So this was no empty threat.
Everything in me was screaming that we should get away. Far away! But then, what about school? And really, where in the world could we hide from a man like him?
Chapter Ten
One year ago
Ivrea, Italy
Haze
Things got bad fast.
We’d tracked our target to Ivrea.
And we had the perfect plan.
Every year, Ivrea held the Battle of the Oranges to celebrate their liberation. According to thirteenth-century legend, the evil duke who ruled the town was killed by a young woman he tried to force himself on. Using oranges to represent the stones thrown at his castle during the subsequent revolution, huge crowds of people would now pelt them at one another.
The roaring noise from this massive, organized food fight would mask any of our victim’s screams, and the chaos would help us make an unnoticed escape.
Earpieces in. Guided by Jenny. We knew where he was staying. It was going to be a fast efficient takedown.
But it was a trap.
An empty room and outside it five men coming for us.
“The bedroom window,” Jenny said. “Jump and you’re at the back of the restaurant!”
I got out.
Fox didn’t.
Fox
I felt hands pulling me back. I spun round and punched the man nearest to me. Then the second. I tried to turn back to the window, but several fists to the head dazed me enough to stop fighting back. I staggered as they slammed me to the ground. Three held me down as two pulled a black bag over my head.
I felt them carrying me down the stairs. I felt them lugging me into a cart. My hands were tied behind me. I tried to sit up and got kicked twice. The cart was moving. The noise from the crowd grew louder. People were chanting and cheering now. No one would hear me shout. I was powerless. Their prisoner. How the hell had this happened?
I was meant to be better than this.
Haze
We saved him.
Just in time.
It all happened so fast.
Jenny shouting at me to hold the phone steady. The map. Following the GPS tracker in Fox’s watch.
The old factory.
“In there!”
The gunfight.
Dead men on the ground.
