"So," Angle glanced at Lara and Alex. "Now that we have all the cards on the table, let's not beat about the bush."
"Certainly. . . I'd much rather beat you." Lara said, narrowing her eyes.
"Don't say that about my husband, you bitch!" Electra shouted.
"Calm yourself, Electra." Angel instructed. "You can only expect such behavior from a woman like her. Why don't you go to sleep and I shall join you soon."
"Do I have to?" Electra whined. "I want to stay up."
"No, my love. You need your rest. I shall tell you about everything in the morning." He smiled, running the back of his hand down the side of Electra's face. He kissed her lips. Electra giggled and left the room, quietly.
"Electra, wait." Lara said, she moved to follow her daughter, but Alex held her back.
"Don't go after her yet, Lara. We have to find out what's going on here." Alex murmured into her ear.
"Your husband is quite intelligent." Angel said, walking over to a table that held a champagne glass and an uncorked bottle. "Must be where Electra gets it from." He poured the alcohol into the glass and took a small sip.
"Get to the point." Lara bit out. "What do you want in exchange for our daughter?" She demanded.
"Oh, I don't want to get to the point yet. I have to tell you about my ingenious plan first."
"We're not interested in your fucking 'ingenious plans'." Lara snapped. "What do you want for our daughter?!"
"Well, fine then, I won't tell you my ingenious plan. Your loss." Angel took another sip from the champagne glass.
"We're not getting any younger, you know." Alex said, beginning to lose his patience.
"Alright, fine. In exchange for Electra, your beautiful daughter, I-"
"Hold on." Lara said.
"Lara, he's just about tell us what he wants, let the man speak." Alex hissed.
"Hold on." Lara told him. She turned back to Angel. "Listen, if we do any sort of negotiating, than I want one thing perfectly clear. We will do everything in our power to give you what you want in exchange for her, but we want the five month old Electra. Not this impulsive slut that you've created."
"Fine. Deal." Angel said, offended that the girl's own mother referred to his bride as a slut.
"Now, continue." Lara told him.
"Well, as I was saying, in exchange for Electra, your lovely daughter, I want you, Lara Croft." He said, staring directly at Lara.
"What do you mean?" Lara demanded.
"It's quite simple, really. I want you to divorce this. . . person," he finished, waving the glass at Alex, "marry me and live with me for all eternity."
"Why do you want me?" Lara asked.
"Don't play modest with me." Angel scoffed. "Every man who has ever come into contact with you has wanted you. You are intelligent, athletic, elegant and shockingly beautiful. Why wouldn't I want you to be my wife?"
"But you don't even know me." Lara objected.
"I don't need to. Your beauty is enough for me to be satisfied. Now, which will it be? Yourself or your daughter?"
"That doesn't make any sense." Lara snapped. "Why would I give myself to you, if I'm never going to see my daughter again?"
"Don't be silly, Lara. I would let you see your daughter. Alex would be her primary care taker, but I would allow you to visit her. Beside, you wouldn't take away your own daughter's future, would you?" Angel asked, innocently.
"Hold on a second, we need to talk about this." Alex pulled Lara into a corner of the room, made sure that Angel was out of ear shot and turned back to Lara. "What are we going to do?" He demanded. "We can't let him keep Electra, but there's no way that he's taking you."
"We don't have much choice, do we?" Lara asked.
"But Lara, you're my wife and I'm not giving you up without a fight."
"If you kill him then we have no way of getting our old Electra back and we'll be stuck with the bitch that he created."
"Or I could just beat him into submission." Alex shrugged.
"No, I have an idea." Lara assured him. "I'm going to go with Angel."
"Lara, no. I'm not going to let you." Alex said, sternly.
"This is the only way. I need you to look after Electra. I can't sacrifice her future for my happiness. I'm going, Alex."
"Lara, don't do it." Alex reached out for Lara's arm, but she moved away from him and walked over to Angel.
"We've decided. I will wed you in exchange for our infant daughter." Lara said.
"Excellent." Angel smiled. "This is going perfectly."
"Lara, snap out of it." Alex grabbed Lara's arm and forced her to face him. "I'm not letting you go, I've already lost you once, I'm not going through that again."
"Alex, kindly take your hands off of my fiancée." Angel said, nonchalantly, sipping his drink.
"Go to hell!" Alex snapped.
"Alex. . ." Lara looked him in the eyes. "It's alright." She winked at him.
Lara removed her arm from Alex's grasp and walked over to Angel.
"Ah yes, we will be quite happy together." Angel smiled. He took the wedding band from Lara's finger and retrieved a small black velvet box from his jacket pocket. He carelessly tossed the wedding ring over his shoulder. Alex swore and ran after the ring. He slid the jewelry into his pocket as Angel slid his wedding band onto Lara's finger. "Perfect fit." He murmured.
"What now?" Lara asked, pretending to admire the ring.
"Well, you must gather your things and I shall get Electra ready. Since it is getting late, why don't you stay overnight at the Croft Manor? I will collect you and drop off Electra in the morning." He smiled. "Do we have a deal?"
"Yes, I believe we do." Lara said. Before she realized what was going on, Angel took her in his arms and gave her a long, sloppy kiss. Alex looked up and ran at Angel, tackling him to the ground with an outraged cry.
