Page 24 of Twisted Steel

“Anything.”

“I hate your bike.”The words fall from her lips, and from anyone else I would be offended.

“No, you don’t.”

“I do.It’s obnoxious.”She is poking me, trying to get a reaction.

“It’s fast,” I point out like an idiot.

“It’s loud,” she counters.

“You heard me leave earlier?”

She pauses before she answers quietly, “Yes.”

That one word does things to me that it shouldn’t.She heard me leave.She listened for it.She noticed when I was gone.

I cut down a side street and push the bike harder.“I’m close.”

“Steel.”

“What?”

“I think he’s inside.”

Everything in me shuts off.No noise.No heat.No heartbeat.Only purpose.

“What did you hear?”

“The window.Something opened.Maybe.I don’t know.I can’t...”Her voice cracks.Not much but enough.

I turn the corner onto her street with my lights off and kill the engine before I reach the building.The bike rolls silently to the curb.Her apartment is on the third floor with her bedroom window facing the alley.

I see the shape immediately.A man crouched on the fire escape outside her window, half-hidden in shadow, one hand prying at the frame.

He’s not inside, not yet.

“Stay in the closet,” I say.

“Are you here?”

“Yes.”

The man freezes at the sound of my boots on the metal ladder.He turns, but he’s too slow.I climb the fire escape fast, every step ringing beneath me.He reaches for his waistband.I grab his wrist before the weapon clears and break it against the railing.

His scream splits the night, and Harper gasps through the phone.

“Don’t listen,” I tell her.

Then I slam the man’s face into the brick.Once.Twice.His body goes loose, but not completely limp.I strip the knife from his belt and toss it down into the alley.Then I pin him by the throat against the railing and let him see me.

Recognition hits.

His broken mouth opens around blood.“Steel.”

“Wrong window,” I reply through gritted teeth.

He gurgles.I squeeze until his eyes bulge.