Looking for Trubel

Chapter Fifteen

Trubel hadn't shown up at the food table. She should have been faster than he was because there were fewer rooms on her floors. Something was wrong.

As soon as he saw she wasn't at the table he ran up to the fourth floor, hoping that he had guessed right.

Most of the partygoers were gone by that point, so Vincent didn't have anyone he could trust when they told him they didn't know where Trubel was.

He saw Alex. "Hey, man, have you seen my girlfriend. She has short black hair, she was wearing a red dress, and-"

"I think I know who you're talking about," Alex said.

"You do? Okay, where is she?" Vincent asked.

"She went in that room over there," Alex said, gesturing to a room down that hall.

"Thank you so much," Vincent said and ran towards the room. Without thinking, he burst through the door.

There was no one in there.

"No," he said, horrified.

He tried to run back out into the hallway, but the door apparently locked from the outside.

He woged and charged at it. The door shattered and Vincent was back into the hallway, but he was surrounded by a half-dozen people.

He woged back into human form and put his hands up in surrender.

"I need to talk to Adam Smith," he said. "Theresa and I are not here for what you think we're here for."

"Get on your knees," one of the men said.

Vincent slowly lowered himself to the ground. "I will do anything," Vincent said. "I will tell you anything, but I need to talk to Smith and you need to take me to Theresa Rubel."

Vincent let the guards tie his arms behind his back and lead him to another room in the hallway.

The group walked into the meeting room. The Vibora Dorada, no longer woged, was sitting at the head of the conference room table.

"It's nice of you to to join us...?" Smith began.

"Vincent. My name is Vincent McKnight," Vincent said quickly, wanting to please Smith.

"Excellent. Have a seat, Vincent," Smith approved, gesturing to a chair at the table he was sitting by. 

The guards set Vincent down in the chair across from Adam Smith.

"I've killed so many Black Claw agents. It's actually gotten quite boring. Why shouldn't I kill you?" Smith was very casual when he talked about killing people. Vincent worried about what would happen if he couldn't convince Smith to help him and Trubel.

"Theresa and I are not like the others. We didn't come here to kill you," Vincent promised.

"You want to take me to Bonaparte," Smith stated bitterly. 

"It's because we need your help," Vincent clarified. "We don't want you to die, we want you to help us."

"What are you talking about?" Smith asked curiously. He sounded amused more than anything else.

"Theresa used to work for HW," Vincent started to explain.

"We know," Smith said bitterly. "But now she's a traitor."

"You can't call her that!" Vincent yelled and stood up. Smith was wrong. Trubel had done everything she could to keep herself from obediently working for Black Claw. She hadn't always been successful, but she fought harder than anyone else that Vincent knew. He was furious when he jumped to his feet without thinking. The guards pushed him back into his seat.