“Raphael, I don’t know how this is going to play out, but we need help.”
I’d thought of that on the way here too. This was bigger than us. We couldn’t find Victor or Tag. They had the assistance of the worst people I knew, and that made them one step ahead of us.
“I’ll call in resources. I’ll get everyone I know.”
“While I’m gone, I need you to work on finding out where the fuck they are. I can’t sit here and wait for Victor’s call. It will be too late then. It will be far too late, and God knows what he’ll do to Amelia. It might already be too late.”
“Please don’t say that.” His eyes displayed a wealth of soul-wrenching sadness that mirrored my own.
“I have to be realistic, Raphael. I have to, which is why I’m asking for help. We can’t go to wherever he is by ourselves. We need guns. We need muscle. We need anyone you can think of who can help. Good and bad.”
He nodded. “Okay. When are you leaving?”
“A few hours, so I can get to the facility when it opens.” Rockford was about a two-hour drive from here. “Do you know opening times?”
“Nine o’clock.”
Great, I would get there for then and be ready for action.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow had to be the day this nightmare ended.
It had to be the day when I killed Victor once and for all. No more games, no more shit, no more messing with my mind and the people I loved,
Just no more.
If I made it and saved Amelia, we’d leave. Leave this life.
Put it all behind us and start fresh. We’d leave just the way she did years ago.
* * *
Claudius insisted on going to Rockford with me.
I refused his offer because I wanted time to think, but when I got to the facility, that seventh sense of mine kicked in.
Felt like we were being watched.
Amazing how I could always sense trouble. Trouble at its fullest and finest.
But I was stupid to think that Victor or Tag would just allow me to get the diamonds and wait to be told what to do next.
Claudius and I were checked before we were allowed inside the facility. We handed over our guns. Unknown to the guards, however, was that we each carried pocket knives that looked like a key holder.
And we had our fists.
We were led to the vault by a large bald man with a scar on his face. Didn’t exactly look like a guard for a place like this that housed antique paintings and family heirlooms. As far as I knew, there wasn’t money as such kept here, but there were gold bars and diamonds.
Claudius and I had exchanged glances when the guard first approached us. The look in Claudius’ expression told me he was thinking the same as me. That we needed to be ready as hell for an ambush once we got our hands on the diamonds.
The guard stayed outside the vault when we went in.
“Luc, I hear footsteps,” Claudius muttered under his breath.
There was shuffling just outside the vault door.
“Me too.” I typed the password into the keypad on the panel outside the glass case, and it opened. The case opened first, then another layer opened, revealing a little silver box. It was the same size as a jewelry box. I’d imagined it to be bigger, but I guess it would be the contents inside that would make up the volume. I grabbed it, snapped it open, and widened my eyes.
I’d heard about these diamonds. Imagined that they would be what royalty of olden days used to wear, and not just any old royal either. These diamonds were very rare, and their value was always prevalent.
