Kissing My Killer by Helena Newbury Read Free Book Online Page B

river or a garbage dump...that was unthinkable.
    I’d done so much wrong in my life. I needed to just do this one thing right.
    “I can help you escape,” I said. “But we have to go right now.” I looked at my phone. No call from Nikolai yet, but it would come. Or he’d call Lev’s phone and wonder why he didn’t answer.
    She just stared at me. She was locking up, trying to blank it all out. I’d seen it before, when civilians see something like this. It’s the brain trying to protect itself. It usually works in our favor, because it means witnesses can’t give good testimony. But right now, it was going to get us killed.
    I forced myself to move slowly and gently. I put my hands on her shoulders and said, “We must go. Now.”
    She looked up at me, debating. I don’t know why, but she must have decided to trust me, because she gave a single, quick nod.

 
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
    Gabriella
     
    I walked through to the bedroom. My legs felt numb, as if they belonged to someone else. I mechanically picked out some clothes and put them on—jeans, a tank top and a sweater—but it was like dressing a doll. This can’t be real. None of this is real. The Russian Mafia couldn’t really be after me. There couldn’t be a body in the next room. And I couldn’t be leaving—I couldn’t leave! That meant going outside.
    I started stuffing things into bags. Books. Computer equipment. I was going to need boxes or crates or something—
    I heard a movement behind me and turned to see him standing in the doorway. “What are you doing?” he asked cautiously.
    “Packing.”
    He shook his head. “We have to run,” he said. “No time. No room. One bag.”
    “ One? What about—” I indicated all my stuff.
    “Leave it.”
    “Leave it?!” I glanced around in horror. It wasn’t just about possessions, it was about...this was my nest, this was my one safe place. If I really had to leave it, I had to be able to recreate it someplace else.
    “We must go,” he told me.
    I grabbed an armful of clothes and sneakers, my laptop and, as an afterthought, the portable hard drive that stores a backup of all my files. Nikolai was doing something with Carl, whether this guy believed it or not. I wasn’t leaving that evidence behind. I threw in some toiletries from the bathroom and zipped the bag shut. That was it—my entire future life was in one bag.
    “Ready?” he asked.
    I blinked at him. Even without my... issues, just dropping everything you own and walking out would be a wrench for anyone, right? But he seemed to genuinely not get it. As if—
    As if he didn’t have anything in his life. As if he didn’t have a home, just a place where he lived.
    I nodded, grabbed my coat and we headed towards the door. What the hell am I doing? I was putting my trust in a guy who’d been sent to kill me.
    But he was also the one who’d saved me.
    As soon as I tried to step into the hallway, I knew we were going to have a problem. I tried to take deep breaths, but I could feel the panic starting to build. It got worse as we walked towards the elevators and worse still as we descended. I could feel the outside world, dark and huge and utterly unknown, opening up around us.
    We walked through the lobby with him leading the way. Past the doors of the coffee shop, the furthest I’d been in over a month. He opened the door to the street and freezing air rushed in. And I stopped.
    When he realized I wasn’t with him, he turned and looked back at me. “What?” He looked towards the street, then back at me. “We have to go.”
    It’s difficult to describe The Dread, as I call it. But I’ll try.
    First my legs locked up. The joints seemed to physically seize, aching and shrieking, as if my bones would snap if I tried to walk any further. The fear started to vibrate through me as if I was a bell being struck over and over again. My whole body started to shake and my guts began to churn and twist. And the further I shuffled