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Zoe
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The silence was loud enough for the crickets to come in. Too bad, there were no crickets to break the thick ice. Adriano found it right to do so instead, "When are we doing it?"
"One am. When everyone should be sleeping," Jer answered.
"Until then?"
"Act normal."
Xen glanced between the two of us for a moment, her brows arching softly, her voice just as delicate, "You didn't tell us where you will take us?"
"Well," he sighed, "Seeing that my address is already known to your father, we can't go back to my place. Your friends aren't an option either. If Arturo figures it was all a set-up, he'll check there first." He rubbed at his goatee, his eyes narrowing a little, "I have a… friend who can take us in."
"What friend?" I murmured.
He scratched his neck, shrugging, "A friend who owes me a favor."
"Then, I guess it's a plan," Adriano pinched the bridge of his nose, adding, "We should probably go now."
Xen nodded absently, letting herself led out of the room through the door, by her bodyguard. It was as I stared at them, that I found it weird how Xen knew about Adriano from the beginning.
When Jer had come clean with his identity and admitted he knew "Jose" wasn't actually a Jose, Adriano became a little defensive, fact that my sister didn't seem to just notice, but be terrified by. She was the one to ask Jer how he found out in an awfully trembling voice as she put two steps distance between herself and Adriano.
It had been weird, I knew my sister to be afraid of men in general, but not someone like Adriano and definitely not terrified. The man was laid-back and calm, probably even as kind as Jerome. But still… something in her reaction made him appear fishy. Jerome must've caught the same vibe that he lied, saying he'd done a security check in the police data base and tracked the fake file back to the real one. Adriano bought it.
Xen didn't relax, and only tensed more when Jer and I started explaining our plan, the plan we managed to come up with before they came in. Adriano kept a completely blank stare the whole time he listened, but his muscles gave him away. His jaw was hard, his neck had popped a vein and his whole body was extremely stiff, excluding the finger he repetitively tapped to his elbow as he held his arms crossed.
"I don't trust him," I said bluntly.
"Neither do I," Jer glared at the door, "We need to be careful with him."
I nodded in agreement, glancing at the food Xen brought when they came, "I need to play sick now, in case father comes to check on me."
"He'd do that?" Jer frowned.
"Hey, I told you I acted before. Of course he'll come check on me to make sure I didn't lie to him." I ran a hand through my hair, standing up from the bed and going up to him. Turning with my back, I asked, "Can you please-"
I didn't even have to finish my sentence that his hand was already on my back, unzipping my dress with a loud ssschhht. He didn't say a word as he traced my shoulders with his fingertips, letting his rough fingers to follow my scars. His huge palm found its place between my shoulder blades, on the very scars left by my father's whip. The scars that were still red, not completely healed after a few weeks of having them.
"I'm getting us out of here tonight," he stated gravely.
I didn't say a single word as I simply turned around, raised on my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck in a firmly sure hug that we both needed. The promise that he was getting us out - and I sure as hell prayed he meant himself as well -, warmed my heart in ways nothing else did. Because if I was honest with myself, I didn't really mind if something happened to me in this hellhole. I've lived in this hellhole since I was a child, I could handle it, but having Jerome harmed, or even worse, killed?
That I knew I couldn't handle. Jerome Black meant the world to me, and not just because he was my saving grace and all that crap, but because he saw me and treated me as his equal… and his queen at the same time. Not just a simple, weak woman who was born to remain under a man's wrath.
"You should get changed before your father comes," he whispered, still not releasing me.
"And you should start packing your things," I agreed, following his example.
"I don't want to let go…"
"Neither do I…"
There was a long moment that Lady Silence took over once again, a moment in which he tightened the embrace with care, squeezing me, but not enough to crush me in his arms. "Go on, I'm going to get packed."
