“What the fuck?” Wes gasped.
“Yes what the fuck indeed.” I frowned and kicked out at the waste paper bin by the table. It flew across the room and crashed into the wall.
“Xander calm down.” Ethan had the audacity to say to me.
I glowered at him. “What do you fucking mean by calm down?”
I was ready to explode. Ready to explode and take the building down with me.
“This has just become worse but you need to calm so we can focus.” That was his answer. “Did you get close to him at all?”
“No, he was in the other building adjacent to the coffeehouse. I wouldn’t have reached him. He knew that. It’s just like the past Ethan. He was screwing with me, making me run after him, knowing I wouldn’t make it.”
Just like the mission to save Vlad and the orphanage…
The disaster that happened there was something I would never get over.
Knowing you had no chance to save people you knew were minutes from death.Children.
It was stuff like that why I didn’t talk much. I had too much shit on my mind.
All bad. All packed with death. Too much death.
Now there was this.
“I think we need to just focus,” Ethan repeated.
“Like fuck,” I cut in before he could continue that shit about focusing. “Ethan this is a whole other playing field. You and I both know that man only makes his presence known for some reason. The question we should be asking ourselves is what. What is the reason? And, what do we know is in Vegas that this prick could want? The fucking blueprints that Giovanni has. That’s what! The shootout and everything that’s happened so far is all linked to him. It’s him Ethan, not just the Ra in general on their own. It’s Balthazar and The Spades.”
My damn heart was beating so fucking fast I thought it was going to leap out of my chest. The more I thought about all of it, the pieces of the puzzle came together.
And as it did I thought of Jia. I was already worried about her. That worry had filled my soul the minute I knew of The Ra’s involvement.
Now it was so much worse. Balthazar wouldn’t hesitate to take her if he got desperate. The only reason why he probably hadn’t yet was that he’d seen some other way of getting what he wanted.
He’d get desperate though soon enough the longer Giovanni had the blueprints.
It just made me wonder what he could have been planning.
Why had I seen him today?
“How did he know about me? How did he know where to find me?” I asked blowing out a ragged breath. There was so much to factor in.
“Jesus.” Wes nodded.
“He must have been watching you,” Ethan surmised. “Xander, we have to get the prints as soon as possible and wrap this up. We can’t allow that man to get them.”
That fucking went without saying.
“The fingerprint mold should be ready for later. Give it another two hours or so. Giovanni needs me on a job tonight, so you guys go to the chamber ahead of me. Wes you take the lead.” I looked from Ethan to Wes. “I’ll meet you the minute I’m done.”
That was how we had to roll out the plans for tonight.
Ethan nodded. “Sure. I’m going to see what the other team on lookout can do, and intel. They may be able to run some searches on the area for Balthazar.”
That would help. “Do everything.”
“Of course, Xander, please focus. I know what seeing him means to you but focus. Balthazar is a very unpredictable man. His presence could mean anything. It could be a warning in the sense of showing you that he’s around and a player in this game.”
