Sorry for the extended absence. As always your reviews make my day so please do drop me a line and let me know what you 're finally getting into the central conflict of the story and I am can't wait for you all to read the next few chapters. Enjoy
It had been three days.
Three days of endless searching.
Three nights of pretending not to hear Siena sobbing into her pillow.
Three days of Dmitri lashing out in anger as he was forced to sit idly in the apartment while the rest of the crew scoured the city.
Three days of anxious calls from Aunt Elena begging for updates on the search.
It had been three days since James was forced to call his mother and explain that Mac had been captured.
By the third day their last hopes of finding Mac were burning away with each passing minute. Kat had the entire family reaching out to their criminal contacts in hopes that someone, anyone knew where Teller's men had taken the young thief. Cake monitored every police system across the globe in hopes that they would turn him over to the authorities. The crew could break him out of jail no problem, but they could not bring a dead man back to life.
Everyone knew it, but no one dare speak the words aloud: Mac Bagshaw was most likely dead.
It was on the third night of the search that Dmitri had to send Natalie away. "Its no use staying Nat. You've searched the entire city. He's not here. And if you miss this business dinner the press will be looking for you and that's something we can't afford right now."
"I know, I know but I can't just leave. The crew needs my help. I won't abandon the effort just because it gets in the way of some dinner."
Dmitri stopped her pacing and put his hands on her shoulders, "Nat, look at me. It won't do any good. We could tear this city apart and it wouldn't matter. He's not here."
"Then what do we do? We can't just let him go, Dmitri. Not like this," Natalie failed to restrain the tears.
He pulled her into a hug, "We'll get that stupid ginger back. I swear we will."
"But I can't leave Siena. She's taking this hard. I need to be here for her."
"Natalie, Siena hasn't talked to anyone since it happened. I doubt she would notice if you were here or not."
"But when she snaps out of it she's going to need someone." Natalie took his hands in hers. "Promise me you'll be there for her when she does. And not just with jokes and charm, but really there for her."
He was taken aback by her request. "Nat, I'm her twin. I'll always be there for her."
"Swear it?"
He set his forehead against hers and flashed her an attempt at his signature grin, "Hey, when have I ever let you down?" He was trying to be playful.
Natalie did her best to play along, "That's debatable."
Dmitri popped Natalie's hood over her head and spun her toward the door, "Good, now get out of here, heiress."
"Jeez, will you at least let me get my stuff and say goodbye?"
Dmitri tapped his invisible watch. "Hurry up with it, girl. You flight leaves in three hours."
"You're going then?" James appeared in the doorway as Dmitri hobbled past him on his bad leg.
"Not if you want me to stay," Natalie said.
"No. You need to get back to London," he seemed to wince at the hardness in his own tone. "Its not that I don't want you here, its just-"
"I know." Natalie cut him off. "I'll be back to join the search the day after tomorrow. Is Siena back yet? I want to say goodbye before I go," she turned her back to him and began to gather her things.
"She won't be back for hours yet. I'll tell her you've gone when she shows up."
"Make sure she eats, alright. And if she won't sleep then strap her to the bed."
"Siena can take care of herself, Nat."
"Not now she can't," Natalie insisted as she pushed the rebellious strands of hair from her face
"What happened down there? In the subway."
Natalie froze, "What do you mean?"
James picked up a smoke grenade that had rolled free of Natalie's duffle bag and began to pass it back and forth between his hands. "She's been taking this hard. Did she do something that she might feel guilty about?"
"Of course she didn't," Natalie snatched the grenade from his grasp.
"Nat, I'm just trying to understand," he pleaded with her.
"I know you are, Jay, but I don't think anyone can understand what's going on in Siena's head right now."
"You seem to."
She pushed past him to Siena's side of the room and carefully lay out a jacket on the other girl's bed. It was the embroidered one she had worn on the heist. Natalie thought that lending it to Siena might cheer her up, but then again it might only serve as a reminder.
"Just be sure that when you do find him you approach the situation carefully, alright? The last thing we need is another missing person," Natalie said as she second-guessed herself and snatched the jacket up again, tossing it on top of her bag.
"Of course," he agreed. "I should get back to the search." She didn't watch him shift toward the door, "Nat?"
His tone gave her pause, and she turned to face him. "Yeah?"
James seemed to rethink his words; "I'll see you in a few days." She wasn't sure if he was reassuring her, or himself. Without another word James retreated out the door, leaving Natalie to pack what little things she had brought with her.
It had been three days of torment.
"Are you alright?"
Natalie reminded herself for the tenth time that evening that Eric was just trying to be nice. But at that moment in time, Natalie hated nice.
Plastering a false smile onto her lips Natalie nodded, "Of course, why do you ask, Eric?"
"I don't know. Maybe because you look miserable."
"Do I?"
"Come on, N, just tell me what's up." N? When the hell did he start calling her N? "And please don't insult me by saying its nothing."
She would have to give in a little bit if she had any hope of escaping his questions. "Alright, fine. A friend of mine is in trouble and there is nothing I can do to get them out of it. Can we drop it now?"
Eric's brow curved into a look of careful concern, "Is it Susan? I know she's been hanging around with some of those boys from Wellington Academy and they've always been a bit rough-"
"Susan? Who gives a damn about Susan? Her father can buy her out of any trouble."
Eric laughed even though he knew he shouldn't. "That's very true but it's not like you to say so. If not Susan then who?"
"Look, Eric, I know you're trying to be supportive, and it means the world to me, really it does, its just that telling you will only make the situation worse. You understand don't you?"
