// SIXTEEN //
*slightly unedited*
"We've been looking through this debris for hours today, Pete. I doubt there's anything to salvage," Vanessa says still yawning from having woken up so early this morning.
From the moment we opened the bunker door, we've been looking in the piles of wood and cement. Jakub and the other bodyguards, whom I now know are called Mikhail and Angelo, went looking for signs of Simon. I was one of the key reasons why they even had hope with my wishful comments, but I was starting to lose it and quickly at that.
For now, Vanessa, Pete and I were looking through what was left of his once impressive house to salvage anything of value. Whether it was money-wise or information or just comfort, we were trying to find anything that could be of help. For now, a laptop that could possibly be fixed and a hard drive was all we found. Pete was hoping to have his papers be shielded by something throughout the tornado, but at his dismay, almost everything was gone.
"Pete. It's almost been a week and you haven't called anyone for help," I start as I still look under pieces of wood. We've been sleeping in what is left of your cars and the bunker. Jakub, Mikhail and Angelo are completely rid of any energy because of all the hour they spend in the streets. It is starting to become hopeless."
He sighs. He lets the piece of wood he once held drop to the floor.
"This is hopeless. You guys are right. We've been looking for all of our data and even Simon for five days now and we are helpless. I need to call someone."
This is my chance. I'm cooperating. I'm helping. They trust me without handcuffs. This is my opportunity to be bold.
"Maybe we," I start, adding the subtle 'we' to make my proposal seem less threatening. "Maybe we could call your partner Steven for some help? I believe Lugano was left untouched."
I hope they don't ask me how I know since I'm going to have make something up about the direction of the tornado. We don't have even have a working radio for me to blame it on the news.
Everyone stops. Even the boys, who had just returned from their night search, had stopped in front of what was left of the archway of the entrance.
"Excuse-me?" he questions. "What are you talking about?"
I look around me. I lock eyes with a tired looking Jakub with blood-shot eyes and disheveled, dusty hair. Mikhail and Angelo look the same.
"Are you guys messing with me?"
They all keep their heads down except for Pete who looks straight at me with a blank stare. He's trying to hide everything.
"Look, I know that you are working with Darius' father, Steven. I know that whatever it is you're doing to him or need from him is his father's wish as well. I do not know how he got you to work for him. I don't know why you're nice when you're supposed to be a cruel criminal. I don't know what he has against my family and I don't know what he wants from his own son. I do know that I need the truth if I am expected to help and if I know the truth, then you're free to ask him for help."
I take a breath of fresh air after my speech. I look at Vanessa who holds a slight smirk.
"She's right, sir," Jakub says calmly and clearly.
I look back at him with a slight smile that he does not give back. He keeps his eyes on Pete.
"Alright," he gives in. "You are all right. We need his help. Might as well take it if she knows everything. I'll go contact him."
He turns his back on us and pulls the piece of wood he had in his hand on the floor against all the other debris. Once he turns a corner, he lets it fall. I wonder what method he has to contact him when all cell towers are down.
This man does not seem like the person who almost killed Cyrus and Emily in Italy. He is kind of soft.
"We've been trying to convince him since the beginning," Angelo starts. "But he didn't want to jeopardize Steven's cover."
"Guess that was useless," Mikhail laughs and I do too before we go back to searching through the remnants.
***
"Are you sure you don't want to take a break, May? We all are."
"I'm fine, Vanessa. Really. You guys go rest and I'll be fine."
She nods and hugs me before she follow Jakub and Angelo to the bunker where Pete ans Mikhail already are. Everyone, one by one, was getting more and more tired. They all found themselves in the bunker where the food is.
I needed time to think. Time to figure out what is going to happen.
Last night, I had a crazy dream. It's odd for all of this to come back to dreams, but for me, it did.
I was back on the train, going to the bathroom like always, but when Darius came to take me, Jakub was the one to save me.
I don't know what any of this means. The dreams did wear off. So, however it was that Steven incorporated them in his plan, these aren't the same. I probably remember the train and Darius because that really did happen. Plus, I had dreamt about it so many times, it almost became a memory.
