Finding Romeo

Chapter 35

(Romeo's POV)

I was looking over the cameras, seeing if there were any familiar faces, when two people walked into the front door of the casino, making their way to the elevator.

I heard Talia dialing Mr. Vladimirs number, getting redirected to the team of men hiding outside of the casino. "They just went inside," Talia said, before I could fully wrap my head around what was happening. It still felt wrong to do this, but if these two people were on the wanted list of powerful people like this, then it was inevitable that they were going to find them, with or without my help.

That didn't mean I had to try very hard to trap them though. They were inside the elevator, meaning it would be easy to stop it, trapping them inside, and redirecting them back up to the casino floor, where they would be surrounded by the team of armed men swarming around the room and down the stairs.

"They're in the sub level basement. It's like an underground house down there," Talia said, directing the team of men. I didn't say anything to Talia, letting her do her thing, while I did mine. I watched as Chester and Tasha walked out of the elevator, going their separate ways, watching him go into his room while she went to take a shower. I quickly switched cameras, scanning the other rooms. One room held a woman, sleeping on her bed, while a small wiener dog walked around the room. The other held a man, sleeping on his stomach, a rolling pin on the end table beside him.

I unlocked a door to let them come inside the sub-level, while Talia told them the way through the house, giving them the most direct route. I watched as the team of men entered Chester's room with permission, the man fought hard, but was eventually overpowered.

What if this man was good? Was I really helping them take him out, and over what? Keeping Talia safe. One part of me knew that I would do anything to make sure Talia was okay, that's what love it. But did that make helping people that I knew very well were bad people, take down someone else right? No.

Things had always been either black and white, good or bad, light or dark, to me. But this time, it felt like a little of both. I felt like a double sided coin, dark on one side and light on the other, that had landed sideways, no side the definite winner.

"Look," Talia said, pointed to the screen in front of me and jerking myself from my confused thoughts. "That's him," She whispered to me, looking at me with wide eyes. She scribbled on a piece of paper, showing it to me.

The man on the screen, the one who had been sleeping in his bed just moments before, was now awake, the woman from the other room with him. He was Talia's neighbor from across the hall, the man who had helped with Brad a few short days before.

I looked back at her, knowing that she couldn't say anything out loud, in case the team on the phone would hear. I didn't need to hear her angelic voice to know that she wanted to pay him back for helping her, in the form of saving his life.

At that moment, on of the thugs on the team walked into the room, Talia's neighbor and the woman panicking, slipping out of a secret entryway. As the thug headed for it too, I quickly typed in a sequence of code, locking it shut. He tried to open it, then talked into the walky talky. Seconds later, an order came over the phone.

"We need to get into that secret entryway! Unlock it now! We don't know who those people are, but we need to get them. There's no telling what part they have in this," The man's voice came over the radio.

I stiffened. This wasn't part of the job, they were only going to get the people that were in the file. Without a second thought, I locked all of the secret passageway entries.

"They're all locked, it will take a while to hack in" Talia said, watching what I was doing from beside me, giving me an approving smile.

The team of assassin guys suddenly all swarmed into Chester's room, as I watched from another camera as Chester and Tasha ran down the hallway, darting into the library.

Chester raised a gun, shooting the lights out as he went. In the darkness of the room, I could see them slip through another one of the hidden passageways.

"Where did they go?" The man on the phone screamed.

If they followed Chester and Tasha into the tunnels, they would no doubt find Talia's neighbor, the man I was trying to keep safe, to keep my conscience partially clear.

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything. A Shakespeare quote made it's way through my mind, and I knew what I had to do.

"We're looking," I finally stalled, typing to the words into a text to speech program.

Quickly, I rewound the feed, looking over the room before he had shot the lights out. I quickly looked over their WiFi, finding a small, iRobot vacuum in the corner. I had never seen one in person, let alone hacked into one, but there was a first time for everything. I hacked into the controls, writing it a new cleaning route for it to follow. A small light blinked on the top as it drove along its path, making it visible on the camera's.

"We're searching every room! We need to know their location now!" The man on the phone screamed.

It drove forward slowly, running right up to the door and pushing it closed, before turning to a small table with a decanter of alcohol on it. With a few good slams, the decanter and the towel slipped over the edge and into the floor, the light from the top of the vacuum causing the glass to sparkle. Slowly, I directed the vacuum over to it, running it over the towel until it sucked it up. The vacuum suddenly died, the controls vanishing from the screen as it sparked and died.

I waiting, watching to see if my plan would work. It was a shot in the dark, but was completely worth the trouble if it would make Talia happy.

Suddenly, a low light lit up the screen, then drew drastically bigger and bigger as it caught on the alcohol.

It was a one in a million shot that actually worked. It was kind of like finding Talia, only much more rewarding.

I shut down the fire alarm and sprinkler system, letting the fire spread across the room.

When the team of goons burst into the room, choking on the smoke on the fire, I waiting, letting the fire burn like a wall of protective flames.

Only after a few minutes, did I let the systems come back on, dousing the flames. I didn't want to burn down the entire building, there were still people inside, but it was still enough to stall them.

I heard Talia end the call, there was nothing else that we could do to help the team or her neighbor.

I stared at the screen, looking at the destruction that I had caused with just a little bit of hacking. Had I really did the right thing? Was this just the beginning of what the rest of my life would look like? I slunk down on the couch. Maybe the dark side was more dominant. I had always imagined Talia swooping in and casting light over my darkness. Is that what had happened just now? Was Talia the only light in this situation too?

I swallowed hard, closing the laptop. I made a move to get up, to leave her behind, so as not to cast anymore darkness on her life. So that I wouldn't destroy her like I had just done to the library, when I felt her hand scoop up my cheek, bringing her soft, petal lips to mine.

She pulled back after only a moment, her soulful green eyes meeting mine. "Thank you," Talia whispered, then pressed her lips on mine, her sweet, nectar covered tongue sweeping into my mouth.

I trembled, not just from the feel of her against me, but from the knowledge that she accepted who I was and what I had done, without judgement.

I could feel the light flooding back into my soul as I wrapped my arms around her, like she had taught me to do with a hug, and lost myself in the boundless sea of her love.

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite." by William Shakespeare.