Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

  Jonas stalked through the bushes, closely tailing Alaric. As of yet, they’d managed to succeed in going undetected as far as they could tell. No guards had attempted to hinder their progress as of yet, and they hadn’t seen any cameras that would give away their approach.

  “Nice place,” Alaric whispered appreciatively as they closed in on the main premise of Britney’s home.

  “What, can’t you get a place like this? I thought you were one of this country’s ‘best freelance cleaners’,” taunted Jonas in the same quiet tones.

  “Yeah….no,” responded Alaric, “Maybe if I saved every penny, but I tend to enjoy spending my money.”

  “I can tell,” muttered Jonas under his breath.

  “Hey, just because we don’t all live in a dingy little apartment, doesn’t mean we’re big spenders. What do you do with all your cash anyway?” wondered Alaric, “I mean, you still had to have been earning your fair share of cash, plus received a sizeable inheritance from our parents. Why don’t you get a nicer place in a better part of town?”

  Jonas shrugged. “I invest my money, not to mention I’ve had to pay for college,” he reminded his brother, “and as for why I live where I live; in that part of town, most people mind their own business and don’t ask questions. The apartment is adequate for what I require it for and suits me just fine.”

  “But Jonas, you’ve got to be able to afford to dress the place up a little,” argued Alaric. “How much do you have in investments?”

  Another distracted shrug, replying, “I don’t know exactly, it’s been awhile since I last looked into all of that, but last I checked I had at least a couple million stashed away in various investments and savings accounts, with an addition of $500,00 or so in my main account.” Alaric stared at his brother in open-mouthed shock, but Jonas didn’t appear to notice. “However, this is hardly the time to discuss this,” he reprimanded Alaric, “we ought to be paying attention to what’s going on and the task at hand.”

  “Right,” Alaric responded gruffly, “Ok, so if you plan on keeping the body count down and trying to really convince Larkin, where do you think he’s going to be? If we know where we’re going, then we’ll be able to get there quicker, not have to mess around with wrong turns, and be able to avoid shooting unnecessary people.”

  “He’ll probably be in his office,” Jonas decided, “If you go up the front staircase and turn right, it’ll be the third door on the right-hand side of the hall.”

  “Alright then,” Alaric nodded. “You ready?” When Jonas nodded affirmation, he said, “Let’s go play,” grinning widely.

  With that, he rose partly from his crouched position and dashed to the right and into another stand of bushes and trees, moving in closer to the house slowly and stealthily. Jonas followed his example, going around the other side of the yard. Before Jonas had reached the entrance area, Alaric was already there, and wasting no time. At this point, they had undoubtedly been seen on a security camera, and they had limited time before their chances of failure started increasing exponentially.

  Alaric’s gun rang out, breaking the silence. They’d opted to go without silencers, since they assumed their presence would be known once they arrived within a hundred yards of the house. Jonas glanced at the shot guard to be sure he wasn’t mortally wounded. Satisfied that his brother was sticking to the plan so far, he hurried after Alaric, trying to catch up.

  He had known before they’d agreed to do this that he physically wasn’t ready for this kind of activity, not even close. However, he hadn’t expected how hard it would be to keep up with Alaric. His brother was like a machine. In top condition he’d be able to match his brother’s pace, but he felt himself falling back already, and things were only promising to become much more difficult for them.

   Together, they ran through the front door of the mansion and skidded to a halt in the huge, empty, open front room, perplexed.

  “They have to know we’re here,” Alaric declared aloud, sounding perplexed. “It’d be impossible for them to not.”

  “Then where are they?” asked Jonas, equally confused. Just then, he saw movement from nearby, and called out to his brother, “To your left!”

  “Your right,” Alaric, shouted at the same moment. Jonas immediately dropped, did a front roll while pulling his guns from his back holsters, rose to a kneeling position, took aim, and shot, all within less than five full seconds.

