Black Stones

Chapter 2 - "Spend some time with me"

I walked back and forth furiously outside Brian's office as he talked on the phone. Am I the only one who thinks that this situation is irrational? Why nobody opposes? We are thieves, not kidnappers. Yeah, okay, we kill people sometimes but abduction? This is a human being. An alive one, not someone we are going to kill. Not to mention the fact that she is innocent.
"Come inside", I heard his deep voice and stormed into his office, closing the door behind.
"You should take care of your wound", he said and pointed at my left arm. It still trembled and the pain has been unbearable, until I took some painkillers. I grabbed my elbow to stop it from shaking and took a seat in front of his desk.
"Brian, excuse me for the interruption but I believe this whole situation is totally against our ethics". He brought his hand to his chin, scratching his beard without looking at me.
"I agree. But people come in face with exceptions sometimes. Consider it as a small loophole".
"Why did we kidnap her in the first place? At least, give me an explanation". He exhaled and moved back on his chair. It took him a little while to answer me.
"Look, things didn't turn out as we expected them to be. Her husband, William Roberts, transferred all his money to a safe place. This action took place probably 2-3 days before so we weren't informed. We had to take her. We will exchange her for money".
"I think that we could have found another way to take the money rather than kidnapping his wife". This whole story was absurd. We were getting exposed in so many dangers that they haven't even thought about them yet. Just a small mistake and our gang was going to get vanished. And, unfortunately, mistakes were easy to be made, especially when you are dealing with a powerful man.
"There is something else, Vic, which worries me", he said and got up from his chair and approached me. He sat on his desk, right in front of me.
"What's wrong?".
"As I told you earlier, her husband transferred the money very recently. As if it was intentional. I think we have a snitch. Not with us but in general. You know that we are a part of a bigger team".
"If there is such a problem, I'm not responsible for it. You are my boss, I take orders from you. I work for you. If you are having problem with the "Big ones", it's your responsibility among the other "bosses", our team is irrelevant".
"Yeah, of course I know that Vic. I have to investigate it further. But, If I had to leave this place for a bit, I want you to know that you are going to run it", he said and took a pair of keys out of his pocket and gave it to me. Before I even got to answer, he stopped me.
"Armory, garage, rooms, everything is in here. But, the important one is this", he said and pointed out the golden one.
"This is the key from the room that we keep Alex inside, in the basement. I want you to take care of her. Don't let anyone approach her without your presence. They have...Let's say unusual ways to extract informations, as you know". I grabbed the key and studied it a little bit. I felt a weird lump in my throat and coughed a little before I stood up and leave his office. He stopped me as I was exiting the office and gave me a folder.
"Inside you will find everything you need to know about her. You will need it". I nodded and got upstairs to my room.

I leaned against the door, letting my body fall down on the floor and threw the folder on my bed. I squeezed my eyes with my right hand, trying to release some of the tension I felt. I looked at my wound and realized that not only I haven't changed clothes but I haven't even cleaned it. I stood up really slow, feeling more tired than ever and went to the bathroom. I opened the cabinet and took out the first aid box. I removed my blouse except from the left sleeve which I cut through with some scissors and removed it carefully. I used a sterilized cloth that I soaked in warm water to clean the area. Subsequently, I put some rubbing alcohol on a clean cloth and cleaned the wound carefully, trying not to scream too loudly and wake up the others. Turns out that the wound was deeper than I thought it would be. I inhaled deeply a couple of times and wrapped a gauze around the wound that hadn't stop bleeding. I put on another blouse and sweatpants and headed down to the kitchen.