The Ninth Floor (26 page)

“Exactly.
Vivian would’ve known where I lived all through my school years, even before
she was my roommate. Why would she keep sending them to the wrong place? I’m
going to the hospital.”

He released
me. “I’m driving.”

I followed him
to his car and we traveled as we always did, in silence. It was easy to be
silent with Aiden. When we pulled into the parking lot, he leaned over,
unlocked his glove compartment, pulled out a handgun, and tucked it into the
back of his pants. He had another in a holster he wore over his shoulder.

When he was
ready, we got out and he walked me inside with his hand on my lower back,
gently guiding me. We headed for the stairs and took each one like we were
marching into battle, and maybe we were. When we finally made it to the ninth
floor, Aiden took a deep breath. “Have at it, Houdini.”

I squared my
shoulders and went to the door, one slow step at a time, but nothing happened.
Not even a rattle. I made it all the way to the door and put my hand against
it, but nothing. “You need to leave,” I told him.

“Not gonna
happen.” He stood with his arms crossed, watching me.

“I know how
this sounds. Trust me, I do. But it isn’t going to open with you here.”

Aiden didn’t
say that that’s because it was never going to work because locks do not
magically come undone or make any of the other perfectly reasonable responses
he could have. Instead he said, “Then we’ll find another way.”

I stared at
the doors and thought back to the previous times they showed signs of life.
Last time I was alone, which wasn’t an option, and before that I’d been with
Dr. Sadler. Maybe it was something to do with heightened emotions. “Kiss me.”

Aiden went
completely still and his eyebrows lowered. “Excuse me?”

“Kiss. Me.” I
nodded. “The only other time the locks started to fall off was when I was here
with Jack.”

Aiden moved
toward me, his eyes serious and closed off. When he was in touching distance he
said, “No.”

“Damn it,
Aiden—”

A scream that
sounded far away but definitely came from behind those doors cut me off.

“You heard
that, right?”

He gave a
slight nod and inspected the locks.

“Vivian?” I
shouted and was answered with another scream.

“Go get help.
Go to the tenth floor and get a custodian, nurse, the police, whoever has a
key,” Aiden commanded.

I started for
the stairs.

“Ryan?”

I paused.

“Throw your
family name around as much as possible. If you have to, call your father and
raise holy hell until someone lets us on this floor.”

I took the
steps two at a time and ran directly for the nurses’ station, scanning the
hallways for anyone who worked there, but everything was quiet. I stood at the
counter, tapping my foot and frantically looking around. How was it possible
that no one was there?

I dug through
my purse for my cell phone and came across a business card for Melinda
Schaffer, the hospital administrator. I called her number and the hurried
sounding woman answered on the third ring. “Schaffer, hello?”

“This is Ryan
Sterling.”

“Well, hello,
Ms. Sterling. What can I do for you?” A nurse came out of a nearby room,
carrying a small tray.

“I need to get
into the ninth floor.” The nurse dropped the tray and stared at me. “Right now.”

“Ms. Sterling—”
Schaffer’s voice had that too familiar tone of regret.

“I don’t have
time to fuck around. Someone’s on the floor screaming as we speak. I need you
to open the door or find someone who can—or I’ll start calling each of the
hospital board members, starting with my mother and brother.”

The other end
of the line was silent.

“If someone
else is dying, Ms. Schaffer, it’s on you,” I said through gritted teeth.

She sighed. “I’ll
meet you in the north stairwell.”

“Fine.” I ran
back down to get Aiden. We headed for the north stairwell and arrived just
before her. She glared at me as she walked up.

“This is
highly irregular.”

“But screams
coming from a locked floor are normal?” Aiden said.

She pursed her
lips. “They are more common than I would like.” She unlocked the door at a
painstaking pace. I strode back and forth like a caged animal while I waited.
Aiden stood silently between us.

Schaffer
pulled the chains through the handles and opened the doors. I skirted around
her and Aiden and entered first. I was slightly disappointed that it looked
like a dated, dirty version of every other floor. “Hello,” I called.

Nothing.

“Check rooms.”
Aiden’s voice made my heart jump up into my throat. We moved down the hallway
together, Ms. Schaffer trailing behind, checking in each room. We did the first
couple together. “You do left, I’ll do right.”

