Chapter 54: Neighbour [2]

Blood ran down the woman’s temple in a thick line. She held both hands up, palms outward, voice already breaking.

"Wait—wait, I don’t know anything—"

The man in the black suit did not answer. He drove the dagger into her stomach and twisted. Her eyes went wide. A wet sound left her throat. She tried to speak again, but only a thin thread of blood came out. The light in her eyes faded. She collapsed.

In the inner office Daniel sat on the floor with his back against the door, phone trembling in his hands. No signal. He kept trying anyway, muttering under his breath, "Work, please, work—"

The door exploded inward. The force threw him forward onto his hands. He scrambled around and dropped to his knees at once.

"Please—sir, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Just don’t kill me."

The man in the suit stepped over the broken door, walked to the desk chair, and sat down as if he owned the room. He looked at Daniel the way someone might look at a stain.

"You’re a hard man to find, Daniel."

Daniel kept begging, words tumbling over each other. The man continued in the same calm voice.

"Your wife only told me where you were after I killed two of your children."

Daniel’s blood turned to ice. The rage that tried to rise died almost immediately under the weight of what he was hearing. Helplessness flooded in behind it.

"My wife..." he managed. "Is she...?"

The man laughed, low and pleased. "Of course she’s dead. I had my fun with her first. She was a beautiful women and couragious enough to open her legs to save her last alive son. Made your boy watch while I opened her up. But don’t worry—your son is still alive. Last I saw he was lying in what’s left of his mother intestine."

Something inside Daniel cracked. Tears came without sound at first, then in hard, broken sobs. He wanted to throw himself at the man and die trying to kill him. Instead he stayed on his knees. One child might still be breathing. He had to stay alive for that.

His voice came out raw. "What do you want?"

"Rael Blackthorn," the man said simply. "Where is he?"

Daniel let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. He had lost everything for a customer he barely remembered. "If you had just asked me, I would have told you."

The man smiled. "Where’s the fun in that? Then wouldn’t have got to enjoy your beautiful wife."

Daniel’s last thread of control snapped. He lunged. The man caught him by the throat with one hand and lifted him easily, then held up a phone with the other. On the screen a single red button waited.

"There’s a bomb in your house. Talk, or the last one dies right now."

Daniel’s legs kicked uselessly. The words tore out of him. "New Tower Apartment—19th floor."

The man released him. Daniel collapsed, gasping.

"You’ll let me live?"

"Of course not."

The man pressed the button. Somewhere across the city a muffled boom would answer. Daniel’s scream was raw and endless. Only when the man was certain the sound had broken him completely did he draw the dagger again. He did not cut deep enough to kill at once—only enough to open the neck so the blood would leave slowly.

Daniel bled out on the office floor, still trying to crawl toward a son who was already gone.

The man in the suit straightened his jacket, stepped over the body, and raised his phone.

"We have the location."

A voice on the other end answered, calm and final. "Finish the job, X3."

"Yes, boss. Give me a day."

Morning light was already spilling across the nineteenth floor when Rael woke. He dressed quickly and decided to finish cleaning before anything else. He was on his knees wiping the last stretch of the living-room floor when the knock came.

Elena stood outside holding a cloth-covered box. He was still wearing the yellow cleaning gloves. He opened the door anyway.

"I brought breakfast," she said.

"You don’t have to do this every day."

"I like cooking," she answered simply. "And I like it when someone actually enjoys the food. Last night you brought the empty box back and told me it was good. That was enough reason."

She glanced past him at the half-cleaned apartment. "You’re already working. Let me put this inside."

Rael stepped aside. She set the box on the table, then nodded toward the bathroom. "Go wash your hands. I’ll set it out."

He did as she asked. When he returned she had laid out two plates—soft bread, fried eggs, and a small stack of pancakes still warm from her kitchen.

He paused. "You’re eating here too?"

"If you don’t want me to, I can take mine back."

"Are you kidding? I’d like that."

The smile she gave him was small and genuine. They sat down together. For a while the only sounds were the quiet clink of forks and the distant morning traffic far below. Rael asked light questions—how long she had lived in the building, whether she had family nearby. When the second question landed she looked down at her plate and the easy atmosphere thinned. He noticed at once and shifted topics without comment.

"Your cooking is better than anything I’ve had in a long time," he said. "I don’t know how to make anything that doesn’t come out of a packet. I’d like to learn."

Elena glanced up again. "I can teach you, if you want."

"That’s a big favor. I can’t ask for that."

"Then pay me for the lessons," she said, eyes glinting with mild amusement. "That way you won’t feel like you owe me."

Rael understood she had only said it to make the offer easier to accept. He smiled. "All right, teacher."

The word made her laugh—soft and unexpected. "Student it is, then."

They finished the meal in comfortable conversation. When the plates were empty Elena looked around the still-wrapped furniture and the half-cleaned floors.

"I can help with the rest, if you’ll let me."

"That’s too much."

"It’s fine. I’ll just get my own things." She was already moving toward the door. "I’ll be right back."

Rael stood there for a moment after she left, the apartment suddenly quieter. In two days the place felt less empty than it had any right to. He shook his head once, almost smiling, and waited for her to return.

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