Chapter 17 #2
“Something like that. Keep going.”
The road leads us to the very shore of the lake, but I stop the car a little earlier.
Without turning off the engine, I scan the area and say, “It doesn’t look like we’ll find what we’re looking for here.”
Ash, however, gets out without a word. Through the window, I watch her examine everything closely. She roams left and right, stepping between overgrown piles of rubble and scattered trash. Either she’s looking for something or she’s just crazy. Who knows?
At some point, however, she stops near the shore. Her gaze is fixed ahead, as if something has pulled her out of reality.
What is she seeing?
I turn off the engine and get out too. When I’m beside her, she looks deathly pale, like she’s seen a ghost.
Ash still doesn’t even notice my presence.
“Let’s go. There’s nothing here,” I say and grab her hand, intertwining our fingers.
“Not here. But there,” she whispers, pointing to the other side of the lake.
At first, all I can see is a fairly large platform on the water, accessed by a wooden pier. Only after a while do I spot something between the trees.
On the other side, there’s no shore like the one on this side, flat with a sandy area similar to a beach. That shore is steep and completely overgrown with trees. That’s why I didn’t immediately notice the gray roof rising between the treetops.
I have to admit, it must be an amazing place to hide if Ash has a good feeling about it.
“Do you think he’s there?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” I shrug.
“We can’t drive there. We’ll have to walk,” she adds.
“Then we’ll walk.”
Pulling Ash back to the car, I don’t know what’s wrong with her because she suddenly becomes quiet and distant. Something is bothering her, but until she tells me what it is, there’s nothing I can do.
I can be patient.
We drive around the lake as far as we can. We have to cover the remaining twenty percent of the way on foot.
Before we set off, I take an extra gun from the trunk. I pull on a black jacket and put the mask in my pocket. When I come out with an extra jacket for my girl, it turns out she’s already prepared. Dressed in black as usual, with her mask in her hand, she hides a dagger in her pocket.
A moment later, we’re hiking through the trees. My woman is like a ghost, remaining completely silent. Even the branches don’t make a sound under her feet.
Am I the only one who notices such things about her? I never pay much attention to how other women walk, but Ash seems to draw my attention with her whole being. It’s beyond my control. Everything about her attracts me.
Even the way she holds the compass in her hand and controls the direction we’re going.
And then I look down and see...
“I’ve never seen anything more spectacular than you in combat boots. You had them on when I first saw you. In my club,” I whisper. I can’t help myself.
A hint of a smile touches her lips, despite her dismissing me with a soft snort.
The forest is thick, and it’s getting darker even though it’s late afternoon. The sun can’t penetrate the tall, dense trees.
“And then you danced for me. You said you had a proposition for me. What was it?”
“Actually...” She swallows, her words seeming to get stuck in her throat. “Actually, I don’t know. I was teasing you. Perhaps I needed your attention, but...”
Ash notices something between the trees. She stops talking and her movements become more delicate, her posture slightly less upright. She doesn’t have to say anything; I know what she’s doing. She slips the compass into her pocket and starts sneaking up, never taking her eyes off her target.
I want to tell her she always has my full attention. But that will have to wait.
The gray walls of the house are coming into focus.
“How can we be sure it’s this house? Do we have anything more than Vlad’s words?”
“We haven’t, but I have a hunch,” she says. “Trust me.”
What do I have to lose? At worst, we’ll waste some time and break onto someone’s private property. Compared to all my transgressions in life, this is one of the smallest.
It’s amazing how, in a second, Ash and I work in complete sync. I pull the mask over my face, and she does the same. I assume the lowest possible stance and begin to sneak forward. The terrain is difficult, so crawling is out of the question.
Once I’m close enough to the house, I crouch behind a bush and take out my binocs out of my jacket pocket. Piece by piece, I scan what I can see from this distance. To be honest, the house looks abandoned.
All the windows are closed and there are no lights on.
Not even a curtain moves behind the windows.
There’s a terrace at the back of the house, but I can only see a small part of it.
There’s also a terrace at the front, facing the lake.
In this area, a large swimming pool takes center stage.
Interestingly, it’s filled with water and doesn’t look old at all.
