An Ace Of Hearts (Book #1) (Completed)

Chapter 57: A Criminal Mind

AHVI TAKEDA

An hour earlier...

Keeping my conscience was getting harder and harder. Hailey didn't have such reserves anymore because she had fainted. Or perhaps she was just tired because she was slumped forward, her hair hiding her face from me. I couldn't blame her. My vision kept blurring and my heart had slowed to a crawl, too.

I looked around the room. Polo and Stan had left once more to do what they had told us, to fool the police and use us as pawns. I knew they would kill us by the end of this day. For some reason, the thought didn't scare me. Maybe it was because the pain from the bullet wound had numbed all other senses of mine.

There was no way for us to escape anyway. There was nothing we could go to free ourselves from the ropes tying our hands to the hook in the wall and my leg was wounded enough that it wouldn't support me if I tried to stand up.

I had never been shot before and god, did it hurt like a bitch. If it hadn't been for the bullet embedded in my thigh, I would have freed myself a long time ago. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I tried to think of something, anything I could do to escape.

The thought had occurred to me the moment Polo and Stan left the room. It wasn't the fact that I was scared for my own life but because I couldn't let them get away. Hailey and I were the only leverage they had against the police. Our lives in return for their freedom. But if they didn't have us, they couldn't blackmail the police, they would have nothing to exchange their freedom for. Moreover, I couldn't let Hailey die.

So, I searched my brain for a plan. I knew the base quite well. I remembered this room, too and I knew that if I slipped outside and turned left, it would lead into the kitchen. From there, we could slip out of the back door and escape. There would be men around but I had a solution for that, too. This room also had a secret stash of weapons, hidden beneath a loose floorboard.

It had been Cam's idea to do so in case we ever had to deal with a 'prisoner.' We never did the dirty work for the gangsters, except for the robbery but we had been in the room countless times on guard duty. The prisoners were mostly men twice our size, desperate to live, to escape much like I was right now. We had stashed the weapons so we had something to defend ourselves with in case of an emergency.

If Polo had found the floorboard and the stash though, I was screwed. But I prayed that he hadn't. I prayed that he was foolish enough to think that we were just some kids robbing people for him. I prayed that he thought of us as harmless.

My head spun the harder I tried to think. A cloth had been tied around my leg to stop the blood, but it wasn't doing much. It was just for show, to make the police believe that Polo didn't mean harm to me. Bastard.

I swayed slightly as I forced my head up to search the room. I had to keep my wits about myself for the next few minutes, just the next few minutes. I exhaled deeply as I twisted my head to look at my hands tied over my head. The right side of my body screamed in pain, courtesy of the bullet wound but I held my ground.

I had grown a tolerance for pain. Over the years, as I made myself bleed onto the paper so I could confess my sins in my own blood, I had grown accustomed to the feeling of it coursing through my body, numbing my senses. But right now, I needed my senses to be sharp.

So, gritted my teeth and fought with the pain instead of letting it take over me. My eyes scanned the hook the rope was tied to. I wriggled slightly, feeling nausea churn in my gut from the way wave upon wave of agony that washed over me.

The rope didn't budge. Shit.

I pulled at it but it only led to the knot tightening. I was not helping my case so I stopped. With every moment that passed, Polo got closer to his end goal and I couldn't afford him getting to it, achieving what he had planned.