Amour éternel

chapter 22

Anaïs sat on the hood of the taxi while Ryder tried to get a hold of the pilot. It seemed she wouldn’t be flying anywhere after all. It was relieving in a way; at least she wouldn’t feel as if she had fled without giving things a fighting chance. Her eyes followed Ryder as he once again ended the call. He kept being sent to voicemail and it was pissing him off. Anaïs wanted to ask him what their next move would be but she was terrified of rejection; she knew he wouldn’t respond in a friendly manner. 

Instead, she slipped off the hood and found her phone in the small handbag she had left inside the car. She dialed Dominic’s number and waited for an answer. She went straight to voicemail but Dominic’s message caused her to frown. It didn’t make any sense. 

****

Jacky was shaking a little as she pulled up to Dominic’s place. It couldn’t be called a house; it was a mansion in every sense of the word. The grand gate at the entrance didn’t budge when she pulled up so she rolled her window down and looked at the metal box she knew was supposed to somehow let him know she was here. She hadn’t been in a place with one of these before but she recognized it from movies. Somewhere hidden in any of the bushes around the outside of the mansion were cameras, she knew, and Dominic would be able to see her once she somehow managed to get his attention. Jacky looked at the buttons and decided that the little red one was the best bet. Several minutes after pressing it, Dominic’s voice, slightly electronic, came through the speakers and the gates opened. She followed his instructions and parked the car next to his black Mercedes Benz. It was a pretty slick car but not really what she  would have pictured Dominic in. She gave it another look and frowned as uneasiness lifted the hairs at the back of her neck. Something wasn’t quite right. 

****

“Ryder I just called Dominic and-”

“What?! Did you tell him we knew about his plans? God damn it, this could put Jacky in even more danger,” Ryder groaned, his hand unconsciously rubbing at his forehead. 

He had a killer headache and things seemed to be getting more and more impossible. 

“Can you stop being pissed for one damn second? I messed up, I know it, but you can at least listen when I’ve got something important to say. I didn’t get a hold of him-”

“Thank god,” Ryder interjected.

“-but the message he left on his voicemail is very strange.”

“Why do you say that?” Ryder asked, his curiosity temporarily overshadowing his bad mood. 

Instead of explaining, Anaïs dialed the number once more and handed it to Ryder just as the message began. Ryder listened intently, his eyes growing narrow as he caught onto what Anaïs meant by strange. It was strange indeed. Ryder listened to the message twice, just to be sure he had heard correctly and suddenly he understood more than he had before. 

“I seem to have miscalculated the situation. I didn’t see things clearly because they weren’t clear. This is a mess of a case and now a friend is in danger. I’m the one who involved her in this,” Ryder frowned.