Balthazar wagged his pointer and grinned from ear to ear.
“One more time agent. Pay attention.” He pointed at the laser light on my chest. “She’ll be dead before you get to pull the trigger.” A cold hard chuckle resonated from his chest.
To add to the helplessness of the situation, he turned back to me, leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. The gesture made my skin shriek away from him although I wasn’t moving.
“Soon,” he whispered and walked out of the room.
I watched him go. He walked through the sitting room door and moments later the front door clicked closed. It closed but there was no relief yet, the laser light was still on me. It was still there on me.
Xander’s eyes were fixed on it, directed to it and he wasn’t moving.
A minute passed.Two… three… four…
It disappeared.
It disappeared and my knees gave, legs caved at the same time as my heart.
Xander rushed over to me in blind panic and took me into his arms.
“Jia,” he breathed. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I still couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do it, what was I supposed to say to him?
It wasn’t his fault. This was Pa again.
Now I knew what he was up to. Now I knew what it was he did, and why Xander was here.
Blue prints… I didn’t think I needed to know what it was for. Clearly it wasn’t for a shopping mall. Had to be something big. Enough was said.
Xander scooped me up, took my hand and to my surprise, led me away.
He wasn’t talking. Hadn’t given more than the apology, but he moved like he’d come up with some kind of plan.
When he put me in the car, I wished like hell he would drive away with me, far, far away. We’d run away together and leave everything behind. Just like he said yesterday.
That was what I wished we would do. What I wishedhewas doing.
My heart sank when we turned out of the neighborhood and it looked like we were heading toward The Grand Marchesi.
My heart sank further down into the chasm of despair when I saw that was exactly where we were heading.
“Xander what are you doing?” I gasped.
“It’s the only way,” he replied.
“Going to the casino?”
He didn’t answer.
We parked up and he jumped out of the car. He opened my side and practically lifted me out. Taking my hand, he guided me inside the casino.
We went to the elevator and he selected the presidential floor. That would take us up to Pa’s office.
“Xander, what are you doing?”
He still didn’t answer.
When we got to the floor and the doors pinged open, we got out but I stopped and planted my feet in the carpet, pulling against his grasp.
