I've Died Here Before novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Mask

Holden's POV

The police lost the yacht at the New Jersey side at six.

Dean was gone, and his phone was at the bottom of the Hudson.

By seven, the detective had said the same thing three times.

"Without Dean, we have a hostage and a video. The sister was never on the boat on paper."

Addie was asleep in a chair beside Hattie's hospital bed with her wet coat still over her knees.

She had one hand hanging open, and I stood in the doorway and counted her breaths.

Rule two said I tell her before I decide anything about her.

I had made the rule at 3:51 in the morning, and I meant every word.

I also knew exactly what she would say.

She would say that it was stupid, and that Giselle would see through me, and that she was coming too.

All three would be true.

I took my coat off the back of the other chair and told the guard at the door to let nobody in.

He nodded.

I went down the stairs, so no one would see me leave, and I did not wake her.

Giselle kept a suite on the twenty-second floor of Hotel Courtland for the Foundation.

She opened the door in a cream robe with her hair already brushed.

"Holden," she said, and she looked so pleased that I almost believed it.

"I need to talk to you."

"Of course. Come in, darling. I ordered breakfast for two."

She had.

A silver pot of coffee sat on the table by the window, with two cups and a plate of croissants.

She poured mine before I sat down.

A small microphone was clipped inside my jacket lapel, the size of a button.

My security chief had put it there at six.

My phone sat in my breast pocket, recording as well.

"I was wrong about Thursday," I said.

"Were you?"

"I was wrong about all of it. Dean went too far this morning, and I know he did it for you."

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