Page 55 of Breaking Rosalind
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll find an opening.”
“The Montesano brothers will be prepared for you this time,” she says. “That’s why your best chance of coming out of this alive is if I follow?—”
My throat tightens. I turn to glare at my best friend. “Drop it. I’m not risking the most precious people in my life.”
Britt stares straight ahead, her jaw tense. She’s the firm’s best getaway driver and could probably extract me out of the alley with Miranda, but she’s already done too much for us. I won’t risk her life.
She’s going to take Miranda straight to the out-of-state apartment we’ve set up as a place to escape the Moirai. The academy has been compromised. Both Cesare and Gunther know about it, so we’ll have to keep her out of sight until I can find a new boarding school.
“Fine,” she replies with a sigh. “At least make sure you’re equipped for an escape.”
I gulp. “He’ll search me.”
“Not everywhere.” She reaches across to the glove box, revealing a black container resembling a glasses case.
I take it out and snap it open to find a selection of syringes. “What are these?”
“The latest in microscopic trackers. It’s in the beta phase and hasn’t been fully tested in the field. Slip one beneath some scar tissue. If he’s that observant, he won’t notice the needle prick or any minor swelling. I’ll be able to track your location to an accuracy of three feet.”
My breath hitches, and for the first time since obtaining those tortuous images from Cesare, I feel hope.
Thanks to Dr. Daniel and his team’s laser skin resurfacing techniques, my scars are very few and none of them are raised. I wait until we reach a stoplight before opening my jumpsuit and injecting the tracker into my belly button.
“Good choice,” Britt says. “He’ll suspect you’ll sneak in weapons and trackers, so you’ll need some decoys.”
“Already ahead of you.”
After dabbing the liquid with a swab, I place the syringe back in the container. Then my gaze lands on a round object the size of a penny.
“Can I use that?” I ask.
Britt flashes me a grin. “As a distraction? Sure.”
Over the next ten minutes, I work on creating several decoys, including a small cache of drug canisters I place in a latex condom and slip into my vagina.
Any other time, Britt would snort and joke about my hiding places, but she’s seen the photos. Cesare Montesano is the kind of monster that would threaten an innocent girl with a contraption that could rip open her head.
“If the consequences for killing him without authorization weren’t so dire, that bastard would already be dead,” I mutter.
“Some clients are so picky.” Britt rounds the corner to the high street. “They don’t realize how difficult it is to get all three targets into the same location to execute a triple hit.”
“Did he authorize collateral damage?” I ask.
“No,” she says, her voice dripping with contempt. “He wants the lackeys intact.”
All the stores are closed at this time of the evening, and it’s too early for the party crowd to fill the streets. Up ahead, the Phoenix Nightclub is lit up in neon, its entrance devoid of guards.
Britt parks on the other side of the road. “We’re here. You ready?”
I force in a deep breath. “Check the tracker.”
She glances down at her smartwatch and swipes at the screen. “It’s active. You’re good to go.”
Gulping, I send a text to Cesare to let him know I’m close.
Cesare texts back:
Meet us in the alley. Alone.