Jace

 

I walked into the lobby of the Hotel Azure and dropped the duffel bag on the floor with a loud bang. It was a swanky hotel—lots of marble and dark wood everywhere—and no one noticed as Troy and I made our way through the lobby.

 

“What room?” I barked at Troy under my breath.

 

“What?” He turned to me with a confused look on his pale, sweaty face. “What are you talking about?”

 

I grabbed his throat and slammed him against a wall. “The room that we need to get into, dipshit,” I hissed. “Tell me, you asshole! You better not have dragged me out all the way here for nothing!”

 

Troy stammered and flushed. “Um, room 1082,” he said under his breath. “This hotel has shorter ceilings than the Center Park.”

 

“Thanks for that little lesson,” I growled, dropping him to the ground. “You better keep your fucking mouth shut now, you hear?”

 

Troy shivered and groaned. He rolled his eyes and started off in the direction of the elevator banks. Somehow, we managed to pass by the front desk unseen. I’d always had a gift for blending in, but this was the ultimate need for stealth. There was no way I was letting this asshole ruin my chances of catching Margot and finding Katie safe and sound. No fucking way.

 

“Do you have the key?”

 

“What?” Troy looked at me with a dopey expression. “What key?”

 

I could have fucking killed him right then and there. “The key to the room, moron,” I hissed. “Room 1082.”

 

Troy shook his head. “I thought you would pay for it,” he said, laughing nervously and twitching to one side. He looked like an evil version of a chicken hopping around on one leg, and I shook my head in disgust.

 

“You’re fucking useless,” I snarled. “Do you know that?”

 

Troy glanced down at the floor. “That’s what people tell me,” he replied.

 

I sighed. “We’re not getting anywhere by doing this,” I said. “Come on.”

 

Troy followed me into the elevator as I dropped the bag on the floor and punched the button labeled 10. As the elevator jerked and ground to a start, I felt my heartbeat start to flutter in my chest. I was so close Margot, but it didn’t feel like I thought it would. Instead of being excited, I was actually dreading the moment I laid eyes on her. I couldn’t believe it; I thought after years of being parted with the only woman I’d ever loved, I’d be more ecstatic than this. But right now Margot was filing me with thoughts of dread. I couldn’t even get excited about what it would feel like to fuck her again—my mind was too clouded with what was going on.

 

Floor ten was almost empty. Some of the rooms were open and Hispanic maids were bustling around in crisp, starched uniforms looking both overworked and underpaid. I tried to stop one of them but she made a little ‘psst’ sound with her teeth and scooted around me like I’d merely been in her way the whole time.

 

“Maybe one of them can give us the key?” Troy whispered as he sidled up beside me. “I’m sure they have access to all of the rooms.”

 

“It doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “They’re not going to give us shit. I bet they don’t even speak English.”

 

Troy sniffed, like I’d offended him by turning him down. Now that he didn’t have anything more useful to offer me, I couldn’t wait until it was time for him to go. I could barely stand next to him without wanting to rip him limb from limb and get revenge for all of the horrible, hateful things he’d done to Katie.

 

Maybe that was why I was having such a hard time relaxing, maybe that was why I couldn’t get excited about seeing Margot again. I’d pined over her for so long, I’d spent most of my twenties crying over her. And now that she was so close, I couldn’t feel anything but dread.

 

Maybe you love Katie, a voice inside my head said. I shook my head furiously. There was no way I loved Katie, no way I loved someone who disrespected me and the help I’d offered her so blatantly.

 

But if I didn’t love Katie, then I didn’t know where my ambivalence was coming from.

 

Troy and I milled around in the hallway, watching as the maids bustled back and forth. One of them was pulling a huge cart, loaded with clean towels, linens, and amenities for the bathroom. I saw a giant ring of keys looped on one end and mentally cheered. Bingo!

 

I jabbed Troy in the gut and pointed towards the cart. “We need to get those keys,” I hissed. “Distract the maid.”

 

“What?” Troy looked at me, clueless as ever.

 

I kicked him hard in the shin. “Distract the fucking maids,” I hissed under my breath. “Now! Do it, you cunt!”

 

Troy coughed and fell on his side, gasping like a dying man. He moaned and howled, clutching his stomach and moaning loudly. One of the maids poked her head out of the room. I watched carefully, hidden behind a large potted plant in the corner.

 

“Dios mio!” the maid exclaimed. She leapt into the hallway with surprising speed for her short, squat frame. As she ran over to Troy’s prone figure, I slowly inched my way out from behind the plant and moved towards the cart. The keys were bolted down but I saw they were labeled.

 

“Shit!” I cursed under my breath. They were labeled, all right, but the labels were in Spanish. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my knife, aware that time was slipping through my fingers with every passing second. Troy was still rolling around on the floor like an idiot but the maid seemed intent and focused. She kept putting her hand on his forehead and then on his stomach. Troy would groan loudly, then whimper at her touch. I rolled my eyes. As much of a bad guy as he was, he wasn’t a half bad actor.

