in the blood and put her down once we get in the hall. I shut the door and guide her down the five flights of steps and out the emergency exit, which leads to the parking lot.
We don't talk until we're in the car, and I veer off to a different parking lot.
I wrap my arms around her. "Are you okay?"
She is shaking but replies, "Yes."
