The Wrong Groom | 2gether X Tale of a Thousand Stars AU

Chapter 12

Mil's POV

The morning sun shone bright but not hot enough yet to burn. The air was still dew-fresh.

A lime Lamborghini glided with a snobbish roar into the basement of the plush condominium premises I had been scoping since the previous night.

It had been seven days since I'd gotten my hands on my retirement policy. But it was as good as a rock if I couldn't sell it.

There were very few fences with the means and the connections to be able to move something as high-profile as the Angel's Teardrop without attracting the wrong kind of attention.

Thankfully, I knew exactly where to find two of them under the same roof.

I checked my watch. 8 a.m.

I pulled my cap low over my face, crushed underfoot the unlit cigarette I'd been chewing and strode purposefully to the service entrance at the back of the condo.

"Plumbing services requested in Unit 4201" I said crisply passing my fake ID across the counter at the guardhouse.

A guard looked at my uniform, checked my credentials, verified the appointment on the residents' portal I'd hacked into and took my photo. Then he waved me forward.

I placed my shoes, belt, toolbox, phone and wallet in a box on a conveyor belt and sent them through an X-Ray scanner before walking through a metal detector and emerging clean on the other side.

Another guard swiped me with a handheld scanner and patted me down thoroughly for good measure.

"He's good to go" he called out and gestured for me to collect my things from the tray.

Five minutes later, I was flirting with the girl at the service desk. She simpered and batted her eyelashes at me.

I left her desk shortly after with an access card in my hand and a date for dinner on the weekend. Hopefully I would be long gone from the country by then.

I tapped the card on the reader beside the elevator bank. The polished steel doors of the service lift parted with a smooth ding.

I rode all the way up to the penthouse on the 42nd floor. The service elevator opened right into the apartment's utility room where deliveries could be left and which hosted the plumbing, electricity and security systems, each behind securely locked and chained steel cages.

I tapped my access card on the reader beside the door that led to the rest of the apartment. Utility servicemen were not allowed to enter the residential units unless let inside by the residents themselves.

The card my charm had elicited from the receptionist, however, turned the indicator green and the door clicked open.

I padded softly into the large penthouse, ostentatious in its opulence. The decor was in a theme of gold and white, lush rugs, antiques on every surface, aesthetically painted nudes on the walls, floor-to-ceiling windows that opened out to a view of the crystal blue ocean on a sun-kissed marble balcony.

A staircase led to the upper storey of the two-storeyed unit. From the pictures I'd seen, I knew the second storey had an infinity pool overlooking the seafront strip.

Two middle-aged men were sitting side by side on an elegant couch. Soft music played in soothing tones on a gramophone. It was all very polished and refined.

"Ayyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeee" screeched one of the men like a foghorn and jumped up and down dramatically with a hand on his chest as he spotted me.

"Fucking sonovabich motherfucking bastard" cursed the other man, pulling out a gun and aiming it straight at my head