NightLock: A compelling thriller you won't be able to put down by Sophie Edwards

Author:Sophie Edwards [Edwards, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lillabe Books
Published: 2024-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

52

The evening carried a slight chill and gentle breeze over the courtyard where people filtered around me towards the mats, waiting for the competition to start. I hated those mats, the sessions I’d had with Victor. Would he be there? With a fractured knee he could hardly train anyone. Maybe he’d gone away to recover.

I flexed my fingers, struggling to make my legs move. He might’ve been waiting for me. Ready with a knife. A gun. Anything that would cause pain – and a lot of it. Not that he needed a weapon for that. He’d once spoken of snapping a man’s neck with a single movement.

The air grew thick again. Hard to breathe.

“Sally.” Yakov took my shoulder, falling into step beside me. His hand smelled like gun powder, and dark smudges marked his fingernails. “What were you doing before dinner?”

Straight to the point, as usual. “I went for a walk.”

“A walk?” Scepticism filled his tone, and he gave me one of those looks that said, ‘I want to shake you right now’.

“It cleared my head.”

His hand tightened. “The real reason.”

I pushed him off. His ability to read me was dangerous. If he wasn’t so determined to lie for me, I’d be dead already. Or worse. But his secret agenda worried me more. What could he possibly want? “Does it matter?”

“Tell me.”

“You’ve got your secrets. I’ve got mine.”

When I walked away, he followed, keeping close step beside me. “Some truths are best kept hidden.”

“Exactly,” I said. “So, mind your own business.”

He stepped forward then and blocked my path, pausing while three teenagers passed us. He nodded at them and lowered his voice. “I need to know. For your protection.”

I almost laughed. A killer with a sense of humour. That was something. I tried to sidestep him, but he grabbed my forearm with a hot hand.

“You will tell me,” he said.

“No. I won’t.” I tugged out of his grip – and he didn’t fight it, because others walked past, and he had a secret, too. He couldn’t afford to draw attention to us. “You know things,” I said. Things that would help me understand why Venom took me. But until he told me— “I’ll swap you.” Eagerness burst into my tone.

His forehead creased. “Swap me?”

“A secret for a secret.”

His eyebrows twitched, and his words seemed to strangle in his throat. He shook his head. “That’s not how this works.”

“Then, I have nothing to say.” I marched past him to the mats. Of course, he’d say no. Deep down, I’d known as much, but it didn’t stop the disappointment.

The students gathered around the mats left little room to watch. Nick waved at us from the left and beckoned us over. “All right?” he asked. Russian. I didn’t reply, presuming he was talking to Yakov.

Yakov nodded at a teen on the mats. “You think he’s ready for this?”

The boy wore all black, his slim stature blending into the shadows. Aside from an excited gleam in his eyes, he wore a relaxed expression – the kind I’d seen on Yakov on assignment.

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