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"You're sure he said seven?" Katherine asked for the fourth time, picking at a clothing rack as Elena groaned internally.
"Yes. Seven o'clock. And will you leave that alone?"
Kat had pulled out a dark purple top and was holding it against her body, "Relax. I'm just window shopping. Don't you think this blouse is adorable?"
"I think we're supposed to be waiting for our friend," she said with extra emphasis on the word.
Katherine chuckled, but put the shirt back, "Right. Assuming you didn't get us completely fired by yelling at the boss."
"I didn't-" she reached over as Kat started pulling off another item, hanging it back in place, "I didn't yell at him. I told you, we just had a disagreement over morals."
"Uh huh," her sister nodded, "A disagreement that ended with you storming out of the room yesterday."
Elena exhaled her annoyance, "I did not storm out. I walked out. And I only told you that in case he called to cancel the whole thing off, and he didn't. Which means we are still on, and we should be ready for when-"
"Our friend arrives?" Katherine asked, looking over her head at someone.
Elena turned and saw Alaric Saltzman, Damon's Head of Security, standing near the store they had stepped inside.
It had actually been his plan to meet here, in a crowded shopping mall a few towns away from Cailum.
It was near dinner time, so the shops around the food court were completely obscured by the hordes of shoppers stopping to socialize over a quick bite.
She and Katherine were able to blend in quite easily.
Alaric crooked a finger, once he realized he had their attention, obviously wanting them to follow as he started walking through the maze of fast food chains.
"Come on," Elena told Kat, leaving the shop to go after him.
They were smart enough to keep a safe enough distance that no one, namely, one of Damon's enemies, would be able to tell who they were or that they were following anyone.
On the off chance Alaric had picked up a tail.
He took the long way through the mall, stepping out of the far north entrance, which was near the jewelry shops.
"You go, then me," Elena decided, knowing that once they were outside, away from any security cameras, Alaric would be waiting.
Katherine nodded, heading out a few moments after the guy, and Elena pretended to look at a pretty opal necklace while she counted to thirty, before doing the same.
As planned, Alaric had parked an unsuspecting black car near the back of the crowded parking lot, and was waiting there for them with a door open.
The women both shuffled in as he took the driver's seat, and then they were moving.
"Nicely done," Alaric complimented, eyeing them from the rearview mirror, "Sorry about the dramatics, but we'd rather be safe than sorry, right?"
"Of course," Elena agreed, and Katherine merely shrugged, "Assuming we won't be held in this car against our will."
Alaric laughed a little, and looked sheepish, "Ah. So you're Katherine, then? God, the two of you really are identical aren't you? Sorry about that whole thing at the club, by the way. Extenuating circumstances…"
"That doesn't matter now," Elena spoke again, but she was starting to like Alaric a little more.
The man was smart and actually seemed genuine.
She wondered how the hell he had ended up working for the likes of Damon…
Pot and kettle, girl.
With a shake of her head, she refocused on the situation, "So we're meeting up with Damon now?"
Alaric nodded, "Yeah, in a park; not too far away. He'll have another car there. You...no wait, I mean you," he lifted his chin toward Kat, "Will leave with him from there to meet up with representative's from our target to distract them. Another associate of ours will be with you. Elena, you and I will then head to the target location."
"And Damon will bring the gear I need with him?" she pressed, and again, Alaric nodded, "All that you asked for. As well as the dress for Katherine."
Elena hadn't particularly cared about that little detail, but she knew that Kat was excited for it.
The dinner place was some fancy, high society run restaurant; something neither of them could afford in a lifetime, and Damon had insisted that she appear the part.
He had said, as they'd planned, that he would have an appropriate gown purchased and brought along for Katherine to change into.
"You will be able to stop and ready yourself," Alaric continued, "But mostly your requirements for the night are quite simple. You are there to look pretty and be enamored with a rich bachelor. If you have to talk, make it just enough to keep the conversation interesting, but not enough to reveal you actually have brains behind those curls, okay?"
Kat nodded, "I'm the arm candy. I know the drill."
"Good. Now Elena, you and I-"
"You don't have to go over the plan with me again," she assured him, "I've memorized the layout, I know what areas to avoid and how to temporarily deactivate their alarms without notifying the system. If they back check their footage, all they'll see is a lot of nothing. I'll be in and out quicker than you can say 'Robin Hood'."
Kat frowned at her, "Robin Hood?"
"Never mind," Elena leaned forward in the seat, "Point is, we've got this."
Alaric's gaze met hers in the mirror and he gave a final nod, "Okay. Then let's see it done."
The sun had almost completely disappeared beyond the horizon by the time they reached the park.
