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Eliahu Rathboone&039;s house went fully silent again about an hour after Gregg&039;s aborted trip to the third floor, but he waited long after that butler had gone back downstairs before he gave the ascension another shot

He and Holly passed the ti And the thing was, he realized the more they said, the less he knew about her He didn&039;t have a clue that her hobby was soer aue into real television nehich wasn&039;t a shocker on the face of things: Lot of bobble- headed females in the reality world had loftier a on how cockroaches were eaten And he even knew that she&039;d given local news a shot in the Pittsburghfired from that entry-level position

What he hadn&039;t had a clue about was the real reason why she&039;d left that first job of hers The er had expected her to perform for a different, more private kind of camera, and when she&039;d told hi her up to fail on air

Gregg had seen the tape of the reporting job where she&039;d butchered her words After all, he did his horeat, he always checked references

Guess that hat had started hireat rack, nothing much else to offer

But that wasn&039;t the worst of his misconceptions He&039;d never known she had a brother Who was handicapped Who she was supporting

She&039;d shown hiether

And when Gregg had asked out loud hoas possible he hadn&039;t known about the boy? She&039;d had the honesty to tell him the way it was: Because you&039;d laid out the lines and that was over the line

Naturally, he&039;d had the normal ht He had drawn the boundaries pretty fucking clearly Whichper personal

Not exactly the environment you wanted to make yourself vulnerable in

That realization hat had had hi his chin on her head and stroking her back Right before she&039;d gone to drea like, it was the best night she&039;d ever had with hiasiven her when it suited him There had been a lot of dates that he&039;d canceled at the last es that went unreturned and brush-offs both verbal and physical

Man what a shit he&039;d been

When Gregg fianlly got up to go, he tucked Holly in, turned the motion-activated camera on, and slipped out into the hallway Silence all around

Padding down the corridor, he went back to the Exit sign and ducked into that rear stairwell Up the steps, around the landing, another flight, and then he was at the door

No banging this time around He took out a thin screwdriver that was nor the lock It was easier than he&039;d thought, actually Just one poke and shift and the thing sprang loose

The door did not squeak, which surprised him

What was on the other side, however shocked the ever loving hell out of him

The third floor was a cavernous space with old- fashioned, rough- hewn floorboards and a ceiling that sloped at a steep angle on either side Down at the far end, there was a table with an oil laolden yellow as well as illu in a chair just outside the pool of light

Big boots

And suddenly, there was no question who the SOB was and what he&039;d done

"I have you on tape," Gregg said to the figure

The soft laugh that cao into overdrive: Low and cold, it was the kind of sound killers et to ith a knife

"Do you" That accent What the fuck was it? Not French not Hungarian

Whatever The idea Holly had been taken advantage of er than he really was "I knohat you did The night before last"

"I&039;d tell you to take a chair, but as you can see, I only have one"

"I&039; took a step forward "I knohat happened with her She didn&039;t want you"

"She wanted the sex"

Motherfucking asshole "She was asleep"