Entice

Chapter Twenty-Six

Mil

I clenched my hands behind my back to keep them from shaking. I didn’t recognize the man. Then again, I wouldn’t recognize any of the men. I’d purposefully pushed that memory so far into my subconscious that even a shrink couldn’t pry it free.

The Cave.

My body shuddered — I felt cold and hot all at once. The walls of the elevator threatened to close in. Every breath I sucked in left me needing more, like I couldn’t catch my breath if I tried. The tension was thick, making it worse. Chase’s hands were on my waist and I couldn’t deal. I was going to meet with Tanya, Chase was touching me, and The Cave. God, I’d forgotten about The Cave. I’d been dreaming about it but I hadn’t known or wanted to believe it was… real. I’d pushed it away. Hoping that by denying the existence of the truth it would turn out to be a lie, or a horrible nightmare. I’d take either one. I needed to pull myself together. If I appeared weak, it wouldn’t end well for anyone.

The doors opened to the twenty-second floor. We all quietly walked out. Luca and Frank were both leaning against the far wall. The rich smell of cigar smoke filled the air as they approached us.

“So…” Luca kept his eyes trained on me. “Shall we?”

I nodded.

“A friend of yours?” Frank motioned to the guy Tex was still carting around.

“Friend or enemy, not really sure yet.” Chase spoke in low quiet tones. “Thought we’d take him in, just in case he’s one of theirs.”

Luca’s eyes narrowed as he examined the man’s face, his eye widened just a fraction before returning to their usual cool indifference.

I couldn’t help it. I asked in a snotty voice, “Why? He a friend of yours, Luca?”

He gripped my wrist; pain sliced through my arm. I refused to make a sound as everyone walked ahead of us. “My dear, I’m merely surprised you didn’t castrate him upon your meeting.”

“Why would I do that?” The pain increased as his fingers pressed against the veins in my wrist, almost like he was separating them from one another.

Luca’s face broke out into an evil grin. “No reason. My apologies.”

I jerked my arm free and stormed past him. Chase turned around just as I reached his side. Flashing him a confident smile, I gripped his hand and tried to press my body as close to his as possible. Safe, he was safe.

Chase’s arm wrapped around me protectively as we walked the rest of the way to the room. Nixon knocked twice.

“Want me to kill him for you?” Chase whispered across my ear, his face completely void of any emotion. It was as if he just asked me if I’d like to go to the movies or something.

“Not yet,” I said in a shaky voice.

“Say the word.” Chase’s breath was hot against my neck. “And next time, Mil, when he touches you, use a knife.”

“What?”

Luca’s familiar cigar-infused scent permeated the air around us, meaning he’d finally caught up. I cleared my throat and looked at the door, willing it to open so I could get away from Luca and closer to my mom.

The door still didn’t open.

With a curse, Luca pushed passed all of us to the front and banged on the door.

Nothing happened.

A maid and her cart came slowly down the hall. Without thinking, I walked toward her and tried to look as normal as possible. “Would it be possible for you to open the room for us?”

Her eyes darted from me to the group behind me, including the guy who’d just gotten the crap beat out of him by Nixon, Chase, and Tex. “Hotel policy says you have to go down to the lobby to get a new key.”

“It’s really important,” I urged, sliding the knife from underneath my jacket, “that we get into that room.”

“Miss, I don’t think—”

The words died on her tongue as I held the knife to her neck. “The key card, now.” I held out my hand.

Shaking, she pulled out a key card and handed it over.

“Thank you.” I offered an apologetic smile. “And I’m sorry.”

She nodded, her lips trembling.

When I turned, Chase was behind me. In an instant, he maneuvered around me and knocked the maid out with the back of his Glock. “No loose ends.”

“Right,” I huffed, feeling all sorts of horrible that she was going to wake up with a headache from hell.

“Besides,” Chase took the card from my hands, “the less she knows the less danger she’ll be in.”

I gave a firm nod and followed him as he walked back to the door and slid the card into the slot. The green light blinked, the door swung open and in we all strolled, guns raised… waiting.

