Semua Bab DEADLY FACADE: I Became His Obsession : Bab 11 - Bab 20

Lenny's Pov I saw nothing. That was the decision I made at seven in the morning when I knocked on 3A with Shadow's leash in my hand and my face set to neutral. David opened the door in a dark shirt, hair slightly unruly, coffee in hand. He looked at me, and I looked at him. Neither of us said anything for a moment. "Morning," he said. "Morning," I said. Shadow exploded past his legs and crashed into my knees. "He heard you in the hall," David said. "He has good ears." "He has everything good when it comes to you," David said. "It's frankly embarrassing for him." "He has taste," I said, clipping the leash. "Apparently." He leaned against the doorframe with his coffee and watched me get Shadow

Lenny's Pov He sat on the coffee table. I think he did it deliberately so I wouldn't have to lean across, so the distance between us while I worked would be manageable. He seemed to think about things like that without making it obvious he was thinking about them. I sat on the couch and he gave me his hand and I opened the kit. "Your knuckles again," I said. "Occupational pattern." "Both hands this time." "It was a busy night." I cleaned the left one first. The damage was fresh and the split on the middle knuckle was deep enough that I took my time with it. "You need to eat something," I said. "You say that every time." "Because every time I come over here you look like you've forgotten that food exists."

Lenny's Pov I started writing things down. Not in an obvious way or a list titled things David Gale has lied to me about, though the thought had crossed my mind. Just a notepad on my kitchen table where I had been keeping track of job applications, and sometimes, in the margins, other things. He said he went to Chicago for a meeting on the fourteenth. He came back on the sixteenth with a bruise along his jaw that had already been yellowing for two days when he walked in, which meant it happened before the fourteenth, which meant he was somewhere else before Chicago. He said logistics handled cargo disputes. But once, just once, I heard him on the phone in Italian before he registered I was in the hallway, and the one word I caught before he switched to English was armamenti. I had looked it up afterward. Weaponry. He said he grew up in New York. But when Mrs. Carmichael mentioned the old Italian neighborhood on the south side of the city he had looked at her with the polite

Lenny's Pov I had packed light on purpose. The shoulder bag had three changes of clothes, my documents, the envelope with what was left of my money, my phone charger, and one photograph that I had kept since before prison of my mother that I didn't know why I still carried but couldn't seem to leave behind. The small rolling case had the rest. Toiletries, one extra pair of shoes, and the tin of Darjeeling tea because I was apparently incapable of making clean breaks. I had not packed everything. That was intentional. If David came back and looked through his camera feeds, which I was now certain existed somewhere in that apartment and possibly in the hallway as well, I wanted it to look like I had just gone out. Running was undignified. I was making a strategic departure based on information I had gathered and assessed rationally. I was running absolutely. I pulled the door closed at eleven thirty, I didn't look at 3A and went to the elevator with my shoulders back and m

David’s Pov She was not afraid of me. She had looked at me standing over three men and said, “ You came like it was the only relevant fact, everything else was supporting detail. I drove with one hand on the wheel. Lenny sat in the passenger seat with her bag in her lap and her bruised wrist held carefully against her chest. She looked out the window. She was quiet in the way she was quiet when she was processing something thoroughly rather than avoiding it. "The men," she said, as we came onto our street. "Who sent them." "Someone inside my organization," I said. "Someone who has been paying close enough attention to know that you were the right pressure point to use against me." "Meaning they knew you would come," she said. "Yes," I said. "They were right," she said. "Yes," I said. She was quiet for a moment