I nodded at him, kissing him on the cheek before I awkwardly pulled away and headed to my closet area. I saw him with the corner of my eye as he just watched me for a second, then looked away when I began undressing myself. Even after we had careless, insane sex, several showers and walked around naked from room to room the past two days… he still offered me my privacy to undress.
And didn't that make him more than just precious?
"I'm going now," he cleared his throat, nodding at me. I dipped my head back, knowing he couldn't see me as he was already walking towards his room. A few moments after the door was partly closed and barely even then, I found the strength to take off my dress and put on a brown, silk gown with no sleeves than ended an inch above my knee. Delicate, with a lace design on the breasts, the nightgown was… something to admire.
However, I hated it as much as everything else in this whole closet. I wore it just because I had absolutely nothing better to wear. I had no normal PJs, just this bullshit, so, what were my other options? Sleep in the awfully uncomfortable dresses I wore in public? Yeah, right…
Or maybe I could sleep naked… but I wasn't a nude type of person. Not unless Jerome was by my side.
I put on the sleepwear, dragged my hands through my hair to mess it up a little and went back to bed, deciding to open my phone and finally call Luisa and Valentin. I got no such luck that a soft knocking coming from the door got my attention. Cursing the guest, I put my phone in my pillowcase and announced a small "come in" that wouldn't be enough to upset father.
I had made sure to rub my eyes and keep in mind something extremely disturbing that simply made me sick to my stomach. It wasn't that I could control my body and its actions, but I could control my thoughts and through that my body's reactions. So… yeah, maybe I could control my body.
Before, when I had used this trick as a child, I would put an image of Xen being beaten or harmed by father to set off the feeling of sickness. Or hey, it worked just as well when I looked in the mirror at my own wounds.
But now? It was enough to imagine Jerome's bullet wound on another part of his body, somewhere where it would have been lethal. And that nearly made me gag.
Opening the door a mere few inches to make an entrance was my mother, the small frame I've known walking so quietly since I was a child. Her hands were clamped at her front, the long sleeves from her slender dress falling down to her thighs from below her breasts where she was holding her hands. The V-neck from the dress was a golden ribbon matching the one at the end of the sleeves and at the hems of the dress that was below her knees. The white material was draped on her beautifully, giving her an air of virtue and purity.
And the porcelain expression on her figure made her look more like an angel. So flawless it almost made me jealous.
"Mother…?" I arched my brows with the inquiry, finding it awfully odd that she was here. She rarely visited, mostly when I wasn't… okay, it made sense now. She wanted to show that she actually gave a shit about me by showing up when I was sick.
As usual.
She gave me a little dip of her head as she came to the bed and placed her palm on my forehead. What she always did when I was sick, figuratively and literally.
"You don't have a fever," she murmured, moving her palm over my face to feel that casual flu heat. "You do seem pale. Have you eaten?"
I shook my head, just pursing my lips at her words. She made a disapproving hum, then glanced down besides me. I scooted over, not speaking the invitation. She sat down closer to the edge, her grip rough as she took a hold of my chin and checked my figure.
"You're not sick, are you?"
I frowned, wondering how she figured it now that she never did before. "No," I muttered, looking away from her.
Her hand retracted from my face slowly, returning to her front as she united her palms. I caught her fingers fiddling with each other before she covered the movement with the large sleeve.
"You should eat," she advised, "Sick or not, you need to eat."
My eyes gazed her cruelly as they narrowed, my brows lowering aggressively. The outrage at her sudden caring wasn't completely a shock. I always felt this way when she so abruptly cared about me when I got sick or injured. But this time? Oh, this time I just had enough of her act.
"You don't have to act, you know? I know you don't care about me, so you might as well leave me alone," I gritted, allowing my stare to get lost somewhere else to cool the anger boiling my blood.
I waited for her to stand up and leave, as she should have. I knew it was disrespectful of me to treat her like that. I knew if she had been one of the maids, I'd probably be whipped right now. I knew she was still my mother and all that bullshit.
