Chapter 13
I don't really know when the heist happened. It feels like ages ago, and the moment I entered the casino seems so far away now. Still, the actual robbery itself is a blur. I don't get time to think about it too much before Giovanni pulls a van up in front of us and asks us to get in.
Was there a change in plan? I thought we were supposed to leave in the same car we drove here.
I don't say anything for now, just carefully watch everyone's moves. Something is wrong. I just can't tell exactly what.
I can see Canelli in the front seat next to Giovanni, and that makes Lawrence the only one missing.
“What happened to Lawrence?” I ask, knowing that we were also supposed to meet with him.
“He got into a little more trouble than he bargained for by messing up the other players' chips. The security guards took him in for a little shaking, but he'll be all right, don't worry. He's gonna meet usas soon as he gets out of there.” It's Giovanni who answers me. He seems to be the spokesman for the team. And in the next moment, I felt I was just kicked out of that same team.
“Your phone,” Nick asks, his hand stretched out as he is rushing me to give it to him.
I throw it to him. I don't need it anymore anyway, I'm even surprised the piece of junk worked enough to serve its purpose and help me run the programs through the safe’s computer.
Still, I am surprised by Nick's next action. He throws the phone out the window, making sure it gets lost somewhere on the street.
“What the fuck did you do that for? I had all my contacts in there.” I may not need the phone, but I had my SIM card in there.
“Your phone is traceable. We don't need anyone out there on our tail,” Nick answers me.
I know any phone is traceable, but who could trace it if they don't know who we are?
“Don’t worry about your contacts. I have them on a drive. I'll set up a new phone for you as soon as possible.” Giovanni tries to reassure me while keeping his eye on the road.
They've made some kind of deal behind my back. Giovanni is acting much more diplomatically than usual, like he's preparing me for something. I think I'm just about to be let in on plan B.
And it turns out I’m right since the van suddenly stops in front of a motel right out of town. Our plan was to go back to the Sphinx and act like nothing fucking happened. But now we're acting like we're on the run. Did someone let Chen in about our breaking in? Because I couldn't even think of an alternative where they would consider double-crossing Seth.
I don't ask questions yet because I can see a couple out in the parking lot just as we’re getting out of the car. I just let Nick lead the way to the main desk and get us a room while the other two guys stay behind for a smoke.
It would look a little fishy if the four of us were going to a motel room. I know there's a lot of shit going on in Vegas, but three suspicious men and a woman stepping out of a van and going into a motel room would probably alert some authorities, or at least raise a few eyebrows.
“I brought you your dress,” Nick throws a bag on the bed. He’s talking about the dress I left in the bathroom earlier at the casino.
“I don't need different clothes, Nick. I need explanations,” I snap back at him, realizing this is just the typical kind of shit he puts me in.
“The guys are gonna be here any moment, and I'm gonna explain things to you. Now go and change, we’re leaving the second Lawrence arrives,” he orders me rather than asking. I don't have time to retaliate. I can hear voices outside, and I know in a situation like this, time is everything. I just need to know what the fucking situation is.
Taking off the black wig, I throw it in the trashcan, along with the attendant’s uniform I’m wearing, then slip into the dress Seth got me.
Canelli and Giovanni are already in the room as I return. They seem nervous, almost agitated about something.
“I thought things went according to plan. What the hell is going on here?” I ask, without a drop of patience left. And Nick knows it. He needs to tell me something fast, or all hell is about to break loose.
“Calm down, baby. I'll explain everything to you. You just need to trust me.” Nick is trying to explain something to me, but Nick and trust in the same sentence don't go too well together, in my opinion.
“Trust you? How can I fucking trust you when everything you say turns out to be some bullshit? What are we doing here? Are you double-crossing Seth?”
“Double-crossing is a harsh term. More like selling to the highest bidder.” Well, that was my answer. Nick is out of his mind.
“Are you fucking crazy? All of you?” I look at the other guys too, as they seem to be in on it.
“Maybe just greedy.” Giovanni laughs like all of this is just a big joke to them.
I hope I’m wrong about Seth, but I know they're underestimating him. That’s a mistake that will cost them their lives. And mine as well.
“You're out of your mind. We need to get the artifact back to Seth. I saw Nick taking money from the safe, so split that if you want to. Just get the artifacts to Malvagio like we agreed.” I’m warning them of the danger. Not that anyone is listening, judging by their faces. They’re all such greedy fuckers, selling their soul for an extra dime, even if it means endangering their lives more than they already did with the break-in.
