Chapter 25 — The Hourglass #3
He grabbed it, answered immediately.
“What?” His voice was sharp.
Maya stepped into the room, their fight forgotten as the atmosphere shifted.
“Where?” Ethan asked into the phone. “How did he get past the outer perimeter?”
He listened for a second, his expression darkening.
“Hold him. Don’t hurt him yet. I’m coming down.”
He hung up and looked at Maya.
“What happened?” she asked, feeling the old fear return.
“We have a security problem in the lobby,” Ethan said. He was already moving, grabbing the jacket he’d left on the sofa, the transformation from wounded lover to ruthless security chief happening in real time.
“Who is it?” Maya asked, though deep in her gut, she already knew. The ghost never truly leaves.
Ethan stopped at the elevator door. He pressed the button.
“It’s Kyle,” he said.
Maya’s blood ran cold.
“Kyle? But... I paid him. He left.”
“Apparently, forty thousand dollars doesn’t last long when you’re an idiot,” Ethan said, his voice dripping with contempt. “He’s downstairs. Drunk. And screaming that he needs to talk to you.”
The elevator arrived. The doors opened.
“I’m coming with you,” Maya said, stepping forward.
“No.” Ethan raised his hand. “You stay here. Lock the door. Miller’s coming up to guard the elevator.”
“Ethan, he’s my problem!”
“Not anymore,” Ethan said. He stepped into the elevator. “Now he’s an intruder. And I’m going to deal with him.”
“What are you going to do?”
Ethan looked at her as the doors began to close. There was something in his eyes Maya hadn’t seen in weeks. That lethal gleam from the day he’d broken Julian’s finger.
“I’m going to finish what I started six months ago,” he said. “I’m going to remove the obstacle.”
The doors closed, carrying him down toward violence, leaving Maya trapped in the glass tower, with the architecture book on the table and the certainty that the house of cards was about to collapse.
She ran to the office.
Rule number four—never enter the office—had been relaxed, but the door still had a code. She knew the code. He’d typed it in front of her several times.
12-05-88. His birthday? No. The date his mother died.
She typed it in.
The door opened.
She ran to Ethan’s desk. Monitors lined the surface. An integrated surveillance system.
She touched the mouse. The screens came to life.
Camera 1: Elevator.
Camera 2: Hallway.
Camera 3: Main Lobby.
She looked at screen 3.
There he was.
Kyle.
He stood in the center of the lobby, surrounded by three security guards. He looked like a human shipwreck. His clothes were filthy, his hair long and greasy. He was thin, skeletal.
He was screaming. There was no sound, but his body language screamed hysteria.
The casino guests were backing away, forming a circle of morbid curiosity.
Then, on the screen, the elevator doors opened.
Ethan stepped out.
He walked toward Kyle. The crowd parted for him.
Maya leaned closer to the screen, her heart pounding in her throat.
She watched Ethan say something. Kyle stepped back.
But then Kyle shouted something back. He jabbed a finger at Ethan. He seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time.
Maya searched for the audio button on the console. Found it.
Sound flooded the silent office. Casino background noise, muffled voices.
And then Kyle's voice, shrill and broken, cut through the static:
“...can't throw me out! We had a deal!”
“The deal ended when you took her money.” Ethan's voice was cold, controlled.
“The money wasn't the deal!” Kyle shouted. “The deal was the plan! You said she was the price! You said if I brought her here, I'd be free!”
Ethan lunged forward, grabbing Kyle by the collar.
“Shut up.”
“Why would I?” Kyle laughed, a manic sound. “You think she doesn't know? You think she believes it was luck?”
He looked up, as if he knew Maya was watching, or maybe just screaming at the casino gods.
“It was a setup, Vance! You chose me! You made the credit easy! You gave me the chips! You made me lose so you could buy her!”
Maya froze. Her hand flew to her mouth.
“Get him out of here,” Ethan ordered the security guards, his voice now tinged with something that sounded like... panic?
“Tell her, Vance!” Kyle screamed as he was dragged away. “Tell her you knew me! Tell her you planned every second!”
The security guards dragged Kyle through the revolving doors.
Ethan stood in the lobby. He adjusted his jacket. He looked up at the security camera on the ceiling.
He looked directly at Maya.
And for the first time, Maya saw fear in the monster's eyes.
She turned off the monitor. The office plunged into darkness.
But the darkness couldn't hide the truth that had just been screamed.
It wasn't fate. It wasn't a gambling debt.
It was a plan.
Ethan hadn't saved her. Ethan had hunted her.
Maya looked at the locked drawer in Ethan's desk. The drawer she'd never seen open.
She knew what was in there. She had to know.
With trembling hands, she began searching for a key, a paperclip, anything that could open Pandora's box and confirm that the love she'd begun to feel was built on the most elaborate and cruel lie of all.