Chapter 14
“Gentlemen, I am afraid I must ask you to leave.” The man spoke in an elegant French accent that suited his looks, but he was backed up by several gorilla-like individuals who had been crammed into evening wear.
“Oh,” said Red, amiably. “Why?”
“The house, reserves the right not to give a reason.”
“Oh.” Red tossed a chip in his hand. “Okay. Just cash this lot up for us, would you?”
The Frenchman turned a disdainful look onto the pile of chips on the table as if talking about money in a casino was a bit crass.
“Regrettably, the house will not be honoring your ‘winnings’.” He actually used air quotes. “We will return your initial stake, naturally.”
“I think we’d rather have our winnings,” said Drake, proving that a man could loom massively and still be elegantly attired.
This looked to be edging in the direction of a physical confrontation and the crowd around us took a step back, although only one because, while they did not want to be involved, they also didn’t want to miss anything.
“That is not possible.”
“Maybe you should find a way to make it possible.”
We were leaving. There really was no other way, but if we left too easily without our money, Red had explained to me, then it looked very suspicious. The trick was to put up enough of a fight that it looked believable but not so much of one that you had to be taken to a quiet back room to have your fingers broken.
“Gentlemen,” the Frenchman raised his hands, “there is no way you are leaving with the money. You are welcome to go to the police, but I think we both know that you will not do this.”
“You reckon?” Red raised an eyebrow. “You think they’ll have more luck proving we cheated than you?”
“I do not think you will take this risk. Now I must ask you to leave, or my friends here will be forced to escort you.”
Red took a look over the man’s shoulder at the posse behind him. “It’s funny the ‘friends’ you make in a workplace, isn’t it? Can’t imagine you’d be friends with them if you didn’t all work together. But I bet you all go out for a drink most nights, maybe spend the weekends round each other’s houses. Is that how it goes down?”
“Are you leaving, Monsieur?”
“We’re leaving,” growled Drake.
Outside, Drake led the way around the side of the casino.
“Did you enjoy your first time in a Monte Carlo casino?”
I nodded. “I felt like a princess. Except princesses don’t get thrown out.”
Red grinned. “That’s the problem with being a princess. No bloody fun. Ah, here we are.”
We had come to a very secure-looking door that was guaranteed to shriek with a thousand alarm sirens if you even thought about opening it.
“How long will he be?” I asked, my tummy tied in uncomfortable knots.
“Depends how far he has to go with the girl,” shrugged Red.
I tried to act cool, but inside was praying that Campbell would not be long.
He wasn’t. The door opened a minute later and Campbell ushered us in.
“Got the key cards?”
“I wouldn’t be able to open the door if I hadn’t.”
“It only takes a card to open it?” I wondered.
“A door like this takes a code, a few keys and God knows what else to open it,” said Drake. “Unless you’re the boss’s daughter. Then you just get a card that lets you in anywhere.”
We closed the door and Red glanced at his watch. “That was quick. You losing your touch?”
Campbell shrugged. “It was easier than I expected. Really didn’t have to do much.”
“The girl secure?”
“Tied to her bed.”
“You tied her to her bed?” I gaped.
“Technically, handcuffed,” replied Campbell. “Not my fault, she asked me to.”
“And then you left her?”
Campbell shrugged. “She was less on board with that, I’ll admit.”
“What if she screams?”
“The ball gag was also her idea. She had five to choose from.”
Red shook his head. “Boy, she really did make it easy for you.”
“You must be disappointed,” I said, more nastily than I had intended.
Campbell shot me a look. “We’ve gained access to the art collection in a very short time. The girl is secure and will suffer no more harm than a little embarrassment when she is discovered handcuffed to her bed in a pair of crotchless panties. Why is everyone on my case about this?”
I shouldn’t have said what I had said, but even so, his reply seemed more defensive than I would have expected from the cool, calm Campbell. Once again, I wondered about the slight atmosphere that seemed to have developed. Was Campbell pissed at me because I was questioning even the idea of him sleeping with another woman, even though he hadn’t slept with her, while I had slept with his comrades? He would have every right to be pissed at me for that. Was he pissed at his friends? He had, after all, met me first, even if it had been understood to be a one-night thing. I didn’t know, but I kept my mouth shut as we took a smart, leather-lined elevator up into the higher floors of the casino.
We exited cautiously, the guys checking for guards. But this part of the building was family only – intruders were not supposed to have the key card that got them to this stage and by any other route in would have encountered guards at every door. Campbell made a hand signal to indicate a door, swiped the key card and the four of us entered.
The art collection seemed to glow as we went in. The lights in the room itself were off but each of the exhibits had its own light, kept at a low level, giving the place the eerie aura of a shrine. Amongst the many cases, given no more prominence than any other, was one containing a curved knife. It didn’t look like anything special. The handle was nicely carved in a dark wood and inlaid with bone, but there was nothing to suggest that this was a key element in bringing the world to its knees.