  Catching sight of another opponent from the corner of his eye, he quickly spun around, still kneeling, and instinctively shot the man’s gun hand. The man cried out in pain as he dropped his gun and clutched his injured hand to him. Not wanting to risk being followed by the guard, he gritted his teeth and shot the man in the leg as well, but only enough to nick it and make him unable to walk. He watched with mixed satisfaction and regret as the bullet grazed the man’s leg enough to make him drop to the floor with another shout of pain.

  Jonas sprang to his feet, racing after Alaric, who was already halfway up the stairs already, watching for any more attackers as he ran. His chest hurt, reminding him that rolls and heavy breathing weren’t acceptable activities for those suffering from cracked ribs. He would hear about it from Ana no doubt. He ignored the pain however, and continued on. Alaric crashed through the door that Jonas had said was Larkin’s office and started charging in, full force.

  Less than half a second after he’d burst through the door, gunfire rang out and Alaric dodged back around the corner.

  “It was a trap!” he yelled out to his brother, motioning for him to turn and run. This time, Jonas led the way, running to anywhere, not caring where as long as it was out of the open hall where they were easy targets. They dashed into their first chance of cover, a nearby room on the opposite side of the stairs.

  Just as Alaric was turning in though, a bullet slammed into his shoulder, and he let out a grunt of pain followed by a brief moment of cursing. Quickly, he slammed the door closed and locked it.

  “Great, this is just great,” Alaric fumed, “I should’ve known they were up to something when they weren’t waiting for us downstairs,” he berated himself. “There had to be at least five more men waiting in that room, and none of them looked old enough to even be Britt’s dad, so he’s still gotta be hiding out somewhere around here, and I haven’t got the faintest idea where.” In no time, a heavy pounding sounded at the door.

  “They’re going to break that down in a second,” Jonas predicted with concern. He took a quick look over at his brother with uncertainty, unsure what they should or even could do next. He didn’t want this to have been for nothing, but now that Alaric was wounded...

  “We’re not leaving without getting him, even if we have to haul him out of here with us,” growled Alaric. Jonas nodded and began looking around the room, realizing for the first time that it was Britney’s old room. A light smile spread across his face and he slapped Alaric’s good shoulder.

  “Come on!” he ordered, running to the window. He threw it open, starting to head down the fire escape that Britney had used so many months ago, setting all of this in motion. All in all, it seemed fittingly ironic.

  He glanced up when he was half way down, and saw that Alaric was right behind him. Jumping down the last couple of feet or so, he huddled down, hiding in some bushes. Soon Alaric joined him.

  “So, any other idea’s where we might find him?” Alaric inquired in a low voice, examining his profusely bleeding shoulder.

  “Not really, I never spent very much time here, and Britt never talked a great deal about her dad. They didn’t spend much time together. I have no clue where he might be. It’s possible he’s not even here,” answered Jonas, a note of hopelessness and indecision beginning to creep into his voice.

  “Well one thing’s for sure, we can’t stay here; we need to move. I closed the window as best as I could, but it won’t be long before they figure it out,” voiced Alaric through clenched teeth, his injured shoulder causing its share of pain though he didn’t allow a single complaint to escape his lips.

  “I think we should leave,” Jonas finally stated. “We don’t know where he is or if he’s even here right now and you’re injured. Right now, this place is on full alert to boot. We’ll be lucky if we even get out of here alive.”

  “You’re sure?” Alaric asked cautiously, though Jonas could see Alaric’s face relax slightly with relief at his words.

  “Yes,” Jonas confirmed, sure now it was the correct choice. They would work something else out, somehow. He grabbed a bandana he’d brought with him in case of an emergency, and hastily knotted it around Alaric’s wound to help stop the flow of blood.

  “We’ll regroup and come back,” Alaric promised his younger brother, unwilling to give up, especially since he knew they would’ve stayed had he not gotten himself shot. Jonas shook his head.

  “They’ll be waiting for us next time too, only with more guys and guns,” he responded. “We can’t come back. Come on, let’s get out of here.” With that, he stood and darted back through the shrubs, not worrying quite so much about stealth anymore at this point. Now, his only goal was to get himself and his brother out safely.

