03

My fingers closed around the ladder. I took a deep breath and swung. My feet hit the rusty ladder with a loud clang. Okay, now let’s see. I climbed down, taking extra care of where I was placing my feet. The cool metal bit into my bare feet and I winced in pain. I was supposed to be alone, why was someone knocking on the door ? Who was knocking on the door ?

I took a deep breath as I felt the panic rise. Five more rungs, I’ll be fine. I shifted all my attention to getting down safely. Should I call Dean ? No, he’d be in the flight with Ari. That left the cops.

Well, fuck.

My feet hit the concrete road with a dull thud. I sighed and threw my shoulders back before walking into the marble lobby of the apartment complex.

Oh yeah, I was still barefoot.

« Mr. Rodriguez, » I smiled at the receptionist.

« Oh hello, Ms. Seran. Why are you walking around barefoot ? » He asked in a sour voice. Unsurprising, people never liked me a lot.

« Oh, you know practicing to be a Hobbit for Halloween, » I said sarcastically. « Did you send anyone up to my apartment ? »

« Ms. Seran, a girl with a family as influential as yours should behave with more class, » he said, ignoring my question completely.

« Mr. Rodriguez, a man as intelligent as you should stop talking so much. Now, did you let anyone up to my apartment ? » I demanded.

« I pity your sister, I truly do, » he said and pinched his nose.

« If she has to deal with you, I do too, » I said with a wide smile.

Mr. Rodriguez never really liked me. Long story involving a firecracker and the building’s annual Christmas tree. The feeling was mutual.

« She has to. Haven’t you heard that I’m supposed to tell her everytime you go out ? » He asked condescendingly, as if he was talking to a dumb kid.

« I have, why do you think I learned to sneak out from the window in the first place ? »

He thought about that for a while.

« Look, » I sighed. « There’s someone in my apartment. »

His eyes went wide. « I’m sorry, Ms. Seran, but I can assure you that I didn’t see anything. »

« Except I never asked you if you saw anything, » I said.

« You need to leave Ms. Seran, » he huffed.

« So rude, » I smiled. « I will, but not so soon. »

Before he could decipher the meaning behind my words, I had already pushed him out of the way and pulled up the security footage on the screen in front of him.

« Ms. Seran ! Get away from the computer this instanct ! »

Like that was going to work. « Shut up or I’ll tell Arianna you let dangerous men in my house instead of calling the cops. »

That did it.

I saw an expensive looking Porsche Cayenne drive through the gates and five men get out. Five. That was five more visitors than I wanted. I couldn’t see their faces but they were all dressed too casually to be driving a car as expensive as that. Mafia. But Dean was enroute to China with my sister.

So who were they ?

The car was parked in the most asshole-like manner possible. If a single car could take up three parking spaces, Douchebag Driver had figured out how. Two men stayed back, one in the car and one leaned out, while the rest walked into the building.

My fingers itched to call 911 and run but doing so could endanger Arianna and everything she had build. Criminals don’t call the cops if they have a problem. Criminals call criminals if they had a problem. I reluctantly kept my phone away.

I really didn’t like this plan, if it could be considered a plan, but I wasn’t going to be waiting for them to find me as if we were playing a friendly game of hide and seek.

Well, I was utterly and completely fucked.

I needed a distraction. Then maybe I could swallow my pride and suck up to Dean Cavilleri’s family.

But, first things first, like any other person in my predicament, I googled ‘blast radius of Porsche Cayenne’ and left to look for the firecrackers I had stashed in the garden last Christmas.

Your search for ‘blast radius of Porsche Cayenne’ has yieled no results.

The disappointment I felt was gutting. Why hasn’t someone figured the blast radius of a Porche Cayenne yet ? Plus the asshole-like way it was parked…

Any who. I found the firecrackers within five minutes. I even managed to snag a lighter from Mr. Rodriguez’s desk after he had to leave to attend to some ‘affairs’ because he had no time to ‘waste’ for my ‘teenage drama’. I contemplated leaving that lying bastard a ‘gift’ but decided it would be a pathetic waste of one of my three firecrackers.

I’d tell Arianna about the spineless asshole later. For now, let’s see if I can get out alive. I snuck around the garden and into the parking lot. One guy was smoking a cigarette, the other had left the car on with no regard for how the burning petrol accelerated global warming or contributed to the entropy of the universe.

I lit the fuse on one of my crackers and rolled it around the corner. The men didn’t notice. I didn’t recognise them either. I shut my ears tightly as the fuse burnt out. There was a moment of hushed silence as the fuse went out. Did the fuse go out ? Did it even reach the gunpowder inside the firework ? Had it been too long since I bought it ? Should I check ?

Bang !

Apparently not.

Fortunately the gunpowder was a bit damp, which I was hoping for, because it emanated a thick fog of smoke. I heard rustling and cursing, a lot of cursing. There was no recognisable accent, much to my misfortune. I heard footsteps approaching.

Quick, Kes ! Run !

I took off to the next spot. The hassled thumps of my heart resonated with my feet as I ran across the parking lot, behind the cars. Man number one was out of the way, that left one more. I had two more crackers left. Wasting no time, I lit the second one and threw it away from the cars.