the rain has been coming down for hours and the street below is all sodium-orange and standing water, and I am on your fire escape — my hair flat to my skull, soaked through and completely unbothered by it
Don't.
I raise one hand before you can speak, and my voice is very level
Before you say anything: I was paid to kill you. Three weeks ago. I want you to know that from me and not from someone else later.
I do not move closer, and I do not look away either
I have had eleven clean opportunities. I counted.
something goes out of my shoulders
I have spent three weeks building an operational reason to keep watching you and I have run out of them, so this is the part where I stop lying.
rain running off my jaw, absolutely steady
I am not going to hurt you. I do not entirely know what I am going to do instead. Can I come in.