Damon was already there, standing near a beautiful blue car that appeared old enough to be an antique.
There was another man with him, a bag strapped to his back, and Elena recognized him as the blond she had seen at the estate the first time she had scouted the property.
According to the plans, he was Damon's cousin, Stefan.
He was a bit younger than Damon; handsome, but the two didn't look very much alike.
When they noticed Alaric's car, whatever conversation they had been having dropped off, and they straightened in anticipation.
Elena focused her eyes on Damon, as half of her brain ran up a little test for him.
She and Katherine were dressed very similarly, in the usual form fitting, flexible clothes that unified "Katalena" unless a change was otherwise demanded.
Both of their hair was loosely curled, though Elena had a tie to pull hers up with later, and Katherine had yet to put on any makeup.
Conversation at the club was one thing, but would Damon be able to tell them apart, now?
Curious, she waited until the car was parked and climbed out, standing next to her twin as Damon and his cousin walked over.
"Damn," she heard Stefan mutter, as he saw them together for the first time.
The reaction was amusing, since so few actually knew she was one of two, but Elena was more interested to see how Damon responded.
Not for any particular reason…
He stopped in front of them, sexier than ever in an actual suit, and she forced herself not to shy away under his gaze as it swept over her, then Katherine.
"No problems, then?" he asked, and the question was clearly directed to Alaric, though his focus continued to dart between the two sisters.
"None so far. We'll need the gear, but outside of that, everyone's ready. I can message you once we are on site."
Damon nodded once, then stepped closer to Katherine.
After a second's pause, he reached for her hand and brought it to his lips in a swift motion, "Pleasure to see you again."
To Katherine's credit, she did nothing but lift a brow, but Damon missed it as he let go and moved his attention to Elena, stepping too close and smiled slowly enough to stop her heart.
Those blue eyes burned as they met hers, "Hello, cara mia."
His palm wrapped around her fingers, then his mouth was on the skin of her knuckles, taking his time as if they had nowhere else in the world to be.
It was a lucky guess...it had to be….
Damon did not let go of her hand as he straightened and said, "I have brought the supplies you will need. Alaric will cover your back and the rest of us will be sure you have no unsuspecting company. But do be of caution…"
Elena wasn't sure if she should be concerned or flattered when his expression flashed dangerously, "I would hate to have to kill them all for harming you."
"Nothing will go wrong," she assured him and he nodded, though his jaw remained taut.
Then he was motioning to Stefan, who reached into the bag he was wearing to retrieve something black, with straps.
Damon took it and turned back to her, "Spread your legs."
"Excuse me?" she demanded, but he was already moving, bending to slide whatever it was around her waist and through her thighs.
Instinctually, she did as he asked, moving her leg to allow him more access.
He made quick work of the straps, tightening them so that everything was held in place, and tugged it once for good measure.
She noticed that Stefan had given her sister a similar contraption to put on later, though his hand did not linger on Katherine's palm, as Damon's did on her thigh.
Long fingers ran up the path of her femoral artery to her hip as he stood, and Elena shivered at the contact.
"This is just a precaution," he murmured, close enough now that she could smell his aftershave.
A weight was added to her leg, and she glanced down to his hands, which were locking a small handgun into the holster he had just put on her.
Elena swallowed and her eyes darted back to his.
"Do you know how to use one of these?" he asked, and she nodded.
Not that she carried publically, but given the dangers of their job, she and Katherine kept a gun put up at home for safety.
Occasionally they would go to a range and practice but they had never had a reason to point it at a human being.
"Good," with the gun secured, Damon's touch moved to her waist, his body towering hers, "If you are found before Alaric can get to you, aim and pull the trigger. They die; not you. Do you understand?"
Aim. Pull. Shoot someone who is only doing what they have been hired to do, just like me.
"I.." she inhaled shakily, "I'm not sure I-"
"Hey," Damon gripped her face, forcing her gaze to his, "Listen to me. These men are not black market art dealers, or procurers of fine artifacts, as Julian had you chasing down. You may think you know what to expect, but they will not hesitate to kill you if you give them the chance. If it comes to it, you shoot first."
He did not move until she nodded, giving him the affirmation he seemed to need, "Okay."
A small exhale, then he brushed his lips unexpectedly against her forehead, before turning to Alaric, "You message me the moment you arrive and not a second after. Once she is inside-"
"I'll watch her back," Alaric swore, completely serious, "We'll be in and out before the main course is served at your dinner. I'll text you once we leave."
Damon didn't relax any, but he accepted his employee's promise with a squeeze to the man's shoulder, "I will occupy them until you do."
