Killing Eva Read Online Free PDF

how very tired she was. She looked at the screen but couldn’t read what was on it. She closed the computer and shut her eyes.
    Stefano Cirza stared in horror at the man in front of him, who held a metal claw at his throat. At the end of another late night in the lab, a feeling had crept over him that he wasn’t alone. It was the same instinct he’d had several nights previously. When he had finally seen the stocky black man standing silently watching him, it had dawned on him he had indeed not been alone that night either. In fact, ever since that night he’d instinctively felt someone was in his life, silently watching, and now this man had let himself in with a code known only to Stefano and his research assistant – who had been on an extended holiday for the past three weeks.
    When the eyes of the two men had met, neither had moved for several seconds. But then, before Stefano could summon security, the metal claw was at his throat.
    â€˜W-what do you want?’ he stuttered, every nerve ending on the back of his skull alight.
    â€˜I am sure you already know.’ The accent was most definitely African but, other than that, Stefano could not tell.
    â€˜Who are you?’
    â€˜My name is Joseph Smith.’
    With a sinking feeling, Stefano realised that the ease with which the man had revealed his name did not indicate a positive outcome. One in which Stefano was left breathing.
    He felt the metal implement begin to graze his skin and he wondered why the man didn’t just carry a gun. Why bother with the theatrics of such a cruel thing?
    â€˜What is that?’ he asked, nodding as far as he could without the metal piercing his skin. Perhaps he could appeal to the man’s better nature, make a connection with him.
    â€˜Bagh nakh. Tiger claws. They are from India.’
    Stefano started to speak again but the other man interrupted. ‘No,’ he said and took a step back, removing the tiger claw from Stefano’s throat.
    Stefano tried to calm his heart but he knew what was coming.
    Smith stepped forward and drove the metal implement through Stefano’s thigh, slashing it down so that it was possible to hear the tearing of skin and muscle as it was ripped from the bone.
    He covered Stefano’s mouth to stifle the scream. ‘If you give me what I need I will slash your throat so you die quickly. If you don’t I will butcher your body so that you feel every single cut.’
    Stefano clutched at his thigh, the blood was running warm and sticky through his hands. His eyes met those of his aggressor once again.
    â€˜I want to live!’ It was a cry that bubbled up from Stefano’s very core. He did not want this choice. It wasn’t any choice at all.
    There wasn’t even a flicker of empathy in those black eyes. ‘You cannot. Now make your decision.’
    Shaking, Stefano closed his eyes. That it should come to this. Had his ex-business partner died at the hands of this man too – was that why he had disappeared? When he opened his eyes again, there was an acceptance of sorts. He was not a coward and he would die with as much dignity as he could. The pain in his leg from the first cut was bitter and he knew he could not take that over and over again.
    He began slowly to lift a chain from around his neck. On it hung a small metal box. His entire body was shaking almost uncontrollably. The other man steadied his hands. Stefano opened the box and handed over a boxy key. He tried to speak but Joseph Smith was too fast.

FOUR
    When she opened her eyes, she felt she was dead straight away. There was a lightness to her limbs and a heaviness in her heart that told her she hadn’t managed to escape this time with her life. She didn’t live in fiction; she wasn’t superhuman and her dreams of being something more had all been snatched away.
    And then the pain started.
    First, a gnawing sensation in her stomach that grew in intensity like a