CHAPTER 10
Anna
After ending the call with Maxim, I carefully set my phone down on my bed. My body starts to tremble as the anger is coursing through my veins. It feels like a pulsating heat mixed with rage.
I scream right before I punch the wall in two different spots. My hand goes through it easily. I’m lucky that I didn’t hit a stud. There are no marks really visible on my knuckles except from some powder from the drywall.
I look at the two holes that I recently created as I drop to my knees. The dam that was holding back the tears has broken. Water streams down my face onto the wooden floors below me, making a puddle of sadness.
I can’t believe Maxim would resort to this. How can somebody be so desperate to hurt someone they like. That’s not the way to go about things. If he would just let me help him figure out the case instead of threatening my loved ones. Things could’ve been so much different between us, so much better.
I have to know why Finn looks that way. I know he threatened to kill my brothers, but he actually hurt him. Just to make a point, just to get me back.
He knew the whole time, he had to. I would do anything for them, and he played on that. It’s time to take this man down once and for all, or we’ll never be safe. I can’t spend the rest of my life hiding and running.
No matter how much it hurts me, soon I will end this man for good. I will sacrifice my heart for the lives of the ones I love. I stand up and head over to the bathroom. My parents built me an ensuite when I was sixteen years old.
I splash cold water on my face, it’s time for me to end my personal pity party and get down to work. I would love nothing more than to go tell Jax, Mason and Colt about this, but I know I can’t. He would hurt Finn more, possibly even kill him.
How are my brothers gonna be able to find and track me? This has been a question on my mind for a little while now, and I keep pondering the answer as I get ready almost five hours early.
As I make my way back to the bed from the closet after getting dressed, I freeze in my tracks. Two weeks ago, I heard two of the guards talking. They were able to buy tracking devices for their kids. One of the men has an elementary school age son that always gets lost.
The other guard has a teenage daughter that is constantly running away, and he got tired of it. Both of the guys put these tracking device on their kids. The young boy has his in his backpack, and the teenage daughter has hers in her shoe, her mother sewed it into an inseam.
They keep extras here at work in case they lose them. Maybe the teenager loses her shoes, or the elementary kids backpack gets stolen.
I go over to my bag and grab my toolkit. I walk casually, just looking like I’m bored, over to the guards locker area through the house. This isn’t something that’s going to help a lot, but it might if I’m able to pull off getting the device to where they take me.
I remember the guard’s name, Frank. He’s the one that has the devices in his locker, but the only problem is we have four Frank’s working for us. After thirty minutes and the third Frank, I hit the jackpot.
I grab one of the thin square devices and then write out a note. I hope that Frank is working tomorrow or at least in the next day or two. This might all be for nothing.
Frank,
I this is Anna. I’m sorry to break into your locker but I remember you talking about your tracking device. I was contacted by Maxim, and I have to go to save Finn’s life. I took one of the tracking devices with me. So, if you could please go to Jax or Mason that would be awesome. Again, sorry for breaking into your locker.
Sincerely,
Anna
I put the device in my back pocket and make sure that the note is the first thing that Frank would see if he opens his locker. I’m not even sure how often the men use them, hopefully it’s every day.
I walk back up to my attic room just as casually as I walked down. No need to arouse suspicion or act out of place. There’s still a lot of people up. The only one I think that went to bed is Mason. Well he went to video call Lee, she’s out of the country working on an ongoing job for us in Mexico. I know this makes Mason feel better. I seriously doubt the Ivanov’s will mess with Lee, the daughter of the Italian mafia boss.
Once in the room, I quickly take off my shirt and bra. My bra is a lacey white one. Going through my underwear drawer, I’m able to find a push-up bra, God I hate this damn thing.
I grab my sewing kit and then get to work. It doesn’t take long before I have the device sewed right by the underwire on the bottom side of my breast. My hope is that if I insert the device right under my boob, nobody will feel it.
I quickly get dressed again. I still have about four hours before I need to leave, I would love to take a nap. I’d be able to work so much better if I’m rested and my mind is clear.
Sleep never comes, my mind won’t stop playing the different scenarios that could happen. It’s like it wants to be prepared for everything. This is a game that we have to win, lives are depending on it.
It’s one-thirty in the morning. I’ve got a half an hour until I have to leave. I used an app to order a taxi. I want the driver to meet me a couple blocks down the street exactly at two a.m. Now I just need to get out of here without being seen or heard.
I stand up and start to do a body check. The first thing I check for are my knives, which I never put on. As soon as I get into their vehicle, I know everything I have is going to be confiscated, even my cell phone. Hopefully they just don’t grab my bra. I cringe at the thought of having to be naked. I bite my lip and feel the butterflies in my stomach when I think about being naked with Maxim.
Shaking my head as I ease my door open and work my way out slowly. Usually Jax is asleep at this time but with his level of stress and all the work he wants to do, he could still be awake.
The house is dead silent, all the lights are off except for a few night lights illuminating the floor. Having grown up in this house, I know where a lot of the boards creek. I’m able to bypass them all.
It doesn’t take long till I’m getting close to the entrance on the guard side. Even though the guards use the brownstone on the left-hand side, we have a lot of rooms over here. They still take up about half of the whole area in this brownstone.
I’m able to get out not seen and not heard. I exhale a huge breath as I start to walk down the street. I have no idea what lies I would tell to try and convince who caught me. It would be really hard to explain where you’re going in the middle of the freaking night.
I arrive five minutes early and I notice that the taxi is already waiting. I knock on the window, I don’t want to just jump in the back seat and scare my driver half to death.
My driver looks like a younger man. He’s wearing a huge smile and seems very relaxed. Thank God, because I need to get him to help me. I won’t have any time to find another taxi, so this has got to work.
I ease myself into the back seat and give the guy the address of the warehouse district we’re going to. He gives me a weird look but doesn’t say anything. I mean, don’t most normal girls go to an empty warehouse in the middle the night.
We start to drive, we should be there in under half an hour. Now it’s time to put my plan into motion.