“Okay.” I
started to go into the room nearest me, but he caught my arm.

“Do not leave
the hallway or my sight for any reason—just look. Do you understand?”

I nodded. We
moved down the hallway, approaching the nurses’ station. One door—nothing. Two
doors—nothing. Three doors—my stomach twisted with anticipation. At any minute
I expected to be attacked. For something, anything, to jump out, but there was
nothing. The longer it went on, the tighter my insides wound. I didn’t get to
check the seventh door on my side. Aiden’s stillness and Ms. Schaffer’s gasp at
their sixth sent a chill down my spine. I turned slowly, but Aiden had already
shut the door.

“Who was it?”
The words barely pushed out of my throat.

“Call the
police,” he told Schaffer. She nodded, stuttered something incoherent, and ran
down the hall to the door.

“Aiden?”

He shook his
head. “It’s not Vivian.”

Relief took
all the fight out of me. “Thank God.”

He nodded but
had the distinct look of someone who was holding something back.

“Who was it?”

“I’m not sure.”
Aiden’s hand twitched up near the gun. “We should go downstairs and wait for
the police.”

“The police
don’t investigate what happens here. They’ll sweep it under the rug.”

“I don’t think
they’ll have a choice this time.”

“You know who
it is, don’t you?”

“I have a
guess.” His head jerked to the right.

I followed his
gaze. “Did you hear something?”

“Maybe.” He
looked back at me. “We either need to go downstairs or check the rest of this
floor. I don’t like not knowing who we’re up here with.”

I brushed my
hair back from my face. “Why won’t the police have a choice?”

He frowned. “I
think it’s Briggs.”

I clamped a
hand over my mouth. That wasn’t possible. My legs wobbled, so I lowered myself
to my knees, staring past Aiden to the closed door. I had to look. We had to be
sure. “I have to go in there.”

Aiden gave a
curt shake of his head. “You don’t need to see that.”

“He was only
here because of me. What if it isn’t him? What if there’s a clue, a hint? You
didn’t even go in. He could still be alive.”

“Ryan, if that’s
him, there’s no way he’s alive.” Aiden offered me his hand and pulled me back
to my feet. “But if you want to go in there, I won’t try to stop you.”

I closed my
eyes. I didn’t want to go in. I didn’t want to see what could rattle Aiden, but
I had to. I wiped away tears and opened my eyes. Aiden moved out of my way. My
fingers gripped the handle and I paused. “Will you come with me?”

“I’m always
with you.”

I opened the
door but couldn’t step through. Vomit rose to my throat. The body strapped to
the bed with thick, blood-soaked belts was barely recognizable. The lower part
of his jaw had collapsed and thick streams of blood seeped from the edges of
his mouth. Long, gnarled gashes covered his bruised and broken body. His bright
blue eyes stared lifelessly toward the door.

My stomach
lurched. I backed into Aiden, and he steadied me. “I’m going to be sick.” I
shoved past him and took off running to a trashcan. I threw up until I had
nothing left in me. Briggs was dead. I slid down the wall and pressed my face
into my knees. A sour, bitter taste filled my mouth and my eyes burned.

“You need to
come back.”

I looked up at
Aiden. “Why?”

“There’s a
message for you.” He held out his hand to me.

I took a deep
breath and pushed myself up. I could do this. I had to do this.

“It’s written
on the wall across from the body. Try not to look at him.”

The room had a
sweet metallic smell that made my stomach roll, but I didn’t look toward the
body. Tacked to the wall was a note with “Ryan” scrawled across it in the same
handwriting as all the other notes. I reached out and plucked it down, not
caring about fingerprints and evidence. He hadn’t left any so far. I doubted he’d
be so stupid now. I unfolded the sheet.

Do I have
your attention now?

No one will
ever take you away from me again. Don’t let anyone else come between us, Ryan,
or the blood will be on your hands.

It is
almost time. I will come for you soon. If you behave, the girl will live. If
you fight me, she will suffer a worse fate than your boyfriend. We will be
together forever. One way or another.

I crumpled the
note and dropped it to the floor. If he wanted me, why didn’t he just come and
get me? Why do this?

