“So what exactly was your brilliant plan?” I was frozen to the spot, still thinking this had to be some kind of a joke. “Storm in there and heroically save Chiara?”
“I’m trying to help,” he said. “That’s all.”
“By getting yourself killed?” I had no idea in what alternate reality he thought his plan would work. How did he intend to defeat all those guys on his own?
“I was in situations more dangerous than this. Trust me. I can take care of myself.” His eyes were hard on mine.
“Trust you? Yeah, right.” I ran my hand through my hair, glancing around to make sure no one was there to overhear us. “Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but you can’t just walk in there and get Chiara out as if it were nothing. Those guys have weapons, and the moment they see you coming, they’ll kill you.”
“They won’t see me coming. They don’t expect you to send anyone to get Chiara.” Seth stepped closer, lowering his voice. “At least Rubio doesn’t, and you know he’s in charge.”
“No.” I scowled. “You’re insane. Of course Rubio will expect I’ll try something to get Chiara back before signing the club over to him.”
Seth’s eyebrows lifted up. “Why would he? Since you didn’t jump on his offer, he probably sees you as a spoiled rich girl who’s playing a game and who doesn’t realize the seriousness of the situation. He thinks you’re scared out of your mind right now.”
I huffed. “Oh, so now you’re an expert on what Rubio thinks too? Or is that just what you believe?” I raised my finger. “You know what most rich girls are good at? Spending their money. Who says I can’t hire an assassin or someone to get Chiara for me? Rubio has to be aware of that. I’m sure he wouldn’t just leave her unprotected.”
“He might expect that, but he literally owns most of the assassins in this town, and if you hire someone, even if it’s an insignificant gang member, he’ll hear about it before you even seal the deal. And anyone with half a brain wouldn’t agree to help you against him.”
“So what? You’re saying you have no brain? Is that your point?”
“I’m saying he’d never assume I’d go against his men.” His face was deadly serious.
I took a deep breath. “Even if he doesn’t see you coming, you still can’t defeat all those men on your own.”
“It’s just five of them. If I take out the first two quickly enough, they won’t be able to alert the rest. I have a plan. All you have to do is trust me. If things go wrong, you can still make that deal with Rubio. You can claim I acted alone. He’ll believe you, and even if he doesn’t, it’ll still be easier for him to make a deal with you than do anything else.”
I stared at him for a while in silence. “You would kill five guys and not even blink,” I finally said.
He looked down at his feet, letting out a little sigh. “They’re not good guys. If I can save your friend...”
“Um, yeah, except you’d probably die before you can do that.” Why the hell did he think he could defeat five thugs? “Unless you are also... a hitman?” I eyed him carefully.
“No, I’m not, but I know I can take those guys out.”
“I appreciate your offer, but no, I can’t let you do that. I’m better off calling the cops and telling them where Chiara’s being held. Although, Rubio would probably immediately know about it and move her somewhere else... or worse.” I didn’t really want to think about that.
“Alright. Then you should go home,” he simply said.
“You’re going to try it anyway no matter what I say, aren’t you?” I said through my teeth. This guy was really an idiot.
“It’s none of your business what I do on my night off.”
“Yes, it is when you can get my best friend killed!” I yelled.
“Can you say it a little louder? I don’t think Rubio’s men heard you,” he hissed. “Tell me, Victoria, what do you really want? Do you want me to go to your house with you and wait until you’re finally forced to do what you don’t want to and sign that deal? Believe me, this is the best shot we’ve got at rescuing her. If his men catch a whiff of any of your guys snooping around, they’ll move her and we’ll never get another chance. Especially not in two days.”
“And they won’t see you at all? What are you? Some kind of a superhero with an invisibility power?”
“A mere bodyguard wouldn’t want to risk his life for someone he’s not getting paid for to protect, and no one would think one man would dare to go against five guys or that he’d even know there’s only five of them.”
“Well, duh. It’s because it’s stupid and suicide.” I tilted my head. “Do you have a death wish?”
“I can do this. I know I can. I’ve done...” He paused, pressing his lips tightly together.
“You’ve done...?” I wanted him to continue. “Are you saying there were some extracurricular activities you forgot to mention in the resume you gave to my father?”
I had no doubt Seth had been involved in something shady, but I didn’t understand how my father hadn’t found out about it, or how Seth had gotten all those recommendations. Something was very wrong about that. And for all I knew, I was standing here in the middle of the night with a psychopath. Okay, there were plenty of streetlights, but still...
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll bring Chiara to you. I promise.” His eyes softened a little.
I chewed on my lower lip, wondering just how crazy it would be to let Seth go get himself killed. Was there a chance he could take on five guys? Okay, so maybe they weren’t all standing there together, but they’d be armed to the teeth. And Seth... I’d seen him fight and he was really good, but I didn’t know about any of his other skills. Maybe he was lying about not being an assassin. What normal person would agree to a thing like this?
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “All I can think about is that it excites you to kill someone, so you’d take any opportunity. Or you just really want to die. I mean, if you don’t get killed by the guys guarding Chiara, then Rubio will send someone after you when he finds out... and he probably will. So... I don’t see a single reason why you’d be willing to do this, and I know you’re not Chiara’s friend or family.” I’d understand if it was someone close to her, but Seth... He had zero reasons to do it.
“I won’t let another person die when there’s something I can do about it,” he said.
Another? Well, shit. “If you feel guilty about something, this isn’t a way to make up for it. You know that, right?” It was highly possible Seth had gotten a really hard punch in the head or something, because he wasn’t thinking straight.
“It’s not that.” He clenched his fists and let out a groan. “I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve done this before and I can handle it.”
