The Monster In Us

35- i hAve to go

"Thanks, Vera," Denise says coolly. I pause, not really knowing if I had heard her correctly but when I turn around to look at her, I see her looking at me with a serious frown, her eyebrows raising at me, waiting for me to react. So she's part of the mob. I hadn't completely dissed that as a possibility but I really didn't think that she was one of them. I just thought that she was an innocent girl trying to make a name for herself in the marketing industry. And now I don't know what to do.

This whole room is probably part of the mob so if I start running, they'll chase me but what other choice do I have? She probably wants me to run, they probably have this entire room surrounded. How long have they known?

"It took you long enough." I tell her, trying to remain calm. Even if they do catch me and kill me here, they will not take my dignity, I'll make sure of that. I have to run, I know, but I might as well get whatever virus I have made now deployed because I don't have it saved anywhere except for on this computer so I can't take it with me. Quickly, I save my work and get it onto the servers, hoping that it will work but it's doubtful considering I didn't get time to test it. Then, slowly, I stand up from my desk.

"You're surrounded; they're going to catch you. Running will only make it worse," She warns me, not moving from her desk but she can tell that I'm about to run. She's a tiny lady, I'm sure that if she tries to stop me, I can take her. Then again, she really is full of surprises.

"That doesn't mean that I have to make it easy for them," I tell her, grabbing the Bluetooth out of my bag and I put it on my ear to tap into the Berardi security, hoping that my tap even still works. I'm depending on it. "Where's the fun in that?"

She opens her mouth to respond but without any warning, I take off running, sprinting through the office. Nobody tries to tackle me or anything, I'm just getting a ton of weird looks. Either they're not part of the mob or they haven't been included in the news yet, which is good for me either way.

I thank myself for wearing flats this morning. They aren't comfortable to run in, don't get me wrong, but they're much easier for running than the heels that I had been running in a few days before.

I get into the stairway that leads up to the second floor of the offices and I go up the stairs and I don't stop running.

"Where's Dante?" I hear Giovanni ask in the Bluetooth. I'm relieved that the Bluetooth is still working so that I have at least a general idea of where they are and how close I am to escaping. I don't have my phone so I can't get ahold of Pantera or Sergei at all. Without their help, I'm almost completely fucked but like I told Denise, I'm not going to stop fighting until I'm dead.

"He went to lunch," Somebody else responds. "He's not answering his phone."

"Find him," Giovanni orders. On the second floor of the offices, I speed walk as to not draw too much attention to myself, and then I slyly walk through that large room and into the hallway that leads to the elevator. The elevator goes all the way to the top floors of the hotel complex and I know that I shouldn't want to go higher but I'm hoping that they won't look for me up there. Then again, the elevator probably has cameras. I have to take that risk right now.

At the elevator, however, the Berardi clan catches up to me. Two men in nice suits approach me looking very upset and very confident that they can take me down pretty easily. I may not have the muscle mass but I make up for that in reflexes and strength and so I prepare for a battle.

"I'm really not in the mood to deal with this, little girl," One of them mumbles at me.

"World's smallest violin, old man," I respond before he tries to grab my wrist but I instead use that hand to punch him in the face. The other man comes up from behind me and wraps his arms around my midsection, binding my arms to my sides. I look down and then whip my head back in hopes of breaking his nose with the back of my head. It does really hurt the back of my head but it does cause him to let go of me. I elbow him in the face again just as the elevator door opens so I step inside. Both men are stunned enough to be unable to stop me from getting onto the elevator so I quickly push the button to shut the doors.