He Bet My Life and Lost Me Instead novel · Chapter 22 of 32
Chapter 22: The Nineteenth Floor
The text came at nine that night, from a number I didn't know.
Harlan Street. The nineteenth floor. Come alone and I'll answer. I'll even tell you the part you don't remember.
I showed it to Sam across my grandmother's table.
His face went hard and then very still.
"It's a trap," he said.
"Yes."
"You're going anyway."
"I'm going to take my phone, my inhaler, and Marco on an open line." I turned the screen toward him. "I'm going to get her to say it, and I'm going to come down."
"And me?"
He said it carefully.
"I want you at the bottom of the building, with the truck," I said. "If I stop talking for two minutes, you come up."
"Two minutes."
"I'll ask you to carry me if I need it."
His jaw flexed.
"I'll be at the bottom," he said.
The Harlan Street tower had been gutted to its frame.
Plastic sheeting hung from the floors, and a yellow crane stood against the lake wind.
A demolition notice on the fence said the first blast crew was due in the morning.
The freight hoist on the outside of the building ran on a generator, with its cage lit by one bare bulb.
I rode it up alone.
Nineteen floors of black air went by.
At the top, the concrete floor was bare, and there was a smell I knew in my bones, ash soaked in old water.
Lydia stood by the east wall in a long dark coat, with a red scarf at her throat.
"I wore it for you," she said, touching it. "I thought you might remember."
"I don't."
"No. You were busy."
She had a flashlight in one hand, and the other hand was in her pocket.
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