Annihilate Me (Vol. 4) (The Annihilate Me Series) (31 page)

I
hurried away from him when he recoiled.
 
I’d never get past him to the elevator.
 
He was lying straight in my way.
 
Even if I gave it my best shot and tried
to leap over him to get to the elevator, I knew that I’d lose that effort and
that he’d take me down.

“Where
is Alex?
 
What have you done with
him?
 
He texted me to come up here.
 
Where is he?”

“Not
here.”

“Then
how—”

“
I
texted you.
 
With his number.
 
Obviously I have his number.
 
And I used it.
 
There are text services available that
make it appear that the text came from someone else.
 
I used one of them, you got the text, and
you fell for it.”

“Why
are you doing this?”

“Why
do you think?”

“I
don’t know why.
 
I’ve done nothing
to you.”

“Your
man has.
 
He’s about to steal
something away from me, so I’m going to steal something away from him.”

“What
are you talking about?”

“You
stupid little cunt.
 
He’s stealing
my father’s airline away from me.
 
That’s
my
inheritance.
 
At first, I just wanted to fuck with you for a while because I didn’t
think Alex would succeed with this little takeover of his.
 
But when I saw that he might actually
pull it off, I really came after both of you and that’s the night when you and
Alex cheated death.
 
Those three men
on the sidewalk?
 
I hired them.
 
We thought we got Alex that night, but
it turns out that he just dived into the river.
 
But at least we shot you.
 
When I heard that you were back from
your fucking remote island, I hired that woman to deliver my message to you at
Saks.
 
‘End all deals and all takeovers.’
 
That’s what she said to you.
 
Alex didn’t follow through, and he
obviously doesn’t plan to.
 
So,
guess what?
 
He’s about to lose you
because of it.”
 

“You’re
insane.”

“I’m
incensed.”

“You’re
crazy.”

“You
don’t even know.”

“Why
would you do this?”

“Because
my livelihood is on the line.”

“And
you’ll murder someone for that?”

“You’re
fucking right I will.”

He
looked down at his hand as I backed away from him.
 
“You put a hole in my palm.
 
I’m bleeding.
 
How am I going to go back into that
crowd now?”

I
didn’t answer.
 
Breathless and
unbelieving, I forced myself to think and to strategize.
 
The only thing I had to fight him with
were the spiked heels on my shoes.
 
I slipped out of them and bent to pick them up, but as I did, he already
was on his feet.
 
He was unsteady at
first, but then he righted himself and looked at me.
 
He fished a white handkerchief out of
his jacket pocket, and pressed it against his palm.

I
had to buy time.
 
I tried to stall
him with words.
 
“How did your
father pass that lie detector test?”

“Who
says my father knows anything about this?
 
He doesn’t.
 
He knows nothing.
 
All of this is on me.”

The
elevator doors
slid open
in front of me.
 
I saw Alex, Tank,
and Henri hurry out of the elevator just as Jake lunged at me.
 
He swatted away my shoes, grasped me in
his arms, and dragged me quickly to the building’s edge.
 

There
was a low glass wall there that came just to my knee.
 
It should have been higher, at least
waist height, but it wasn’t.
 
What
was Henri thinking?
 
It would be
nothing for Jake to shove me over it.
 
As I fought against him, I caught a glance of the street below us.
 
We were fifty stories up.
 
Fifth Avenue was alive with
traffic.
 
I saw cars on the street,
headlights on the pavement.
 
And I
felt terror sink deep into my soul.

I’m
going to die.
 

“Come
any closer to me, and I’ll throw her over,” Jake said to the men.
 
“Try me.”

“Stay
back!” I said.
 
“Do what he
says!
 
It’s been him all along,
Alex.
 
Gordon knows nothing about
it.”

“Jake,”
Henri said in a pleading voice.
 
“What are you doing?
 
I’ve
known you since you were a boy.
 
This isn’t you.
 
What’s wrong
with you?”

“That
son-of-a-bitch behind you?
 
He’s
stealing my father’s airline, which one day
I
would have inherited.
 
I’ve warned him to drop all deals and
all takeovers.
 
I warned him, and he
ignored it.
 
I told the woman I
hired what to say to this cunt, and she said it to her clearly.”

“You
told who?”

“The
woman at Saks,” I said.
 
“The woman
I hired.”

“You
hired someone to do that to Jennifer?”

“I
hired her and the others.
 
I did
what I needed to do.”
 
He turned to
Alex.
 
“By refusing to drop the takeovers
you have in play, you pushed my hand, Alex.
 
So guess what?
 
If I’m going to lose something that’s
dear to me, so are you.”

“Come
on, Jake,” Henri said calmly.
 
“Stop
this.
 
You haven’t killed anyone
yet.
 
It’ll be much worse for you if
you do.
 
Think clearly now.
 
Let her go.
 
Turn yourself in—”

“Shut
up, Henri.”

“I
won’t.
 