I’m about to tell Ash all this when a man emerges from around the corner of the building.
He’s dressed in a military uniform that definitely helps him blend in.
The guy’s maybe my height, broad-shouldered like a damn bull.
A big brute, no doubt about it. He’s wearing a black cap.
Most important, however, he’s holding a machine gun across his chest.
A thrill of excitement runs through my body.
One thing is certain. An ordinary person living in a house in the woods doesn’t need people with such toys around them.
Something’s very wrong here. Ash may be right in her hunch.
“We’re not alone,” I whisper, not taking my eyes off.
Ash sighs. “I knew it.
“Maybe. We still don’t know anything except that heavily armed mercenaries are guarding this place. There could just as well be a porn star living here.”
“Sure. And they’re guarding her golden chastity belt so well.” Ash’s sarcasm is another thing I love about her. She’s sassy and just my type.
“Let’s check it out,” I suggest, and she snorts quietly. It makes me smile. Even though I’m right, that’s all I can hope for. She had exactly the same thing on the tip of her tongue, but I beat her to it. And she’s not happy about it.
Suddenly, the sound of a breaking branch reaches my ears. Not somewhere close, but not too far away either.
I raise my head again and look at Ash first. It dawns on me that I’m not mistaken and she heard it as well.
“What the hell is that?” Ash asks.
Swish, swish, swish...
I know that muffled sound, but I can’t remember where from.
Swish, swish, swish...
The muscles in my jaw twitch.
“What the fuck?” I squint. I pull out my binoculars and look at the house sinking into darkness. My eyes scan every inch of the place.
The sound of my heart pounding like a hammer is interrupted when I see a shadow. It emerges from behind the east wall and rushes down the hill between the trees.
Shish, swish, swish...
And then it hits me what that sound is.
“Fuck. It’s a helicopter!”
In the next second, Ash is already on her feet and running toward the house.
“What the hell are you doing, Ash?” I run after her. Her reckless behavior could cost us our lives. While my life doesn’t mean much to me, I can’t let anything happen to her.
What if the security guards are still here? What if the changing of the guard is about to take place? What is she thinking?
Oh, girl, your ass is going to be so red from my hand when I punish you for this, you won’t be able to sit down for a week!
I can’t believe she’s acting so reckless.
A memory of a dream flashes through my mind.
Once, I let someone walk away from me, and I just watched. It ended badly once. Not this time.
With my dagger at the ready in case of emergency, I catch up with her and grab her waist. We’re already a dozen steps from the house.
“Let me fucking go,” she growls, struggling.
“Jesus, Ash, calm down.”
“He’s in there!”
“Calm down. This is dumb and dangerous!” Before I finish speaking, Ash leans down and sinks her teeth into my arm. Instinctively, I loosen my grip, and that’s enough for her to break free from this cage.
Ash takes off again. This time I catch up with her—not because I’m fast, but because she stops on the terrace right next to the pool.
I glance around to make sure there’s no danger, and when I’m sure, I approach her.
My gaze follows hers down the hill. On the shore of the lake, on the platform we saw earlier, there’s a helicopter. A man dressed in a black suit, accompanied by four other men, is walking along the bridge leading to it.
Even from a distance, I can see that these men are the senator’s personal security, and the man in the suit is the one we’ve been looking for.
A few steps further, he halts, his head tilting slightly as though he feels our gaze upon him.
Maybe that’s the case because he turns with a single movement.
Ash takes a sharp breath.
His eyes rest on us with little trouble. He sees us, which means we’re screwed. The guy knew beforehand that someone might be looking for him. Now, however, he’s certain of it.
Maybe if we’d set off a little earlier, we would have made it. We would have had the former senator in our grasp!
I want to run down the hill the same way they must have come down, but Ash grabs my arm without taking her eyes off the senator.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. We’re too late,” she says, nodding toward the lake.
Indeed, when I look in the same direction, the senator is climbing into the helicopter. Ash is right; we’re too late.
Damn it! I knew it was going to be a bad day!
I realize something else. It’s the final nail in the coffin of my bitter mood.
My father promised to destroy everything that is precious to me. Today, I almost made it easy for him.