“Who are you?” she whispered.
I took a step toward her but she shrieked. “Get away from me!” The sound ripped so loud out of her throat that I froze to the spot.
I raised my hands, everything inside me growing quiet and still, waiting for the blow. “Alana …”
She held up a photograph.
It was a photograph of me outside the fence to the Aeromexico employee parking lot. My gun was out and aimed in her direction. It was taken from the side and clear as day.
My attempted assassination.
It was all over.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Alana
I couldn’t believe it. Out of all the things that had happened to me recently, this was the one that was about to push me over the edge. This was the one that I could feel was spearing, stabbing me, burning me deep inside. I felt like whatever good things I had inside me were being torched to the ground and in its place only ugly ash could remain.
I was holding in my hands a bunch of photographs that placed Derrin at the scene of my car accident. Worse than that, it placed him there with a gun in his hand. A gun aimed at my fucking head.
When the door knocked and the bellhop handed me an envelope he said had come for this room, I didn’t think nothing of it. I thought maybe it was a package for a local tour or coupons for our stay. Maybe even our bill so far.
But when I opened it, I opened a world of lies and betrayal. I opened the end of us.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away, even when Derrin came around the corner. Though his name wasn’t Derrin, was it? Of course not. Everything, everything had been a lie. My brother had been right.
“Who was that?” he asked. I could feel him pause. “What is that?”
I could barely speak.
I looked up at him and I saw someone totally different. I saw someone who wanted to kill me.
“Who are you?” I asked, my voice weak.
Frustration passed over his eyes and he came toward me.
“Get away from me!” I screamed, panicked, ready to keep screaming, to fight for my life.
He stopped where he was and swallowed hard.
“Alana,” he said.
I held up the photograph that showed just who he was. Then I held up another. And another. All taken from multiple angles, all showing him parking outside the chain-link fence to the lot, taking out his sniper, the very one he was going to use yesterday, waiting. There was a shot of me exiting my car. It felt like so long ago and through the photographs it seemed like fiction but it wasn’t, it was truth. I finally had my truth.
“Why?” I cried out, my hands curling over the photographs in anger. “Why didn’t you just kill me then?”
“Let me explain.”
I gave him a cold smile. “Let you explain? What can you possibly say that would make this better?”
He seemed to think about that for a moment. A moment was all I needed.
I threw the photos at him, whipped around and grabbed the door handle. I ripped the door open, about to slide my body out when suddenly it was slammed shut, nearly taking my arm with it, as Derrin, my assassin, shoved his hands against it.
I opened my mouth to scream for help but his hand went over my mouth, holding tight over my nose as well until I couldn’t breathe, I was just sucking his palm to my mouth, He quickly grabbed me from behind and lifted me up spinning me away from the door.
I tried vainly to fight, to kick, to get out of his grasp. My eyes darted around the room, wondering what I could use as a weapon. There were plenty of guns and even a knife on the dresser. It was a long shot but if I could break free …
I tried to maneuver my mouth under his hand until it had more mobility, then I chomped hard on the heel of his palm, drawing blood.
He grunted but didn’t let go. He pressed his palm harder against my mouth.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he hissed, “but you can hurt me all you want. I’m not letting go either. I’m going to explain what happened.”
I tried to cry out in frustration, his blood now spilling down my chin, but he picked me up and then put me down on the bed. I kicked beneath him, trying to knee him in the groin, but his thighs gripped mine like a vice.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said raggedly and he pushed his hand on my mouth harder, the back of my head being pressed into the pillow. His eyes were wild, crazy. I was afraid of him, I guess as I always should have been. Was he going to rape me? Assault me? Break my neck? I found out the truth now and those who know the truth are always the first to die.
“Alana,” he said, his face above mine. I still tried to move but he kept me firmly in place. There was no escape. “Alana, listen to me.”
He moved his hand further down on my mouth so I could breathe better through my nose. I sucked in the air hard, hoping it would give me clarity even though I didn’t want to hear what he was going to say.