// THIRTEEN //
"What are you doing here, May? I was expecting you to send Darius to save me, but to throw yourself in this, not smart," Cass mutters.
"Cyrus and Darius advised me against it. Em was even very reluctant to let me leave, but I convinced them all. I went all CSI on their asses and made them believe that I needed to be the one Pete made the switch with."
"But look at how that turned out?"
I stare at my arms twisted behind me, cuffed to the leg of an armoire bolted to the floor. I stare at Cass cuffed to the bed pole. They screwed us over and got me in this mess whilst never letting Cass out. They played us.
"Even if I would have sent Darius, he would've been stopped in the fake crash and you would still be here. At least now, there is someone back in Lugano looking over Cyrus and Em."
She nods to herself.
"Did you sleep okay last night?" she asks.
"As okay as sleeping with you arms cuffed behind you can be. How have you been doing this?"
"Well, thanks to you, I want to say I didn't have to do it for long, but from the looks of it, we're both stuck here a little while. Better get used to it now."
I sigh. I want to promise her our escape, but I don't know anything more than she does at this point.
"Darius and Cyrus will find us. Don't worry."
"They could have me in their big bulky arms right now on the way out of this place and I'll still worry."
I snort. There's the Cass I know and love.
"Mike is going crazy not knowing if you're okay."
She shakes her head furiously and I can almost see tears.
"Don't say that. Don't talk about him."
Mike Keller is one of the most decent humans I know and he is most probably not going to teach any of Cass' courses. He won't be her teacher and they are so compatible. What is making her sad?
"What did you guys talk about before you were taken, Cass?"
She sniffs, but her tears are invisible.
"He told me that he liked me a lot and he wishes that he could get to know me and to love me."
"What's wrong with that?" I ask excited. He knows he'll love her eventually. That's powerful.
"That he said he couldn't. May, he wished he could but said that he couldn't."
"I don't understand, why?"
"He said it was something personal."
I shake my head in confusion. I try recalling everything I know about him. I understand if he would feel the need to put his job first, but he didn't even mention that as being the problem. He knows that he won't be Cass' teacher and he even said so himself, it was better if he wasn't.
We did find out that his brother was the person that took Cass away and that he was sick, but that was after their talk. How could he...
I gasp. "Has he ever mentioned anything about his sick brother?" I ask.
She nods. "He didn't know he was sick but he's mentioned his estranged brother. Why? How do you know he's sick?"
"'Cause I traced the DNA of the blood of the guy you punched on your rings. It matched with his and he had sickle-cell disease. He was taken aback by that too."
He might have been faking, I thought.
"Something personal?" she questions almost sounding like she knows what I'm thinking. "You don't think he was trying to stay away from me to protect me. He knew what his brother was doing."
That wasn't quite what I was thinking. I was thinking something darker, meaner and sadder but Cass' idea does make sense. More than mine.
"That could be it," I say hesitant. "But now we have to focus on getting you out of here."
"It's hopeless, May. I've been here for a while and I haven't be able to even overhear anything outside. The same guy brings food and the same goes out. I don't even know his name," she mumbles at the end.
I start to then hear something. At first it is very unsettling, like the sound of wires trying to connect to get something to work. Then comes the worst sound of all, the spark coming from two wires being scrubbed against each other. After a big pop in my ear comes a voice. I look around, but Cass doesn't seem to react to hearing anything.
It suddenly dawns on me that I still have my ear piece. It must have just been reconnected.
"May? May, can you hear me? May?"
Cyrus' voice booms in my ear.
"Cyrus?" I whisper. I notice Cass' confused look.
"Oh, thank god. We couldn't hear you before. Your cameras were working so we knew they had you, but we couldn't get your state."
"Cass and are fine. Cyrus, they played us."
"I know," he sighs. "You don't want to hear how pissed Darius is."
"I'm sure he is. He didn't want me to do this in first place and now, this..."
"Can't help but think he was right. Anyway, Darius and I will find a way, okay? We are coming for you."
And he signs out. I don't even have the time to say goodbye.
***
A few hours of silence, surprisingly, a bunch jokes and a couple of naps later, Jakub walks into our room.
"Glad to see you came out of the crash unscathed," I say through gritted teeth.
He snorts. "It was a crash nonetheless. It's not like they tried not to aim at me. You're fine too."
At that, I have to remain silent because I really did get off without a scratch. Maybe just a bruise.
"Come in," he beckons to another two men who walk with the same suit and black shirt as
Jakub.
They walk over to Cass and uncuff her.
"What are you doing to me? Taking me to fix me an arranged marriage and get the guy's family's money for yourselves?"
We all give her a confused look at first.
The guys let Cass dangle from their arms as they stand still in confusion not being able to focus on pulling her back up again.
I look at her with an amused and confused look trying to figure out what movie she got that idea from.
She looks at me with a smirk and stands up straight.
"I love you, May." They take her and she voluntarily follows.
"Where are you taking her?!" I yell. "JAKUB!"
Jakub nods at me and closes the door behind them.
Left alone in the room that is way too fancy to store prisoners, I try to think of all the places they could have taken her when Jakub comes back with a tray of food.
"Where did you take Cass?" I say looking up at him.
He crouches down and places the tray in front of me on the floor. He uncuffs me.
"Enjoy your time as a free woman."
I continue eating, bitter that I am without explanation and all alone. I take the last bite of my tuna sandwich when Cyrus' voice appears in my ear.
