Page 102 of Terror Tuesday

My eyes dart toward the flames flickering in the tall fireplace. “And what is right? You want me to stop hanging out with Vanq?”

He slides a piece of parchment toward me, scrolled in midnight ink calligraphy. An assignment. I’ve seen them before… There’s a thumbprint at the bottom that appears to be smudged with blood.

“No. Miss Cardell, we want you toendVanq Wysh Veil. To bring order back to Northview University. For the safety of everyone.”

My mind reels, unable to grasp his command fully. The parchment seems heavier now, a lead weight anchoring my soul in darkness. “Endhim?”

And with his next words, my world tilts on its axis.

“Your assignment, Olivia…is to kill Valen Von Dovish.”

twenty-seven

A couple of days—that’sall it took to unravel the careful choreography of Xavier Cardell’s life.

Through tracking, I know exactly what time he leaves for his office with his driver. When he turns around and races home in his Maserati an hour later to fuck his wife. Then goesbackto his building.

And then, his wife meets him for lunch. More fucking.

He quits in the early afternoon and meets with the NU board on Thursdays; otherwise, he’s on the golf course or going fishing on the lake with his wife. Or sometimes Levi Joseph.

For the Cardells, Sundays are important for his kids to eat dinner together as a family. My cousin, Pippi, has joined them, and they all get along. She’s inadvertently given me all those details.

It almost makes me miss my own family…

Only, the Cardell family dinners have fewer concealed weapons and less polite deception, it seems.

Yes, Xavier Cardell, CEO of Cardell Enterprises and NU Board member, seems to lead a very prescribed life…

But what if he’s faking it.

There’s something underneath that I can’t quite put to rest. A nagging sense that I’m being led into a honeypot. He’s too calculated. Too open. Surely, his life is in danger most of the time…

So where’re the guards? Hired guns. High walls surrounding their cabin’s island like we have back on Von Dovish estate? Hell, even my sisters have annoying bodyguards who follow them to class and back.

I can’t wait, though. This has been going on for long enough. Time has run out on this game the society is playing.

It’s time for me to act.

The midnight sky is inky black when I creep up to the balcony near his office sliding glass door. With an easy-to-pick lock.

Almost as if he expects me. As if he planned this.

Adrenaline spikes, bitter and metallic on my tongue. My pulse surges until I inhale the chill of autumn air, willing my heartbeat to calm.As soon as the latch flips, I slip inside as carefully as I can.

There’s no light in the room, other than a blue glow from a laptop charger in the corner. But I just need one moment for my eyes to adjust, then I can proceed to his bedroom…

This should get interesting.

A soft Persian rug covers my steps as I inch closer to the door leading into the hall. From my surveillance, it’s always open.

Not tonight. It’s shut tight.

So when I reach for the handle and the lamp behind me flicks on, I freeze.

“Take a seat, son. What’s on your mind?”

I stare at the white wood frame of the modern door for at least half a minute before turning to face the man I was sent to kill.