Cora presses her fingers to the screen where Silver just was and a tear rolls down her cheek. "He..." She turns toward me. "He wasn't supposed to be there."
My heart constricts and the unknowns of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks.
Ricardo was not on that elevator. The one that we orchestrated to collapse with Ricardo and the last three men who were causing issues. We never thought anyone else would be on it with them, let alone what would happen if Ricardo got off at the last minute. None of us were supposed to be in the building, we thought it would be better that way, drawing less attention to the fact that it was us who carried this inconceivable mission out. This was fabricated to appear like an accident...and now one of us is down and our target was not taken out.
I dial Silver, and it goes straight to voicemail. I hit the call button again and get the same response.
"He's fine," I say. "Silver's fine, don't worry. He's smart, he would have never..." But I don't finish that statement, because I never thought Silver would have gotten that close to the elevators to begin with. He knew it was going to crash, why would he be so foolish to be near it when it happened.
My phone rings, Cora and I both jolting our attention to it.
"It's Alec," I tell her and hit the button to connect. "Hey, Alec, you're on speaker."
"Did it work?"
I share a glance with Cora and hate the overwhelming feeling that I failed her sweeping over me. I promised her that I would make this problem go away, and not only did I not succeed in that, but I may have just gotten someone she loves killed.
"No," I answer. "Everyone but target."
Cora steps closer. "Silver was there. We can't get ahold of him. I don't know if..."
"We'll be right there," someone on the other end of the line says, their voice gruff and familiar.
The call disconnects and Cora stares at me. "Who was that?"
"Dominic."
"Why is he involved?"
I tilt my head, unsure of how anything I have to say is going to impact her. She swore us to secrecy, yet Silver went and involved Dominic anyway. I thought that she had suspected it, but the look on her face right now tells me that she didn't, that she trusted us when we promised to keep it between us.
She sighs and shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. The only thing I care about now is if Silver is okay." Cora positions her body toward the screen that is filled with static, and I'm left wondering if I've made the biggest mistake of my life by letting him walk out of here.
40
ALEC
Foot pressed to the floorboard; I drive as fast as I can across town to The Manor with Dominic in the passenger seat.
He doesn't say anything, and I don't either. There's nothing to be said, other than the fact that we fucked up.
Our plan was tight, carefully laid out, and working like a charm until we found out Cora's mom was dead, and since then, everything has fallen the fuck apart.
I hate it. For her, for us.
The streets surrounding The Manor are chaos, with cars driving the wrong way, and people running as a fire engine blares through.
"Follow it," Dominic points ahead at the emergency vehicle clearing a path.
I get right up on its ass and do exactly that, not stopping until we're in front of the building.
We both get out in haste, a police officer yelling at us that we can't park there.
Dominic glares at him and the officer throws his hands up.
"Sorry, Mr. Adler. I didn't realize it was you."
We rush past the people standing in front of the building, clutching their trembling bodies, and muttering to each other about what happened.
