“… we don’t have to be these people anymore …”
DAY NINE
Getting past the guard in the back of the building was easy – Marc got him in a choke hold till he passed out. Left him halfway under a car, sleeping it off.
“De Sant,” a voice hissed in his ear.
“A little busy,” he growled. He was scurrying up a metal ladder that ran the length of the outer wall.
“Third floor. Street facing room. I count four doors down, on your left,” Kingsley’s voice was low.
“Can you see her!?” Marc demanded.
“I can see her.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Condition?” Marc asked.
“She seems okay. They’ve got her chained to the ceiling. She’s alone, and she - wait. Movement,” Kingsley spoke in hushed tones.
“What’s going on!?” Marc snapped.
He stopped climbing at the fourth floor and worked his way onto the ledge outside of a window. No one was in the room, so he broke out a pane of glass, undid the latch, and opened the window. He dropped into the room, crouching low and moving fast as he made his way to the door.
“There’s bodyguards. Ivanov. And her. He’s sitting. They’re talking,” Kingsley described.
“Find out what they’re saying!”
Kingsley always carried a Long Distance Listening Device, it was a standard part of his gear. Marc listened to the hiss and pop of the radio static, then there was a shuffling noise and the line opened up again.
“He’s asking where the diamonds are. She’s saying that she hid them,” the other man filled him in. Marc closed his eyes for a second.
Thank god. Smart girl.
“Is there anyone on my floor?”
“You’re clear. The building appears to be abandoned. I only see a couple guards on the bottom floor, then everyone else in the room with Lily.”
Marc dashed into the hall, his gun pointed straight ahead. There was a staircase at one end of the hall, but he ignored it and went the other way. He located an ancient looking pair of elevator doors and, using the crowbar, pulled the doors apart.
“Going in the elevator shaft. Anything happening?” he asked, grabbing the closest cable and sliding down it slowly.
“Still talking. Arguing. He wants to know where the diamonds are, he’s threatened to - one of the guards is choking her!”
Marc lost his grip and shot down the rest of the cable, landing hard on top of the stopped elevator.
“What!? Is she okay!? Shoot that mother -” Marc started growling, scrambling to locate the maintenance hatch.
“It’s over. She laid the guy out, one kick between the legs. Scary woman,” Kingsley interrupted him. Marc let out the breath he’d been holding.
“You have no idea.”
The maintenance hatch gave way under the crowbar and Marc dropped into the elevator. He was now on the third floor. He was four doors down from her. Four doors away from saving her.
Four doors away from losing her.
“They’re talking about something. Wait. What? She seems to have figured something out. She … she’s accusing Ivanov of setting everyone up. Getting you to take the fall, so he could keep the diamonds. Screw Stankovski over,” Kingsley filled him in. Marc was crouching on the floor, pulling apart the electrical panel, and he paused.
“Smart. Such a clever girl. I never even thought of that,” he mumbled, talking to himself.
“She must have something because Ivanov is losing his shit. Threatening to cut off her toes, blah blah,” Kingsley described. Marc yanked a couple wires out, cut them, twisted other wires together. Then he cut two more and pulled them out as far as the wires would allow, before laying them on the ground, making sure they didn’t touch.
“Get ready, I’m gonna drop the lift. How’s she doing?” Marc grunted out as he worked to pull the doors open manually.
“She’s … laughing.”
“Laughing!?” Marc double checked. He wedged the end of the crowbar under one of the doors, forcing them to stay open. He was glad to see that the door across the hall was open, it would make his plan that much easier. Then he risked peeking down the hall. It was empty, but he could hear raised voices from the other end of the building.
“She was telling him that you were alive – apparently she led them to believe you were dead. She’s telling him that you’re going to kill him.”
Now Marc was laughing.
“God, I might actually be in love with this girl,” he sighed, creeping into the hallway, holding the two wires in his hands.
“Heads up! He’s moving on her. He’s got her hair. Shit,” Kingsley hissed.
