“What is this place?” I asked as Aaron led me into a room full of dark red light. When he’d told me we’d be going to a club and that it would help me ensure nothing happened to my brother, I hadn’t even hesitated, just put on the red dress he’d bought for me.
“A club.” Aaron’s voice was filled with amusement.
“Yeah, I can see that, but why...?” I started to ask, but Aaron placed his finger over my lips to shush me.
“Not now. Come with me.” He held my hand as he led me to the bar, and we took a seat as he ordered a drink. A few moments later, Marco joined us, and gave Aaron a conspiratorial look and a nod. Just what the hell were they up to now? Was the assassin Roberto had hired here somewhere? But what exactly was Aaron planning to do in that case?
I turned around in my chair and watched people having fun and drinking while half-naked girls danced on the tables. On the other end of the room, there was a big stairway, guarded by two mean-looking bulky men. When I turned back toward Aaron, he slipped a few hundred dollar bills to the bartender, who gave him a keycard.
Aaron leaned toward me, caressing my hair as he whispered into my ear. “My father’s spies are watching me. We have to get rid of them.”
“How are we going to do that?” I glanced around, but no one was looking our way. Had to be some good spies, then. Unless it was the bartender. He was glancing my way too often.
“Follow me.” Aaron got to his feet, offering me his hand, and I took it. We headed straight for the stairway, and Marco was only a few feet behind us like a dutiful bodyguard. Aaron flashed the keycard to the guards, who stepped away and let us through. We climbed the stairs and entered a dimmed hallway. There were at least ten closed black doors in here, and as one of them opened, a man with ruffled hair and a wrinkled suit came out, reeking of alcohol. Through the door, I could see a woman fixing up her bra. Aaron tugged me toward one of the doors and used the keycard to open it.
“Make sure no one bothers us,” Aaron said to Marco, who stayed at the door. I entered into a spacious dark blue room that only had a king size bed, a closet with a mirror on it, and a mini bar.
“What is this?” I twirled around, inspecting the room as Aaron closed the door and rushed toward the closet.
“Sex room,” he said, opening the closet and crouching to get something out of it.
“Sex room?” I repeated, my eyebrows shooting up. “And how are we going to...?”
“We need to get out of here without being seen.” Aaron rose to his feet, two bags in his hands. “My father’s spies will think we’re having sex here and won’t bother us, and Marco will keep watch in front of the room so they don’t doubt we’re here.” He handed one of the bags to me. “Change into this in the bathroom.”
“In the bath...?” I hadn’t even seen any other doors except for the one that led to the balcony or a terrace.
“There.” Aaron pointed at a darker circle on the wall. “Just push on it.”
“Seriously?” I placed my hand against the wall, and something clicked, revealing a small, clean bathroom. “Why is the bathroom hidden?”
“Open a few cabinets and you’ll see why.” He smirked.
“Fine.” After I got inside, I tapped the door and it closed again. Putting the bag down, I opened one of the drawers. It was filled with multiple little bags of pills and white powder. Right. Who’d have sex without getting a little something to relax? I inspected every corner of the bathroom to make sure there weren’t any cameras, and when I opened the bag, I picked out a pair of tight leather black pants with a matching black top that was full of shiny sequins, and a black jacket. Sex party clothes, I presumed. There was also a dark red wig, a small box with brown colored contacts, and a makeup box.
When I was done applying the bright red lipstick to my lips, I smacked them together and couldn’t even recognize the girl staring back at me from the mirror. Nice. Instead of wearing the usual high heels, I actually got a pair of comfy black sneakers. They were a little wrong for the outfit, but I’d rather run around in these than in heels. It made me wonder what exactly Aaron was planning.
I walked out of the bathroom, and Aaron’s gaze immediately met mine. His eyes were dark now, and instead of wearing a suit, he was wearing dark gray jeans, a black leather jacket, and he had a swirly tattoo on his neck. It was kind of hot.
“I prefer the original you,” he said, a smile quirking his lips.
“So what’s our plan?” I asked quietly. “How are we going to get out of here? Everyone’s still going to see us and the guards will be suspicious if different people go past them, don’t you think?”
“That’s why we’re not going to go past the guards.”
“Then how...?”
“Terrace,” he said, and headed for the door. We emerged onto the dark terrace and a frown creased my brow when I realized there was nowhere to go from there, unless we jumped over onto the terrace next to ours, which was divided from ours only by a thick white fence, and climbed the stairs that led up.
“Let me guess,” I said dryly. “We’ll have to jump over there and go to the roof.”
