Chapter 18

Mia’s POV

As we were all having a great, nice, silent dinner, my phone rings. I flip the phone on the counter to see who’s calling. Andrea Diaz. For fuck sake, I thought I told this girl to stop contacting me.

I picked up and I was ready to give her a mouthful of not so nice words, but before I could say anything she spoke. “Mia, I fucked up.” Her tone was urgent, scared, terrified even which stripped any trace of my annoyance away. Something about her voice tells me she’s in trouble. “They set me up, and I don’t know what to do. I didn’t know who else to call, they’re gonna kill me, Mia.”

“Slow down, walk me through what happened. Who’s they?” I furrow my brows, trying to figure out who exactly I’m dealing with here. “Carter and his men, they’re in front of my house right now.”

Jon Carter, one of the men I hate most in this business. He’s the greediest piece of shit you’ll ever meet. He doesn’t have much money. He used to have a lot but then his father passed away, which made him in charge of everything. He made a lot of bad decisions which made him lose so much money, but that’s what makes him so greedy now. He wants, no, needs more money. Which is why he’s always looked for ways to make more.

“How did you even get involved with Carter?” I ask with irritation. Everyone knows Carter is bad news, no one wants to do business with him because they know he’ll fuck it up. “I was desperate, you know how things are with my mom.” I let out a breath and closed my eyes. Her mom was in the hospital since she had a massive tumor in her brain. Surgery costs a lot, and without it her mother only has 4 months to live. She could’ve just asked me, but I guess with me telling her to not contact me she thought that was no longer an option.

“Okay okay, just send me your location and I’ll come get you.” I run a hand through my hair and hang up. Seriously, this girl gives me nothing but problems. I hate dealing with that smug son of a bitch.

“Everything okay?” Anton asks with a concerned look on his face. “No. Get the crew together, we’re going to Carter’s.” I head to the living room and grab the gun sitting on the table. I put it in the waistband at the back of my pants. He may be a fuck up, but his people are dangerous. I can’t go there alone, or with only Anton with me because trust me, neither of us would make it out alive.

I make my way back to the kitchen and Anton is already on the phone, likely contacting his assets. Before he came to work for me, he was a contract killer, a career he started when he was barely old enough to drive. That past life left him with a dangerous web of connections, full of people who kill for a living. Those said people are quite useful for a situation like this.

I grab my blazer from one of the chairs and put it on, and I’m met with Kaitlyn. Fuck, what am I gonna do with her? I can’t leave her here alone, she’ll probably snoop around. I can’t believe I’m doing this. “Prescott, you’re coming with us.” She looked at me with a shocked expression.

“Are you serious?” She breathes, taking a step back as if to refuse. I don’t give her the chance. I grip her arm tightly, forcing her forward as Anton leads the way out to the garage. “Dead serious. If I leave you here, you’ll look through my home and have all the evidence you need by the time I reach the highway. You stay where I can see you.”

We waste no time and get into the car. I got into the passenger seat while Kaitlyn sat at the back. Anton drives us to the location Andrea sent me. I really don’t owe this girl anything, but there is a sickening pit in my stomach that I can’t quite shake. Like a gut feeling that there’s more to this whole situation.

“The others will meet us there. I called the usual, Bruce, James, Ezra and Emily.” They were the usual people Anton called, mostly because they knew me for a long time. They knew I was the daughter of Pierre Laurent, and while others find me lucky for that title, I find myself trapped.

I look into the rearview mirror, tracking the tight line of Kaitlyn’s jaw and the slight tremor in her hands. She’s doing everything she can to hide her anxiety, but her eyes betray her. She isn’t just worried, I can tell she’s terrified of whatever we’re driving into.

I know I shouldn’t have brought her here, she knows nothing about what’s about to go down. She may be a cop, she may have thought she knew what this business is about, but it’s so much worse than she thinks.

After a very long drive, we finally arrived. At least we aren’t in Carter’s territory, this is just some random building. An old abandoned building. I see another car parked in front of us, that’s probably Anton’s people. I open the glove box and grab any more equipment I would possibly need. Anton gets out of the car and approaches the others.

“You stay here, don’t even try to escape because we can easily track this car down. Stay here.” I say firmly as I lock eyes with her in the rearview mirror.

“I can help, I’m-” I cut her off before she could finish. “No. Stay here, I’m not taking any risks.” That was the last thing I said before getting out of the car and heading over to the others. I look back to make sure Kaitlyn’s still in there, and she is.

I tell Anton to lock the car before we head into the building. It was dark, the only source of light being the moonlight glaring through the broken windows. We go in quietly, making sure to not make any noise. “Are you sure about this, Laurent?” Ezra says in a whisper.

“No, I’m not sure. That’s why you guys are here.” I whisper back and Anton lets out a huff. We make our way up to the second floor, no sign of life or of light. We make our way up to the third and fourth floor, but there’s still nothing. Finally, we were on the fifth floor and we were met with one of Carter’s men. Emily quickly took care of him, quietly taking him down.

I make my way through the fifth floor some more, looking around to see any signs of a hostage. At the end of the hallway, I see a door that’s open a few inches. A glimmer of light was shining through. This seemed suspicious as fuck, but I head towards it anyway, the others following behind me.

I open the door slowly and I’m met with Andrea. She was in the middle of the room, tied to a chair. “Untie her, now.” I whisper to Anton who wastes no time as he makes his way to Andrea and starts untying her legs.

“Search the perimeter, make sure no one else is here.” I tell the others and they leave. I head into the room and shut the door behind me. It was a poorly lit room, a singular lightbulb in the middle is giving us light.

“Uh, Mia?” Anton says as he slowly gets up from the floor with his hands up. I turn to look at him and am immediately hit with the dumb realization that this is a trap. Andrea was now looking at me with a huge smirk on her face.