"I get it. I really do, N," There was that damned nickname again. "I just want to talk to you. About anything. About everything."
Natalie smiled in spite of herself. How often do boys tell you they just want to talk and really mean it? It wasn't fair that she was subjecting Eric to her bad mood. "Okay. Let's talk."
She turned her body to face him head-on and they both went silent. Nat could tell Eric was racking his brain for something, anything, to say. "Art! You like art, don't you?"
Natalie nodded; trying not to look too amused by the lengths Eric would go to start a conversation. She knew for a fact that the entire Holden family thought art was a waste of money. "You want to talk about art?" She worked hard to keep herself from raising a skeptical brow.
"Sure, why not?" His voice oozed with false enthusiasm, "So what sort of art are you interested in?"
The art of the well-planned heist. "Renaissance, mostly."
"That's Degas's time period, right?"
This was going to be painful. "I believe you're thinking of Da Vinci," she corrected him.
"Right. So is that where you go when you travel? To visit museums?"
"Yes." Natalie didn't feel it was the right time to mention that she didn't go during normal visiting hours. She didn't read many of those teenage dating magazines but Natalie was pretty sure bringing up your extensive list of criminal activity wasn't one of their top flirting tips. Not that she was in the mood to bat her eyelashes and play dumb at the moment. More then anything, Natalie just wanted to be back in New York, searching for Mac. She debated cutting off Eric's attempts at conversation and stepping outside to call Siena, but she had called not twenty minutes ago and disturbing the search efforts would do nothing to help the cause.
Her appearance at this dinner was necessary for maintaining West Inc.'s good relations with its competitors. Natalie knew she should be conversing with all the big shots in the room, of which there was no shortage, but she couldn't bring herself to think of business at the moment.
Mr. Hale was noticeably absent. He had given some excuse about one of his yachts running aground in the Caribbean, but only Natalie he was currently making his rounds in the darkest corners of New York, paying off mobs bosses for any available information.
From the sideways glances and subtle smiles, Natalie could tell the crowd was enjoying her conversation with Eric far more then she was. The favourite activity of rich trophy wives was predicting whose children would end up together. While their drunken husbands made irresponsible business deals, their wives fed like vultures on the teenage romance and heartbreak of their children. The way Eric was smiling at Natalie now would no doubt be feasted on for weeks to come in their book clubs and committee meetings. Every action, every flirtatious laugh would be devoured and regurgitated only to be picked apart once again.
As the vultures circled, Natalie just starred at Eric's lips as they opened and closed, not caring much for the sound they made. She watched them form vowels and curl into a smile at the end of every sentence before embarking on another. The affect was hypnotizing. For a moment she searched for the endearing scar that marked the right side of his upper lip, the one he had gotten after jumping into that bar fight in Moscow Dmitri had stirred up. Natalie felt an undeniable drop in her stomach when she found no such scar and remembered that these lips belong to Eric, not James.
Natalie shifted her gaze to Eric's eyes and realized he had stopped talking and was now grinning like an idiot. "Something, interesting about my lips, Miss West?"
She really wanted to punch him now. How could he be flirting with her when she was in such a bad mood? Did he really have no idea how irritated she was at the moment?
Rolling her eyes, Natalie's vision caught on something bright orange crossing the floor.
"Mac? Mac!" She shoved past Eric with a shout and yanked the Mac Bagshaw into a hug. "You're here!"
The found boy tried to smile but the pain in his eyes was evident.
"I-I don't understand how are you here right now? Are you hurt? What happened?" Natalie demanded.
"I'm fine, Natalie," he assured her.
She released him and reached up to touch his black eye but retracted her hand when she remembered it was Mac she was interacting with, "Your eye."
"My eye is the least of our problems."
Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the room, "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Not here," Mac warned. All eyes were on the two of them. Every syllable they spoke echoed through the space.
"Who's this, Natalie? Hi I'm Eric Holden." Eric moved to shake Mac's hand but Natalie cut him off by pulling Mac into another frantic hug. Eric just stood like an idiot with his hand still extended outwards. Seriously how could something so handsome be so irritating?
"I'm so happy your okay. We've got to call the others. No one's slept in days. We've been looking everywhere-"
"Ah good, Natalie, I see you've found Mr. Bagshaw. I'm sure you must have been very worried." Natalie froze at the sight of Mr. Teller watching their interactions from only a few feet away. She tugged Mac away from the man in horror.
"Natalie? What is it?" Eric asked but she only spoke to Mac.
"What's he done to you?" Natalie demanded of Mac.
"Can we go now?" Mac snapped over her shoulder at the round middle-aged man.
Mr. Teller nodded jovially, "Oh, of course. I'll let you two get back to your friends. Not to worry Miss West, we'll see each other again soon."
Mac took hold of her hand and began to pull Natalie towards the doors.
"N, what's going on?" Eric moved to follow them.
White clapped a hand onto Eric's shoulder, halting him in place, "I think it's best if we let them go now, my boy. Miss West and her friend have a lot to discuss."
Natalie allowed herself to be pulled off by Mac but she couldn't look away from Teller's beat red face grinning after her like the Cheshire Cat. The young heiress suddenly found herself in a terrifying wonderland, but she couldn't recall ever making the choice to enter the rabbit hole.
Thank you so much for reading and don't forget to review. I've been wading my way through a difficult time these past few weeks but it means the world to know that there are people out there who enjoy what I create and are willing spend time reading my work. You'll hear from me again soon and in the mean time I wish you all the best of luck, - George&Eckels