“Giovanni found someone willing to pay three times the money Seth is giving us. And since we get half and they get half, that adds two million to our bank account.” Nick tries to convince me this is the best deal for us.
“I don't care about your fucking millions. We have to be alive to be able to spend it. And double-crossing Seth leaves us with no chance of that!” Why can't he seem to get it through that thick skull of his? There are people in this world you just can't mess around with. By taking Seth's artifact, he managed to screw up things for us way worse than he did back in Cali.
“Chill,” Giovanni lights a cigarette. “I’ll just make all of us disappear for a while. You did say you wanted to return to California. And it’s getting way too hot in Vegas for us.”
These people are fucking mad! “I want out of this!” I stamp my feet on the floor, realizing that, in fact, there's no way out. By the looks of it, it's four against one. And there's not a chance I would win against these money-hungry wolves.
“Babe, calm down.” Nick rushes to get by my side, wrapping his arms around me like that could give me any comfort.
Calm down? “How the fuck am I supposed to calm down when you keep getting every mafia boss in every city on my back?”
“Babe, the man Giovanni made a deal with, also offered us protection from everyone. We just need to deliver the damn artifact, and we’ll be out of the woods. No one can touch us. It will all be okay, I promise. You just need to calm down for now.”
My head is about to explode, and he keeps going on and on about fucking calming down. My brother would have killed him if he were here with us.
Why didn’t I trust my instincts and dump this piece of shit earlier?
“I'm freaking the fuck out! I can’t calm down, especially since I feel like we're waiting in this motel room to die.”
“We’ll get out of here the second Lawrence arrives. I never leave a member of my team behind.” It was Giovanni who spoke. For some reason, he seemed as relaxed as Nick while opening the money bag and making two equal stacks of dollars, splitting the pot 50-50.
They hadn’t even finished counting the money before Lawrence gives them a sign. Apparently, he got out of the casino—pretty beaten up, but still alive.
My temples are pulsing as I try to figure a way out of this—with or without Nick. My chances of a new life are falling apart with each passing second that ticks on the clock.
What the hell have we done?
I can't think straight. That's probably because I can't function properly in moments of crisis. This is where Michael used to intervene, and that’s the main reason I didn't want to get involved in this heist in the first place. I’ve never dealt well with stress, and now I have to do it on my own.
“Look at me!” I can hear Nick roar, trying to put some sense into me. “Let's step outside for a second. Just promise me you won't have one of your seizures. I just want to talk to you. Alone.”
I nod my head in agreement. That's pretty much all I can do for now—just go with the flow and see what comes of it.
That doesn't mean I don't have it in me to fight back. “What the hell were you thinking, Nick?”
“I was thinking about us. You and me. I've been doing that a lot lately. I might be an idiot, Serena, but I still love you. I want us to take things forward. A house, a family, a baby. And I don't want to wait another three years to make this happen. I want it starting today.”
“There are other ways,” I try to explain, but quickly realize that other ways would imply working a regular job. And that's not Nick's thing .
“Other ways take too long. The truth is, I don't want to pay Moretti his money back. I just want to move to a place where no one knows us and make a life for ourselves. But I need to know that you're on board.”
“What about California? What about my job there?” All my dreams are falling apart while Nick tries to build new ones that seem impossible to believe.
“You and I both know that even if we would have done this as we agreed, and went back to California, things would never go how we wanted them. You would start a career, and I would probably get lost again in other distractions. No house, no baby, no family—not for a long time. So that's why I'm asking you again: are you in this with me, Serena?”
I can't give myself an answer to this question, let alone Nick. I don't even know if I want any of those things with him. There are moments when I think I do, but then again, there are moments when I wake up to reality and realize that could be the final step in ruining my life.
His eyes lock on mine, waiting for an answer. I don't get to give him one. A car stops next to us. Lawrence is behind the wheel, and before I know it, I see Giovanni and Canelli leave the motel room.
“Let's go.” Giovanni heads toward the van, expecting us to follow. I guess he's riding with us as a security measure so that Nick won’t double-cross him, and run away with the artifact. I can't blame him. Not even I know what Nick thinks all the time.
I'm not sure what will happen next, but I still need to figure something out. I know there's no way to reason with Nick, and somehow my foolish mind still believes the sweet lies he's continuously feeding me. “I love you, Serena, that's all that matters.”
But that's not all that matters, and maybe it's time I make him aware of that. “You want to start something new based on another lie? That's not how things fucking work, Nick, and you know it. I can't do this anymore. I want out.”
“You can't get out Serena, not when we're so close to the finish line,” he rasps, and I feel him losing his patience.