It didn’t seem like there was a way for me to dissuade him. But what if he was right? What if anything I tried failed because Rubio would see it coming? What if Rubio killed Chiara even if I gave him the club? He’d want to punish me for dragging it out for so long. “Fine, but I’m coming with you.” Desperate times.
Seth’s jaw went slack. “No, absolutely not.”
“I’ll keep my distance and hide somewhere, but I want to make sure nothing goes wrong, okay? I’ll call the cops if I have to, but I’m not letting you go anywhere without me.”
Seth pressed his lips into a white line. “You shouldn’t...”
“Oh, you should just keep your mouth shut,” I snapped. “Let’s go.” This was probably the stupidest thing I’d ever do, but there was a small chance this plan would work, unlike any others I might come up with. Besides, Rubio’s men wouldn’t immediately know who Seth was, so maybe they’d be confused. Maybe.
***
Seth had texted my father again and informed him he’d take some other night off because I needed him and didn’t feel like going home. I wondered what my father would think about that. He’d never be able to guess the truth about what we were doing, though. I managed to stop by the club and grab my hoodie from my office. I didn’t want to risk anyone recognizing me.
It turned out Seth had an old black car that was parked in a dark alley only a few blocks away from my club, and there were enough weapons in the trunk to arm a small group of men. He’d tucked a gun with a silencer inside his jacket, and he handed one to me too.
***
“Have you ever fired a gun before?” he asked once we were walking down the street as stealthily as possible. We kept our heads down to make sure none of the cameras could catch our faces. If Seth’s plan somehow succeeded, we definitely didn’t need everyone to know it had been us.
“John taught me how to shoot. It was supposed to be fun, but I kind of didn’t like it,” I said quietly, and Seth’s shoulders stiffened.
“You should stay across the street and make sure no one sees you. The guards won’t worry that much about one person coming their way, but two... it would put them on alert, especially at this hour.”
I nodded. “What if they have cameras inside the building?”
“Unlikely. They don’t want any evidence of what’s going on there or who passes through the building.”
Only a few cars had passed us by, music blasting from one of them. We’d walked the rest of the way in silence because I just didn’t know what to say to him. This whole thing seemed so surreal. My palms were sweaty. The gun that was in the holster Seth had attached to my belt felt like a huge and unfamiliar weight.
“We should split up now. Go that way.” Seth pointed his finger at one of the alleys. “Make sure no one sees you.”
“Got it.” I jogged across the street and into the alley. When I was halfway to the spot from which I was supposed to monitor the building where Chiara was kept, I wished I could’ve told Seth that this was probably the only time he’d let me go unguarded. It was kind of satisfying that he trusted me with one of his guns. For all he knew, I could’ve shot him because of what he’d told me... or well, refused to tell me about himself.
The alley was completely dark. It felt as if the buildings in it were breathing out coldness. Pulling out the gun, I crouched low near one of the walls. I was still in the shadows, but close enough to the street that I could run out and reach the door of the building where Chiara was kept.
My heart thudded loudly in my chest, making it difficult to focus. Then my gaze fell on Seth, who was walking down the street with his head bowed, his hands in his pockets. The guards who were lounging in front of the door straightened and watched him carefully.
“Hey, man, do you have a light?” Seth asked, stumbling a little, just as one of the cars whizzed down the street, briefly blocking my view. When I could see the door again, Seth moved his arm, probably getting the gun. Both men fell to the ground before they could even reach for their weapons. They must have thought he was a drunk who wanted a smoke, although they’d been going for their guns anyway. They’d been too slow for Seth, though.
He pushed the door open and slipped inside. How long did we have until someone noticed the guards had been killed? Would Seth be able to handle three more guards? What if he was wrong about there not being any cameras? And what if there were more of them than he had anticipated? Fuck! Grinding my teeth together, I got to my feet. Making sure there were no oncoming cars, I raced across the street as fast as I could, keeping the gun close to my body.
I stopped not far from the door, my stomach doing a nervous flip at the sight of the dead guards and the blood that had pooled under them. Shots rang out inside. Shit. The guards were probably shooting at Seth. What if they got him? What if something happened to Chiara?
Lifting the gun up, I pushed lightly at the door, which opened on its own. I peeked inside, but all I could see was an old dirty hallway that was mostly in the dark. There weren’t any cameras that I could see. More shots sounded from somewhere at the end of the hallway, and they were like thunder. Someone would be calling the cops. That was for sure. Or Rubio’s men. We didn’t have much time... if there was still a “we.”
I inched forward, glancing back to make sure no one would rush in from behind me. As I reached another door, I kicked at it, ready to shoot whoever was standing there. A body of another guard lay right in front of yet another door that led to a dark stairwell. Making sure the guy was really dead and didn’t move, I padded over to the stairwell.
Pressing my back against the wall, I took a quick look down. A groan almost made me jump. One of the guards shifted right at the bottom of the stairs, his hand patting his chest... or was he looking for a phone or a weapon? I aimed the gun, but before I could fire, someone else did it, the sound incredibly loud, and the guard stopped moving.
“Shit!” a familiar voice yelled a moment before I saw Chiara running forward with a gun in her hand. She pointed it at me, but I quickly hid behind the wall.
“Chiara, it’s me!” I said.
“Vix?” she said as if she couldn’t believe it. “What are you doing here? Did they get you too?”
I lowered my gun and moved where she could see me again. “No, I came to rescue you. Where’s Seth?”
“Oh God.” Chiara gasped.
“What’s wrong? We have to get out of here before anyone else comes. Come on!” I waved at her from the top of the stairs.
“Seth’s with you? I thought he was...” She swore.
“Where is he?” Why wasn’t he coming?
“Um, I might’ve... shot him,” Chiara said, and I stopped breathing.