A black desk chair had been dragged to the center of the room. Sturdy yellow nylon zip ties wrapped around the arms and legs of a frantic-appearing woman, binding her hands and her feet to the chair. Her hair was matted to her face with blood. The bruises left on her chin made her appear deformed. Her head hung slightly to the side, and then her eyes flashed open. Dread turned my blood to ice. My mother stared directly at me. And I knew, it was over before it even began.

“Ma!” I tried to push through Nixon and Tex but was jerked back against Chase’s chest. “Let me go!”

“No.” He growled. “We don’t know if it’s a setup.”

Tears streamed down her face as her head moved back and forth… in warning? What?

“Tanya Campisi?” Luca said in a low voice. “Did she do this to you?”

My mom shook her head no.

Luca swore and took a few steps closer to my mom’s chair. She screamed like she was in pain, moving her head back and forth over and over again.

“Ma.” I choked as Chase held me tighter against him. “Let me go!” I elbowed him in the stomach and tried kicking his shins, but he didn’t release me.

“Mil.” Nixon looked back at me. “You need to calm down. We’re not untying her yet.”

Ma’s eyes looked wildly around the room, landing finally near the TV. She kept staring at that point. I followed the direction and gasped.

A homemade bomb was neatly tied next to the flat screen, right on the bar, as if someone had left it behind by accident. I swallowed the bile in my throat.

“What type of explosion?” Luca asked as Frank walked over to the small device.

Frank leaned over and pulled out a pair of spectacles. “Let’s just say it’s a big enough boom to level half this floor.”

“Trigger?”

“I don’t see one. If it was the door or on some sort of timer, it would have gone off by now.” Frank’s mouth twisted into a firm line as he leaned in closer. “Believe me, whoever did this would not have wanted to wait for our murder. My guess is it’s a pressure trigger. Not the floor, perhaps an object or—”

“Person,” Luca finished, looking from my mom to me. “Well, it seems we’re finished here.”

“No!” I screamed. “We have to get her out.”

“It’s us or her,” Nixon said quietly, as the room fell into a tense silence. My mom started sobbing all over again, this time nodding her head. So she knew. She knew it was us or her.

“Do you know who it was? Who did this to you?” I asked. My breathing was so uneven I was afraid I was going to pass out.

Ma shook her head sadly.

“Ma—”

She closed her eyes.

“Ma!” I yelled

Her eyes stayed closed.

“Mil,” Chase said from behind me. “We have to go.”

“Ma, open your eyes.” My voice sounded so weak, so small. I felt like a little kid again, weak and confused. She opened them.

“I love you.”

She nodded and then gasped as her eyes rolled back. Blood began pouring from her chest. She’d been shot. The glass from the window shattered on impact as my mom fell forward.

“Everyone out!” Nixon yelled pushing us toward the exit.

Chase yanked me against him and opened the door all within a second. We started running down the hall toward the stairs. I counted to three, and then Chase covered me with his body as the hall exploded, sending us to the floor.

Alarms rang in the distance, but I couldn’t tell if it was my ears ringing or actual fire alarms. Chase asked if I was okay, or at least it felt like that, but I couldn’t hear him very well. Ringing pounded through my muffled ears. I nodded while he helped me to my feet and pushed me out the door to the stairwell. We didn’t even wait to see if everyone was okay; we just ran down the stairs, down twenty-two flights of stairs. Legs like lead, I was so numb I didn’t even feel the pain or the burn in my muscles. I had to keep going — I had to keep running. When we reached the bottom, Chase turned.

The rest of the group looked better off than I felt. Most of them were covered in dust with some scrapes and bruises.

“They’ll evacuate the hotel,” Luca said in a detached voice as people began flooding the stairwell, “I know a place. Grab your things.”

“Where’s the guy from before? William? And the maid?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer to the question.

Luca ignored me.

Which meant one thing. The maid had been caught in the explosion’s line of fire, and they’d left the man they’d tortured earlier behind — to either get implicated or die.

Chase put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “Text directions to everyone, Luca. Make it fast. We need to split up. Now.”

With a swift nod, he pushed past us and walked into the first floor lobby. Police were already everywhere. People were screaming. It was mass chaos, making it easy for us to slip by unnoticed. Chase gripped my hand and jerked me through the crowd. But it wasn’t lost on me, as I looked at the terrified faces, it had been my fault. The death? On my head.

On my family’s head.