Page 78 of Fall onto me
Foster leads us down the cement stairs.
We step down into the inky blackness. I saw the blueprints, and I understood the long stretch of corridor, but seeing it is a different experience. I expected to feel safer here for some reason, but it nearly feels like the fog from the harbor seeps down to settle here … This is the underground of the underground.
“Careful,” Foster hisses in a low tone, pointing up to a blinking red camera that’s pointing our direction.
I slip my hoodie over my head a little more and hug the wall as we step down it. It’s narrow and dark, barely illuminated by small wall sconces placed in a strange pattern that only allows for enough light to see jack shit.
We come to the fork, one leading us towards the parking lot to the right, and another straight that will bring us underneath all the action upstairs.
“Last chance,” Wes sighs. “Go right if you want to get out.” He nods his head towards the exits, behind us and to the parking lot, and then he’s nodding his head at me.
“I’m not going anywhere, so stop trying to make me.”
He holds his hands up innocently. “Fair enough.”
A sound captures our attention, boots. One set of boots, pacing back and forth. As we near the first door, it gets louder and louder. Echoing off the walls and bleeding into my ears.
Here is it, the moment we’re going to learn who TK really is.
“Get behind me,” Barnes whispers, although whoever it is already knows we’re here.
He turns the knob, just enough so that he can kick the door open, and when he does, we all rush in. He levels his gun at the girl, who’s staring back at us.
Envy, dressed like her old self, in a neon green leather bodycon skirt, black crop top, and thigh-high boots, walks over and sits behind the mahogany desk we’ve grown to despise.
This is the room he films in.
She doesn’t say one word until she kicks her black leather, thigh high boots onto the desk and crosses her feet.
Barnes follows her movements with his gun, pointing it at her head. “Talk,” he hisses.
She pulls out the little recorder and presses play. The Keeper’s voice bleeds through for a moment before she smashes it against the wall.
“My boyfriend gave this to me.”
Barnes leans down and kisses Envy on the lips. “You couldn’t fucking let it go, could you?” He shakes his head, talking to us. I realize then that his gun never jammed.He wanted us unarmed.He got his wish.
“It’s Envy?” Foster finally speaks, nearly choking on his words. “You helped her?”
She grins. “It’s not me.” She’s tried to cover up the bruise underneath her eye with makeup, but it’s too dark to truly conceal.
The doorknob behind her turns, and out comes a man in a suit. I recognize him instantly, from a party at my parents’ mansion. A benefit, where I saw Envy, not pregnant and devoid of neon.
And I know, the moment Barnes bows his head and Envy scurries to remove her feet from his desk, that this … this is TK.
He cups Envy’s face in his hands. “Who did this to you?” he roars. The distortion we normally hear is gone, but I can recognize that evil tone anywhere.
“It was her, Daddy!” She pouts, pointing her finger at me.
“I know him,” Foster croaks.
“I do too,” I seethe.
I’m stunned, to shocked to move or think.
“Santiago,” Foster sneers. “Why?”
“Why what?” Tk—Santiago—asks with a grin. “Why did I kill your parents? Why did I put you in a jail cell with me? Why did your grandma fall off a two-story building?”