“Sorry about this, Brother,” Jones said. “But I don’t trust you. I owe you a beer, okay? You’ll be out in three… two… one…”
Everything went black.
Hitmen. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill people without ‘em.
- mason -
I bit my lip as I stared at the door, my eyes sticky with tears left over from the failed kidnapping, and my shoulders shaking from being soaked to the bone in an air conditioned cell. At least that’s what I was telling myself. There was no way I was about to admit that my teary eyes and shaking body had anything—anything—to do with a mysterious torture expert named Mr. Jones.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mason.” I said to myself, voice coming out hoarse and shaky. “He’s a PE teacher. A kind, friendly, helpful PE teacher who was super friendly at the club that night. He doesn’t teach torture. He teaches PE.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Jones said, and I stiffened as the man entered the room and shut the door quietly behind him. He had a blanket slung over his shoulder and a mug balanced in one hand.
I slumped down as he walked toward me, and he gave me a soothing smile as he handed me the mug, which was full of hot chocolate. I took it gratefully.
“I am a kind, friendly, helpful PE teacher,” he stated, winking at me as he wrapped the blanket around my shoulders.
I gave him a shaky smile.
“I’m also an expert at torture and assassination, with over eight years of wetwork to my name.”
I choked on my cocoa, whimpering as he leaned up against the table, knees only inches from mine.
“No worries, though,” Jones said. “I’m not here to kill or torture you. Not that I’d tell you if I were.”
“So you were really the one who cut off...?” I couldn’t quite make the words come out.
“The one who castrated Schumer? Yup, that was me. You should have heard him beg when I informed him what he was losing that night. And where I was going to stick it.” He licked his lips. “Yum, yum.”
I made a face, then shivered. “So Rex really didn’t kill him? Or cut off his…” I’d wanted to believe Rex that he didn’t do that sort of thing, but after being given a vague idea of the things he did do, I wasn’t exactly sure I believed him.
Jones snorted. “Rex wouldn’t even help me bury the body. Weak stomach.”
I nodded rapidly, feeling rather proud of the fact that my boyfriend apparently was a wuss in the mercenary crime world. Which was apparently a synonym for ‘bad ass’ in the normal world. At least that was something.
“He helped me carry it out of the coroner’s office, though. Even loaned me his car to move it.”
Ew. I hoped it wasn’t the Pinto.
“I have good news and bad news for you, Mason,” Jones said, and I gulped.
“Which one do I want first?” I asked cautiously, and he shrugged.
“You tell me.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, fingers tightening around the mug. “I guess I’ll take the bad, then.”
“Bad news: Mrs. Cho is dead. Bullet went straight through the heart. Not all the bio-hearts in the world could fix that shit.”
I let out a sob, dropping the mug on the table and covering my face with my hands. Poor Mrs. Cho. All this time I’d hated her so much, and she died trying to save me. Who would take care of her poor killer frog?
“Hey, now, I have good news for you, too,” Jones said, and I sniffled, looking up slowly.
“That you’re letting me go?”
He chuckled. “No, better than that. Rex Bennett is dead.”
“WHAT?!” I screamed, leaping to my feet. “No! No, Rex can’t be dead! He wasn’t even down there when the shooting happened!”
“Oh, he wasn’t shot,” Jones said, waving the words away. “He had a heart attack on the stairs. He was running down trying to save your life. Sadly Felicia couldn’t take the stress, and he dropped on Level 19.”
I collapsed back down in my chair, unable to fully process what he was saying. Rex had… died? Trying to get to me?
“No,” I whined, a tear running down my cheek. “He can’t be dead.”
“Well, okay, technically he’s not,” Jones said with a shrug, and I straightened, hands slapping down on the table. My heart was pounding so hard that I was fairly sure I’d be the next one in this damn building to have a heart attack.
“WHAT?!”