The guys examined the case with expert eyes.
“Drake?” asked Campbell.
Drake shook his head. “No. Not seeing it.”
“Problem?” I asked.
“Just a pity,” said Campbell. “There’s no way of taking the dagger out without setting off the alarms. It’s just not possible. They’ve got a really good alarm system here; one triggers another, try to tamper with one then another goes off – all that shit.”
“So what do we do?” It sounded like a fairly major problem to me.
“We set the alarm off,” shrugged Campbell. “No other choice, really. Then we run as fast as we can, back out the way we came. Red, secure the elevator.”
Red nodded and hurried out.
Campbell looked at me. “Once it’s out, you run like hell.”
“Got it.”
“Cool. Drake?”
Drake had been examining the intricacies of the wiring again. “I don’t see it makes much difference,” shrugged the big man. “However we go in, we’re going to set the alarm off, so I say we go with speed.”
Campbell nodded. “In your own time.”
Drake punched the case, the glass shattering beneath the force of his fist. He grabbed the knife and…
“Run like hell!”
We took off for the door as sirens shrieked around us. We rushed down the corridor and met Red coming the other way.
“Lockdown.”
“Shit!” For the first time, Campbell looked actually frustrated. “How long do we have?”
“Minutes.”
“What’s going on?” They probably had better things to do than to keep me informed but I wanted to know.
“The alarm locks the whole floor down, including the elevator,” said Campbell, clearly pissed at himself. “I didn’t think they would lock off the family’s private exit in an emergency. Fucking mercenary thing to do.”
“So what now?” I asked. The guys always had a plan that was
what they did.
But now all three of them were looking at each other with grim expressions.
“Is there a gun room up here?” asked Drake. There had been metal detectors on the casino doors, so coming in armed had not been an option.
“Worth looking,” said Campbell.
“I’ll take the stairs,” said Red. “That’s where they’ll come from and that’s probably the easiest way to get guns.”
“You’re going to try to take the guns off the casino guards?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this was suicide.
“He’ll be fine,” said Campbell, as Red walked away, but there was tension in his voice. For once, hearing one of the guys tell me everything would be alright, I didn’t believe it, because neither did they.
“But…” I didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sorry.” Campbell looked into my eyes, and I saw the desperation of our situation.
“Wait!” I yelled, stopping Red in his tracks.
“Jane, there’s no time,” said Drake, kindly.
“Shut up a minute,” I snapped. “You may be ready for some Butch and Sundance last stand. but I’m not.”
“If there was another way…” Campbell began.
“The girl. Cecile.”
The three straightened stiffly.
“We don’t take hostages,” Campbell said.
“No,” I interrupted. “Not a hostage. You were right, there’s no way Cinque would leave his family trapped up here. They’d have a way out – a secret emergency exit - and I bet it would be in their own rooms.”
I could see the thoughts coursing through Campbell’s head as the expressions changed on his face, and from the looks of it, my idea was a good one.
“This way.”
Campbell led us back down the corridor and opened a door leading to a bedroom. It was as rich and opulent as you would expect, a symphony of red and black seductiveness, a huge wardrobe dominating one wall, a vast mirror on the other and another mirror above the bed. At the moment, it was a little hard to take in the details of the room because it was rather dominated by the attractive girl handcuffed to the bed, wearing only high heels and pair of crotchless panties. She kicked her legs angrily as we entered and directed a barrage of obscenities at Campbell, which were thankfully muffled by the gag in her mouth.
“Sorry to intrude,” said Campbell briskly. “We’re not stopping.”
He threw open the wardrobe and began tossing clothes to the floor as he searched for a secret panel. Drake worked his way about the mirror while Red began shifting furniture. I went to the girl in the bed. I didn’t like her. Not just because she had seduced Campbell – or at least that was how I chose to see it – but she did not seem my type of girl; spoiled daughter of a crime boss who picked up men for kinky sex.
Not that I could brag.
On the bedside table was a key.
“What are you doing?” shouted Campbell as I unlocked the handcuffs.
“What’s the problem? The alarm’s already raised.”
As I uncuffed her hands, Cecile Cinque took the ball gag from her mouth and directed a stream of less muffled French obscenities at Campbell. He replied – in perfect French, naturally – and her expression softened.
“Naturellement. Pardon.” She turned to me, her eyes wistful. “What a man.”
I couldn’t help wondering what the hell Campbell had said that would turn this situation around and make her apologize to him. If we hadn’t been in mid-escape then I really think she would still have slept with him. Some men just have a gift.
And in this case, it was perhaps a gift I could use.
“He’ll be a dead man when your father catches him,” I said, as I unlocked her ankles.
“My father?”
“Why else would Campbell run out on you the way he did?” I handed her a robe to cover her practically naked body but she seemed okay with it being on display.
“He does not like my taste in men,” Cecile admitted, buying into my story because why else would a man leave a girl like her?
