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“B-Boss!”
“What’s going on?” asked Rolf, frowning.
George glanced at his boss’ second-in-command, visibly unsure, and the duo of strangers behind them. The other mafiosos had scattered as soon as they had stepped in, leaving the poor young man to face the five of them.
“A... We, uh... The hacker...”
“What about Loir?” groaned Eden, suddenly worried.
Dante was slowly taking another drag on his cigarette, but the glare in his golden eyes was clear: whatever George was about to say, he’d better say it quickly and be careful with his words. The man swallowed his saliva, looking down as if he was putting the sentence together in his head.
“W-w-we lost him, Boss.”
“What do you mean, you ‘lost him’?” repeated Eden, furious. “He can’t even walk!”
“I-I know, but... he complained about the pizza we brought, and... for a while, he was very noisy too, so we were just trying to watch from outside... but then, the cameras went down, and... when we got inside the room, he was gone...”
Dante and Eden exchanged a look. How could Loir be gone when he was obviously in no condition to walk? Eden rolled her eyes. She couldn’t decide if she was mad at Loir for escaping his room, or mad at the mafiosos for losing him.
“What about my dogs?” she hissed. “Where are my dogs?”
George nervously glanced his boss’ way, but from the way Dante remained calm and quiet, Eden was in charge of asking questions and fully entitled to be the one yelling at him. He looked back at the young blonde.
“I-I’m not sure... There was only one when we got in...”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” she yelled, running down the hall.
Eden was worried. Where the hell would Loir have gone and why? He looked fine where he was before she left! He had been the one to let the Italians take him; how could he pull an escape stunt now? Moreover, why the hell would he take one of her dogs?!
She rushed to the elevator, furiously slamming the button as Dante, Jack, Rose, and Rolf followed her inside. Somehow, her colleagues had decided whatever was going on with her was their concern too. As the elevator went up, Jack couldn’t help himself from whispering, although they could all hear him.
“The hacker, does he mean your partner...?”
“Yeah.”
“And the dogs...”
“The pups I had with me the other day.”
Jack grimaced but didn’t ask more. To their surprise, Dante pushed the button to a lower floor than the one Eden was going to, and once the door opened, he leaned against the elevator wall, letting them through.
“Wait for us here,” he said.
Jack and Rose walked out without complaining, going into what looked like some sort of very luxurious waiting room or perhaps a bar’s salon. Eden couldn’t tell, and she was too bothered to check. In any case, she knew Dante wouldn’t do anything to them as long as she stayed with him. George glanced at the room too, dying to escape his boss and follow them. His eyes lingered on Rose’s figure, but he quickly looked back down. The doors closed, and Eden glared at the elevator’s screen as if it would have gone faster this way.
She ran out as the doors opened to the control room. Right away, a whimpering met her ears as Beer was trying to get out of one of Dante’s men’s grasp upon seeing his owner. The man, surprised to see his boss, let go of the pup and nervously assumed a stand-by position with the other mafiosos. Beer ran to Eden, who grabbed him right away, but she was already glancing around the room for a hint. Not only were Loir and Bullet gone, but so was his desk chair...
“How the hell did you manage to lose him?!” shouted Eden.
The men didn’t look scared of her, but Dante’s presence alone was obviously what made them terrified. She ran her hand through her hair, trying to think where he could have gone...
“...Our men are already looking throughout the whole building for them,” suddenly announced Rolf, a finger on his neck. “They are not on the upper floors or near the entrances. They didn’t leave.”
Eden frowned. She did believe it was very unlikely Loir could have actually left the building without Dante’s men catching him. She could understand he had hacked their system and hidden himself from the cameras, but there was actual human surveillance at each entrance, and that was something even Loir couldn’t evade. That was why he had never physically left their previous building, and instead...
“...Do you have a basement?”
“A basement?” repeated Dante, amused. “...We do have an underground garage.”