  Jonas glanced behind his back, and saw that Alaric was following behind, slowly, tiredly. Unfortunately, the shot at Alaric had been a rather excellent one, and he was losing a lot of blood. When he turned back around to see where he was going, he came face to face with Larkin’s gun and came to a screeching halt, mid-step.

  “You,” Larkin growled, cocking his gun. At that moment, a shot rang out and Larkin collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

  “NO!” screamed Jonas reflexively, dropping to his knees beside the man. It was too late however. Jonas knew it as soon as his knees hit the ground. Alaric’s shot had been flawlessly aimed at Larkin’s head.

  Alaric came up behind Jonas. “That isn’t...”

  “Britt’s father,” replied Jonas, his voice drained of emotion. Larkin was dead. Now, all hell was about to break loose. Hayden would take over under DeRuise. Likely as not, DeRuise would remove any remains of protection Jonas had had left, for having killed Larkin who had not only been his hit man, but close friend as well.

  Alaric tugged at Jonas’ arm, trying to get him to stand up.

  “Jonas, we have to get out of here, before they find us. I’m sure they’ll have heard that shot,” Alaric reminded him. “We don’t want to be here when they find out their boss is dead, trust me.” Jonas complied, getting to his feet and running alongside Alaric, who’d summoned a renewed strength and speed.   

  Miraculously, they made it back to the car without further incident. When they’d gotten back to his Maserati, the full force of what had just taken place hit Jonas full force. He turned on Alaric, slamming his brother’s back into the car with all his strength, throwing his startled brother somewhat off balance.

  “We agreed that we weren’t shooting to kill!” he shouted, not caring if they were found so close to escaping. “That was the plan! Why did you kill him, Alaric? Why?”

  “Jonas, he was going to kill you!” Alaric exclaimed in disbelief, “I couldn’t take the risk that he’d shoot you if I just shot to injure him.”

  Jonas calmed down a bit, realizing the truth of Alaric’s words. Still, Larkin was gone. He’d just lost his one and only chance of trying to end all of this peaceably, and he couldn’t help but seeing it as Alaric’s fault.

  “Look, you’re going to have to drive,” Alaric pointed out to Jonas in a tired voice that snapped Jonas’ mind back to their present circumstances. Jonas took in the sight of his brother promptly, noticing his pale, drawn face. With a nod, he raced around to the driver’s side and got the car running. As soon as Alaric slammed the door shut, he sped off.

  Several miles later, they were stopped at a light and Jonas rested his head back against the headrest of his seat, still keeping his eyes on the glowing red light before him.

  “What am I going to tell Britney?” he groaned, agony lacing his voice at just the thought of what he had to tell the girl he loved more than anyone else in the world.

  “I’ll tell her if you want. After all, I’m the one that shot him, not you,” offered Alaric, softly.

  Jonas shook his head. “No, I’ll tell her,” he negated. Sighing, he urged the car forward as the light turned green. “How did everything go so completely wrong so quickly? First you got shot when we walked straight into an ambush, and then Britney’s dad….”

  Alaric shook his head. “I don’t know Jonas, I don’t know. It seems like it was all happening so fast, we barely had time to react to what was going on. If I’d simply been just a second more behind you, you’d be lying dead right now too.”

  “I really thought this whole thing was going to be so easy,” Jonas reflected, eyes glazed over, causing Alaric to be wary of his ability to drive at the moment.

  “We both did,” Alaric assured his brother. “I would never have expected them to be so well prepared for us. They must have had cameras hidden further out or something. There’s no way they managed to arrange everything and get Larkin out in that short bit of time.” He used the rearview mirrors to study the cars behind them in traffic, allowing Jonas to focus on just driving for now. He had enough on his mind without having to watch for anyone following them. 

  “We should head over to the loft, get cleaned up, eat, sleep, and pick up Britt in the morning. That way she’ll still be safe if someone shows up tonight, trying to catch us off our guard,” Alaric recommended.

  “Makes sense,” Jonas agreed, “it’ll give me some time to figure out how I’m going to tell her too.”

