Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
And then I remember.
Chapter
Forty
Tatiana
* * *
I’m back in the warehouse where the masked men held me prisoner. Oxo has just helped me to get cleaned up and dressed. She opens a back door that leads from the bathroom. Hulk pushes me into a courtyard with a concrete floor fenced in by barbed wire. A lonely tree stands in a circle of soil in the middle, the branches bare. Judging by the warehouses in the distance, we’re in an industrial area outside the city. Overhead, the blue sky is cloudless and cheery.
Another man waits next to an SUV. Like Hulk, he’s dressed in a dark suit and a white shirt. He’s not wearing a ski mask, but something about him is familiar. It’s the smell of his cheap cologne, I realize when we get closer. It’s the man I christened Cheap.
I’m bundled into the back between the two men. Another one, who I baptized Smiley for his missing front tooth, drives. They all carry guns, which they leave in the car when we stop outside the bank, probably because we’ll have to go through scanners and a body search.
Hulk steps out of the vehicle and offers me a hand while scouting the surroundings. He’s not being polite. After starving me for days, not to mention the drug Oxo injected me with, he’s just making sure I don’t fall in case my legs give out. Cheap follows, giving me a handbag that matches my shoes.
Hulk turns me to face him. “One wrong move, Tatiana, and it’s you and that trunk until you rot inside it. No one will ever find you. Understand?”
Swallowing, I nod.
He escorts me across the road. Cheap acts as a bodyguard.
I tilt my face up at the building. The name is written across the front in golden cutout letters. The shadows those letters throw on the wall lean toward eleven o’clock. The black building with its golden fixtures is impressive. It sparks a sudden recollection in which I see myself walking down the sidewalk to the big smoked-glass doors, wearing a pair of jeans with sneakers and my hair tucked under a baseball cap.
“Focus, Tatiana.” Hulk flicks his fingers in front of my face. “I’m your fiancé.” He throws a thumb over his shoulder. “And this is your personal bodyguard. Don’t worry about names. I’ll introduce us when it’s necessary. All you have to say is that you want to give both of us access to your safe deposit box. It holds your passport, among other things, which I may want to fetch when we’ll travel overseas on our honeymoon.” He grins. “Plus, you never know what may happen. In the unlikely event that both of us are killed in a plane crash, you want your bodyguard to have access to your birth certificate and personal documents. Did you get all that?”
“Yes,” I say, doing my best to concentrate and remember what he said.
At the entrance, an electronic voice command asks me to look straight into the camera.
Hulk is tense next to me, looking left and right. He digs his fingers into my upper arm, a silent promise of retribution if I don’t play along.
Sweat trickles down my armpits. I’m nervous, but I try to do as he says. Holding my breath, I say a prayer as we wait, but then the glass doors click open.
A security guard walks briskly toward us. “Welcome back, Ms. Delacy. How may we be of assistance today?”
My voice is surprisingly steady, albeit hoarse. “I’d like to give my fiancé and bodyguard access to my safe deposit box.”
He indicates the security scanners. “Follow me, please.”
Once we’ve passed the check point, a private banker meets us.
He holds out a hand. “What a pleasure, Ms. Delacy. It’s been a while.” He eyes Hulk with suspicion. “Who are your guests?”
I tell him what Hulk told me to say.
“I see.” The banker straightens his tie. “If that’s what you want, it can be arranged.”
Hulk smiles at the banker. “My fiancée would like to visit the vault to show us the documents.”
“Oh.” The banker seems uncertain. “Security measures must be followed.”
Hulk takes an identity card from his pocket and hands it to the banker. “That won’t be a problem. It’s been so long, she hardly remembers what she left in the box.”
The banker looks at me.
I hope my smile appears normal. “That’s true.”
“You’ll have to sign a few forms—” the banker starts.
“That’s not an issue,” I say quickly.
Hulk points at the man who followed us inside. “My fiancée’s bodyguard will join us.”
The banker turns to me again. “If that’s what you want, Ms. Delacy.”
Hulk is all teeth as he pulls me close. “She does.”
Hulk kisses my cheek affectionately before slipping an arm around my waist. I blink up at him with a teary-eyed smile. It’s all I can do not to vomit on his shoes.