Chapter 30 Krista #2
“Krista, huh?” he asked, grinning as he stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. “That’s funny because you look and sound like Alicia Kay.”
“I guess God liked the masterpiece he created so much that he made two of us.”
DeLuca’s smile dropped just a little.
“Cut the crap. Where’d you stash it?”
“The black box? I don’t have it.”
His head inclined slightly. “If you’re not Alicia, how is it that you know about the black box?”
I couldn’t answer that without giving away the fact that I knew people at a security company. That would only place him on edge. Instead, I glanced around the room curiously.
“I really expected there to be a large tarp on the floor, waiting for me.”
“No need,” he shrugged. “Carpet can be replaced.”
“Yes, but the blood would seep into the carpet padding, the subfloor, and all the other additional moisture barriers,” I informed him.
Internally, I was thanking my family for giving up ranching for this new venture. Without it, I wouldn’t know anything about building houses.
“The subfloor,” he grinned. “That’s nice. Did you look that up?”
“Oh, I could tell you all kinds of things about housing. See, my family owns a ranch in Montana, but cattle ranches are a dying breed. No pun intended. It’s not as profitable, and it never really was, which meant that if my family wanted to continue living on the ranch, we had to make some changes.
So, we sold off all the cattle and turned the ranch into a destination vacation spot.
Guess who has the privilege of cleaning the cabins after the guests leave? ”
I pointed to myself, rolling my eyes. “Well, I honestly wouldn’t expect my brothers to lift a finger to clean up after guests. However, with a little manipulation, I can usually get some help.”
DeLuca looked at me strangely, then his eyes flicked to the man behind me.
“I know. You’re wondering if this is all a prank. I get it. I do look just like her. Well, except for the makeup. No woman needs that much shit on her face. And the clothes. As much as I like her taste in shoes, I prefer cowboy boots.”
“Is she for real?” DeLuca asked the man behind me.
“She was just walking down the street,” the guy answered.
Spinning around, I held out my hand. “We weren’t properly introduced down there. You know, when you basically attacked me on the street. “Krista Parker.”
The man just stared at me like I was a lunatic. And frankly, I was. I agreed to this. But the more I went with it, the easier it was, so I kept going.
“Okay, in Montana, we consider that rude. It’s just a handshake.”
I turned back to DeLuca. “So, the reason I stopped by today was to ask you to kindly leave me out of this crazy thing you have going on with Alicia. Having the same face as her is really no reason to make my life a living hell.”
He just stared at me, so I continued.
“My sister was having a baby the first time you sent men after me. I didn’t even get to tell her I was leaving. Again, that’s pretty rude in Montana.”
“You really expect me to believe that you’re not Alicia? That you somehow have the same face?”
“It’s a conundrum, I know. But it’s the truth.”
“Conundrum.”
I nodded, staring at him seriously. “It means a confusing problem.”
Irritation flashed in his eyes, and I quickly pivoted.
“That wasn’t an insult. You’re Italian. Not everything translates the way you’d think.”
“You had help,” he said, getting pissed off at me. “You really expect me to believe that a woman from Montana just picked up some rich guy and got involved in my business?”
“Rich guy?” I snorted at that. “I highly doubt Rob is rich.”
“Uh…I think he is,” Derek said in my ear. “He probably didn’t want you to know that.”
It took everything in me to keep my face straight and not react to that little tidbit of information, but I somehow pulled it off.
“Rob, huh? And who is he?”
We’d been over this. Give as little information as possible, so I deflected, walking over to some insane-looking porcelain object on a table that was supposed to be a decoration.
“Now that I’ve told you who I am, I would appreciate it if you could leave me and my family out of whatever drama you have going on with Alicia. I don’t care about whatever you have in that black box, and I don’t want to know. I just want to live my life and be left alone.”
“About that, how did you know about the black box?”
“Shit,” Derek muttered over comms.
Crap, I wasn’t supposed to focus on that, but my confidence ran full steam ahead and didn’t remember that little piece of information.
“I ran into her.”