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  The next morning I dressed in the blue dress anxiously, wondering when or even if Jonas and Alaric would arrive to take me home today.

  No, they will come for me today, I mentally corrected myself. They’re fine, as always, and they’ll be here any minute. I gave myself a quick shake and glanced in the mirror before turning back to my bags sitting on the bed that I’d slept restlessly on the night before. I tossed the last few things that I still had sitting out into the bag. Giving the room one last careful survey to be sure everything was packed, I turned to the door, heading out of the room, confident everything was packed up and ready to leave.

  I hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen, glad that I’d convinced Hannah to allow me to come down for breakfast this morning instead of having something brought to me. When I walked through the kitchen door, I stopped in my tracks with surprise. Sitting at the small family table with Justin Ferris and his father were Jonas and Alaric.

  Hearing my approach, Jonas turn in his seat to see me offering a faint smile as he recognized the dress. I smiled back and walked over to join them. As I did, I studied his face more carefully and realized that something was most definitely wrong, though I wasn’t sure what. Jonas’ eyes were duller than usual and there were tell-tale circles under them, giving away that he’d had little to no sleep, just as I’d had. Top those signs off with his pathetic attempt to smile and the tightness with which he gripped my hand now that I stood next to where he sat, and I was absolutely positive that something had gone extremely wrong with their plans. The question was what? I swallowed hard, realizing that it was highly likely that I didn’t want to know.

  “Morning Britt,” Alaric greeted me, his own smiled pasted into place as well. Neither of the two brothers was any good at faking their usually gorgeous grins. The playful light in their eyes was absent, and it was painfully perceptible.

  “Good morning,” I replied, “Have you all had breakfast already?”

  “Yup,” Justin answered lightly, him and his father appearing to be fairly well fooled by the brothers’ counterfeit expressions.

  I looked down at Jonas who was watching me intently. “We can leave now if you want,” I assured him, wanting to get out of here in order to find out what was bothering them so much. I assumed that whatever it was, it had to do with their mission, and, in which-case, they couldn’t tell me in front of Justin and his father. However, Jonas shook his head decidedly as soon as the words left my mouth.

  “Have some breakfast first, then we’ll leave,” he ordered in a gentle accent. Reluctantly, I obeyed, and sat in front of the television to watch the news with Daria and a rather grudging Cassandra, who was obviously glad I’d be leaving this morning, while I ate the bowl of cereal I’d gotten myself. As we watched, the screen flipped to a picture of my house and I could feel my eyes widen to twice their normal size.

  “Sadly, yesterday evening one of our area’s wealthiest and, consequently, most generous men died. Although no official cause of death has been released as of yet, it is believed that Mr. Lawrence Larkin never fully healed from the attempt on his life earlier this year and died from some lingering complications,” reported the tall, slick-haired report as he stood in front of the Larkin home.

  “Mr. Larkin was well known for his rather generous contributions to the local fine arts schools. He will be greatly missed by all,” the man continued as if he himself had just lost a close friend. He went on to say more, but by that time my brain had frozen and I didn’t hear anything more, I couldn’t. Subconsciously, I was aware that Jonas and the others had halted in their conversation at the table behind me, but my mind continued spinning. When Jonas came over and sat down next to me, beginning to speak in soothing tones, I realized for the first time that I was breathing in small rapid breaths, practically hyperventilating. It made sense now; why Jonas and Alaric had acted the way they had. My father was dead. Somehow, something had happened, and my father had ended up dying. Those stupid news reporters had no clue, none at all. Not healing from his old wounds my eye. He’d been weaker, certainly, but not on death row!

  “Thank you for taking care of her,” I heard Alaric telling what I suppose was likely a worried Mr. Ferris hurriedly. “We better get her home now.” I heard Mr. Ferris instruct Alaric where he would find my bag and Jonas saying his farewells. Jonas took me to the car, settled me in the back seat, and then got in next to me. Suddenly my eyes were filled with tears and I buried my face into his chest while he wrapped his arms around me tightly, hugging me to him.

