Woke Up One Morning... Part 27
"So, where shall we meet up tonight?" Krutza asked, all too anxious for my liking.
Forcing the smile in my voice, I answer, "Actually, I wouldn't mind just hanging out at your place for a change tonight. We could watch a movie, or something over there." The more time I get to spend in the place, the more chances I'll get to check out that safe. To keep him from thinking too much of my idea, I add, "Of course, that's if it's alright with you?"
Seated before his opened laptop, Wufei watches along with me as a wide grin spreads on Jesse's face. The whole thing is chilling to me, knowing full well what he would like to do with that opportunity.
As he turns to pace in a new direction around his living room, Jesse responds, "That works great for me." For a measure of his own, he throws in with a serious tone that seems sincere, "I promise no more unwanted advances like the other night. And I am still very sorry about that."
My cell pressed against my ear, I shrug even if he can't see it. It's my time to sound convincing with a grinned, "Forgiven. One step at a time, right?" He just chuckles deeply in agreement. I do my best to ignore my churning stomach.
"When can I look for you to be here, then?" Krutza asks casually.
Taking a breath, I give the speech that I've practiced with ease, "Well, my co-workers and I are going out to dinner soon here. I can get away in about an hour, so you can look for me around eight o'clock."
His smile now threatening to split his face, my predator replies, "Sounds good. I really look forward to seeing you again, Jeffrey."
I sell my best lie to him yet, "Same here, Jesse."
Not wanting to have any further discussion with him, I close my cell phone to end the call there. That last bit was believable enough than anyone that did not know me would never have seen through it. This 'character' that I'm playing is getting easier to handle.
But, that doesn't mean that I am about to let this game go on longer than tonight.
With a sigh, I turn to the rest of my team that is standing by. That slight turn on my part makes me aware of the wire taped against me, just beneath my shirt. Even if the evening is being set for inside a bugged house, it isn't a bad idea to have the thing on in case there is a change in plans. "Well, that's that," I smirk.
There is an unsettled look on my husband's face as he chews the inside of his lip. He's still not happy about this one bit, that much I know. There is something else in those eyes that has me wondering what has him so on edge. "I have a bad feeling about this," he announces to answer my unspoken question when our eyes meet.
Much to my surprise, even Bryant nods and frowns, "So do I. That changing of the alarm system the night of the first date still has me on edge, even if he hasn't tampered with any of the recording devices." Facing Heero, he suggests, "Maybe we should double-up on coverage outside of the estate tonight."
Being perfectly honest, the change in that alarm setup still has me concerned too. And considering how determined I am to get in that safe tonight, I could go for having an extra watch close by to make sure that nothing goes wrong. We have absolutely no idea what Krutza is capable of if he ever got suspicious that something was wrong with me.
Of course, my partner is quick to nod back to Bryant for his offer as his worried edge fades from his tense shoulders. Flashing them both an appreciative grin, I turn to Trowa and shrug, "Got the rest of the gear together?"
A small smile on his face, he holds up the micro-camera and ear piece. Leave it to Tro to always be prepared.
Quietly sighing, I take up the offerings before stealing myself away for some time to straighten my head for the mission to come. The whole time, my right hand is discretely spinning that dial combination on the safe to the combination I have committed to memory.
* * * * * *
The gates open when I pull up to the house on the hill in the white car I had used for the first date. Best to keep things familiar to Jesse so that there are no alarms raised. Pulling in the driveway and under the bright lights glowing at the front of the estate against the darkness around, I turn the engine off and step from the vehicle.
Just as the last time, I dressed myself in tight blue jeans, black boots and a tight top. I chose a long-sleeved, black shirt this time to go better with my mood. And it is also a sense of comfort- reminding me of my Shinigami persona from the war days. If I had a white collar around my neck, it would make me all the more at ease.
Stepping up the three brick steps before the front door, Krutza opens it when I reach the top to greet me with a wide smile. "Hey, Jeffrey," he says while extending his hand. Replying in kind, I take his hand in a firm shake and follow him inside his home.
On our way into the living room, I notice a partially finished wine bottle to my excitement. Good. If I take my time in emptying that with him, it would be an excuse for him to leave for a while to get a new round.
Holding the bottle and two glasses up, Jesse asks, "Care to indulge in this with me?" I just grin and nod in appreciation. Turning his back to me, he slowly fills the glasses on the table he has made his work station. Looking up to the camera hidden high above the fireplace on the other side of the room, I give it a secretive wink.
Trowa and Wufei's voices chuckle quietly through the ear piece. "Nice, Maxwell," Chang chuckles in a light chide. "You may want to focus on your job and not goofing around." He only laughs louder along with Barton when I quickly flash my middle finger.
