Chapter 6 · Someone Behind the Wall

"You're asking me to trust you when you broke into my home to kill me."

Sienna's standing three feet away, arms crossed, that same ice-queen face she wore when I tackled her out of the sniper line ten minutes ago. The burn scar on her left collarbone catches the dim emergency light. She's not bleeding anymore, but her sleeve's torn where the bullet grazed her.

I can't hear her footsteps. Can't hear the rain hammering the windows or the fire alarm that's probably still screaming two floors down. Loop four took my hearing. I'm reading her lips and watching her hands.

"I didn't come here to kill you," I say. My own voice sounds like it's coming through water. "I came here because you're going to die today. Your countdown—"

"My what?"

I stop. She doesn't know. Of course she doesn't know. Nobody knows except me and the timers I've been seeing since I was nineteen.

"Never mind," I say. "The guy in the vent. Marcus. He's your business partner, right?"

Her mouth tightens. That's a yes.

"He just tried to put a bullet in your spine," I say.