You Fired a Tech Genius novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: The Boarded Store

Zoe knocked on my door at five in the morning.

I hadn't slept, and I hadn't taken off my boots.

She stood on the landing in her camel coat with her hair uncovered and her car keys in her fist, and she didn't say good morning.

"Get your jacket," she said.

"Zoe, I have to tell you what happened last night."

"In the car."

"It's about Gilbert."

"In the car, Axel."

We drove south in the dark with the heater ticking, past the shut-down rail yards and the ends of the Loop, and she kept her eyes on the road.

I told her everything.

I told her about the kitchen and the kettle and the twelve merchants, and the ham that came every Christmas for twelve years.

I told her what Gilbert had asked me to do.

I told her about Braxton, and the ten million, and what he would say about her if I said no.

She didn't interrupt once.

"I'm telling you because of your rule," I said, "not to put it on him."

"You think I don't know the difference?"

"I think you've got a right to be angry at me and not him."

"I am angry at you."

"Good."

She laughed, one hard breath through her nose, and then she turned onto 79th Street.

The block was dark and grey.

Halfway down, between a shuttered beauty supply and a lot full of weeds, a low brick store stood behind plywood boards painted white.

Above them, in letters that had faded to the color of tea, it said KOSTAS FRESH MARKET.

She parked at the curb and turned off the engine.

"It's been closed six years and six months," Zoe said. "I have never let anyone in but me."

"You don't have to..."

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