"We negotiated with Pete and got Cass out of there like planned," he exclaims expecting me to be happy. I am. For her. Not for me.
I don't answer in bitterness. Maybe being bitter is not the best way to act right now. Who knows how Cyrus managed to save Cass? He also saved me a lot of time I would have spent worrying. But I am still bitter.
"May, we had to take one step at a time. We got him to do what he was supposed to do in the first place. We couldn't ask for more."
I hate that he's right, but I also hate the idea of being Pete's treat in exchange for Cass. I still don't say anything since I know I offered myself as a treat. I know I'm wrong, I know this was my idea yet I am still grumpy. I can't help it.
I just cough, in a very fake manner, just to let him know I'm conscious.
He mumbles something and all I catch are the words "annoyed" and "funny". I wonder what he said.
He obviously walks away from his mic since he has stopped talking to me like I expected him to. Since I finished my food quickly, I decide to take as much time as possible to take in my surrounding as an uncuffed person.
They are being extremely lenient. They probably want me to go wandering just so they can punish me, but I need to get some answers so I do it anyway.
I look under the king sized bed Cass used to be handcuffed to. Nothing. Spotless. I run to the circular mirror above the bedrest. I am met by a rainy sky and two floors of altitude below him.
I look around in all the nightstands and armoire drawers. Nichts. I listen out the door and by the lack of voices, I assume the coast must be clear. I put my hand on the knob, ready to open the door, when I notice an air vent under the armoire.
It is the tiniest thing I have ever seen. How the hell am I going to make it in there?
"Cyrus?" I whisper. He appears surprisingly quickly.
"Oh, she speaks."
I scoff. "Listen, there's this air vent I want to go adventure in but there is no way I can fit. What can I do?"
"Usually, small entry ways for vents are used in a normal residence. Check inside and see if the small entrance suddenly gives to a large airway."
I use my bobby pin to unscrew the vent. After much difficulty, the cover falls off and I look inside. Indeed, the inside is big enough for me to move around, but I can't get in.
"You're right, Cy. It's big on the inside."
"Then, there has to be a larger entrance someplace else. Maybe in the hall or another room or something. If you can, look around. Be safe."
I screw the vent cover back in place and get up quickly. I listen outside again and the coast seems to still be clear.
Since we were cuffed, they probably didn't bother to lock it. But now that I had both hands free, they should have had at least someone standing outside.
No. I was uncuffed, with an unlocked door to my prison without any guards waiting outside.
What if Jakub didn't cuff me on purpose? He could have just handcuffed one arm and I could eat with the other. He let me free. He might have even gotten the bodyguards to leave by using the excuse that he cuffed me. No one saw what he did.
I jump in the corridor and start moving quickly before someone appears. There's a little opening in the wall that has nothing but a table and a vase in it. Behind the table however, a very big entrance to an air vent. I play with it a little and to my dismay, it is screwed in tight.
I quickly get on my knees and under the table where I can unscrew the vent cover.
In under five minutes and over 200 heart beats per minute, I've already started crawling in the vent and I've put the cover back on.
I crawl quickly. I try to overcome the chilling feeling of confinement. I make it to another opening right above their kitchen and am relieved by the new breath of air available to me.
Pete is standing against the countertop between the stove and microwave with a blonde woman sitting at the table in front of him.
So, there is a woman in this house. I didn't hallucinate her.
I arrived right when Pete has stopped talking and the woman sighed. She pulls her right leg under her.
"She's just a normal student from a normal family wanting to do extraordinary things in a normal job. Why take that away from her? Why do everything in your power to bring her into this unordinary life of yours?"
"Do you see the effect she has on Darius? We can't lose that kind lose that leverage. And what then, let her go and lose control on Darius? T'es tu malade?"
I didn't know Pete spoke french. With a weird accent at that.
"Okay, you're french not from Quebec."
"I just love their accent," he says like a kid.
What a weirdo. The weirdo then suddenly has one of his fidèles walk up to him, the one that was the most confused with Cass' personality, and speaks in his ear.
Oh, no. My cover is blown. I need to crawl like I have never done before.
Quickly, I crawl and scrape my knees against the cool metal and I ignore the pain.
When I make it to the hallway, I hear faraway voices. They must be on the stairs. I open the vent quickly and all I do is place the cover back and hold it in place with the table's legs. I run in my prison and almost slide to the place where I was eating.
With my knees scrapped and probably a floor burn on my leg from the pink carpet, I try to recuperate my breath.
Pete's voice and many footsteps approach the room and then pass it. He wasn't even called up for me. I am almost disappointed that I didn't have that badass save. I am also relieved since they would have found me if I did not get out of the hall before they got upstairs.
A few seconds of pondering and breathing later and Jakub barges in ready to take my tray away.
"Hope you enjoyed your free time," he exclaims full and void of emotion, all at the same time. He cuffs only one hand this time.
He takes my tray away and leaves the room. This time, locking the door behind him.
I sigh, knowing my adventure times are over.
"Cyrus, did you hear all of that?" I ask still overwhelmed.
Pete needs Darius, the same way his father, Steven, did. I've overheard them both speak about the same plan and their desire the same result. They are working together.
"I did," Cyrus mutters with his voice full of fear.
HEY GUYS i'm trying to insert little reminders in my writing, if you havent noticed, to act as a refresher of the last few chapters. i have the rest of the book planned so Visionaries is not on hold anymore, guys, we are a go! only a few more chapters left so the book might be done very very soon!
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