The Alpha King Call Boy – Chapter 163
Third Person
The lights never went completely off on the top floor of the Crescent Ventures tower.
Around ten p.m., most of them went into energy-save mode, flickering to less than half their daytime brightness, before turning back up at four a.m.
’s office lights never timed off or dimmed at all. What a nuisance it would be to have to keep turnin
to a frenzy.
l hours. All the big ones. Had given many reassurances. Had advised against a lot of unwise, panic-fueled ideas. He was exhausted.
, and not in his desk chair. Fifteen minutes, maybe he could get away with.
d adrenaline.
national economy.
not be on his uncle. For at least a little while.
that Conrad sensed something was wrong.
omething was of
stood up on t
r.
already opening it.
as no “flight” reflex inside his body, no trace of it anywhere. Never had been. Only “figh
the control panel beside the door.
ned his head.
d himself fa
rsthand…
n’t speak.
e look on his face, tho
a new shape, twisting in his stomach like pain.
altered, quieted, and ceased.
“It’s over.”
silence was intolerable.
o the door, before he dropped them to the floor. His eyes felt wet. He was afraid to blink.
, flickered like fire.
the first place.
slowly, feeling his shoulders hunchin
his elbows on his knees for balance.
age that would stick like resin in his mind’s eye and plague his nightmares.
. Confirming this itself was not a dream. It was really happening.
rectly.
h. Where is he?”
roat was dry. His voice didn’t work.
all he had: maybe.
e Fiona.
n her finger. A big o
her.
.
ch worse.
ld have been a problem. It would always have been a mistake to disobey a direct
Conrad was aware of, and he should have thought about… but…
“what-ifs” didn’t
hed to clear his throat. Tried again to speak,
hisper. “It was an accident.”
Alexander
I’m so sorry. I swear to you, nephew. I didn’t plan to kill him. I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean for a
ucking idiot.
too.
on to it at all. My uncle had conned me expertly. I was disgusted with myself for having been such an easy mark.
ing someone so blindly
ly.
re you ever
ncle’s face, leaving it gray.
ticular look in his eyes, one familiar to me. It was the fear of imminent death. The resig
right now, anyway. And hopefully not ever.
ead from side to side.
self.
d started waiting for him—it was coming to a simmer inside my veins. Getting my blood hotter, closer, closer to a boil,
oded in all directions and smashed again the room’s glass walls, shook them, left them vibrating.
“There’s nothing left.”
iss himself.
mpatiently. “You’re not going to die tonight, Conr
relief he breathed next was like a death rattle.
you,” he said quietly. “Ale
ses. “Just tell me what happened, Conrad. The real story. The tru
t. I’ve… I’ve been keeping eyes on him for some time.”
hat that means.”
a.
total, twenty-four hour surveillance.”
lowed…”
tigators, who signed NDAs.”
getting worse and worse. Now
I went where they told me he was, and then called them off. And I followed him myself from there.”
, his Adam’s apple protruding more than ever, bobbing up and down nervously.
se, and then… well… I couldn’t just let him go. I took him and… and…”
whiskey.
ne for myself, too.
d me the rest of his story with less pauses, hemming, and hawing.
to get up and walk out of there when the story was over, without laying a hand on my stupid, stupid uncle.
hough, before I left, that he wasn’t approved for any more vacation days. And warned h