Chapter 7
Mike's POV
It was an amazing thing to watch as everyone in the office jumped at the command, even for as simple as it was. Demetri went over to his desk and sat down while Felix, Alec and Afton all starting pounding computer keys to do as instructed.
I turned my head and looked back out into the main room and saw Caius and Santiago standing guard at the doors to the suite, hands clasped in front of them and backs ramrod straight. They looked straight ahead, clearly showing the military training they were known to have.
It wasn't often that anyone actually saw the inner workings of the Volturi. Demetri played things very close to the chest, not wanting to make the same mistake his father made. He brought the operation into the 21st century so to speak, using technology to his advantage instead of shying away from it like Aro had.
"Newton."
I was startled out of my thoughts by my name, snapping my attention back to the most dangerous man in the room. Blinking at him, I nodded. "Yeah?"
He was leaned back in his seat, feet kicked up on the desk, staring at a pen he was playing with. I watched it as he slowly spun it around from point to tip a couple of times before he I heard him click his tongue, looking back at him as he looked at me. His eyes were hard but not murderous. At least, they didn't hold my murder in them anymore. He slowly dipped his head and then tilted it to the side and clicked his tongue again, his voice deceptively calm. "I am going to ask you this one time and one time only. This is the only chance you have to tell me what I will find out anyways." He paused and licked his lips but didn't move his head, only his eyes and locked them on mine. "What are you hiding?"
With that question, it went so quiet in the room you could hear a pin drop. All three of the people on computers stopped typing and I could feel their eyes on my back. After the tremor rocked my spine, I pressed my lips together and gulped, but knew it was now or never. So, letting out a breath, I took a seat across from Demetri and told him what he wanted to hear.
He never said a word as I told him about my past relationship and the bad ending of said relationship with the tiny pain in the ass, Alice Cullen. Normally, I would consider silence golden, but when you are staring fate in the face, it's anything but. I was outnumbered and outgunned. One word out of Demetri's mouth and I was dead before I knew what happened.
To my great shock, he didn't say anything for an agonizingly long moment before he looked over at Felix. "How are you doing with the background noise?"
I glanced back and watched as Felix shrugged one shoulder and tilted his head. "Not sure what it is, but I found this."
He pressed a couple of keys and then hit the spacebar, both Demetri and I straining to hear what he did. The second we did it was like a lightbulb went off. It was so obvious and something right out of a movie.
Demetri and I looked at each other, our eyes locking and we spoke at the same time. "The Pier."
*X*
"Everyone clear on the plan?"
I looked up from the task I was given of loading clips when I heard the question, my eyes roaming around the room at the massive arsenal of weapons that pretty much came out of nowhere. However, when my eyes found Demetri, he was looking right at me. So, I nodded. It was easy enough. The two of us would go in and do whatever was necessary to get Alexis out while the others waited outside and made sure that no one else left alive. Can't really fuck that up.
Once I finished the last clip, I tossed it with the others and stood, turning to Demetri and motioned to him I wanted a moment of his time. He jerked his head to the side and I followed him out into the hall, him shutting the door behind us and crossing his arms.
"What?"
I glanced back at the doors and lowered my voice a little. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, we were told to come alone and neither us know what exactly what we're walking into. We only know the area she's at, not exactly where she is or who we're going to run into. The pier is huge and they are already there. They're going to know."
His reaction to that was not what I expected. He dropped his head back on his shoulders and groaned. "Oh, fuck. You are new at this." With a sigh, he picked his head back up and looked at me. "I am perfectly aware of all of that. Now, let me ask you this. What do you think is about to happen? That we're just going to walk in there and that's that? That the game is over and Alexis is going to be handed over just like that? If so... you're probably going to die today. I know we're walking into a trap. The thing to do would be to set a bigger and better one than they have."
I pressed my lips together and crossed my arms, nodding slightly. "I get that, but what happens before we find her and they see your goons?"
He snorted. "Not a damn thing." My head shot up and I looked at the smirk on his face and amusement in his eyes. "You don't get it, do you? This was never about her. This is about us. You pissed the Cullens off and they just don't like me. I cause them a lot of grief and I do it on purpose. There are so many fucked up things I have done to them and this is their chance to get back at me for it. I'm not surprised it happened. It was only a matter of time before something like this did. If you haven't figured this out yet, they wanted us to kill each other to save them the trouble of doing it."
I blinked at him. "How do you know that?"
He rolled his eyes. "How do you not? Like seriously? What happened between us three years ago is not exactly a secret nor is the threat to finish what we started if we ever crossed paths. I promise you, they were banking on one or both of us to have died in that warehouse this morning and they know things didn't go down like that. So, the same person that called me about Alexis being taken in the first place called and told me you were hiding something, probably hoping that I would kill you when I found out about your little bump-a-long with the mutant midget. Under normal circumstances, they would have been right. Under these ones, I need you alive."
I looked at him a moment and sighed. "So, what are we going to do when we get there? I know you have something up your sleeve for this or you wouldn't be so calm."
He shrugged and grabbed the door handle. "Same as before. Don't get shot."
And same as before... that was a good plan.