But I hadn't seen her as my mother from the moment she decided to just sit and watch my sister and I go through what we did. For that… I just couldn't forgive her. I loved her, I knew I did, but I was mad angry at her for never defending us as a mother should.
I hoped for once she'd return my anger. That for once she would give me something other than that china doll, emotionless smile.
But she didn't. Sure, the smile lacked from her gorgeous figure, but there was no shift in her expression whatsoever. She cleared her throat and stood up, arranging the spot she had been sitting in with her little palm.
"I shall depart now…"
She walked out of the room just as quietly as she entered, after which I couldn't stop but spend my following minutes thinking about our encounter.
And what do you know, soon enough, father made an apparition!
After his brief visit, in which I played my role perfectly, I intended on calling Val and Lui, but my desire perished with the birth of the sleepiness. I slept and gathered my strength for what was to come.
Just in case I'd need the energy…
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Jerome
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Okay, so the easy part was done. We were all prepared to get going. Now… we just had to sneak down to the garage with the girls on our shoulders.
I froze most of the cameras in the house, keeping the boring, static image they were used to, but kept the garage one so they wouldn't assume the girls came with us willingly, which they did. After all, a photo of them just being tied to some chairs wouldn't be enough to convince the kidnapping, there had to be some inside proof as well.
Sharing one last look with my Narah, I put the black sack over her head. Adriano did the exact same thing with Sofia, after tying her hands at her front and putting a cloth in her mouth. As I looked at my Narah, her wrists tied at her front, her ankles tied as well, with that cloth in her mouth, the sack over her head and half naked, I felt sick to my stomach.
It wasn't that I didn't like kinky or anything, but the sight of her in such a state gave me a feeling of great uneasiness. She appeared vulnerable and I hated it. I just… hated it. It only reminded me of the night we met, of the bastard who tried to do unspeakable things to her in that goddamn alley.
But this had to be done. And I hated that fact even more.
I craved touching her, caressing her and assuring her everything would go well. She had seemed scared, but she held the strong front because of her sister, who seemed to draw power from my Narah. As much as my body begged to touch her, I knew it would be the wrong choice because of the other man in the room. The man who watched us closely, the man who seemed to add to his calculations every word and touch we exchanged.
I refused to give him any information to draw, so as soon as the sack was on Narah's head, I picked her up and put her over my shoulder. She made a little feminine sound only I could hear after I settled her on my shoulder, a little feminine sound that rang like a meek giggle.
With the beautifully shaped buns in my sight, I had to force my hand to stay put and not rub the smooth surface. I caught sight of the pink lace from her panties under the hems of her brown dress, which only increased the temptation.
But when I noticed Adriano eyeing her bottom, every kind of desire dropped as the anger flared. The possessiveness took over me and I found myself squeezing her waist tighter on my shoulder and pulling the hems lower on her ass. At that moment, any cognitive thought that he was drawing info out of me just flew out the window.
He had no right to look at my woman's ass, whoever he was. He was lucky it was this one time that I caught him, but if he repeated, he was a dead man walking.
With a duffel bag on one shoulder and Sofia on the other, the younger woman wearing a flimsy gown lower her knee in the color of the sunset, Adriano shared a look with me, after which nodded towards the door. I nodded back, letting the agreement for the go speak for itself. I grabbed my own duffel bag with my free hand, but kept it in my hand, clenching the straps that held the weight of my several clothes and the few devices I carried around.
I knew he noticed my earlier motion and I honestly couldn't give a single fuck.
We left the room quietly, only one pair of feet hearable on the creaky floor. We avoided the main stairwell and took the servant's stairs, that they were safer to go through than the main ones. Arturo and the guards usually used the main stairwell, which made it most unsafe for us.
We rushed our steps on the stairs, finding just the ability to do so since they didn't creak at all. And as easy as it was, we came down to the garage without encountering anyone. We used the flashlights the entire time, not to attract attention from inside or outside, where several guards rounded the area.
