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So he speaks. And he doesn’t seem dumb. As I dry myself, I notice something else about him – the wound on his arm that looks poorly stitched. Ghastly, actually. I notice his tattoo not far from it as well, which has the face of a little girl.
I grin. Dealing with this one is going to be a piece of cake.
~
As soon as I’m out of the room, I proceed slowly down the hall. It’s empty.
I reach the stairwell and look down, hoping to find it clear as well. It’s not. There are two armed men on the landing. Great.
With the gun I got from Kramer, the guy who’s now in the handcuffs that used to be on me, shooting one guy after the other is an option. But not for me. I’m not Cain.
My brains have always been my strong suit. They helped me escape Kramer. I use them again to create a distraction – an explosion in one of the rooms. Sure enough, those two come running. Before more can appear, I go down the stairs. I hear more guards coming up from below so I hide behind the curtains on the landing. When they’ve passed me by, I rush down the rest of the steps.
I immediately catch a glimpse of another guard so I sneak into a room. As I hide behind the door, a gloved hand clamps over my mouth.
Again? Not this time.
I still have the gun in my hand so I hit the man behind me with the butt as hard as I can. When his hand comes off me, I turn and point my gun at him. I lower it when I recognize the man in front of me.
“Leo?”
I feel like I’m staring at my own clone so I know it’s him.
“Antonio.” He wraps his arms around me. “I thought you were dead.”
I wrap my own arm around him. “And I didn’t know you existed.”
He pulls away. “So your girlfriend told me.”
Girlfriend? Triss? She met Leo?
“She’s pretty, by the way,” Leo says. “But don’t worry, I have my own girlfriend.”
That’s not what I’m worried about.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
“Rescuing you. I thought you’d be tied up in the attic or something.”
I glance at my wrists. “I was cuffed but I escaped.”
“How?”
I shrug. “I used my brains. The guy watching me wasn’t as tough as he looked.”
Leo grins. “I’m glad you’re not dead. Now, tell me, where’s Sergio Bianchi?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Triss
Where’s Antonio?
The question continues to plague my mind as I sit inside the hotel room waiting for news about him. Any news. It’s been hours and I still have none.
And I’ve grown tired of waiting. Time to put the idea that hatched in my head a while ago into action.
I walk towards Gina, who is currently feeding Lara. Like everyone else, she got wrapped around Lara’s finger in a matter of minutes. Now I need to try and wrap her around mine, or at least make her give in to my request.
“Gina.” I sit beside her. “I was wondering if I could ask something of you.”
She meets my gaze. “What?”
“Do you know where they’re keeping my ex, Jim? They said something about a van.”
“Yes. Why?”
I draw a breath. “I was wondering if I could talk to him.”
“Why?”
So that I can ask him where Antonio is. I have a feeling he knows.
“Because I know he’s going to jail. I don’t want to visit him there, but there are some things that I want to tell him, you know, to get off my chest, to get some kind of closure.”
“I thought he’s your ex,” Gina says. “Didn’t you dump him already?”
“Actually…”
I tell Gina my story. When I’m done, she looks like she’s about to cry. She may be a trained agent or whatever she is, but she’s a woman, too.
“So you see,” I tell her, “I just want to be the one with the last word. I want him to know that he can’t hurt me anymore, that he’ll rot in jail and I’ll be happy. I win. I want him to be as miserable as can be, even more miserable than how he made me feel for so long.”
Gina nods. “Okay. I’ll take you to the van.”
~
I have it to give it to Gina. She not only brought me to the van like she said, but she even asked Everett to leave me alone with him. I should thank her later. For now, I have a date with the monster who made my life a living hell for years.
He doesn’t look much like a monster now. He’s tied to a chair and half his face is bruised and swollen. He has a few cuts on his lips. Still, he manages a grin.
“Well, hello there,” Jim greets me. “I didn’t think you’d come and rescue me.”