Fun time over, I turn just as Krutza re-corks the bottle and faces me. Both glasses nearly filled to their brims with bubbling white wine, he hands me one and gestures politely for me to sit and join him on the couch.
"So," I begin casually after a couple of sips from the wine, "How has the business of permanently vacationing been going for you these last couple days?"
His head falling back, Krutza launches into the start of a very long conversation. Luckily, he is minding to keep a slight distance between us to keep things from being any more uncomfortable than they need to be.
As he goes on and on about himself, I make sure to keep drinking at a pace I can handle myself.
* * * * * *
More than two hours into the start of this sit-down, we still have not put on the television. Krutza has lost himself in what lies he has to share with me while I focus on acting interested. I have had several glasses of that wine with him by now and it is only starting to slightly buzz the edges of my thoughts.
Certainly nothing that I can't work around.
When he reaches for the bottle behind him, Jesse frowns as he shakes it. Finally, I realize in relief that it's empty. I'm going to get my big break.
Rising from his seat, my host smirks and bows as the waist with a smooth, "Well, I cannot possibly have you go thirsty during your stay. I will be back in a moment." Bottle still in hand, he steps from the room.
My thoughts fuzz up on me a bit, I manage to sit up and strain my ears. Those footsteps make their way down the hall towards the back of the house and fade out. "You're clear, Duo," Trowa's voice announces.
The second I rush to my feet, a warm and dizzy feeling rushes over me. Stumbling, I grip the end of the couch to keep from falling completely forward. Nausea sets in along with the spinning of the room.
Something is wrong. This is not a mere buzz or more from simply consuming some wine. Then, through the fog of my alarm and swerving world, it hits me like a ton of bricks. The rims of my vision begin to dim and I have the overwhelming feeling to lie down.
I've been drugged. While his back had been to the camera and I was busy goofing off, Krutza had slipped something in my glass.
That change in the security system was not just a coincidence after all. This had all been one big trap that I walked right into. Instead of being the cat I had been in this game up to now, I am suddenly the mouse with its tail in the snare.
"Duo?!" 'Tro's worried voice shouts in my ear, only setting me more off balance. "Duo, can you signal what's wrong!?" Fuck, I can't even lift an arm right now, they feel so heavy! Somehow, I manage to find the strength to shake my head.
Wufei cries, "Krutza's grabbing a pistol and heading back for the stairs! Maxwell, if you can move at all, get the hell out of there now!"
But I'm a damned prisoner in my own body! Nothing will move as I stand her, half-slumped over the end of the couch trying to stay on my feet. Pain is sinking into ever nerve of my body, but I still have a clear enough mind to know what is happening.
My eyes widen when Jesse slowly stalks in, chuckling deeply, "Well, that sedative set in quite nicely."
His pistol hangs at his side as he nears and bends at the waist to be more eye-level with me. Sweat running down the back of my neck, it takes me a couple of attempts to work my neck muscles into a painful swallow. "The last time you were here, you were quite the nosy one," he sneers.
That vase! Trowa had said that he thought Krutza pulled something from one of the vases in here- that must have been the tip-off! How the hell did I let that slip!? We all let that slip!
Straightening, he states, "That file cabinet you had broken into had a tiny sensor on it that alerted me to it being disturbed. While I was quite miffed to learn about that, I could not help but wait for the opportunity to pay you back for the intrusion."
"Barton? Chang?" Heero snaps through the connection. "I am cutting off my visual so that I can get inside on a moment's notice. Give me the exact location of where they are and tell me the minute Duo is clearly in danger!" A couple of affirmatives are muttered by our friends.
Until I am threatened beyond any doubt, 'Ro and Bryant can't move in. Right now, this is just a man protecting his property that I had broken into. The gun is not aimed at me and the drug clearly is not going to take me out.
Pacing before me, Jesse scratches his temple with the barrel of his gun and shrugs, "I would like to know, before anything else happens, what it was you were looking for and why." He pauses in his steps only a couple of inches away from me to bend down so those brown eyes stare into mine.
My pulse racing now, I'm helpless to pull back when he leans close enough to feel his breath on my face. "Then, I'm going to take what I wanted from you in the first place before I kill you," the bastard growls hungrily in a tone so low that the camera would never pick it up.
With all of the strength I have, I pull a deep breath and grit out, "Over my fucking dead body, you son of a bitch!"
Reeling back as though smacked hard in the face, Krutza glares heatedly down at me and screams, "As you wish!" In his swing upward to straighten, the pistol raises to press against my forehead. Through the haze, I can feel how cool the metal is against my burning skin
"Yuy! Banks! The living room! Get in there now!" Trowa hollers through my cloud of thoughts and pain.