 

With my knife, I pried the ring off the loop. There were too many keys for me to fit it in my pocket so I stuffed it under my shirt and clutched my gut like I was having a stomach ache. Finally, I sprinted down the hallway, past Troy and the maid. Troy jumped up to his feet and followed me. We rounded a corner and I skidded to a stop in front of room 1082.

 

“Try the keys, try the keys,” Troy said frantically. I shushed him with a single look as I fumbled with the giant cold ring. My fingers felt like overstuffed sausages and I felt myself shaking with nervousness as I fumbled for the right one. The first key didn’t even fit in the lock, the second wouldn’t turn, but the third made the room door burst open. Troy and I had just managed to bolt inside before the squat maid turned the corner of the hallway.

 

“Thank god,” I said, breathing hard and leaning flat against the door. I latched it with the bolt and then walked over to the window. Sure enough, I had a clear view right of The Center Park Hotel.

 

“Damn,” Troy said. He looked down at the ground. “I didn’t think we’d be up so high.”

 

I rolled my eyes and pulled the duffle bag towards me, setting up the sniper rifle and opening the window of the room. When I zoomed in, I could see into the room on the seventh floor. I spotted a flash of red—Katie!—and my heart leapt and fluttered in my chest. She was lying down on her back and her ankles were cinched tight. My lungs swelled and for a moment, I wanted nothing more than to stroke her red hair. “Katie’s there,” I said quietly, not taking my eyes away from the sniper sight. “You were right. You didn’t lie.”

 

“Nope,” Troy said. He sat down on one of the bed with his hands in his lap, looking useless. “What’s going on over there?”

 

I struggled to see. There was a giant, hulking man who was walking around the room; he looked out of place indoors, like he’d be more at home in the circus. I wondered where Margot had found them.

 

Then, suddenly, I saw her. Margot. Margot George, my long lost love. She stepped right into my range and I saw everything: her long dark hair, her exquisite body, her perfect face with the coal-black eyes.

 

Something inside of me snapped. I almost squeezed the trigger. Margot darted off to the side. I watched as she sat down next to Katie on the bed, laughing about something. Katie’s face was red and streaked with tears and I watched as Margot slapped her hard, three times in a row.

 

Rage and anger built up inside my belly. This was it, this was the moment I’d been waiting for. This was what my whole life had come to. Suddenly, I knew there was no way I could be with Margot again. There was no way I could ever trust her, not after what she’d done. Not after she’d lied about Matthias and her own death and everything. I started to wonder if Margot had ever told me the truth about anything. Had she ever really loved me? What was the whole point?

 

My hands were shaking; I took them off the gun and put them safely in my lap. Margot. Her name kept flashing in my mind. For years, I’d thought she would come back miraculously, and we’d be just as in love and happy as ever. But now everything was starting to make sense, everything was starting to fall into place.

 

“Margot never loved me,” I said aloud. “She was using me to get close to Matthias.”

 

Troy nodded. “That’s what I told you back at the clubhouse,” he said solemnly. For a moment he looked completely serious and respectable. “She never loved you,” he said and then he snorted. Anger bubbled up within me like a fountain. Troy sneered. “She never loved you, and you probably disgusted her. She only used you,” he added.

 

I reached into the waistband of my jeans and pulled out a handgun. Cocking it and pointing it at Troy’s forehead, I stared deeply into his eyes. “You need to apologize,” I said slowly.

 

Troy stammered and shook. He lost whatever measure of composure that he’d just had and he began to look like a wreck once again. “I’m sorry,” Troy sputtered. “I’m sorry I said that about Margot, I really am.”

 

I shook my head. “I don’t care about Margot,” I said truthfully. Hearing the words leave my mouth was a little surreal, but in that moment I knew it was the truth. “I care about Katie,” I said. “And you hurt her. I want you to apologize.”

 

A look of panic and horror came over Troy’s face. “I’m sorry,” he said slowly. “I’m sorry I hurt Katharina. I won’t ever do it again; I know better now.”

 

I fired the gun before he had a chance to say anything else. It went off with a loud bang and I felt my hand sting with the shock of the recoil. Troy’s mouth gaped and his eyes were still open. Blood was trickling down his face from a small wound on his forehead.

 

I felt both disgusted and satisfied. Killing him hadn’t felt as good as I wanted it to—it almost felt like I’d done a civic duty rather than defending my wife’s honor. But, now, he was dead and I had bigger fish to fry.

 

Shoving his body out of the way, I hunkered down in front of the sniper shot and took aim. Margot kept moving in and out of focus and I felt the sweat beading hot on my forehead as I tried to keep her in my line of sight. But she was too crafty—it was almost as if she knew she was being watched.

 

“Come on, come on,” I muttered under my breath. “Come on, Margot.”

 

But she didn’t stay put for long. The giant man kept walking around the room and finally, he moved in front of my line of sight. Bingo, again.

 

I pulled the trigger and shot. The sniper rifle sounded much louder than my handgun had when I’d shot Troy, and I watched as the glass shattered in the room across the way. I could hear screams—they sounded oddly distant, as if they were coming up from under water—and I saw the man had dropped dead. Instantly, I got to my feet and bolted out of the room. I knew I only had a limited amount of time before I could get to Margot and Katie, and I’d have to rush as quickly as I could.