UNMASKED

#27

Eli wished he could be surprised at what he was seeing. Then again, he hadn't been truly surprised by anything in a while. Which was probably for the best, considering the way his life was going.

Right now though, he just thought to himself that he really should have guessed Adria would sell them out. Adria looked at Eli, an eyebrow up and an unimpressed look on her face. He just stared back, taking in her very expensive looking heels, the equally expensive looking coat she had on, and the slightly bored look on her face. Eli seriously wished he weren't tied up, if only so he could throttle her.

Then again, Adria might just shoot him before he got the chance.

"You could pretend to be shocked," Adria said. Apparently, her grand entrance wasn't quite grand enough.

"Oh, if only someone could have guessed you'd turn out to be a backstabbing bitch." Eli hoped that was good enough. It probably wasn't, seeing as Adria just rolled her eyes.

"How did it go?" Jack asked, ignoring Eli and focusing on Adria. She crossed her arms, looking like she very much didn't want to deal with Jack.

"Fine. My guys are making sure no one tries anything, and the explosives were all set up before I left."

"Any word from our guest?" Jack said, sounding amused by that. Adria just shrugged.

"He called me, pissed as hell about that little shit going missing. I told him there wasn't much I could do but I'd have my guys take a look. Should be losing his shit right about now," she said, sounding unimpressed. Which was very much like her to not give a fuck.

"Good. The more he suffers the more amusing this will be," Jack said, a satisfied grin on his face. It sounded to Eli like he was talking more to himself than to either him or Adria. Then, he turned to Eli, grin still in place. "Don't worry, you'll get a good seat for the show," he said, as if Eli were dying to watch Matthew get beaten.

"Go fuck a cactus," he said before he could really think about the words leaving his mouth. Which was a common occurrence with Eli, to be honest. He was only slightly surprised when Jack punched him.

"Don't be rude," Jack said simply, as if he were just chastising a child instead of his hostage.

"Oh, I'm sorry, what I meant to say was please go fuck a cactus, sir." Eli knew the second hit was coming. He still wished Jack didn't punch so hard.

"Well, now I see why you didn't mind handing him over," Eli heard Jack say—most likely to Adria—while he felt around his mouth with his tongue to make sure all his teeth were still in place.

"I told you he's a little shit," Adria said. She sounded resigned. Eli felt kind of happy about that for very petty reasons. "But, that does make me wonder, what if Vigilante decides not to come for him?" Eli wasn't sure he liked how Adria framed that question.

"He will," Jack said, a flippant sort of certainty that made Eli wonder how he could be so sure. After all, Eli had no clue where he was, so Matthew was probably equally unaware. Of course, that was when Jack reached into his back pocket and pulled out a very familiar phone.

If Eli survived, he'd have to question the fact that the first thing he felt was relief at knowing Mikey hadn't tossed his phone away. His priorities definitely needed to be re-evaluated.

"You've been tracking his phone, haven't you?" Jack asked, shaking the phone a bit. "And I know Vigilante can also track it. Part of your security measures to keep your end of the deal, right?"

Eli wished he hadn't agreed to that. Granted, he didn't really mind Matthew knowing where he was while there was some mercenary trying to kill them. Actually, he'd been kind of glad.