It was my car that we took. My car that had the bigger trunk in which two people entered. Adriano dropped Sofia first, not at all gentle with the little woman, just throwing her like some rag doll. The grunt she made at the impact spelled out his carelessness.
I tried to be gentle with my Narah, but not too much to make it seem too obvious, just enough for her to feel it. Luckily, Adriano didn't catch that, that he was distracted by throwing his duffel bag in my backseat.
While he entered the car, I searched for something at their heads as I whispered to them both, "If I don't get you out at our second stop, you get out yourselves. There's an emergency release lever at your head, you'll recognize it when you see it. It'll open the trunk immediately." I left a gun and a dagger where the cameras and Adriano's prying eyes couldn't reach, then switched it for an envelope. "Keep in mind what I told you before and be careful."
When I received a nod from Narah, I shut the trunk and walked to the driver's side. I threw my bag as well in the backseat as I settled besides Adriano. He gave me a strange look as he put his seatbelt.
"What took you so long?"
I raised the envelope, putting on my seat belt as well, "Couldn't find it," more like purposely hid it so he couldn't see it.
"What's inside?"
I plugged in the keys from the car, ignoring his question. The engine purred with life, glad to be put to use once again. It was a shame, after this encounter, I had to give up this beauty. Sure, I could change the license plates, but I've already used it too much for my own good.
What mattered was that I managed to deposit my weapons in another duffel bag that laid in the backseat, right behind my chair at the feet.
"You're not answering," Adriano muttered.
"No, really," I retorted dryly, "Here I thought the silence was just for kicks and giggles."
"What's in the envelope?"
I rolled my eyes at his straight-to-the-point behavior. "Jose" had seemed a great guy. Calm, collected, smart, a good actor and respecting the rules of the house as rash and nasty as they were.
When Narah figured he was the mole, I didn't think too much of it. Earlier today it hit me. I had checked his record and previous jobs, including this one. The bastard who was the boss in this side of the gang, had sent this fucker - not just a mole, but a hitman - after Acosta, through Garcia, six months ago! Which meant, that a month ago, I had wasted my fucking time torturing that poor excuse of a man, inducing him into psychosis and a lot more these past few months. That bastard had lied to me from the beginning, thinking I was some fool not to fucking figure it out!
But that was cool. I was gonna give him a fair warning and move on.
What also pissed me off, tho?
Adriano had practically sacrificed my kitten in order to get closer to Acosta.
I could say I was one to sacrifice to get my job done, whether they were innocent or not, but this was my Narah he wanted to sacrifice. All in all, he had typical undercover hitman behavior.
One red flag had been when yesterday Sofia asked me how I knew. It wasn't him who asked, it was her. Of course, I caught the fear in her eyes as she stepped away from him at how he stiffened from my acknowledgement.
I didn't trust him, just how I didn't trust anyone except my Narah and my family. But I had one red flag to count on. One red flag to ring warning bells in my head.
"Patience is a thing, did you hear?" I said eventually.
I could feel his stare burning holes through my skin, but I wasn't affected by it. I drove out of the garage, through the doors that opened with the help of my own remote. Of course Arturo was dumb enough to make one for each of his men. He just didn't make one for the gates.
Following the grey pavement that lead to the front gates, I drove past the great outline of green that surely had to be mowed weekly by a handful of servants. There was no word spoken between us, the spite he held towards me for not answering a question palpable. Something told me that spite was for so much more…
I had absolutely no clue why.
Finding the huge, iron gate, in front of which two guards stood in my way besides the entrance cubicle from where you had access to the security footage and the gates, I braked. Seeing no one else in the cubicle, how relaxed they both appeared, I could assume they hadn't seen the tapes. And that was a good thing.