He smirked at me, stepping forward with all the confidence in the world. Shit, he was going to murder me.
“You ran into her. I’ve been looking for her for days.”
“Yes, but you found me,” I said, trying to regain my confidence. “You stopped looking for her. I knew it had to be a mistake.”
“And how did you find her when no one else could?”
I started sweating hard. Everything was unravelling. I had no idea if Rob had the information he needed or not, and I couldn’t exactly ask Derek without giving it all away.
My eyes flicked out the window as I subconsciously looked for the sniper on the roof. Bad move. DeLuca followed my gaze and stormed over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out for whatever I saw.
“Close the shades,” he commanded.
My eyes slipped closed in defeat. I had screwed up, and now I was most definitely getting a bullet to the head. And as he said, carpet could be replaced.
I felt him approach, but didn’t dare open my eyes. I was terrified, shaking like a leaf inside and out. But when his fingertips lifted my chin, I had no choice but to look into his terrifying eyes.
Oh yeah. I wasn’t walking out of here alive.
“So, you thought you’d kill me off? You thought—”
Glass shattered and chaos erupted as DeLuca fell to the ground, holding his shoulder as he screamed to his goon.
“Close the fucking shade!”
I ducked low, covering my head as I scrambled for a good hiding place. There was a large, black piano in the corner, and I dashed toward it, letting out a scream as glass shattered for a second time. Once I was safely hidden behind the piano, I peeked out, taking in the chaos.
The man who had led me up here was now on the ground with a bullet in his head. Blood pooled beneath him, spreading at a rapid rate. I covered my mouth and tried not to hyperventilate. Panicking would get me nowhere fast.
“Derek!” I hissed. “What’s going on?”
But I got no answer. What was I supposed to do?
Should I try to escape? Did Rob get the information he needed?
I spied the gun laying on the floor beside the dead guy, and thought about making a run for it.
I was really good with a gun. Growing up in Montana made sure of that. But did I have the time?
My gaze slid to DeLuca again, and before I had the nerve to back down, I made a mad dash for the gun, only to come up short when his hand shot out and grabbed my ankle. Crying out, I braced for the fall, wincing when pain shot up my right wrist.
Twisting, I kicked out with my other foot, hitting him in the face several times before he finally released me. I scrambled to my knees and crawled quickly across the floor until the gun was within reach.
“Don’t do it!” DeLuca shouted, stopping me in my tracks when I heard the racking of the gun.
My fingers were just inches from the butt of the gun, and as I sat there, hand outstretched and ready to grab it, I knew I wouldn’t be fast enough. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder at DeLuca. Raised on one elbow, his gun was aimed right at my head.
But DeLuca didn’t know Rob was behind him, with his gun pointed right at his head.
A smile spread across my face as I rolled to my butt.
“What are you smiling about?” he seethed.
“That would be me,” Rob said, walking around to the other side of DeLuca, his gun pointed at his face. He tsked playfully, kicking DeLuca’s foot. “Somebody hasn’t been playing nice with others.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Me? I’m the man you assumed was with your hooker. You know, sometimes you piss off the wrong person and bad things happen. That would be me. I’m that person. And the sniper on the roof? He’s the bad things that are going to happen.”
I didn’t know if I should move or stay where I was. The man still had a gun pointed at me, but I knew if he made a move, Rob would put a bullet in his head. However, that wasn’t the objective. So, I stayed where I was.
“You’ve been a naughty boy, DeLuca. Dipping into the Ratti Family profits is going to get you killed.”
DeLuca’s face pinched in anger, but there was no mistaking the look of shock he was trying to hide. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Rob looked around quickly. “Oh, you didn’t want me to say that out loud in case your place is bugged. Yeah, I get that. If the boss ever found out you were stealing from him…well, that wouldn’t be very good for you. Or the men you’re paying a cut to keep this whole operation hidden.”
Rob patted his pocket with a wink. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep your secret safe.”
“You know nothing!” DeLuca shouted.
“Oh, I have plenty on you. Every foreign account you’re hiding the money in.
