Chapter 14
Xander
“What are you doing?”Giovanni asked. He looked to me with those sharp eyes assessing what I was doing.
“I’ll ask the questions here,” I answered, sharpening my gaze on him.
I’d already agreed to do whatever I had to, to get Jia back, even if I had to sign my damn life away to the devil, or work with him.
We’d gone inside the house. When Frankie saw him he nearly shit himself. Wes turned pale. Literally sheet pale.
Both men exhibited reactions that were understandable because this was the guy who’d sent us here.
I might have lowered my gun but Jack kept his pointed at my old boss while I laid out the blueprints on the dinner table to go over them.
I took them out of the tube to make sure everything was as it should be.
Everything in accordance with the way they were detailed in my mission brief.
I wouldn’t have put it past this son of a bitch to come with shit and try to trick me so he could get Jia and then try to steal her away from me.
I wouldn’t have put such a thing past him but these looked like the real deal. When I’d taken them out of the glass case in the secret chamber I never got the chance to look inside before he came and captured me.
Screwed me over more like.
I stopped pouring over them and looked at him.
We’d gathered in the dining room because of the table and the bigger space to bounce ideas.
In the room were Jack, Wes, Frankie, Giovanni, me, and Dorian. Dorian had come by a few minutes ago. Jack had called him earlier. He was probably expecting to come and help with something technical and happened upon our little standoff here, with Giovanni sitting in the armchair looking like he was getting ready to read the Sunday paper while Jack’s shotgun aimed at his head.
Badass. That’s what he was.
He knew, he knew no matter what stance I took or what I did or said, I’d do whatever he asked if it helped me save Jia.
He knew I was in love with his daughter and I supposed he knew too not to fuck with me.
So far he’d said he was waiting on the call from Balthazar with the details of where to make the exchange. He’d only made contact and offered Jia up for the prints. That was all that had happened so far.
It was a lot, but there were so many other questions swirling around in my mind.
“How were you able to bring these to us? I was under the impression that you’d handed them over to The Chameleon.”
“I was supposed to, then you took Jia and we never got the chance to meet for the exchange. With people after the prints they aren’t something you just hand over in the conventional sense.”
“So that’s it, he won’t come here with God knows who after you?”
“He is not my concern. I was very clear from the beginning when I got onboard this shit show that my family shouldn’t have been placed in danger.”
I remembered that conversation with him.
“There was never any way to control that.” I threw back. It pissed me off to no end whenever I heard people got themselves into deep shit and it blew up in their faces, dragging their loved ones into it, then they’d say they didn’t know it would come to this or that their actions would end up causing any harm.
It was all bullshit. No matter which way it went, this started with him and what he agreed to do.
“Maybe so.”
That answer wasn’t good enough. “Giovanni, don’t fuck with me. Tell me now if you think The Chameleon or anybody else will follow your ass here.”