I stopped the car momentarily, ripping open the envelope from the trunk. I pulled out a copy of the remote used for the gates. The yellow envelope I threw in the back as it was no longer useful. The tiny remote I kept at my thigh after making sure it had batteries and it was turned on.
The guard closer to me approached my side at a slow pace, even lazily so. I moved my right hand to the gun in my door, gripping the handle just in case. He stopped and flashed a light inside the car, on both of our faces like some fucking cop.
"What are you two doing out in the middle of the night?" He inquired with furrowed brows.
I smirked, not revealing my figure, just pulling my cap lower in a nod of respect. "Just got a call from my courier, he's bringing me some packages and I gotta meet him in time."
His eyes narrowed on me, "In the middle of the night?"
I raised a shoulder in a shrug, "Tell me about it. These guys really messed with my mood. You know I had to wait two weeks for this goddamn package?" I shook my head as if disappointed, "Just because they tripped it to France out of mistake. What bullshit!"
"Huh, must suck for you," the guy grumbled, "But what about your buddy? Haven't seen you two together before."
I cleared my throat, raising my elbow on the window sill to lean in closer to the guy, "We were together after a few shots of tequila… if you catch my drift."
His eyes instantly widened, his brows shooting up as I continued, "We thought a little cool air would… help loosen the alcohol? Not to mention, this goddamn courier interrupted our alone time."
The guard reddened immediately, glancing away with a little bit of shame, "Right," he cleared his throat and coughed awkwardly into his fist, looking at his friend in front of our car. He seemed prepared to give the guy a go, when his phone rang.
He picked up the thing from his breast pocket and put it to his ear. After listening to whoever's voice, his stare settled sternly on me. At that moment, I knew he figured what I said was utter bullshit.
So… what did I do next? I pressed the button that opened the gates. Apparently, I didn't get scammed, the thing worked like a charm!
As the call ended, the guard from my side pointed his gun at me, intending to tell me to get out of the car. At that exact moment, the gates began to do that beep-beep and creak with the motion. His partner looked over his shoulder confused, then glared at the cubicle. With a gun pointed at me, the guard distracted by his partner who rushed to get the gates to stop opening, I pulled out the gun from my door, a suppressor from my coat and attached the thing to the weapon.
A moment of the guard shouting at his partner to stop the gate that still refused to accept any remote control for it hadn't completely opened or closed, later, I had the silencer pointing at the guard.
I waited until he faced me again to smile and say, "I'm really not sorry for this."
And without another word, I put a bullet in his skull. His fingers didn't even twitch on the trigger, they immediately released the weapon he was holding. Two moments he stood there still, before his lifeless body crashed on the pavement like a sack of potatoes.
I pushed my foot on the acceleration, driving forward. From the motion I kept my barrel trained on his partner who hadn't seemed to hear the guard's fall. I pierced his skull as well, then simply accelerated out the fully opened gates.
I removed the silencer from my gun, put them both in my coat, then glanced at my side at my so called partner. He revealed absolutely no emotion. No shock, no fear, no anything. It was at that moment that I knew he'd try something stupid on me.
And he surely did.
Soon after I drove into the city, I parked the car in an underground parking lot of which I had previously handled the cameras, especially for this event. I got out of the car first, telling him to to snatch a car from the partly empty area. I headed straight for the back, ready to open the trunk for the girls to get out when I heard the safety go off from his direction. I raised my eyes to find him staring at me with a completely cool stare. Adriano was right by the backseat door, his gun pointed directly at my fucking nose.
My hands stilled on the trunk, my gaze steady on him, not on his weapon. I mirrored his expression, because I just knew he wouldn't fear me. This wasn't a simple undercover moron, this was a trained hitman. The blank stare he returned, completely emotionless as always. You could have thought he was as dead as I was on the inside… but obviously, he could not be compared to me.
As good as he was in the branch, I was the worst of the worst… or the best of the best, depended on how you looked at it.
In a little he'd realize the fucking mistake he did by pointing that gun at me.