  “I’m so sorry, Britt, love,” he whispered to me over and over again as I continued to cry. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have gone there.” Silently, Alaric slipped into the driver’s seat and drove us back to the loft. When we got there, he cut the engine and we all just continued to sit in the car, Jonas and I in the same position we’d been in before Alaric had even begun driving.

  Finally, Alaric said softly, “I’m so sorry Britney. I know that’s not nearly good enough. I honestly had no idea that it was your father. All I knew was that he was about to kill Jonas and I had one chance to stop him. If I’d stuck to no more than injuring him, I knew that he’d probably still manage to shoot and kill Jonas. I did what I had to, to bring Jonas back to you, but I had no idea that by doing so I’d still be causing you so much pain. Words can’t express how greatly I wished it hadn’t happened, but given a chance to do it all over again, I know I’d do the very same thing because it was the only way to be sure that Jonas would survive.”

  I sniffed in deeply and tried to collect myself for Alaric’s sake. Just by the tortured tone of his voice I could tell how much he was beating himself up over the unfair situation he’d been placed in. Slowly, I pushed away from Jonas and looked into the rearview mirror that Alaric was using to watch Jonas and me.

  “It’s not your fault,” I reassured him in an only slightly breaking voice. “You didn’t know. Besides, I said before that if it came down to them or any of you, I wanted you all to be safe,” I said, more to remind myself then them. I ‘d said that. I had told Jonas that if it came down to either my father or him, I wanted Jonas to come back to me. That had been my choice. I just never realized that it would ever truly come down to it. “You brought back the one I loved the most,” I whispered.

  “We should get you inside,” Jonas advised me softly after a few minutes, snatching me out of my own thoughts. I nodded and permitted him lead me up into the loft with Alaric following protectively right behind us.

  When we got inside, Jonas turned briefly to Alaric. “Just let me get her settled and we can change your bandages,” he instructed. I suddenly lifted my down turned face and focused on Alaric with alarm.

  “You’re hurt?” I asked him with concern, unable to see any wounds due to his leather jacket and fresh jeans that would have covered any leg wounds if he had any.

  “I’m fine. I just took a little bullet to the shoulder. We spent last night prying it out and sewing up the hole,” he explained to me. “I’m as good as new.”

  “The whole thing was a trap,” Jonas enlightened me as he sat me down on our sofa before retrieving some bandages from the kitchen for Alaric. Alaric sat on the love seat to await assistance.

  “We went to your dad’s office, but they had an ambush ready for us as soon as we got there. We just barely made it out of the hall, and I took a bullet just as I rounded the corner,” Alaric related to me.

  “We ended up dodging into your room and sneaking out down the fire escape,” Jonas added with a wink when he returned to help Alaric.

  “So that’s how you knew there was a fire escape in there,” Alaric remarked with dawning realization as he took off his shirt and Jonas helped him remove the old, bloodstained bandaging. I closed my eyes and looked away from the gruesome wound. They’d done a fairly good job of patching it up, but it still wasn’t a pretty sight. In fact, the ugly black stitches only added to the ghastly mess. Kara was going to have a cow when she found out that Alaric had been shot.

  “You know, I never even knew my dad donated any money to anything. I always assumed he stashed and horded it all away,” I confessed, remembering the news reporter’s words.

  “Well, your mom was a dancer wasn’t she?” queried Jonas. When I nodded he said, “Maybe that’s why. Maybe he really did care about her and the things she loved to do, like dancing.” I shrugged, finding it hard to believe. He had told me himself that their marriage was one of convenience and nothing more. With my own eyes I’d watched him practically neglect my mother while she was still alive. 

  “Maybe,” I allowed, though secretly continued discrediting the thought. Jonas just didn’t understand. My parents had been nothing like the loving couple that his had been.

  I watched as they fastened off the fresh bandage and Alaric replaced his shirt. Jonas came over, sat down beside me, and snuggled me up against his side comfortingly, kissing the top of my head gently.

