Chapter Thirteen
Ryker
After locating Matteo again, I slide my phone back into my pocket. I give him the okay to start toward the back entrance. To blend in, I walk into the crowd of people dancing all over each other. I need to get Max alone so we can knock him out and bring him to our location. The crowd is wild and I try to keep my eyes locked on Max. Then I feel hands on me and I swirl to find a beautiful brunette woman in a tight red dress. I want to indulge, but there’s a job to do.
I ignore her and turn back in the direction of Max. I can’t see or hear anything with the low lights and the blaring music. I keep walking to the center of the dance floor and twirl, but there is no sign of Max.
“Fuck,” I mumble. If the guys find out I got distracted and fucked this up, I’ll never hear the end of it. Maybe Sawyer and Damon found out more about Epson and I’ll get lucky. I continue my search for Max and come up empty-handed. I walk toward the back door and find Matteo in the back alley. His black shadow charges for me.
“It’s me, fuck,” I yell before his fist can meet my face.
“Where’s Max?” he asks. I slowly smile and it’s as if
Matteo knows what happened before I even open my mouth. “That little lord Farquaad fuck,” he mumbles .
“You’ve watched Shrek?” I ask, completely forgetting to explain myself. Matteo steps closer and his eyes darken.
“You say a word of any of this tonight. I’ll replace Max with you,” he sighs and runs his hand through his long dark hair. “I needed this kill tonight, fuck.”
“I got onto the floor and lost him immediately. I didn’t see where he went,” I explain. Matteo walks to the end of the alley and I follow him. “Where are you going?”
“Back to the car. Maybe his car is still out front and he is somewhere inside. If not, I guess we are either going back to his place or the motel.”
I cringe at the last part. I can’t image how pissed
Damon is going to be when he figures out I fucked this up. “We can’t kill him at his place. It's rigged with cameras and without Sawyer, there is no way we would get in without being spotted. We will have to go back to the motel and I’ll tell Damon what happened.”
Matteo starts the engine and smirks at me. “Good luck, you're going to need it.”
???
W e pull into Sunway and I see Damon’s car immediately. I wasn’t sure if we would have beaten them back to the motel or not. I get out of the car and enter Damon’s room. He is at the small table sitting next to Sawyer with a cigarette. They both seem calm for the time being. Matteo walks in moments later.
“ How did it go?” Damon asks .
“I lost Max on the dance floor in Alchemy and we couldn’t locate him afterward,” I gulp and wait for Damon to lose his shit.
“ Did you go back to his place?” he asks.
“ It’s too guarded. We will have to utilize our other
location,” Matteo cuts in. “In Ryker’s defense, Max is short as hell. Anyone would lose him in a crowd like that,” Matteo smirks.
“We will have to wait until he goes out again. Tail him for the next few days. We have bigger things to deal with than him.” We both look to Sawyer to see if we are going to get an explanation of these bigger things. Sawyer is deep in his laptop and doesn’t look up.
“ What other big things?” I ask hesitantly.
“We found Clara Baker,” Sawyer says. I can see the hint of a smile form on Damon’s face. This explains why he isn’t so pissed about Max.
“ Are we just going to forget about Epson?” Matteo
asks.
“ No,” Damon whips around. “There is something more about this whole damn job. It’s piqued my curiosity and now I need to figure it out.”
“Okay, but three jobs at once? Isn’t that kind of a lot?” Matteo asks. “I am all for the killings, but I wouldn’t want one of us to slip up,” he adds.
“ That’s why we are going to have to prioritize the jobs. Sawyer and I will continue to work on Clara Baker. You and Ryker finish Max by this weekend. As for Epson, we all are going to finish that job together,” Damon clarifies.
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll see what I can find out at my appointment Monday on Epson,” I say confidently. Sawyer and Damon brief us on the little they found on Epson. I’m more interested in this Clara Baker woman. I’ve heard bits and pieces about Sarah and if this is the lead we need to find her, then we may have struck gold.
Damon has been searching for this girl, well I would assume woman now before I was even in the group. There has to be a reason she is so important and I’m curious to find out. If we find her, I wonder what Damon expects to do with her. Is she going to join us? I laugh internally at the thought. We can’t go around inviting whoever we want into the group. It's risky enough trying to pull off this many killings at once let alone telling another person about what we are doing.
“You guys up for this?” Damon asks.
“Let’s do it,” I nod.