“What!?” Marc snapped, stopping in the middle of the hallway.
“Marc. He’s got a knife on her throat. He’s threatening to use it.”
“And what’s she got to say about that?”
“I believe her response was, ‘just fucking do it’, or something to that effect.”
Marc closed his eyes. Took a deep breath.
“Law,” he whispered.
“De Sant.”
“Whatever happens. It’s been good knowing you. Good times.”
“Don’t get mushy on me now, darling. You can give us a big kiss when you come out of there alive.”
“Sounds good. You ready?”
“Always.”
“Bring the fire.”
Marc twisted the wires together, causing the elevator to drop. As he tucked and rolled into the empty room across the hall, heavy artillery shots were fired on the outside of the building. Specifically on a section about four doors down. Just as Marc came to a stop behind a door, the elevator met the bottom floor in a spectacular sounding crash, causing the old building to shake.
The reaction was pretty much as desired. As Marc slid into a standing position, his gun at the ready, he could hear feet charging down the hall. People screaming. The foot steps ran past him, down a stairwell. Then there was the sound of a sprinkler system kicking on, and someone weeping. He strained his ears, trying to place if it was a woman or a man.
“One down. Ivanov’s hit. Two ran out of the room,” Kingsley’s voice was whispering, but it sounded loud in Marc’s ear.
“And …?” he dared to ask.
“She seems fine, she’s standing on her own.”
“So that’s it? Just Ivanov is in the room?” Marc checked.
“Far as I can tell, yes. She’s struggling with her chain. Ivanov is on the ground, I can only see his feet. I clipped his shoulder.”
“Good. I want to be the one to end him. Going in. Watch the bottom floor, pick off anyone who tries to leave,” Marc instructed.
“Already on it.”
Despite wanting to run in there, guns blazing, Marc took his time. He kept himself tight to the wall and jogged down the hallway. He took short, quick breaths, wanting to stay sharp. Alert. He paused outside of the door to her room, tried to think back. Something wasn’t right. How many bodyguards had come out of the hotel? How many were downstairs?
But then Lily screamed, and caution and logic and reasoning flew out the window.
One more second, sweetheart, and we’ll be free, one way or another.
DAY NINE
What the fuck was that!?
Lily’s ears were ringing. Whoever was shooting had to be across the street, but still. The sounds in the room had been deafening for a moment. Gun shots, screaming, the sprinklers going off. A body guard hit the ground. A bullet had ripped through him with such force that most of his heart was no longer inside his chest.
What kind of gun does that? I want one next time I do one of these stupid jobs.
She tucked herself down as small as she could, dangling from her chain, and just prayed that whoever was shooting would magically miss her. She watched Ivanov get shot, his shoulder almost taken clean off. He howled and fell to the ground, rolling to just beneath the windows. Then in between gun shots, there was a smal
l explosion, from somewhere underneath them. The other two bodyguards, notoriously fearless byki, who were supposed to let no one and nothing get close to their boss, turned tail and ran like scared little girls.
Once the bullets stopped, Lily dared to stand upright. She looked around, taking in the damage. Ivanov was moaning on the ground, mumbling in Russian. The last remaining bodyguard was pressed against the wall next to the windows, breathing hard, looking like he couldn’t decide whether he should’ve joined his friends or not.
“Hey!” Lily snapped, getting the guard’s attention. “Hey! Get these fucking chains off of me! If I die, those diamonds will never be found.”
He didn’t move. On the ground, Ivanov began to wail, crying loudly and theatrically as he rolled further into the room. She rolled her eyes and looked back up at the ceiling. The metal plate, which was keeping her in place, was still stuck there. She gritted her teeth and began yanking and shaking the chain, trying to pull it free.
“No. No, you stop,” the remaining bodyguard finally said something.