Jesse's finger begins to pull back on the trigger when a gunshot fills the air seconds before crashing glass follows. More gunshots ring out from the back of the house and more glass windows shatter loudly.
All of that noise pales in comparison to the sound of tires squealing at the front of the estate and a metallic explosion erupts when the iron gates are mowed down by a car that is screeching to a stop just before the door.
Taken completely by surprise, Krutza's brown eyes widen with a startled gasp while turning towards the front of his home. Forcing myself to break the barrier that has been paralyzing me, I push through with a primal scream and plow forward into him us both to the floor.
Slow in my movements, I do my best to wrestle while sending punches and kicks that have little effect into him. About the only good thing about the drug used on me is that it's numbed me against the blows I'm earning back.
By the time the front door is kicked in and footsteps race towards the living room, Jesse had managed to gain control of his weapon again. Aiming it at my head as we lie on our sides facing each other, we both have a view of Heero charging into the room.
"Preventers!" my husband shouts as he points his own pistol at my captor's head with both hands. Running into the doorway with glass shards shimmering on his dark clothes, Bryant's own eyes narrow fiercely on the stunned man across from me.
Teeth gritted, 'Ro hisses out slowly, "Lower. Your. Gun. Now. Hurt a hair on his head and you won't live to see your day in court." Even in my haze, the fierceness in his tone manages to send a chill up my spine.
And it is more than enough for Jesse to freeze, his damp face paling. Clearly, he had absolutely no idea just how much attention he had drawn to himself. The mention of 'Preventers' was enough to render him shocked to the core. Now, it's perfectly transparent to him that he was dealing with more than one random sneak.
For one who spent quite a lot of time covering his tracks, he is at a complete loss over what to do at being discovered.
Krutza's hand holding the gun at my forehead begins to tremble as he carefully lowers it to the floor and quickly places his palms behind his head before he even had to be ordered to do so. Sagging from the last of my strength, I completely sink against the soft carpet with a deep sigh of air that was caught in my lungs.
Three puffs of air being let out ring through my ear piece. Finally, every so slowly coming out of my paralysis, I manage a small wave to the camera that lets my friends watching know that I'm alright. "Way to egg him on, Maxwell," Chang's voice snorts, but I can hear the smile in his timbre.
Yes, it may have been a risk to force that threat on my life. But it was worth it to at last have a reason to seize the estate. Promise of harm against a Preventer agent has officially ended Krutza's rights to privacy. We won't even have to wait on a warrant now.
So, all of those picky, red tape-wielding bastards that slowed this whole thing down can be perfectly fucking happy at how we handled the operation.
Bitter as I may be towards those puppet masters, I am happy that they won't be breathing down the necks of Penelope and her team. She'll have an easy time keeping the international communication channels open to the Preventers.
All other thoughts are pushed far back in my mind when Heero allows Bryant to cuff Krutza so that he can rush to my side. "Duo?" he urges, the concern in his voice as plain as it is on his face while he kneels beside me.
Gently, discretely running a hand through my bangs when he shields the action from the view of the camera, he asks softly, "Are you alright?"
I nod, though timidly on account of how dizzy that simple motion makes me. "The room's still spinning and my muscles still feel like lead, but I'm getting through the worst of it," I answer with a smirk.
Cobalt eyes warming with his relief, Heero smiles and nods back. Looking up towards Bryant when the former solder finishes sitting Krutza none-too-kindly onto his couch, he says, "I can take it from here, Agent Stone."
The sound of sirens ring through the air and they're growing louder as they quickly near the house. "Can you handle the police when they get here?"
Beaming at the chance to flash his badge, Bryant gives an enthusiastic, "You got it." Practically running through the doorway, he's already reaching for his gold-plated medal. My snort of amusement is cut off by the surprised gasp when strong arms wrap around me.
As he cradles me close, Heero glares at Krutza. Carrying me over to the couch, he announces, "You can cut the feed to the cameras now." Snickering to myself, I know exactly why he made that call.
He does not want what he is about to do to our 'friend' recorded.
"Copy that," Trowa chuckles darkly. Aware of exactly where the tiny camera above the mantel is, I watch it point down to the floor and shut down.
Setting me down on the recliner far away from Krutza, my partner kisses the top of my head and shuts down the wire pack at my hip. As he straightens and turns to face the man-turned-mouse in our game once again, his lips curl up in a very unfriendly smile.
From my place on the chair, I watch Jesse swallow roughly, eyes widening as far as they can over the realization of what is to come. Cracking his knuckles, 'Ro comments, "We have not had the honor of meeting before now. Allow me to introduce myself."
A small whimper escapes the mouse as the cat stalks slowly towards him.
TBC...
Back to SkyLark's Fanfictions Page