“He will be, though, any minute, if he doesn’t get a transplant. He removed himself from the transplant list, so the only way to save him would be using the biosynthetic heart. Unfortunately, while we were distracted by your little kidnapping, it was stolen, along with everything in all of the Three Ladies' Labs.” He sighed. “So Rex is as good as dead. Which is exactly what you wanted, right? To rob the Three Ladies' Labs and have Rex pay the price?”
“No!” I said, tears running down my cheeks. “I mean, at first, yes. I didn’t want him actually dead! I just wanted him to not have a heart like my brother didn’t have a heart. But I didn’t actually steal it! I didn’t get around to trying—I was too busy flirting with him!” Ugh, I was such a slut. But who cared? Rex made me happy. Franklin would be thrilled with my slutty ass if it made me happy. “I didn’t even use the device he gave me for the lab door.”
“The device?” Jones said, and I nodded.
“Yes. It's true I planned to steal the heart when Luke overheard one of Rex’s lawyers talking about it and told me. The thing was, I didn’t have a clue how to get into the building.”
“Ah, yes, of course," Jones said, nodding. "You planned to steal the heart so Rex wouldn't have it. And Luke, your lawyer boyfriend, was the one who heard about the heart to begin with. But how did you get the assistant job?” Jones asked, and I scowled.
“Luke is my ex-boyfriend. And a man helped me get the job. I was looking online for information on the heart, asking around, and this guy said he could get me into King Corp. I met with him, and it turned out to be Wesley. You know, Rex’s brother? Only I didn’t know he was Rex’s brother.”
Jones nodded solemnly. “I know Wesley.”
“Well, he was the one who came up with the plan. He gave me this little electronic thing. It’s in my desk drawer upstairs. I’m supposed to use it to turn off the security system so the lab door will open.”
Jones took a deep breath, brow furrowing slightly as he glanced toward the mirrored glass, where Sonny and the other members of the Brotherhood of Crazy were probably hiding. “What was the plan then? You just walk out with the heart and take it to Wesley?”
I shook my head. “No! I don’t really have any clue how to move it safely. Wesley said he would bring a van or something to move it in. I was supposed to let him know when I was going to take it so he could bring the truck.”
“That’s quite the slip-shod plan,” Jones murmured, and I frowned.
“Hey,” I protested. “It’s a decent plan.” I paused. “Well, except for the part where Rex probably already knew I was here to mess something up and the part where I don’t know for sure which lab the heart is in and the part where I don’t know how to carry the heart and the part where—” I cut off abruptly, crossing my arms over my chest and frowning. “Okay, fine, it’s a shitty plan. I may have been a little too emotionally involved when I decided to take it on.”
“Did you ever talk to anyone but Wesley?” Jones asked, and I shook my head, brow furrowing.
“There’s someone other than Wesley? I swear, he's the only person I ever heard from, and he didn't even contact me as much as he was supposed to.” I frowned. "In fact, he never even sent me the daily access codes I was supposed to get for the labs. It's sort of like I was practically forgotten once I got the job. I think he called me twice is all, just to say 'hey, let me know how it's going' and hang up."
Jones rubbed the back of his head, looking mildly intrigued. “Daily access codes. Hm. Is there anything else you can think of that might help us find the heart for Rex—”
T
he man was interrupted as the door to the room burst open and a very angry looking Rex stumbled in, teeth bared.
“REX!” I cried, leaping to my feet and running over to him, grabbing him around the neck and pulling him down for a deep kiss.
“Mmm,” Rex replied as his tongue met mine, and I released him after a moment, grabbing his face between my hands.
“You need to sit down, Rex! You just had a heart attack! If you die in front of me, I swear, I'll remove your balls in your casket—”
“A heart attack?!” Rex snapped, glowering at Jones. “I didn’t have a heart attack! That asshole choked me into unconsciousness because he didn’t believe I’d let him torture you for ten minutes!”
“There was no torture,” Jones said stiffly. “Just basic interrogation techniques. Straight out of the police academy handbook, my friend.”
“So you didn’t almost die?” I said, staring up at Rex with wide eyes.
