In the present, she pressed her forehead to the train pole, breathing shallowly.
Stop it.Stop replaying it.
Cassie had been her friend.She wasn’t her best friend or anything, but she was more of a coffee-between-shifts friend.“Text me if you need anything,” she often liked to say.
Liam, she could understand in a twisted, humiliating way, but Cassie?Cassie had chosen this, to betray her despite knowing Liam and she were having problems.
She regretted confessing it to her a week ago, over Chinese take-out and tequila.
The train rattled over tracks, dragging her forward whether she was ready or not.She should stop torturing herself and just focus on the delivery.
Work kept her sane.Still, the courier bag felt heavier than it should have, or maybe it was her, dragging her feet the entire way.
Her stop came too fast, or maybe she had just dissociated through most of the ride.She stepped off into air that felt marginally less suffocating and immediately regretted it.
This part of the city didn’t look like the part she grew up in.The glass towers with the clean lines and the minimalist landscaping unnerved her.
She checked the address again.Elysian Crest Residences, penthouse suite.She was at the right place all right.
She adjusted her grip on the courier bag and walked.Her sensible flats, which she got at a huge discount last month, felt cheap against the garbage-free pavement.Let’s get this over with, she told herself.
Finally she found herself standing in front of Elysian Crest Residences.She entered the building and immediately noticed that security at the entrance was absent.That was odd.
A luxury building like this should have doormen, cameras, definitely someone pretending to care about who came and went.
Instead, the lobby was empty and strangely still.Surely at this time of the day, there should be people in motion.After the hot subway ride, the air conditioning should be a relief, but it was freezing and uncomfortable.
Still, she stepped inside the elevator and pressed the button to the penthouse.Restless, she watched the numbers climb.It seemed to go forever.
By the time she reached the top, her skin was prickling with something she couldn’t name.Fear?Anxiety?She shook her head, relieved when the doors finally slid open.
The silence hit first.There was no movement, music or any sound of life.Absence greeted her and when she saw the penthouse door was already open, she paused.
Did the owner leave it open?It didn’t look like someone forced their way in.Of course, people who lived in a building like this didn’t need to worry about security.Still, the sight made her uneasy.
Her stomach dropped, and alarm bells rang in her head, telling her to back away.She kept walking anyway, because she needed this job to pay the bills.
Splitting the rent with Cassie had been a lifesaver back when she first moved in, but she couldn’t stay in that apartment a second longer.Swallowing her silly fears, she knocked on the door, but there was no response.
The carpeting was soft under her feet, her steps sinking into it like quicksand.
“Hello?”Her voice came out smaller than she intended.There was still no answer.She pushed past the door, walking past a narrow corridor that opened to the living room.That was when she saw it.Him.
The body lying flat on his back, on a puddle of his own blood.Her client.She recognized his features from the photo.He was a wealthy logistics magnate whose name she had read on the file this morning without thinking twice.
This morning, he’d probably been still alive, she thought morbidly.
Her breath stopped for a few seconds, before she remembered to breathe again.Cold spread through her chest so fast it felt physical, like ice cracking through bone.
No, no, no.This couldn’t be happening to her.She knew the crime rate in the city was up, no thanks to the crime families that fought over the place like rabid dogs.
The courier bag slipped slightly in her grip, and then she noticed the second presence.
She didn’t hear him move, hell, she heard absolutely nothing.However, she did feel the strange shift in the air.She turned.
He was already looking at her.The killer.He still had a gun in his hand.The man had short dark hair, but it was his eyes she noticed immediately.
She remembered thinking she’d never seen anyone with such flat and empty eyes before.There was no hint of humanity in those eyes.