15. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Caleb
“Where is it?” the big dude, whose name I still don’t know, yells.
“I don’t know.” I groan, repeating the same words I have for the last hour. And just like he has after every response for the last hour, he punches me. In the gut, my face, ribs, shoulders, they’re all bruised. But there’s no way I’m going to tell them my dad has the Framework. Not because I want to protect him, but because I know that if they find him, he won’t hesitate to throw Amelia under the bus and send them after her. Which means I might die here.
“Let’s start over, shall we?” the man asks, stepping back and rubbing out his hands. He motions to one of the other two men in the room, and one flicks on a projector. A map of the Strip pops up. “Evan lost you right about here.” He points to the Mandalay Bay. “Then we found you here.” He points to the other end of the Strip. “What did you do in the meantime? How did you get from one end to the other? Who did you spend your time with?”
I purposely avoid his last question. “I was looking for that stupid toy you all want so badly.” I throw some arrogance into my voice like I have no idea what the Framework is.
“And you found it?”
“If I found it, I would have given it to you an hour ago before you broke my nose.”
“Concerned with your looks?” He chuckles. “You’ve got much bigger worries.”
“No offense, but it seems like you’ll be in bigger trouble when your boss gets here and realizes you lost the stupid thing to Katerina.”
“I didn’t—” he yells, then tamps it back down. “That little witch seduced me,” he mutters.
Finally, something to work with. “She tends to do that.”
He looks at me, almost surp I’m still here. “She has this way about her.” His eyes glaze over, and I barely stop myself from groaning. “She gets in my mind. But Fox…Fox is going to lose it.”
“Talk to Katerina. Get her to admit where it is. Maybe Fox doesn’t have to know,” I say, one step closer to being able to play this man like a fiddle. But he only glares at me.
“Fox knows everything.”
There goes that hope.
The door creaks open and a wide-eyed man peeks in. “Fox is here.”
Great. I’ll get to meet the Fox but not be able to do anything about it because I’m headed for six feet under.
“Get him up,” the big guy barks to the other two, who gruffly grab my arms and haul me up, dripping blood all over the penthouse. They shove me onto a couch just as the door opens. My vision blurs and my body screams in pain as I right myself.
The second the room is in view again, I wish it wasn’t.
The world stops spinning.
There’s my dad. And Amelia. In a black wig.
No. How did she find me? Why are they here? Did my father put her up to this? I’m going to kill him. But I have to get her to safety first.
“What did you do to him?” Amelia screeches in some weird accent that is probably supposed to be Russian.
“N—” I try to get the words out, but Amelia snaps her fingers at the men by my side.
“You will pay for this. All of you.”
“Fox, I—” the big one starts, but Amelia silences him with another snap of her fingers.
“Release him, you fools. I sent him to look after you .”
There’s no way they are buying this. Her accent is terrible. But I’ll take any advantage I can get. If I can get these restraints off, I can take the big one. But that leaves the other two to hurt her. I have to remove her from the equation.
“I don’t understand,” the big one says, falling back a step.
“You wouldn’t because you’re an idiot. Don’t these two men look alike?” She points to my dad now. “Sergio is my right-hand man, and this is his son. The only two people in the world I trust because I knew my employees”—she narrows her eyes, glaring at each of them—“were getting greedy.”
“But he stole the Framework,” the big guy says, blaming me instead of Katerina.
Amelia snaps her fingers at my dad this time, and he pulls something out of his pocket. The Framework. Amelia dangles it in the air before tucking it in her shirt. “Did he? Or did you lose it?”
“It was all Katerina—”
“That sounds like an excuse. I’ll decide what to do with you boys. As far as Katerina is concerned, I never want to see her again.”
Did my girlfriend just order a Russian smuggler to be killed? That’s a problem for later.
“Now cut him free while I think about what to do with you lousy bunch.”
The man behind me cuts my wrists free, and I walk hesitantly toward “Fox” and my dad. When I get closer I see Amelia’s bottom lip tremble, but she forces it into a straight line, doing an excellent job of remaining a tough mafia head.
And then she slaps me. It's nothing compared to my latest hits, but it still stings. “That was for getting played by Katerina.” Tears spring to her eyes, but she keeps playing the part.
“My deepest apologies,” I grunt.
“You’ll be making up for it later.” She tsks, then turns back to the men. “Remain here. I’ll be in contact.”
Thane holds the door for her, and she walks out steadily. Only when it’s closed behind us does she let the first sign of fear show in her walk, but I don’t reach for her yet. There are cameras in this hall they have access to.
“You’re okay,” I whisper as we get into the elevator. “That was incredible.”
Her shoulders shake silently, and I long to touch her. To hold and comfort her for the agonizingly long trip to the bottom.
“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to be a P.I.” Amelia finally manages.
I bite back a chuckle. “You did an excellent job,” I whisper.
“I think I’m having a heart attack.” Her hands shake at her sides, and it nearly does me in.
“Deep breaths, sweetheart, it’s over, you did it.”
We reach the bottom floor and step out of the elevator. We are almost home free. “I can’t believe that worked,” Amelia says.
“It didn’t.”
I freeze at the sound of a woman’s voice in the lobby.
Uh oh.