"Alex! Alex, stop!" Lara pulled her husband from Angel, forcing him to the other side of the room. Angel sat up, glaring at Alex.
"Lara, please control your husband." Angel snapped.
"I apologize." She said, glaring at Alex. "We must be going. I have a lot of packing to do."
"Yes, until tomorrow then, my love." Angel smiled.
***
"I don't believe you! I don't fucking believe you!" Alex shouted.
"Lara, I'm retiring, good-night." Hillary said, quickly retreating from the uncomfortable scene.
"Alex, calm down." Lara said. She took off her earrings and stepped out of her shoes.
"Calm down?! Calm down!?!?! How the hell can I calm down, when my wife is going to marry some asshole?! What the hell were you thinking?!" Alex raged.
"I'm going to slap you, if you don't lower your voice." Lara told him.
"Go ahead, because I have a good mind to slap you back! Maybe knock some sense into you!"
"Alex, would you at least let me explain?" Lara asked, still remarkably calm.
"What is there to explain?! My wife is going to divorce me and spend the rest of her life with a greedy prat, while I am going to have to raise our daughter by myself and I'm going to have one hell of a time explaining what happened to her mother!!!!"
Lara changed her mind. Instead of simply slapping him, she punched him. Hard.
"Ow! God damnit, Lara!" Alex swore.
Suddenly, the door to the Croft manor opened and Bryce and Smoke walked in, hand in hand. Forgetting about her fight with Alex, Lara turned to them and remembered what Angel had said.
"Smoke, would you come here please?" Lara asked, sweetly.
"Sure. Is something wrong? I heard that you didn't get Electra." She said, giving her coat and purse to Bryce. She walked over to Lara.
"You were working for Angel." Lara said, narrowing her eyes.
"What?" Smoke asked. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't deny it. Angel told me all about the plan. You were put in place to distract Bryce while Angel spoke with us. And look, you did."
"Lara, it's not what you think, really." Smoke said, desperately.
"You loved money so much that you would betray your closest friend?"
"I didn't mean to. Angel has. . . Angel is. . ." Smoke stopped, her eyes sinking to the floor.
"Angel, what?"
"He's my brother." Smoke murmured.
"Your brother?" Alex demanded.
"Yes." Smoke admitted.
"You never told me that you had a brother." Lara said.
"He's my half brother really. But I didn't know what his whole plan was, he just wanted me to distract Bryce at the party."
"You knew that he kidnapped Electra, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Smoke?" Bryce stepped forward, a look of disbelief on his face. "You used me. You used me and you betrayed Lara."
"I'm sorry Bryce, I'm so sorry. But he's my family." Smoke pleaded.
"And these people are my family!" Bryce shouted, gesturing to Lara and Alex. "How could you?"
"I'm sorry."
"That isn't helping. You knew what Angel was doing, you didn't stop him and then you helped to carry out his plan!" Bryce said.
"I didn't know what he was doing, honestly, I didn't."
"If there's one thing that you're not, it's honest." Bryce said, coldly.
There was silence. Smoke's gray eyes pleaded helplessly with Bryce. Finally, he turned away from her and walked out of the house to his trailer.
"Lara, I'm sorry, please." Smoke gripped Lara's hand.
"Smoke, leave now and I won't turn you in to the authorities that you're running from." Lara said.
"But Lara, I'm sorry-"
"And so am I. Good-bye, Smoke."
Lara took Alex's arm and lead him upstairs to their bedroom. Smoke looked around the empty house. She wrapped her arms around herself and softly, began to cry.
***
"Well, that was a little harsh." Alex said. "And it doesn't solve our problem."
"Alex, she plotted against us." Lara reminded him, taking the pins from her hair and using a soapy cloth to remove her make-up.
"I know, I know." Alex sighed. "And what are we going to do now? We're down one assassin and you are still going through with this fucked up plan."
"Listen Alex, you heard what Angel said. He only wants me to marry him because he thinks I'm beautiful."
"You are beautiful." Alex muttered.
"But still, he has only seen me out in public and at dinner parties. He knows nothing of my private life. Suppose I wasn't so lady like at home. Hmm?"
"I don't follow."
"Think about it, Alex. I could annoy the hell out of him. And if I do, then he would probably send me back to live with you and Electra."
"Why don't I think that that plan will work?"
"Would you put up with someone who drove you insane?"
"I dated Champagne, didn't I?"
"Well, you didn't marry her. Besides, I could tell Angel that I want a huge formal wedding and a very long engagement and if I'm obnoxious enough then Angel will decide not to go through with the actual wedding."
"It's not going to work." Alex frowned.
"Unzip me, please." Lara said, holding her hair off the back of her neck so Alex could unzip her dress. "Besides, what other options do we have?"
"Not a lot. . ." Alex admitted.
Lara stepped out of her dress and hung it back onto the hanger in front of her wardrobe.
"So just trust me, Alex." Lara said, facing her husband.
"Lara. . ." Alex sighed. "I don't want to lose you." He murmured, wrapping his arms around Lara.
"You won't." She assured him, kissing his lips. "You never will."