Every date and timestamp the transactions took place.
” He knelt down beside DeLuca and grinned.
“And the beauty of it all is that with just the click of a button, the Ratti Family will know every betrayal their own underboss has made. Isn’t that beautiful? ”
Rob stood, chuckling to himself, but DeLuca was scheming, trying to find a way out of this.
“Now, here’s what’s going to happen. Krista and I are going to walk out of here alive. If anyone makes a move against us, all this information will be sent to Ratti. And don’t worry, I’ve made many copies. You don’t have to worry about me losing this one.”
Kneeling again, he bared his teeth at DeLuca. “You will forget about us. You will forget about Alicia—”
“The black box—”
“I don’t give a shit about the black box,” Rob spat. “We have nothing to do with that, and if you were so fucking stupid that you allowed a hooker to outsmart you, you have whatever’s coming to you.”
He shoved back to his feet, pointing his gun at DeLuca’s hand. Slowly, the man lowered the gun to the ground and let it clatter to the floor.
“Now, Krista and I will be on our way. I expect a clear exit, and if you don’t, you can expect a visit from the Ratti Family very soon.” He grinned at the man. “Okay?”
Striding over to me, he hauled me to my feet and marched me out of the room, but the grip he held on me suggested we were still very much in danger.
After flinging the double doors open, he hit the button on the elevator, his jaw clenched hard. I didn’t dare speak. My heart was hammering too loudly in my ears to even think of saying a word.
As the doors slid closed, I let out a long breath. My whole body felt like it was collapsing in on itself.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Rob said. “Derek, how are we looking?”
“It’s a bit of a shit storm out here, but nothing we can’t handle. However, I would strongly recommend taking Krista out the back.”
“The back exit is blown,” he hissed.
I could hear gunfire over comms, but when I looked over at Rob, he didn’t seem worried at all.
“We’ve got you covered to the door. The SUV will be waiting out front.”
Rob tightened his grip on my arm. “Do what I tell you when I tell you, understood?”
“Yeah,” I croaked out, feeling like this was some pivotal moment. I wished more than anything that he would look at me, but his eyes were trained on the flickering light moving from one floor to the next.
“Ready?”
I nodded.
“Stay behind me,” he said, shifting me to his back.
I gripped the belt loops on his pants, sending up a quick prayer that we would make it out of this alive. With his gun in hand, he moved as soon as the doors opened.
Despite having been around guns all my life, I still winced when I heard the heavy sound of gunfire surrounding me. Going to the range was nothing like being in the middle of a shootout.
Rob moved swiftly, and I followed every step, shifting when he did.
“I’m pinned down!” Derek shouted.
“Rob, move on three,” Knight’s voice came over comms.
I didn’t hesitate as I reached into Rob’s thigh holster and grabbed the gun, quickly checking the magazine. He spared me the slightest glance before nodding.
“Three, two, move!”
I released his pants, moving behind him as if I had done this all my life.
In reality, I was just doing what felt natural.
I spun when I heard a noise and fired a single shot, relieved when a man went down.
While I was searching for the threats, Rob seemed to know exactly where they were and fired in rapid succession.
I watched as bodies hit the floor, one right after another.
We were so close to the door. If we ran, we might just make it…
Rob grabbed me and shoved me in front of him, holding my body tight to his when he jerked roughly against me. His weight fell heavily against mine for only a moment, and then he was shoving me to the door.
“Run!” he shouted.
I did as he commanded, but once I was clear, I glanced over my shoulder and saw him spin, firing off every bullet in his magazine before he ran out. He ejected the magazine and grabbed another, shoving it into place, but he wasn’t fast enough.
I raised my gun and fired, taking out the man who would have shot him. After two more shots, Rob moved, limping quickly toward me as blood gushed from his side.
I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay, but never got the words out. I was grabbed from behind and shoved into the waiting vehicle. Rob was inside moments later, followed by Knight and Derek.
Sinner was at the wheel, taking us deep into the traffic, but my gaze was only on Rob and the gushing wound in his side.