“No,” he said firmly, wrapping me up in his arms. “No, baby, I didn’t almost die. Mr. Jones is just an asshole.”
“Mrs. Cho’s alive, too,” Jones said, not looking embarrassed at all. “Barely, but she’ll pull through.”
I let out a sigh of relief, leaning heavily into Rex. Thank God.
I felt a buzzing against my chest, and Rex looked down, frowning.
“That’s my phone.” He reached in and pulled it out. “Rex Bennett here.” A pause. “Hold on, let me put you on speaker.”
Valentine’s voice came out of the phone: “Okay, I finally heard from 3wishes. He sent a response to your little smallpox vaccine question. He said, and I quote, that ‘it’s worth the risk to reap the representation.’”
“Very poetic,” Rex said, rolling this eyes. “What do you want to bet that this guy is thirteen years old?”
Valentine chuckled. “I have some security footage to show you. I’ll be there in a second. Hold tight.” The phone went dead.
“Is this Wishes person the one who stole the heart?” I asked, and Rex shook his head, sighing.
“The heart is fine, Mason. It’s hidden away safely outside the building, like it has been this entire time.”
I blinked. “What are you talking about? It’s supposed to be in one of the Three Ladies’ Labs. You said it was in Felicia’s Lab!”
Rex gave me a sheepish smile. “I don’t tell people breaking into my labs what’s actually in them. Believe it or not, there’s no cock-length enhancer being cooked up in there, either.”
“Now that would make us a fortune,” Jones commented idly.
“I still don’t understand,” I said, rubbing my head. “If it's been away from the building, what was I trying to steal?” I looked back and forth between the two men. “Obviously somebody wanted me to help them steal something. Did they just not realize it wasn't here? I don’t underst—”
I was cut off by Valentine walking into the room, open laptop in his arms. “I got a visual of the shooter, which shows—”
“How did you get here so fast?” Rex demanded, and Valentine frowned.
“I took the elevator, Mr. Rex.”
Rex and Jones both stiffened, their eyes going wide and terrifying expressions spreading across their faces. The door slammed open again, and a furious looking Sonny stalked in, slamming his hands down on the table as he glared at Val.
“What happened to the lockdown?” he demanded, voice rising. “The building should still be in lockdown!”
Valentine’s brow furrowed, a confused look on his face. “The shooting was outside, so it didn’t activate auto-lockdown.” He shrugged. “No one manually triggered a lockdown, so we’re still in All Clear state.”
“I activated a lockdown,” Jones growled.
“And me,” Sonny agreed.
“I did, too,” Rex finished off, face pale. "Oh, shit, Mason rode the elevator up, too. I saw her, but it didn't even click what it meant. The lockdown was never in effect at all."
“The device,” Jones said suddenly, glancing my way. “The one she thought she was supposed to trigger for a security breach. It’s in the building. It’s been in the building for the last week. That's why they stopped giving a shit about her once she was in.”
They looked around at each other, stared, then all moved toward the door at once.
“Rex, you go with Valentine and Mason,” Sonny ordered. “Get that device and check on Angela’s Lab. You know what to do if we have a breach. Jones, come with me. We need to start searching this building for our intruder.”
“What’s going on?” I said as Rex pulled me from the room along with them, all of us moving toward the elevators.
“We’ve been played,” Rex said, wrapping his fingers through mine. “By someone who knows how to win.”
- rex -
I tapped my foot anxiously as we ascended to Floor 32, holding Mason’s hand tightly in mine. She looked nervous but not panicked, which made sense considering she likely had no idea that she would be the one arrested as a terrorist if General Wong and the Pentagon found out she provided 3wishes with the ability to crack our security system.
The only positive was that the Tyche system was not running the Research Supply Vault downstairs—the so-called 'Big Vault' ran off its own system, so it was perfectly safe. But Angela’s Lab… just breaking into it could be considered an act of terrorism, if the DOD chose to look at it that way.
