Hot Revenge Box Set 4

Klempner

Damn phone…

What’s wrong with the fucking thing?

I tap in again. Nothing happens.

I’m several floors up, heading back for my hotel room. The signal should be strong up here.

I inspect the screen…

Yes… plenty of signal…

Better contact Dakho… Get him to supply a new one…

A more reliable model this time…

Arriving at my room door…

… A brief shufti along the corridor…

… I’m alone. A quick inspection that my slicked-on hair is still in place…

… It is… a faint dark line against the white paint, which peels away, then drops to the floor as I slide the card into the lock and push the door open…

I toss the useless phone onto my bed then start to shrug off my jacket…

… and in mid-movement, I stall.

My spine prickles and without meaning to, I’m standing stock-still, Glock in hand, staring around the apartment.

What’s wrong?

Working on automatic, my hand follows my eye, weapon aimed, but…

I don’t see anything.

Nothing has moved.

Nothing has changed.

riffling the petals on a vase of lilies and wafting honeyed air at

vacuumed stripes, with only my own

Really?

press my foot down by one of

lies where I left it, outside on the balcony, folded up on the table, alongside my breakfast

cross the floor, turn the handle of the bedroom

the pillows, a pair of bath-towels folded, for some inexplicable reason, into the

they do

and coffee kit, biscuits, a small box of foil-wrapped chocolates, a

one hand, with the other, at arm’s length, I flick open

with pineapples and palm trees might be an offence to good taste, I don’t feel

Only one place left…

I’m drawn to the door

for a long second… ear cocked… gun

screeches of birds, the hiss of cicadas, splashing pools and

kick the door and

inside, there’s nothing more alarming than a tidemark around the bath where I’ve washed away the sweat of the day and the maid has been

alarms

What triggered it?

metallic and my heart plays percussion against my

Calm down…

Breathe…

Think…

What happened?

barely in the

Outside then…

Something in the corridor…

at the ceiling, I dart a look outside.