Chapter 14
I came to, at least my mind did. The rest of my body didn’t want to cooperate, but I could see. My go bag was on the floorboard. If I could get access to that, I’d be golden. The men in the front seat were definitely the men from the surveillance photos in Siron’s office. The ones who had been following me. The one in the passenger seat was talking on his phone.
“Oui, Monsieur, this is Adolphe,” he said. “We have her. You can put your worries to rest. Thank you, Monsieur. Your permanent security detail? Thank you. I’m just doing my job.” He was silent for a minute or two. “And you as well, Monsieur. She’ll be gone by morning and your investment will be safe…Goodbye, Monsieur.”
“Cardwell,” Adolphe said as he ended the call and turned to his partner. “We do it tonight.”
Who had Adolphe been talking to? Some kind of official? He was obviously showing deference and respect, always referring to the man as “monsieur.” I knew for sure now—these guys worked for someone very important. They were hired guns. Who had hired them? I supposed a gang leader might make the people who worked for him call him monsieur, but it also could have been some official he was talking to. There was something about the way he talked to the person that made me think it had to be someone he revered.
Cardwell continued to drive. We didn’t go far before he pulled into a garage of some sort. I hadn’t realized many homes had garages within the city, but then again, this was the Champs-Elysees area of Paris, a very upper-crust neighborhood.
“Eva, Eva.” Adolphe smiled at me. “It is Eva, isn’t it?” I noticed the garage door close, and tall, thin Cardwell enter the house.
I couldn’t answer Adolphe. My muscles had all decided to go on vacation.
“Then again, maybe not.” He spoke in a pleasant, conversational tone that belied the menace behind his intentions. “You’re quite the little mystery, aren’t you? I’m left wondering—what are you, exactly? Pickpocket? Con artist? Something more? Every time I see you, you have a different face. Quite the mystery. Well, I will just have to unravel you, won’t I?” He reached out both hands and peeled off my mask.
I tried to speak and all that came out was a garble of sounds. I groaned—it was as close to a scream as I could manage.
“Don’t worry, by the time we get downstairs, your muscles should be able to work on a limited basis. Then the real fun can begin.” He opened the car door and dragged me out. Being completely helpless was awful. He carried me over his shoulder with seemingly no effort. His body was hard, like cement.
He brought me down some stairs and then through a door. A chill swept through me. The smell of decay hit me like a sledgehammer and if I could have, I would have shivered. The dank air seemed to cling to my body. My face bounced against his rock-hard back as he walked down the cement hallway. It wouldn’t have surprised me if I had had a bloody nose when he let me down. I noted he carried a gun in a holster and a long knife in a sheath, both strapped to his belt. I felt a tingle in my toes and hoped that was a sign that I would soon regain control over my body. The tingle spread up my left leg, but with it came a pernicious ache. I consciously tried to move my leg, but only a tad bit so my captor wouldn’t know. It moved!
Within seconds, my whole body set to tingling and aching, and I was able to move again. This was good. In one move I’d have the gun he had shoved into his back waistband. In another, I’d shoot a hole in his leg. Three moves after that, I would have him completely disabled, and I would escape this creepy dungeon. As my hand, which felt sluggish and not truly a part of my body, moved to his gun, he leaned forward and threw me onto a soft surface. But not before I had taken the gun. I used my leg to conceal it as I slid off his shoulder, keeping it out of his line of sight. I all but sat on it as I landed. Before I had a chance to react, the poison was still taking its toll, the prison doors slammed shut and locked into place. He stared at me through them, an almost adoring smile on his face, like someone looking at a beloved pet. I fought back the urge to shudder. I knew he was watching me for signs that feeling was returning to my body, so I kept absolutely still, despite my intense desire to shoot him right then and there. I didn’t trust that my body would do as mind told it to. What if I raised the gun and my finger couldn’t press the trigger?
“I’m going to make this very simple for you, Eva. We know you took the drive, there is no use denying it. I will admit it took us longer than it should have—that was a clever ruse you pulled, passing the drive to your accomplice the way you did. You appeared to be the victim of a theft, rather than a thief yourself. It was quite the distraction, as I’m sure you had planned.” He squatted down to look me in the face, and smiled, satisfied.
“Of course, we did eventually figure you out. From there, it did not take much to inform our network of guards that we were looking for you. When your face popped up again at the Louvre, we were on your trail. But then—oh then! You turned out to be just so much more interesting than we could have imagined. You changed your