“It's not the finish line we’re getting close to. It’s the end,” I snarl back. Panic settles into every cell of my body. I feel I'm one step away from jumping from the moving van.
For the first time, Nick seems to agree with me. “If you don't want to be in on this, then you can get out in the first town.” The tone of his voice is so cold that I take him for real, almost like he wants to get rid of me. So much for the happy family...
Or maybe he's just bluffing. He knows I have nowhere else to go, with Moretti waiting for his money and probably Seth on our trail. These aren't the kind of men you could ever strike a bargain with, so Nick knows I have no real way out. He just used me again. And I feel like I'm spinning in a vicious circle. With each one of his moves, he's entrappingme more and more in it.
To be honest, I'm seriously thinking of taking my chances and leaving. I fucked up my life either way, but I'm probably too much of a coward to take the final step. I just have a feeling something bad is going to happen. This time Nick pushed his luck way too far and I don't want to be next to him when his luck finally runs out.
All of a sudden, I hear Giovanni cursing. Something is going on, and as I look through the window, I spot a large SUV, picking up our trail.
I pray that it’s a coincidence, but we’re in the middle of nowhere, and that car is speeding right toward us.
“Giovanni, what's going on?” I ask, panic rising uncontrollably.
“We have a tail. I’ll get rid of them , don’t worry.”
Who is them, and why am I not to worry when I can't control anything that's going on in my life anymore?
Pushing Nick aside, I try to get a better view through the window to see who's inside the car that's following us.Two guys are occupying the front seats, and I know I’ve seen them before somewhere. I think it was at Seth's casino. Shit, now I'm really considering jumping out of the moving van.
I can see Giovanni getting agitated like he's waiting for something to be able to make his next move. I feel so useless in these moments that I wanna scream. And I’m not even the one that got us into this mess.
The SUV is catching up with us. I think they're planning to cut us off, but as they pull up beside us, Giovanni yanks the wheel and almost runs them off the road.
The impact tosses us in the van like basketballs. We didn't hit the men tracking us as hard as Giovanni probably anticipated, so next thing we know, they’re right behind us again.
Damn, this looks like trouble. I don't even have the time or the mood to go off at Nick for it. Judging by the look on his face, he knows exactly the shit we are in right now.
“Hold onto something,” I suddenly hear him roar while he's trying to anchor himself on whatever he can find.
Giovanni is going to try another blow, but before he can do that, the men in the SUV shoot out our tires, unbalancing our van. As if that’s not bad enough, a blow that causes my face to smash on the floor throws us off the road.
I didn't get to hold on to anything like Nick had called out to me, and as the van rolls off the road, flipping more than a few times, so do I. The impact is so strong that I feel our van is never going to stop flipping. Each roll makes another part of my body collide with something, and as Nick tries to catch me, his grip slackens. Now we're not only slamming against the walls but into each other as well.
Each impact is stronger than the last, leaving me feeling more dead than alive when the van finally stops. I should get up and run for my life, but my eyes are fighting to stay open, while I feel I have absolutely no control over my limbs.
I'm tired. So fucking tired, like I've been walking in the desert all day.
How am I supposed to get out this time around?
I try moving, but bones I didn't even know I had begin to hurt. There’s no way I'm getting out of here.
The last of my hopes dies the second I feel the van move. I think someone’s trying to roll it back into its normal position. My body slams one last time against the bench as the van rolls back on its wheels—not that it has wheels anymore. By the looks of it, there isn’t even a side door left.
I don't get to move another inch before my darkest fears come to life. Three large figures appear in front of us, and I recognize each one as being Seth's men.
I'm not even in trouble. I think I'm dead. It sure feels like it, especially with my eyes constantly trying to close, like I haven't slept in days.
I can't fight the exhaustion any longer, and my eyes close with the image of a hand reaching to grab me.
There's darkness for a long time. I try to move my eyelids again, but it’s no use. Still, I'm not a quitter. I have to return to the land of the living, no matter what’s waiting for me. I push my eyes harder to open, but bright lights are blinding me.I can hear voices around me, but still, I can't really make out who's there because of the lights. All I can discern are flashes. I feel like I'm fighting the lights that are trying to blind me, and the more I struggle to do it, the more exhausted I get.
I’m forced to give up the fight, but before I do that, I recognize the place as being some kind of a hospital.
Everything goes blank again for an even longer time. And I wish it had stayed that way.
A strong smell makes my eyes snap back open, but it's not the stingy sensation it leaves along my windpipe that almost yanks a cry out of me. It's the sight of the man in front of me. Seth.
“Good evening Serena. It’s about time you joined us.”