Katherine was too stunned by the events going on around her to offer up much protest as far as the plans, but it would seem that everything Elena had explained was true and well thought out.
However, it was also becoming apparent that her dear sister had not been entirely forthcoming with all of the details.
Like what the hell was going on between her and Damon Salvatore?!
The man was damn fine, and that classic suit he was wearing hugged that hard body in all the right ways, but the smoke coming off Elena was something much more than a healthy appreciation of his physique.
And the way Damon's eyes had glossed right over her to settle on Elena...the way he'd looked at her, touched her, had crossed every single line of personal boundaries…
Maybe it was just the Italian thing, but most likely, her twin had left a few things out of the story.
Unfortunately, at the moment, they didn't have time for answers.
With a few more directions and orders, Damon set them all to purpose, commanding a departure and she barely had a moment to pull Elena into her arms for a tight hug.
She was hugged back just as forcefully, "I'll see you in a little bit."
"Absolutely," she promised, then pulled away and met Elena's eyes.
Next to Nadia, her sister was the single most important person in her whole world, and she knew that she could not live without her, "Be safe."
A rushed goodbye, then she was being led into the back of a Chevy Camaro, and Elena had climbed into the passenger's seat of that Alaric guy's car.
She prayed the man was a good shot, if the need were to arise, but mostly hoped that the job would pass smoothly.
"Here," Stefan, the cute blond that was related to Damon, handed her a long bag, "The gown is in there. We'll stop in a bit to let you change. There's some jewelry as well."
"Thanks," she told him, taking what he offered and settled back into the seat.
The vantage point put Damon in her direct eyeline, and she sized the man up, wondering again, what exactly had happened between him and Elena.
"You'll be perfectly safe tonight," Stefan continued, apparently interpreting her silence as worry, "The gun we'll give you is for an apocalyptic sized worst case scenario. The dress will be loose enough to hide it."
She nodded at him, but kept her stare leveled on the older Salvatore.
"My sister thinks we can trust you," she spoke without thinking, and the man didn't so much as turn when he said, "She can."
"You both can," Stefan amended, giving Damon a hard look that he either didn't see or chose to ignore, "We aren't going to let anything happen to either of you."
Katherine crossed her arms, her gaze unwavering, "I want to hear that from him."
Damon's eyes found hers in the rearview mirror, and he spoke something in Italian that she didn't understand.
"What?"
Stefan sighed, "He said that if anyone hurts your sister, he would...deal with them."
Damon laughed darkly at the comment then, finally, addressed her personally, in English, "My cousin is too polite. I said that if anyone so much as touches your sister, I will remove the offending fingers one at a time, before cutting off their hand, then their arm. And then I will repeat the process on the rest of their limbs, until they are begging me to kill them."
Katherine waited for the punchline.
When nothing else was added, her stomach flipped.
He was being serious.
"You...you would really kill for Elena?"
"I have done more for less," he said, shifting gears as they rode onto the interstate that would take them back to Cailum, "And would do the same for you."
Another surprise, "Why?"
He merged a lane, then flicked his gaze back to her, "Elena would be upset if something happened to you...I do not like the thought of her upset."
Katherine wasn't the only one staring at him with that declaration; Stefan's head had swung his direction as well at the statement, and the guy's eyes were wide.
"Why would you-" he began asking, but Damon reached down for the radio and turned the music up, drowning out any further questions, while raising a lot more.
"Twelve years?" Elena gasped, "There's no way! What, did you start as a teenager?"
Her companion laughed from the driver's seat, "No. I'm thirty-five. I started working for Damon's father when I was in my early twenties."
"Thirty-five? I don't believe you."
Alaric grinned at her, "I work hard to stay in shape."
Elena shook her head, "I imagine you'd have to, to keep up with this kind of job for twelve fricken years. I just don't get it…"
"Get what?" he asked, as they drove down the highway lanes, passing the occasional car.
"Why you would stay at a job like this," she explained, "I mean, you said you're married, right? Why not move off, get a security job somewhere else, where it's safer? Why stick with an illegal business and take the risks that come with it?"
"Better pay, for one," he said, almost jokingly, then sobered, "And second...I couldn't leave now any more than I expect you could walk away from your twin. I share no blood with the Salvatore's, but I am bound to them, nonetheless. Giuseppe pulled me off the streets as a punk kid and put me to good use in his stateside business. I owe him everything."
"Okay," she allowed, "I get that. But he's gone now, right? Doesn't that sort of nullify whatever debt you felt you owed him?"
Alaric's head crooked, as he considered her question, "It is not necessarily about the debt. More to do with loyalty, I think. I was loyal to Giuseppe, and in wake of his parting, I can not just abandon his legacy."
