Regardless of how it worked, thank fuck it worked for me and there was the hatch in the floor moving open for me to get in.
It was truly all very clever and I had to give the bastard credit where it was due. First, the place had no surveillance so there was no way outside people would have been able to hack the system, and then there was this. Giovanni had gone on the basis of the old ways. Out of sight, out of mind.
It showed the depth of his greed.
There were some steps that led down inside the hatch. As soon as I took the first step, a light came on. Dim at first like the rest of the place above, then growing brighter. I walked down the steps and the minute I got to the last step the hatch closed and the light brightened right up.
It was truly fascinating.
What was more fascinating was seeing the fucking blueprints I’d worked so hard to find these last few weeks –month. Fuck it was a day over a month.
They sat in a glass case in the center of the room, that was all that was in here, just the case. It was like the room had been made for it, it almost felt tomb like.
Seeing them sitting there in a glass case, in the same tube roll Ethan had shown us back at the base when we’d first been told about the mission was something else.
For the first time today I felt some form of triumph.
Good, now for the next part of the plan. Get the prints and go.
My body moved of its own accord and went over to the case. First I checked out the case to make sure there wasn’t some sort of alarm that would go off when I touched it, that would have been shit and a half.
I looked around it, on the case, under it and over it, before I took the plunge to lift it.
So far so good. It seemed like Giovanni did exactly what I’d hoped by just relying on the fact that no one in hell would have been able to find the prints. Unless it was Wes or me.
Fuck, as I lifted the case and took out tube with the prints, the feel of it in my hands was even better.
No time to savor it though. It was time to head the fuck out.
Except that the device I’d carried just started buzzing in my back pocket, signaling that someone was in the chamber.
Fuck!
Damn it!
I never even had a minute to check or try to escape because the fucking hatch I’d come through started opening again.
Shit! Fucking shit! Someone was coming down here and it could only be one someone I knew of.
My eyes darted around the room for a place to hide but there was nothing. Nothing at all.
No fucking place to go besides back the way I’d come and shit, a pair of Italian loafers came into view.
Loafers and a very expensive suit.
Giovanni came down the steps with two guns in hand.
He would have known someone was in here because of the lights.
His face when he saw me was hell fury.
Hell fury and wrath.
“Xander Cage… I’m actually speechless. As with many things, you surprise me.”
I didn’t answer. Couldn’t.
This was bad. Really bad. Shit bad. I’d slipped up and there wasn’t any way that I could have avoided this.
Another set of feet came into view. The Chameleon came down next. He frowned and scowled deeply, worse than Giovanni. I wasn’t sure who I should be more worried about.
I made a move, a move to go with my usual tactics but the Chameleon fired a shot toward me. He was a good shot because it hit me right in my neck and instantly took me down.
Darkness robbed me of my next thoughts.
Chapter Forty-Two
Jia
“Have you got everything ready?” Anya asked.
I nodded and looked at my friend sitting on the edge of my bed.
She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on top of them.
Anya looked like she was doing her best to keep it together. She’d started crying a few times in the hour she’d been here.
I had a while yet before I had to leave for the airport, several hours in fact. My flight was late tonight so I had the whole day ahead of me. It was just gone eleven now, not even lunch time.
It was long enough for her to come and hang out for a little while and even for us to go out for one last meal, something to that effect.
But, damn Armand was here.
He’d been here since last night and hadn’t left. Pa called in all the muscle like Xander instructed. He actually did it and there were men outside. All armed and ready to kill anything that moved. It was as if I had the whole Italian mafia on my doorstep. Needless to say that I had to give some explanation of the presence of so men to Anya. I’d just told her something was going on and Pa called in extra protection.
A least it was a version of the truth that explained them and thank God they all stayed outside.
Armand though had come in and decided to start his husbandly duties.
Anya and I had been up in my room and I was pretty certain I’d heard the shuffle of feet every now and again outside the door. The asshole was listening in.
I was sure of it.
I sat next to Anya and sighed, hugging my knees to my chest too.
I was dressed and ready to go. All I needed to do was take my bags. That was it, then who knew when I’d see this place again.
“It feels weird. There’s so much going on. So much I have no control over,” I breathed.
And so much I couldn’t tell her. I didn’t tell her about Balthazar. I kept that to myself, the same as I kept most of the weekend activities with Xander to myself. I didn’t tell her how Armand tried to rape me, how Xander saved me, or how he told me he loved me.
None of it.
I figured it was best for me to shelve it to the back of my mind.
I had to forget Armand’s treatment of me, just to be able to look at him, and I had to forget that I was about to start a life with a man I didn’t love.
I had to forget everything and just go with the flow of what was happening.
“Jia, you’re one of the strongest women I know, you can do this. Everything is shit. I can sense it. I can see it and see how miserable you are, but you’re trying to mask it. You will get through this.” Anya nodded.
I appreciated her words of strength. I just didn’t feel very strong. I wished I knew where Xander was. I wished I knew what he’d done after. Nothing seemed to happen but that didn’t mean nothing had happened.
Did he get the blueprints?
If he did, where did he go?
I hoped he got them. I really did, it would be his mission accomplished. I just wouldn’t know what would happen next. Pa would no longer have them, so what did that mean in the grand scheme of things?
Pa was no longer my concern.
That was what I’d decided last night. It was as I’d said at the start of the week. He’d spread his bed so he could lie in it. What was I really supposed to do?
Worry about him for the rest of my life?
No.
I couldn’t do it. It would get to me to no end if something did happen to him but it felt a little inevitable. Only a matter of time and realistically he would get his end and deserve it.
Pa was evil. I knew he loved me. I knew that he said it a lot, did a lot to show it in his weird way. Selfishness and greed had however become him.
I had no place or room in my heart for that.
“I was hoping we could have lunch,” I told her. “I wanted us to pig out or something.”