Page 187 of The Silent Note

ZANE

I pull the arrow out of the sofa and a paper flutters from the edge of a wicked point. The message has only four words.

Destroy it or die.

Horror snaps through me.

My entire freaking chest feels like it’s being sawed open. I look at the window as my mind sharpens to a point.

And suddenly, everything becomes clear.

The guard stationed outside meant nothing. Neither did any of the security alerts I put in place. Death was practically breathing down Grey’s neck and I wouldn’t have been able to stop it. To save her. Tobe there.

This warning is a courtesy to Finn. To our family.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Grey could have died.

The truth of it reverberates in my head, banging on my skull with desperate fists, a terrifying echo that spears my soul.

My entire world camethisclose to ending.

My legs are moving and I’m snatching the flash drive from the laptop in one smooth motion. The computer makes a warning error beep.

“Zane.”

I dig the flash drive into my palm as I spin to face her.

Grey’s hair is wet and dripping down on a towel. The curls are bouncy, shiny and beautiful as they frame her face. Big brown eyes look at me and then carve a slashing line from the laptop to the butt of the drive in my hand.

“Why do you have that?” Her voice warbles.

At the sound, my ribs lock up, each one fitting into place like a game of Tetris, leaving no room for my heart to beat, for my lungs to breathe.

A long time ago, before I learned how to drink, dad’s buddies took me out to a strip club. I was maybe twelve, thirteen at the time. Dazzled by the lights and the women and the lap dances, I felt like a man. Like a king.

So when the band members tried to stop me from drinking, I insisted on buying the rounds. It didn’t take long for me to regret that choice.

I don’t know if I was roofied or if it was just the effect of alcohol on an adolescent body, but I remember that the world started feeling weird. Everything was moving slowly. The lights became globs of colors and textures. The naked women looked like mannequins.

I was moving. Or maybe I wasn’t moving, but the world was morphing around me in such a terrifying way that it made my head spin.

I feel like that now.

Like my body is cutting through air and space, but my feet are rooted into the ground.

“Give it to me,” Grey says, approaching me cautiously. “Give me the flash drive, Zane.”

“I was going to wait for it to rain,” I tell her honestly. Have I ever been as honest with a woman as I’ve been with Grey?

No, never.

“Zane… what are you doing? Put the flash drive down.”

“I wanted you to lay your head in my lap while you read,” I tell her hoarsely. “I wanted to learn how to do your hair for you.”

“Zane.” She takes a step forward.