  “What are we going to do now?” I inquired in a small, drained voice. “Do you think Hayden will give up?”

  “Not likely,” snorted Alaric.

  “I’m not sure what we’ll do or what all this will mean for us,” Jonas admitted to me, “I imagine that DeRuise won’t be happy about any of this. I could have a target on the back of my head soon enough.”

  “You think he’s going to remove his protection from you?” I asked with worry. I knew what that would mean. Hayden would be free to shoot him on sight without having to worry about any repercussions for his actions. An offer that was simply far too sweet for him to possibly consider passing up.

  “I don’t know, maybe,” he replied, “DeRuise and your father were rather close. I’m guessing that any favor I had left with him is now destroyed.”

  “Hey, don’t worry,” voiced Alaric lightly as he stood up and slowly rolled his shoulder with only a minuscule grimace of pain, “we’ll work something out with or without DeRuise’s help, you’ll see.”

  “I hope you’re right,” I sighed, snuggling deeper into Jonas’ arms and closing my eyes, trying to forget about my dad as best as I could.

  “Don’t worry, I’m always right,” he laughed with assurance. “Look I’m going to go out for a bit, you two kids take care and stay out of trouble. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With that, Alaric hurried off and not long after, I fell asleep. Less than an hour later however, I awoke to the sound of Alaric’s cell phone ringing.

  “He must’ve forgotten it,” decided Jonas drowsily, having also fallen asleep. He carefully moved away from me and got up to get the phone. “It’s probably Kara of Ana,” he guessed.

  “Hello?” he said, answering the phone.

  “He went out. Must have forgotten his phone,” Jonas explained.

   I could hear Kara’s voice asking something, and then Jonas cast a worried glance my way, hesitating before he answered her. “It could have gone much better,” he finally owned. “Britney’s dad is dead and Alaric got a bullet in his shoulder. It was a complete mess.”

  “WHAT?!” she exclaimed so loudly I could clearly hear her from where I sat on the sofa. I cringed, feeling sorry for Jonas that he had to be the one to tell Kara. Briefly, I wondered with suspicion if Alaric had possibly left his phone behind on purpose, not having desired to be the one to have to explain how things had gone down.

  “He’s going to be alright. We got it out last night and it appears to be doing just fine,” Jonas assured her quickly.

  Another pause and a question I couldn’t hear. Another glance my way before answering.

  “It was an accident. Alaric was only stopping him before he got me. He had no idea who it was at the time,” Jonas enlightened her.

  “Yeah, I’d appreciate it if you’d pass along the news to Ana and Mac, thanks.”

   Yet one more rather lengthy pause.

  “No, he didn’t say where he was going, but I think he’ll be back soon. I’ll let him know you called. Bye.” Jonas hung up and returned to his place by me.

  “What do you think Alaric’s up to?” I asked at last.

  “Honestly? I have no idea,” admitted Jonas, “He could be rousing up an undead army for all I know. We’ll just have to wait and find out when he returns. Chances are he just went to pick up some more groceries or coffee or something.”

  I nodded, snuggling back up to him and closing my eyes once again, prepared to go right back to sleep again.

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  Alaric flipped his brother’s Quattroporté around the last corner of the block the loft was on, frowning. As they’d driven back to the loft with Britney in tow, he’d realized that Hayden and Larkin could’ve been tipped off by one of the guys they’d had watching them at the loft. Chances were, they’d been followed and, guessing where they were off to, their spy had called to warn them.

  As he looked around now though, he didn’t see a single car watching the loft or following him around. Was it at all possible that Hayden had voluntarily backed off and wasn’t keeping them under surveillance any longer? Had he been frightened off by the death of his superior?  Alaric greatly hoped that was the case, but inwardly, he found it far too difficult to believe.

   If anything, he expected that Larkin’s death would only further convince Terrence to come after them. First, in order seek revenge. Also, to attempt kidnapping Britney, his key to securing the Larkin fortune and a permanent ticket in and out of the states that allowed him practically a citizen’s rights.

  So the question was, what was Hayden up to?

 

 

 

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