“I’m not going
to let him take you.” Aiden’s voice was soft but filled with determination.

“I can’t let
him kill Vivian.”

“I know,” he
said.

At the end of
the hallway, the main door slammed open and I yelped. Aiden’s hand went to his
gun, and two police officers burst through, guns drawn. After a series of
questions and explanations as to why we were in here, they sent us back to the
hallway. We stood next to Ms. Schaffer, who was leaning against the wall, a
pinched expression on her face.

Deputy Perry
showed up, and Aiden and I told him everything we knew, which wasn’t a lot. When
we were finally cleared to leave, Aiden took me home because I had no idea
where to begin looking for Vivian if she wasn’t on the ninth floor. All the
people who could potentially be targets drifted into my thoughts: my parents,
Ashley, Blair, Jack, and even Aiden. But why the window washer, who I never
spoke with? Why the nurses? I licked my lips. “Maybe you should go back to Boston. No one died while I was there.”

Aiden was
quiet for a while. “I think it’s too late now, no matter what you do. He has a
taste for killing. It isn’t your fault Briggs is dead.”

I swallowed
hard and looked out the window. “I know.”

“And even if
your family never paid me another cent, I still wouldn’t leave you right now.”

I appreciated
Aiden’s loyalty and that he was trying to make me feel better, even though it
didn’t work. “What about the surveillance of the stairwell? Did the tapes show
anyone going in or out of the floor? How did people not see someone dragging
Briggs there?”

“There wasn’t
anything in the stairwell.”

I didn’t
understand. If it wasn’t a ghost, then how was the person avoiding being
filmed? “I’m not going to survive this, am I? How can we fight against
something we can’t see?”

Aiden pulled
up in front of my building. “If you die, I die, and I have no intention of
dying any time soon.”

“Why do you do
it?”

“Because it’s
my job.”

My heart
tightened in my chest as I fumbled for the handle. I was just another job to
him. There was no real connection between us. Suddenly I felt very stupid for
feeling otherwise. I shoved open the door and trudged upstairs, but once I
entered the apartment, the reality of everything that had transpired hit me
like a sledgehammer. I couldn’t stay there. I only had one place I could go.

“Ryan, I wasn’t
quite finished.”

I ignored him.
I didn’t want to hear any more about how I was a paycheck to him. “Where are my
dogs?”

“I asked your
father to pick them up after we left for the hospital.”

“I can’t stay
here.”

“Where would
you like to go?”

“Where do you
live?” He raised an eyebrow—always so evasive. “I know you haven’t been living
in your car this whole time.”

He nodded. “I
got a place across the street so I could stay close.”

“By ‘stay
close’ you mean spy.” I felt violated in general and I knew I shouldn’t take it
out on him, but he was here and available. “What if I want to go there, to your
place?”

He blinked. “Fine.”

He led me
across the street and up to a loft above a shot bar. Sparse was too generous of
a word to describe where he was staying. A mattress lay on the floor, the
covers tight across it. One chair faced the window looking at my place. A
fridge. A hot plate. That was literally it. The base thumped against the
floorboards from the bar below.

“You’ve been
staying here?”

“Your brother
pulled some strings with the owner.”

“Gee, that was
big of him.” I rolled my eyes. It was worse than Bee’s before I worked on it. “You
know a lot about my life, don’t you?” A pair of headphones and a small receiver
next to the chair caught my eye. “Is my house bugged?”

“It was
difficult to protect you when I had to stay hidden from you. So I had to do as
many security sweeps and background checks as I could before you arrived
somewhere. You didn’t exactly give me your schedule. I’m afraid your privacy
had to suffer as a result.”

“Huh.” I sat
in the chair, put on the headphones, and listened to my still apartment for a
moment. “I bet you have opinions about the things I’ve been doing.”

“It isn’t my
job to have opinions.” He folded his arms behind his back.

I shook my
head and didn’t bother trying to hide my disappointment. “You’re impossible to
talk to.” I slumped down in the chair and stared at the dark windows of my apartment.
I imagined all the nights Aiden did this very thing and considered everything
he’d seen and heard. Was the stalker also watching? Did he see me with other
people too? Is that why he killed Briggs?