Lily ignored him. Just a couple more yanks, and she’d be free. She didn’t care that she was handcuffed, she was getting the fuck out of there. God only knew who was shooting at them. Would a Liberian gang follow the Bratva all the way to Morocco!? Or maybe they had connections there, had called in a favor. Maybe it was someone else all together. The Mafia. Al-Qaeda. Anyone. Anyone at all. Anyone …
She was so lost in thought, so busy trying to pull herself free, she didn’t notice Ivanov worming his way across the floor. He grabbed her left foot, shocking her, then he bit down, hard, breaking the skin immediately. She screamed and kicked him in the face, trying to shake him off.
There was another commotion and when she looked up, she had to blink to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Shake her head to clear the water out of her eyes. Someone was striding through the door, a gun held at the ready. She couldn’t believe it.
I knew he’d come back.
“Behind you!” she shrieked, at the same time the bodyguard pounced on Marc, grabbing his wrist. Two bullets were fired into the wall, then the two men were dancing around. The bodyguard caught an elbow to the throat, but he didn’t lose his grip. Marc got a foot hooked around his ankle and they both went down.
Lily lurched forward, then cried out as the her chains stopped her. She went to kick, hoping it would do something, when another high powered bullet crashed into the room. She shrieked again, jumping back as the projectile blew a small crater in the wooden floor boards. She turned to look out the windows, staring at the building across from them. The sun glinted off something on the roof. Something small and shiny. A scope.
Kingsley!?
Hands grabbed her by the hips, and she grunted as Ivanov pulled himself up her length. She tried to shimmy away from him, but he was too heavy. Soon enough, he was standing upright, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, forcing her to face the windows. He stood behind her, ducked down, making it impossible for someone to shoot him without shooting her.
Please, god, let that be Kingsley out there.
“Enough!” Ivanov roared, and the knife he’d had earlier was now digging into Lily’s throat, right below her chin.
Everything stopped. Marc and the bodyguard were on their knees, both of them gripping Marc’s gun. They paused, then the gun was ripped out of Marc’s hands. He sighed and held up his hands.
“This didn’t have to be like this,” he said, his voice as calm as if they were discussing the stock market. Lily smiled.
I missed his voice.
“You are supposed to be dead!” Ivanov shouted, jerking on Lily’s shoulder. She hissed as pain burned through her wrists. The water from the sprinklers mixed with her blood, turning her limbs pink.
“I’m not so good at dying,” Marc explained. “But I’m here now. I fucked everything up. Let her go, and you can have me.”
“No!” Lily shouted.
“Let her go, and I’ll take you to where we hid the diamonds,” he offered.
“He’s lying! He doesn’t know!” she kept going. What was he doing!? Of all the times for Marc to become a stand up guy, it had to be right then.
“I do know. Your scheme was a good one, Ivanov. I figured if I was going to get blamed for stealing them, might as well actually take them. She didn’t have anything to do with it,” he bluffed even more.
“I let her go, and you tell me where diamonds are?” Ivanov checked.
“Please,” Lily moaned. They would both be dead. They would kill Marc, then kill her before she could get two steps, and all for nothing. She had to stop this, she had to do something.
Ivanov was still holding onto her, still had the knife at her throat, but it wasn’t as sharp as before – he was using his bad arm to hold it up, it must have been painful. Marc was on his knees, his hands raised, the bodyguard behind him still holding the gun. What could she do? What could she do!?
Kingsley.
He could see them, obviously. But she was also pretty sure he could hear them. How else would Marc have known what floor she was on? What room she was in? That she had claimed to have hidden the diamonds? Marc was wearing a mic set around his throat, and she was willing to bet it was set to always be on.
Big gamble.
“Shoot!” she suddenly yelled. Everyone glanced at her for a second.
“You want me to shoot him?” Ivanov asked. She ignored him and stared out the window. Stared directly at the shiny object on the top of the roof across the street. Her hands were gripping the chain above her head, both her index fingers pointing straight up.
Straight up to where her chain connected to the ceiling.