I cuss under my breath and reach for my gun, but before I could I’m met with Carter who is now pointing a gun at me. Andrea gets up from where she was seated and points a revolver at Anton. We both had guns pointed at us now.

“Carter, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I put my hands up as well, but that doesn’t make him lower the gun. He let out a hum and gave me a tight smile.

“You know, for someone who’s a Laurent, you are so easy to fool. You’re the biggest idiot I’ve seen for actually falling for this.” He lets out a laugh. He says my last name as if it’s supposed to be something I brag about, but I fucking hate it. I carry this name with shame, not pride. I glanced over at Andrea who avoided my gaze. I don’t care if I die tonight, as long as she goes down with me.

“Alright, let’s skip the small talk. What do you want?” My patience is wearing thin, I just wanna get this over with. “Your deals, specifically the shipments. Redirect them to my name.”

I let out a laugh, a real, genuine laugh. Is this guy serious right now? My hands drop to my sides as I continue to laugh. “Do you have any idea how much I’d be in trouble if I did that?” I take a step forward, and he takes a step back.

“If I redirect the shipments to your name, you’d probably screw them over the same way you’ve been screwing everyone else over since your dad died.” I let out a dry, humorless laugh, stepping an inch closer to the barrel of his gun to show him I’m not in the slightest bit scared. “And if you screw them over, they screw me over for redirecting them to you in the first place. So really, who’s winning in this situation?”

He doesn’t back down, in fact he points the gun higher. “Remember who’s got a gun pointed at you right now, Mia.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Anton shifting his weight, his fingers twitching. He’s waiting for my signal. I keep my eyes on Carter. I grab the barrel of his gun and put it to my forehead. The cold metal is making contact with my skin. “Shoot me then.” He tries moving his hand away but I keep it there, making sure his gun is directly pointed at my head.

“You’re the one with the gun, right? Shoot me, come on.” I encourage him but something in his expression shifts. His face twists into a mixture of confusion and fear. I let out a scoff and a smirk grew on my lips.

“Can’t even fucking do it, after all this time you’re still a coward.” My voice drops to a dangerously low tone. I slowly reach for the gun in my waistband with my other hand as I distract him with my words. “I feel bad for your father, honestly. He left this world thinking his son could handle it, and it turns out he was wrong.” I finally have hold of my gun. “Don’t you ever feel guilty for letting him down?”

He was furious, I could tell. He had tears in his eyes, his jaw was clenched, his grip on the gun was tighter. I can see his index finger hovering over the trigger. Any second now. “Seriously, how do you live with yourself knowing your father-” Before I could finish, his knuckles turned white as he went to pull the trigger. In that exact millisecond, I violently wrench the barrel of his gun to the side while throwing my head in the opposite direction.

My other hand brings the gun out from my waistband and points the gun at him. I didn’t even waste a second, the moment I had a clear shot I took it. He falls to the ground, groaning in pain. To my right, a grunt echoes as Anton lunges across the room, his knife catching Andrea in the abdomen just as she fires a shot that grazes his face. I hear gunshots outside, probably Anton’s people taking care of things. I hope so at least.

“Wait wait wait, we- we can work something out, please!” I take the final shot, right at his head. I don’t have time for his useless begging.

“Mia!” Anton screams to get my attention and before I could turn to his direction, Andrea runs past me and heads for the door. She was holding her stomach. “What’re you doing? Go after her.” Anton stands up, knife in his hand. His nose was bleeding and he was out of breath.

“She won’t make it, trust me.” I hear the gunshots continue outside, a lot of gunshots. No way she’s getting through all that. “We need to get out of here.” I grab his arm and make my way out. I see the others as I head to the stairs, and they follow us out.

We run down the stairs, the gunshots have simmered down. It’s only a matter of time till they catch up to us. I get into the car and so do the others. We all pile into the car, slamming the doors as Anton hits the gas.

“That was a fucking close one.” James says with a laugh, the four of them smushed together at the back. I let out a laugh as well and looked back at them through the rearview mirror. My laugh went away instantly when I realized.

I look back to make sure I’m not mistaken. “Where’s Kaitlyn?” I turn to Anton. He glances at the rearview mirror before tilting his head and turning his attention back on the road. “Stop the car.” I unbuckle my seatbelt, ready to get out. But Anton doesn’t stop, he goes faster.

“Who’s Kaitlyn?” Bruce asks, completely clueless. “I’m not asking, Petrov. Stop the car!’ My voice raises in panic, but that still doesn’t get Anton to stop.

“Mia, you can’t be serious.” Anton’s voice rises in panic, but I cut him off with a single, lethal glare. “You go back there, you’re walking into your own grave.” His knuckles white on the steering wheel. “We barely even made it out alive.” He argues with me, but his words just make me want to go back even more. Kaitlyn may have been a cop, she may have undergone training, but these people are no joke. They won’t just kill her, they’ll torture her for information thinking she was working with me.

“Look whoever she is, there’s no use going back. She’s probably dead by now.” Emily cuts in the conversation. That’s it, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Meet me at the airport, have the jet ready.” I don’t even wait for Anton’s response. I unlocked my car door and jumped out of the car as it was moving. I rolled on the street a couple times before finally stopping myself and getting up. It was late at night, so thankfully there were no cars around.

I waste no time and start running back to the abandoned building. I have no idea what I’m doing, or why I’m doing this. But I know for a fact I’ll blame myself forever if I just left her there. I told her to wait in the car, why does she have to be so stubborn. I shouldn’t have brought her, I knew it was a mistake. I should’ve made sure she couldn’t break out of the car.

I hope she’s still alive by the time I get there. That thought just urges me to go even quicker. I’m coming, Prescott.