บททั้งหมดของ DEADLY FACADE: I Became His Obsession : บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

Lenny's Pov He came back at nine instead of three.I was at the kitchen table with the gun in front of me and the note beside it when his key turned in the lock. He came in and looked at the table and looked at me and closed the door."You found it," he said."It was under my pillow," I said. "Yes, I found it.”"Good." He put his keys down and crossed to the table and sat across from me. "Did you touch it?""I picked it up and then put it down and haven't touched it since," I said. "I didn't want to do anything with it before you explained why there was a loaded weapon under my pillow. Was your plan to traumatize me? Because I was quite surprised to see it there. What are you up to?”"So….. you need to know how to use it," he said. "Before today.""The session is today.""Yes.""And you came back early.""I came back to do this first," he said. "We have two hours

Lenny's Pov I had only gone downstairs to check the mail.That was the whole reason. Vincenzo had been gone for hours and I was restless and Shadow needed his afternoon walk anyway and I had told myself the lobby was not outside the building, it was still inside, and Luca's instruction had been not to leave the building.The lobby counted as inside.I got the mail. Three envelopes, nothing important. I was turning back toward the elevator when the side door that led to the parking structure opened and two men came through it fast and the one on the left had his hand on my arm before I fully processed that something was wrong."Don't make noise," he said. Not loud. Just flat and certain. "Come with us and this stays simple.""Let go of my arm," I said."We're not going to hurt you," the second one said. He was taller, older, with the kind of accent I placed somewhere northern. "We just need to talk."

Lenny's Pov The sirens had passed without stopping. Luca's call had been about police activity two streets over, unconnected to us, and Vincenzo had stood at the window for a full minute after confirming that before he came back to the table. I had watched him stand there and thought about everything he had said in the last hour and everything still sitting between us, unresolved. We hadn't finished the conversation about the file. That conversation had been interrupted by a rescue from the back seat of a car and it had not gone anywhere. It was still there waiting. I looked at him now, sitting across the table from me, his taped hand flat on the surface, his eyes on his phone. "Put the phone down," I said. He looked up. "We weren't finished," I said. "We can finish it tomorrow," he said. "Tonight you need to rest. Today was…" "Don't tell me what I need," I said. "I've been managing what I need for a long time without help. Put the phone down and finish the convers

Lenny's Pov He had been gone for three hours when his key turned in the lock.I was on the couch. Luca was at the kitchen table with his laptop open. Shadow was pressed against my side doing his version of emotional support which mostly involved putting his full weight on whoever needed it most.I heard the key and I was off the couch before the door finished opening.He came in and I looked at his face and my stomach dropped slightly.Something underneath that was working hard to stay contained."What happened," I said.He looked at Luca. "Building entrances. Both of them. Right now. Nobody through either door without your direct clearance."Luca closed the laptop and was moving before Vincenzo finished the sentence. He went past us and out the door and I heard him on his phone immediately in the corridor.I turned back to Vincenzo. "Tell me.""Sit down," he said.

Lenny's Pov He told me the venue was private and underground and that the word normal was relative. I had stopped expecting normal from him two months ago so that landed fine. The car ride over took about thirty minutes. He drove the route that doubled back twice and I had stopped remarking on it because it was just how he drove now. Luca was in the car behind us the whole way. The venue was below a restaurant that apparently operated as a legitimate business on the three floors above it. We went in through a side entrance and down a staircase that opened into a space that was warm and loud and considerably more comfortable than the fight venues. Tables. A bar along one wall. Music that wasn't too loud to talk over. People dressed well but not formally, the kind of crowd that had money and wanted to be somewhere that didn't ask for their names. He kept his hand at my back the whole way in. "What is this place," I asked close to his ear. "Neutral ground," he said. "No f