“No kidding,” I went on. “We’re just his friends and your dad’s so pissed at Campbell that he’s after us, too.”
“Mais non.” My French is awful but she seemed to think this was bad.
“Hopefully he’ll let the three of us go,” I said, “but Campbell…”
“Oh!”
“He shouted something about cutting his balls off.”
Cecile shook her head. “Oh, not again.”
Without stopping to examine this statement, I pressed on. “We were hoping there might be another way out.”
Cecile sprang up on the bed. Mounted on the wall above the headboard was a riding crop – which I suspected was not used for riding – and she pulled it down like a lever. The whole bed lurched and shifted back into the room, away from the wall, revealing a spiral staircase disappearing down.
The guys stared in astonishment.
“Shall we go?” I suggested.
We all ran for the stairs. Cecile made a parting grab for Campbell to say a proper au revoir, but he kept going.
“Sorry, no time. Nice to have met you.”
We heard the bed sliding back into place above us as we charged on down. How long would it take the guards to figure out what had happened? None of them would know about Cecile’s secret exit, I was sure of that – you didn’t tell the help about that sort of thing. So, provided Cecile was still under Campbell’s spell enough to keep her pretty mouth shut, we were likely to be in the clear.
The staircase led to a corridor, which led to an unassuming door in a building a few blocks away. We were out, and before we went any further, Campbell called a halt.
“We’ve been in some tight spots together, gentlemen, but not many as tight as that. I think we need to take a moment to thank the woman who got us out of it.” All eyes turned to me. “Jane Bond, you are eleven thousand kinds of amazing.”
Between his compliment, the smiles on their faces, and the rush of being a vital part of this thrilling adventure, I didn’t think I’d ever felt so happy in my entire life.
Chapter 15
There they lay on the coffee table in Campbell’s hotel room – penthouse suite, of course. The jewel and the dagger, and me just nearby. The three elements needed by LeSoeur to complete his horrific plan to raise the dead from a south sea island volcano. Perhaps he could find another maiden – he could certainly find one more maidenly than me – but I had a hunch there were not so many sacred daggers and religious jewels about. We had defeated him.
It was a quiet moment between the four of us, but there was elation in the silence. For me, this was a whole new experience so it followed that I was thrilled to my core to have played a role – and in the end, quite a pivotal one – in saving the world, but it surprised me how elated and even relieved the guys seemed. They tried not to show it, to be blasé, like this was just another day at the office, but this one had clearly gotten under their skin somehow.
“That’s it?” asked Red, hopefully.
Campbell nodded, looking as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “It’s done. No need for anything to happen. No way LeSoeur will continue with this plan while we have the knife and jewel. It’s done and it’s over.”
The looks on the faces of Drake and Red once again seemed closer to relief than anything else.
“Is it always like this when you save humanity?” I asked.
Realizing how they had been looking, the three men shrugged off their obvious relief and went back to being matter of fact.
“It never gets old,” said Red. “No matter how many times you pull it off.”
“How many is that, Agent 69?”
Red shook his head. “You’re better off not knowing. Trust me, people don’t want to know how many times a year they come close to total annihilation.”
I grinned, and went back to looking at the jewel and the dagger. This moment was for us, the four of us who had been there, b
ut it would not last long. Already, the head honchos of their organization were on their way to meet us and pick up the artifacts, which would be taken to a safe location.
“Will they be looked at by top men?” I asked, recalling the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark – the first and best of the Indiana Jones films.
“We’ve got somewhere a bit more secure than a crate-filled warehouse in mind,” said Campbell, instantly becoming even more attractive in my eyes than he already was as he recognized my geeky film reference.
“I’m imagining a vault with one of those big spinning things on the door, like in a bank.”
Campbell smiled. “Imagine what you like. We’ve told you a great deal – much of it that we weren’t really supposed to, but there are some secrets that have to stay that way.”
I nodded and sipped the champagne that Campbell had ordered – nothing but the best. “So that’s what happens to the bric-a-brac. What about you? What happens to you now?”
The guys exchanged glances, somewhat ruefully.
“Onto the next mission,” said Drake.
“You’ve got another one already?” Perhaps I was hoping they might get some time off; a few days. A week. Maybe the rest of their lives.
“Not officially,” Drake replied. “But there’s always something. Mad doctors, power hungry dictators, black magicians tampering with forces with which man was not meant to tamper. It’s not a varied life, but it keeps you busy.”
“They may keep us on LeSoeur’s trail,” commented Red. “We may have foiled this plot but this isn’t the first time he’s tried to take over the world. There’s a man who can’t stop himself from mucking about in God’s domain. It may be time to take him down once and for all.”
I nodded to myself. “What about me?”
There was a pause, perhaps because I knew the answer already and they knew I did.
“It’s time for you to go home,” said Campbell quietly. “Back to normal life.”
Her Shadow Harem: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance Page 11