I’ve known you for too
long.”

“I
told you to shut up.
 
I know I’m
about to die.
 
But so is she.
 
I don’t care about any of it.
 
I don’t.
 
What’s left for me should I live?
 
Have you considered that?
 
My father will just shit away whatever
he gets from his takeover from Alex.
 
He has zero self-control.
 
And then?
 
Then, I’ll be
poor.
 
And I don’t do poor.”

“Don’t
do it, Jake,” Alex said.

I
saw Tank move behind Alex.
 
He was
in the shadows, just barely out of sight, but I could see him.
 
I wasn’t sure if Jake could see him.

“Fuck
you, Alex.”

“I
will drop the takeover now.
 
That’s
a promise.
 
I’ll let it go if you
let Jennifer go.
 
You have my word.”

“Oh,
please.
 
Your word doesn’t mean shit
to me.
 
I’m going to prison either
way.
 
And guess what?
 
I’d prefer death at this point.
 
You had your chance, and you gambled
against it with her life.
 
You know
you did.
 
Money meant more to you
than she did.
 
Do you think she
doesn’t know that?
 
She was attacked
in that fitting room, she was given specific directions to stop you, and you
chose money over her.
 
You’re
the cause of her death, not me.”
 

He
leaned into my ear and said, “You know that’s the truth, don’t you?
 
It hurts, doesn’t it?
 
He chose the takeover over you.
 
Think about that in your last moments of
life.
 
Look at him now and know that
it always was his choice to end this.
 
He never loved you.
 
If he
had, he would have dropped this.
 
What he loved most of all was his money.”

“Bullshit,”
I said.
 
“Here’s what you don’t
know, you fucking idiot.
 
You might
have tricked me into coming up here, but we’ve also tricked you.
 
Hidden cameras were everywhere
tonight.
 
Why else do you think Alex
and Henri are here now?
 
We’ve
finally caught our rat.”

And
with that, I rammed my elbow hard into his ribcage.
 

He
reared back in pain, but his arms were so tight around me, he nevertheless took
me with him.
 

There
was a moment when I sensed that we were falling.
 
I heard a gunshot.
 
I heard people shout and start to rush
toward us.
 
But I also felt
something warm and wet spray across my face.
 

I
opened my eyes and saw that Jake’s forehead was gone.
 
His mouth was clicking and yawning
open.
 
Blood was spurting into the
air and onto my face.
 
The horror of
it was too much to bear.
 
Everything
started to go dark.
 
As
unconsciousness set in, I felt the earth give way as the world collapsed in
upon itself.
 
Jake and I started to
fall.
 
I heard the shattering of
glass.
 
I felt cold wind against my
cheek.
 
And then?

Then
I heard Alex shout my name.
 
I heard
the fear and the loss in his voice.
 
I heard Tank shout something to me, but already, his voice was distant.

All
of it was too late.
 
All of it was
for naught.
 
Everything went black,
and into the blackness I plunged.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Two days later

In
the days that followed, my memory remained spotty of the events that took place
on Henri’s rooftop, and maybe that was a good thing.
 
Maybe not remembering much of anything
was for the best, especially since when the world fell away from me, it was
Jake Kobus who fell to his death—not me.

Instead,
I just fainted after the gun went off and I saw that part of Jake’s head was
missing.
 
Fate could have had its
way with me.
 
I could have fallen off
the roof with Jake, but instead, for some reason, I fell away from him and into
Alex’s arms.
 

Later,
I was carried inside and taken to the second floor of Henri’s apartment.
 
I remembered waking with a start and
screaming when I realized that I was covered in Jake’s blood and brain matter.

Already,
Alex had a wet cloth in his hand and was washing me with it, as was Henri while
Tank spoke urgently into his cell.
 
He talked with the police, and then ordered his men to grab Gordon Kobus
and detain him in private until future notice.
 

What
I gleaned from Tank’s conversation was that Kobus needed to be told about his
son’s criminal actions and his death in a respectful way.
 
Tank wanted him sequestered before those
in attendance at the party figured out what had happened, and broke the news to
him themselves.

Everything
after that was a blur.
 
The police
came.
 
I was questioned.
 
And while I only remembered some of
their questions and my own answers, Alex later said that I was clear when I
told them about how I’d been lured onto the rooftop, and what took place there
when I arrived.
 

Later
that night, after returning to Wenn and lapsing into sleep in Alex’s bedroom, I
woke to find Alex, Tank, Lisa, and Blackwell around me.
 
What they said to me when I came to was
a rush of concern.

“Are
you all right?”

“Can
I get you anything?”

“You’re
fine now.
 
We got the rat,
Jennifer.
 
It’s over.”

At
which point, I fell back asleep.
 
The next morning, I was fully interrogated by the police.
 
I told them what I knew, which Alex,
Tank, and Henri confirmed.
 
From the
beginning, Jake Kobus had been behind all of this.
 
His father had had nothing to do with
it.