"You don't think Damon could manage that on his own?" she asked.
Alaric shook his head, "You misunderstand. Damon is Giuseppe's legacy. The boy inherited more than money from his father, and it's a lot to live up to. I...I worry about him. So much that I can not, in good conscience, leave him to bear it alone."
Elena was taken aback by the vulnerable honesty of his statement, and decided that she did in fact, like Alaric Saltzman.
Despite his profession, the man had a good heart, and his affection for Damon was obvious in the way he spoke.
"He does have a way about him," she admitted, staring ahead now as she thought about her past encounters with the Salvatore legacy.
Alaric was silent for a moment as well, then after a minute, said, "He's taken a shine to you, though."
Her eyes flared as a blush ran up her cheeks and Alaric chuckled, "Deny it if you want, but I saw you slap the shit out of him yesterday. You think he'd let just anybody get away with that?"
"I...I don't know him well enough to know what he may or may not do."
"Well, I do," Alaric pressed, "And Damon has always been apathetic on his best day, and wrathful at his worst. Sometimes I can't help but think that anger is the only thing he truly can feel."
Elena thought of him pulling out that gun when they had been interrupted against her car, "He acts on it fairly easily."
"Violence is in his blood," Alaric said, maybe defending his boss, maybe just offering an explanation, but Elena found herself glued to his words, "He lost his mother too young, and Giuseppe was consumed by revenge; a lesson I fear he's passed to his son. Take what you want, give what you can, and apologize for nothing. Words he lived by."
How sad, she thought, and it wasn't until Alaric said "Yeah, it is," that she realized she had spoken out loud.
"But believing that way...it bred something dark in Damon...and he-" Alaric paused, swallowing hard.
"Look," he added, "I'm not telling you this for the sake of gossip. In fact, Damon would probably shoot me himself if he knew I was talking about him this way...but I have eyes. I see the way he is with you. And maybe it's just lust and boredom, but Damon doesn't show interest like this too often, and you seem like a nice girl. So just..be careful, alright? Broken people tend to cut others. Even if they don't mean to."
Broken. Elena frowned.
The word didn't sound like one that would usually apply to a man of Damon's nature, but she
remembered the cut on his forehead, and wasn't so sure.
The latest attempt at quieting the nonsense within my head, he had said, and the memory turned her as cold as the words had when they had first been spoken.
Even worse, Damon had also once told her that he had already made his peace with death.
And when she had presented him with the possibility of dying, had his very words not been "You think that matters to me?"
"Broken" suddenly didn't seem like such a stretch, when she recalled the hollowness of those empty eyes.
In fact, the only time they hadn't seemed next to soulless was that night by her car.
When things had changed so catastrophically.
Cara mia, what are you doing to me?
She wished she had an answer to his question, because as twisted as the situation was becoming, Damon Salvatore was doing something to her.
But it didn't really matter did it?
After this job, they were going their separate ways and that would be the end of whatever this was between them.
She and Katherine would move on with Nadia, taking the little girl somewhere far away from their past to receive good medical treatment; to have the life she deserved.
And Damon…
Well, he was a ticking bomb.
No doubt, if he kept going as he was, winding up tighter and tighter, it would only be a matter of time before he imploded and everything around him was obliterated.
And she couldn't afford to be part of that collateral damage.
"You can put on the radio, if you like," Alaric offered, breaking the silence and her tailspin of thoughts, "We won't be there for another twenty minutes or so."
Elena forced a smile and hit some of the buttons in front of her until music came out of the speakers.
She couldn't have said what the song was, what genre the station fell under, or even whether the vocalist was male or female.
Her mind was miles away, back to that night at SINC, back in Damon's arms, dancing and talking and feeling something for the first time in way too long.
Broken. People.
That night at her car. Hungry hands and desperate lips sharing the best damn kiss her tongue had ever tasted.
Cut. Others.
This job would be completed in a few short hours, then it's all over. She would never see Damon Salvatore again.
And maybe there was a certain security in knowing that.
The inevitability of goodbye meant she could forget certain things...like the fact that Damon was a bad person, and that he hurt people, that he had serious problems, and that she shouldn't want him.
But she did. She wanted him, no matter how wrong.
And after tonight...she would never see him again.
Tonight, they would say that final goodbye, and it would be all they would ever have.
Her mind told her that it was for the best, but Elena's chest ached a little at the looming departure.
And she couldn't help but think that if this was to be the end, then maybe it would be worth it, just this once, to make sure it was a night she would never forget.
Bowchickawowow.
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