What does Jakub have anything to do with any of this? Yes, he was the nicest one here. I got to know on the car ride here and I liked him. He is the one that stayed behind and saved me in my paralyzed state. He hates me but isn't afraid to admit that I'm right.
I can't possibly have feelings for this guy. Not when Darius has never even left my mind. That dream was probably the result of my conversation with Jakub in the bunker days ago. He saved me and then yelled at me about Darius being the bad guy. It make perfect sense.
But what did I believe?
A flickering static sound appears in my ear.
"May?" I hear him whisper. Suddenly, with his voice in my head, I can see him. He stands in front of my like a hallucination that I am in denial of accepting is imaginary.
"May, can you hear me?" he says a little louder making the image walk towards me.
"May, what have you done?" he whispers then and the image disappears making me listen to him.
"What? Darius? I haven't do-"
My sentence is cut short when large black Range Rovers drive off the street and towards what used to be Pete's house. The large cars drive effortlessly on all the debris and park in front of the archway.
"May, he's coming for you. I-I couldn't stop him. I-I'm still trying, I-"
I stop listening once I notice Steven exit the car. His body guard, who was also the driver, opens the back door for him whilst the other opened the door for Robert to get out of.
Can't believe he's brought his sidekick with him.
Steven drops onto the debris with difficulty. He buttons his red, velvet suit and tries not to stab himself when walking over the planks of wood and chunks of cement.
He makes his way under the archway and into what used to be the house. Since this where we have cleaned up for the past five days, it is almost completely rid of dangerous pieces of wood and very easy to walk on.
At that very moment, Pete makes his way upstairs. He stops in his tracks for a second when he sees Steven, but then acts like nothing happened. Maybe he knew that he was going to be here, but he was still scared at the sight of him.
Seriously, how did he fool us in believing he really did almost kill Cy? I'm sure their run-in in Italy was all Steven and he is covering his tracks to keep his sons working for him now that they've escaped the death he inflicted in them. Jakub and Vanessa make it ho behind him as well. I still hear footsteps so Angelo and Mikhail must be coming too.
Just the thought of him hurting Cy or Em makes my blood boil in my veins.
"Hi, Steven. Nice of you to come under such short notice," Pete exclaims in a very rough voice as he approaches Steven. He ignores Pete and the hand that he had held out for him.
Instead, he turns over to me. He walks towards me quickly now that he can easily walk on the cement. I see Jakub take a step forward when Angelo stops him.
Steven grabs me in a chokehold with only his right hand and lifts me to one of the only beams left standing in this place.
Blue. All I can think of is blue. What my lips must look like as my throat refuses to take in the air, what my heart must be looking like as I am kept from exhaling the CO2 from my body, what my feelings are at the moment.
I hold onto his hands that are on my neck and I wrestle with them hopelessly.
"You think you can play ME?" he yells. "Get ME to tell you EVERYTHING?" his voice booms in the empty room almost creating an echo.
I'm shaking. I don't know if it's in fear or from the lack of air and blood circulating in my body, but my whole being trembles. I think of all the badass things I could say, but I cannot put any into words. Like the air, my words are chocked inside me. My mouth stays open.
"None of you are to approach me to help her. She needs to pay her dues and learn her lesson for that little stunt she pulled with my son. Hiding my room and listening on to my conversation after he left? You thought I wouldn't know? You think a mastermind criminal won't have cameras in his house?"
Oh my God. He isn't even pissed about me getting Pete to call. He's mad because I know and how I do. This is so much bigger and there is so much more anger inside him than I thought.
My toes are constantly trying to look for the ground. I need air. He holds me hard enough for me not to be able to escape his hands, but every now and then he releases so I could breathe and he can start again.
From the corner of my eye, I see Vanessa's hand twitching from wanting to move, but holding herself back. I get it. I probably would have done the same. And especially in this moment, that makes two of us too frozen to act.
"Go to hell," I mumble.
"Oh honey, I definitely am after what I am about to do to you."