Read Online Death eBook 9.8.16 by Lila Rose, Justine Littleton - Free Book Online

day. To my left was a long concierge counter and waiting area. Ahead was a row of five elevators flanked by two sets of stairs. The entire space was pure opulence, but what drew, and held, my eyes was the intricate and meticulously inlaid marble and granite horse crest. I wanted to examine the design further, but Dean was already on the move.
    We entered the middle elevator, and he put a small key in a lock at the bottom of the control panel and then pushed the black button next to it.
    “Hope you don’t mind, but you will be staying in my quarters. In the guest room, of course. If you’re uncomfortable, we can move you to one of the guest suites, but we would have to call someone in early to air it out,” he added with hesitance.
    Biting my bottom lip, I offered a fake unfazed shrug, even though I was equally glad and excited by the suggestion. “Honestly, the last two days have been a nightmare, literally . I’d rather not be completely alone right now, so it works for me.” I watched his whole body visibly relax with my answer.
    He softly responded with, “Thank you.”
    With nothing else to say, I turned my attention to the rising floor numbers.
    10…
    11…
    12…
    The numbers may have stopped at the twelfth floor, but the elevator continued on to the next one up and stopped.
    “The thirteenth floor? Isn’t that bad luck? Most buildings skip it.”
    He stepped out and informed me with a sexy smirk, “That’s a myth. All the best things happen with the number thirteen. For instance, in Judaism, thirteen signifies the age at which a boy matures and reaches Bar Mitzvah. The first flag of the United States bore thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, and thirteen white stars in the blue union.” He shrugged and continued with his information, “There’s also a baker's dozen or a tarot card deck. XIII is the card of Death”—he wiggled his eyebrows at that one, like it had a special meaning, one I was missing—“and Connor’s personal favorite, Taylor Swift was born on December 13. She considers thirteen her lucky number. Tay-Tay, as he calls her, not that he has ever met the girl, is Connor’s guilty pleasure. He knows every song by heart.” He chuckled. “You can tease him about it.”
    “Oh, I will. It’s priceless,” I said with a gasp, laughing so hard I snorted, and stepped out of the elevator and into the hall with him. It was a long corridor with five wooden doors: two on either side and one more at the end of the hall, directly in front of us. Each door seemed to have something branded into it and a word written in a language I didn’t recognize; each in a different color as well. We stopped at the first door on the left. It was then I realized all the side doors had a horse head burned into it. I’m starting to sense a theme here . The one we were about to enter had strange writing on it, in a very pale off-white with a hint of blue.
    “This is me,” Captain Obvious pointed out as he opened the unlocked door. Who in the hell left their doors unlocked in this day and age? Weird.
    Dean cleared his throat, capturing my attention. “It’s only my brothers and I who have access to this floor. There’s no need to lock one’s door up here,” he answered my unspoken question—or had my mouth misfired again?
    “Aw, crabfish! Did I ask that aloud?”
    He smiled. “No, but your face is easy to read.”
    “Yeah, it’s why I rarely lie. Never seems to work,” I grumbled as we stepped into the open-layout industrial-looking living room. Everything was visible from the front door. The whole apartment was minimal and modern. Nothing like my old cluttered cottage.
    “You’ll stay in here.” He pointed before guiding us into a guest room to the right. “The boys and I will be in and out throughout the day, and I will leave our contact numbers on the kitchen counter. Otherwise, make yourself at home,” Dean offered as he dropped my laptop and overnight bag on the bed and moved to