This was it.
It had been a week since I let Ace believe I’d left for good. A week of buying plane tickets and booking hotel rooms across the sea to make sure he believed it. If he did, I wasn’t sure but the fact that he hasn’t come looking for me was enough to convince me that he’d bought it, after all, why wouldn’t he?
I was nothing. No one. Sweet little Eleanor. Innocent little Eleanor.
I wasn’t powerful. I wasn’t anyone.
And that worked in my favor.
I kept out of view. I hadn’t a sniff of Tobias either.
I planned to do what I had set out to do in the first place. Before Kingston. Before I truly knew what Tobias was capable of. If I did that, not everything would be a failure. King’s death would still be my fault, but Tate might still live.
What happened to me, I didn’t really care.
The hole inside my chest hadn’t closed in the week that had passed. It didn’t get bigger either. It just was. I was numb. I didn’t cry. I didn’t get scared.
It was like I was broken.
Irrevocably broken.
I was thankful for the cold weather and the mass of Christmas shoppers. It helped keep me concealed on the bench across from Tobias’ building. The weather meant I could keep the hood of my coat up, concealing my face and the crowds made me blend.
I hadn’t an ounce of knowledge of how exactly to do this, but I’d go in. And I’d go in as if I knew everything.
I had nothing else to lose after all.
No one in that office would have a single clue what went down. They might know I handed in my notice, but my presence wouldn’t necessarily be unusual. I still had a notice.
I didn’t have a gun, only a kitchen knife. Nothing to protect me but the clothes on my back.
I was sure I wouldn’t walk out of that building and I knew the kitchen knife in my pocket would do nothing against a gun.
I head through the doors and push back my hood, “Eleanor?”
I ignore it. No one stops me as I press the button and then enter the elevator, no one stops me when I step onto the floor I’d been working on for years, and no one stops me when I head right for Tobias’ office.
I open his door with an abruptness that has the door swinging and slamming against the wall, making the glass in that one-way window vibrate.
His head snaps up.
“Hello, Tobias,” I say with a smile, stepping in and slamming the door behind me.
He sighs impatiently, “Eleanor.”
“You lied.”
“I thought you were smarter than this, Eleanor,” he pinches the bridge of his nose, “I was even willing to let you go. What are you doing here?”
“You said you’d let Tate go, you haven’t, but you never planned to, did you?” I accuse, “You made me give up Kingston for nothing, and then you killed him.”
“I understand you’re fairly new to this game, but death and murder are really quite a common occurrence.”
“You killed him!” For the first time in a week, I feel my emotions rising.
“Poor, sweet Eleanor,” he sighs, “I am sorry you’re grieving.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
He grins, “What fire you have. If only you’d shown it sooner.”
“Let Tate go!”
“I can’t do that,” he tsks, “I am actually quite glad you turned up, I had been willing to let you go, but now I realize that would have been a mistake. You know far too much.”
“So, you’ll sell me to one of your sex rings?”
“Oh no, I wasn’t lying, I do like you, so I’ll save you the torture of that and kill you instead. It’ll be less painful.”
“You’re despicable.”
He shrugs, “Perhaps.”
“I loved him, Tobias,” my voice cracks, “and you killed him.”
For just a second, he pauses, if I wasn’t paying attention, I would have missed it, but I was paying attention and I use that moment, I take my chance to catch him off guard.
I lunge across the room, dragging the stupid kitchen knife from my pocket and aim it for his chest.
I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
He dodges the blade and slams his fist against my face. I hit the floor, ears ringing.
“I didn’t peg you to be stupid, Eleanor,” he spits, “And really, choosing the office for this?”
I spit blood onto the carpet, “You’ll have to be careful what you do,” I say, “These walls may contain conversation, but will they stop a gun shot, a scream?”
His foot hits my stomach so hard I don’t make a sound as I topple over, gasping for breath.
I’m still fighting to get air into my lungs after being winded when he forces me onto my back and straddles me.
“You should have left, Eleanor.”
“Fuck you!”
His fist slams into my face and my head snaps to the side, but he grabs my chin and makes me look at him, “I don’t need a gun to kill you. I don’t need a knife to kill you either. You’re weak, all you women are weak.” His hands go around my throat with enough pressure to let me know he’s there but not enough to cut off air. Yet.