“Yep. Come on.” Aaron easily climbed the fence and jumped over to the other terrace, then quickly peeked through the window of the room to ensure no one would come out to catch us there. Getting over the fence wasn’t that easy for me in my too tight leather pants, so Aaron had to catch me or I would’ve tumbled down. I wrapped my arm around his neck as he gently lowered me to my feet, a smile spreading across his lips. He was enjoying our little mission way too much.
“You knew which room to pick, didn’t you?” I asked as we rushed up the stairs. The other terraces and balconies weren’t even close to each other, and jumping over would be nearly impossible.
“Yeah. These rooms are usually free because no one wants to risk unwanted visitors.” He grinned. “I’d already rented one of these before, so it won’t be suspicious.”
“Just what exactly were you doing here before?” My voice was a little strained and I didn’t even know why. As we reached the roof, Aaron faced me.
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t. I’m just naturally curious.”
His smile faded a little. “It was just something my father expected me to do, so I brought a few girls here.”
“Okay.” I grimaced. “Don’t need more info.”
We ran across the rooftop and I could see the roof of another building coming closer. I stopped just before we reached the edge.
“Whoa, that’s too much space between...” I stared at the gap between the two rooftops.
“We have to jump.” Aaron grinned at me.
“In these pants?” I made a show of pointing at the tight leather. “Do you want me to end up like a pancake in the alley below?” I wrinkled my nose as I glanced down at the dirty and dark alley that was filled with trash cans, rats, and who knows what else.
“You’ll be fine. Just take my hand and we’ll jump.” Aaron offered me his hand, giving me a reassuring nod.
“If you let go of me...” I shot him a glare, and his eyes sparkled in amusement.
“I won’t. I promise.”
“I don’t know why I even trust you.” I slipped my hand into his, and we took a few steps back, then raced forward, jumping up into the air. We landed on the hard concrete in a crouch, but we were unharmed and unscathed. I pushed myself to my feet and dusted off my pants.
“See? It wasn’t so bad.” Aaron gave me a boyish grin. “Let’s go. We don’t want to be late.”
“Late for what?” I followed him through a black door and we raced downstairs.
“For our guy,” Aaron said when we emerged onto the street. We slowed down our steps, getting a few strange glances from the passersby. I pulled my jacket tighter over my breasts because that tight top was making them look bigger than they were. We didn’t need that much attention.
“Our guy?” I asked. “You mean the assassin your father hired?”
Aaron nodded. “Marco found out who he was. The guy goes by the name Wicked War. He’s the only one who’ll do just about anything for the right price.”
“How did Marco find that out? Are you sure it’s not a trap?” I didn’t think Roberto trusted his son, and if this was some kind of a test, we’d fail epically. Who’d save my brother then?
“It’s not a trap,” he said. “Marco went to his father’s office and decoded an encrypted file. His father is my father’s loyal bodyguard and has been for years.”
“And what exactly are we doing?” I was sure we couldn’t just walk up to the guy and tell him not to do anything, or bribe him to change his mind. Calling the cops on him wasn’t an option either because he must have eluded arrest plenty of times and had strong connections, or he would’ve ended up in prison already.
“We’re going to stop him.” Aaron’s cold eyes met mine, and I knew what that look meant. We’d have to kill the guy, which sounded easier than it was. The guy was a professional or he would’ve been dead, especially when he accepted such offers. Anyone crazy enough to accept a kill order on one of the Ferraras was either completely insane or very, very confident and good at what he did for a living.
“Why didn’t you send someone else to deal with that if you knew where he’d be?” I could come up with a few ideas that didn’t involve us coming near a very dangerous man.
“Because Mr. War is great at evading death and for some reason can avoid professionals. He’s probably working with someone who’s watching over him and tipping him off or he uses various devices to alert him of potential danger. He’d managed to come unharmed out of a shooting at a bar and survived a bomb planted in his car.”
My eyes widened. “Are you sure the guy’s not superhuman or something?”
“He’s not.” Aaron waited until a few people passed us by. “But he knows when someone’s coming for him and he escapes.”
“But if he knew someone was after him, wouldn’t he drop all the jobs he’d accepted and go into hiding until the danger’s over?”
Aaron shook his head. “No, he wouldn’t. He’d just hurry up with his jobs and be done with them, then disappear. We don’t want that to happen. That’s why it’s just you and me.”
“What if he kills us first?” I said through my teeth. “I know a few things about fighting, but I’m no match for a professional assassin. Who knows what kind of weapons he has?”
“We don’t look like a threat. He’ll never see us coming. Trust me.” The confidence in Aaron’s voice was only a bit reassuring at most. “There.” Aaron placed his hand on my arm, gently moving me in the direction of a bar in a dark alley. “He’s inside.”