Chapter 96
“Mathieu doesn’t know anything. The file I gave him is so trivial he couldn’t have understood.”
“We both know that as soon as they realize he knows nothing, they’ll shoot him! They killed his cat just because it was there–sol can’t even imagine what they’ll do to Mathieu!”
Alexander doesn’t answer. This is all his fault.
“Who knows that Mathieu was working on this file?”
He hesitates.
“No one.”
“I’m talking about Mathieu’s life and you’re still playing the mysterious guy–this is a joke?! All I want is to save Mathieu, do you get that?”
“If I’m telling you I didn’t talk to anyone, then I didn’t. Stop acting like a hysteric, pull yourself together!”
He sees that I’m trembling. My head is overheating. Not only do I feel like vomiting, but my head is spinning.
I’ve never felt this weak before. My body is about to give out. I put my hand to my forehead and try to breathe normally.
“What’s happening to you?”
Alexander comes closer to catch me in case I fall. I quickly step back.
“I don’t want you to touch me. Everything that’s happening is only because of you.”
I steady my breathing and manage to regain some composure in front of him. I’ve already wasted enough time with this guy. It’s better that I stop wasting energy and time so I can focus on Mathieu.
“You don’t want to help me find Mathieu? Fine! I’ll manage on my own.”
“Shut up.”
I barely finish my sentence when he puts his hand over my mouth to stop me from speaking. He signals me to listen. I perk up my ears and hear someone trying to force the lock.
Alexander grabs me by the wrist and we quickly head to Mathieu’s bedroom. He opens his wardrobe, puts me inside, slips in beside me, then gently closes it.
“Don’t say another word.”
We hear footsteps enter the room, and people start rummaging through it.
A deep voice says:
“I don’t know why we came back. We already turned this fucking place upside down earlier for nothing. I don’t see why we’d find anything now.”
“You know how he is. He wants to make sure there’s nothing left, so he insisted we come back,” replies a less deep and slightly higher–pitched voice.
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Chapter 96
There are two of them–that’s good for us, they don’t outnumber us.
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“Alexander would never have entrusted that to that coward. He started bawling in two seconds like we ripped his mother away from him.”
I glance at Alexander, who is impassive and listening to the conversation. He’s hoping the two guys won’t say too much. He absolutely wants to keep me in the dark.
“No, but seriously! How can the boss think Alexander would hide that here? He would’ve entrusted it to someone trustworthy, not that little shit who pisses himself in thirty seconds.”
“Exactly, because no one would think to search here.”
“That’s not dumb, but still, there’s nothing here! He’s not going to like that we’re coming back empty–handed.”
A cramp grabs my leg. I shift it slightly and the closet creaks. Alexander glares at me while I shrug, letting him know I don’t give a damn if we get caught.
“Did you hear that noise?”
“It came from the wardrobe.”
I hear them getting closer to the wardrobe. Alexander cracks his fingers while I fix my eyes on the door. A man opens it and as soon as our eyes meet, he freezes.
I land a violent punch right in the middle of his face. I jump out of the wardrobe. I follow up with a kick to the legs. He doubles over in pain, screaming. I grab his weapon and slam it against his head.
He’s dazed for a few seconds. I take advantage of it to hit him again until he’s completely immobilized on the ground.
“Stay still if you don’t want another one.”
I turn around and see that the second man has a bullet between the eyes. Alexander was so fast I didn’t see or hear a thing.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“If you cooperate, nothing painful.”
“I know he’s going to kill me,” he says, looking at Alexander.
“I don’t give a shit about what you came here to get.”
He widens his eyes in surprise.
“Where is Mathieu?”
“You’re friends with the IT guy? At this hour, it’s probably already too late.”
I kick him hard in the face and he starts bleeding from the nose.
“I’m not the patient type–especially after the day I’ve had. Tell me where Mathieu is or I swear I’ll cut off your buddy’s balls and force you to swallow them.”
He looks at me, disgusted. He’s right, because I wouldn’t hesitate for even a second. I don’t have time to waste on that kind of
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Chapter 96
morality.
“You have three seconds.”
He tries to see if I’m bluffing. I hold his gaze without blinking until he finally lowers his eyes.
“He was buried alive.”
Fuck.
“Since when?”
“I don’t know, a few minutes.”
He must still have oxygen, but I have to hurry. If his brain goes too long without air, he could die–or if he survives, it could be with irreversible damage.
“Where is he?”
He doesn’t answer.
I bite my lip and give him another kick to the nose.
I hear a crack. He screams in pain, trying to stop the bleeding.
“Alexander, find me a knife so I can cut off his buddy’s balls and feed them to him, the son of a bitch!”
“Paper,” the guy on the ground whimpers.
Alexander heads to Mathieu’s desk to grab a piece of paper and a pen, which he hands to the man. He starts writing. I snatch the
sheet from him.
I head for the exit quickly.
“You’d better hope the address is correct and that this isn’t a desperate attempt to buy time.”
“You should take a shovel dig. Go without me, I’ll handle him,” Alexander calls to me.
I understand he wants to get rid of this man who surely knows too much about his schemes.
This might be my one and only chance to find out what Alexander is hiding. A few minutes of torture and I’d have all my answers.
But at what cost?
Math
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