“Look at me and shoot!” she shrieked, hopping on the balls of her feet.
“You want me to shoot you!?” Ivanov sounded incredulous.
“Shut the fuck up, Lily!” Marc yelled.
“JUST FUCKING SHOOT!”
A roar. Glass shattering. She turned her head away, and thanked god that Kingsley wasn’t as stupid as Marc. The metal plate was ripped off the ceiling, bringing down a large chunk of cement with it. A chunk that landed directly on Ivanov’s head. He groaned and slumped to the floor, dragging her with him. The knife fell out of his hands.
She had trusted that Marc would know what to do, and he didn’t fail her. He grabbed the bodyguard’s wrist and drove his fist into the other man’s solar plexus. Lily scrambled around on the ground, pulling her chain out from underneath Ivanov.
Goddamn chains. Started in chains. Ending in chains. Fuck chains.
The fat man rolled around, moaning as he brought his hands to his head. She wasted no time and jumped on his back, coiling the metal links around his neck and yanking them tight. Ivanov was an obese man, she never would’ve expected him to be able to put up a fight. But he was actually very tenacious, and he reached over his shoulder and grabbed a hand full of her hair. She shrieked as she was pulled over him and slammed onto the ground.
She rolled onto her stomach and was about to jump to her feet when her eyes locked onto Marc. He had gotten to his feet, but the bodyguard still hadn’t relinquished the gun. Marc stepped into him, elbowed him in the throat, pulled the gun free, then shoved the barrel under the other guy’s chin. Then the trigger was pulled. No hesitation.
Just like he told you to do – so why are you hesitating right now?
“Stupid bitch!”
Lily let out a scream as searing pain washed over her body. Ivanov had just shoved his huge fucking K Bar right though her arm. The blade went right between her the bones of her forearm, straight through flesh, and lodged into the wood underneath her arm. She went to grab the handle of the knife when there was an all too familiar sound, right next to her ear.
The slide being pulled back on a Glock. Her Glock.
That gun is cursed.
“You stop now,” Ivanov sighed, climbing to his knees, all the while holding Lily’s own gun against her head.
“You stop,” Marc repl
ied, training his own firearm on Ivanov’s forehead.
“I do not think so. You shoot me, I still have time to shoot her.”
“You sure about that? That’s a pretty big gun outside – he could kill you at any moment,” Marc pointed out.
“Not if he can’t see me,” Ivanov retaliated.
He was right. Where Lily was laying, Ivanov was just outside of the view through the window. He was also on his knees, making him even less visible. She gritted her teeth, sliding her arm up and down on the blade a little. It made her want to puke, and there wasn’t much give. She would have to yank hard to get the knife dislodged, and she didn’t want to do that while a gun was pressed to the side of her head. She lifted her head to look at Marc.
“Quite a pickle, sweetheart. I think you’re bad luck,” he joked, winking at her. She scowled.
“I think you’re bad luck,” she snapped back. He tossed his gun to the ground, then put his hands together on the back of his head.
“You didn’t think that a couple nights ago. In fact, I think you were feeling very lucky.”
Is he flirting with me!? Now, of all times!? I know we’re gonna die in two seconds, but goddamn, Marc!
“We’re in a bit of trouble here, De Sant, could you shut the fuck up for two seconds!?” she yelled.
“Both of you, shut up!” Ivanov yelled.
“Did I ever tell you something, Lily?” Marc randomly asked.
“Tell me what?” she was lost.
“That you have the absolutely most gorgeous eyes, I’ve ever seen.”
She was hurled back in time. To when they’d been in a car chase, after they’d stayed in the empty house. The crazy cockney mercenary, holding her hostage, while she’d been half conscious. Marc prattling away to her, distracting her. Distracting her captor.
Clever man.
“You may have said it, but it bears repeating,” she told him.
“I said shut up!” Ivanov kept shouting.
“I dream about those eyes.”
Best Laid Plans Page 26