“I love you,” I said suddenly, then winced as the words came out of my mouth.
“What?” she said, eyes going wide, and I hunched my shoulders a little, embarrassed to have that pop out in an elevator full of pissed off criminals during what could become a national emergency.
“Not the best time, huh?” I said. “Sorry. The whole kidnapping thing freaked me out. I nearly had a heart attack.” Literally.
“Do not say that!” she snapped, and my stomach dropped. Apparently ‘love’ was not a word we were going to be using anytime soon.
“I’m really sorry,” I said again, words coming out fast. “I’ve spent, like, the last twenty years going to Wesley’s group family therapy class every week, and about half the time is spent convincing you to tell the people you love that you love them, so it slipped out—”
“I didn’t mean the love thing!” Mason cut in, face as red as her hair. “I meant the heart attack thing! Jones scared me so bad when he said you were dying!” Her voice croaked at the end and she blinked rapidly. “When I heard your heart broke, I thought mine was going to break, too.” She squeezed my hand, looking up at me. “I… I think I love you, too, Rex.”
“This is incredibly awkward,” Jones murmured as the elevator binged and came to a halt.
“Incredibly,” Valentine agreed, and I shoved the little asshole out of the elevator, tugging Mason along with me as I rushed to Angela’s Lab.
“Dammit!” I yelled, slamming a hand down on the wall beside the lab door. The open lab door. “We need to get a Level 5 Lockdown in place, now!”
Mason’s eyes went wide. “Didn't you say that was a Haz-Mat emergency? What is actually in that lab?!”
“I still can’t issue the lockdown,” Valentine said, holding his laptop with one hand and typing with the other. “There’s a foreign signal inside the building that 3wishes used to punch a hole in the system and shut it down. The same signal is keeping me from reactivating Tyche.”
“Mason,” I growled, “where did you put that device Wesley gave you? The one for the servers?”
“It’s in my desk,” she said, eyes going wide. “Oh my God, is that what they used to get in the building?”
“Show me,” I commanded, and she obeyed, taking off toward her office. We raced up the stairs and she paused, glancing back at me and biting her lip.
“Um, just so you know… it’s… Well, you’ll see.” She yanked open the top drawer and pulled out… a bright pink vibrator with a disco ball on the end?
“That’s how I got it through security,” she said, sounding embarrassed. “Nobody wanted to
touch it.”
Dammit. I was so firing my entire security staff and replacing them with female ex-Marines. Mrs. Cho would never have fallen for that shit.
I took a deep breath, wondering idly if the thing really worked as I picked it up—then I dropped it on the gound and slammed my foot down on it hard, smashing it.
The thing broke into pieces, the sort of pieces I was fairly sure were much too complicated for your average sex toy—last time I checked, most vibrators didn’t come with motherboards.
Moments later, every light in the room went dark and every computer screen went dead as every single system except the Blackout Emergency Server restarted. The emergency lights began to flash around us, and a loud signal rang out, quickly followed by a cheerful voice coming over every speaker in the building.
“THIS IS NOT A TEST. A Level 5 Hazardous Materials Emergency Lockdown is in effect. Please stay calm and remain where you are. Help is on the way. Authorized Level 5 Security Officers will be arriving on your floor soon to verify your identity.
“At this time, no one may enter or exit the building. All elevators have been shut down and all entrances and exits other than Authorized Fire Emergency Exits have been completely locked down. Use of the stairs must be approved by an Authorized Level 5 Security Officer. In case of a fire, make your way to the lobby with assistance of an Authorized Level 5 Security Officer. Otherwise, remain on your floor.
“Help is on the way. Please remain calm and wait for further instructions. Help is on the way. THIS IS NOT A TEST.”
There was another long signal, then the announcement began again, no doubt on repeat until it drove everyone so crazy they jabbed their eardrums out with a pen.
“Wow,” Mason said. “Tyche is really fucking annoying. Who made her so damn happy?”
Heart Thief (Black Market Billionaire Book 1) Page 21