The One That Got Away (The Bounty Hunter Trilogy)

Chapter fourteen

A/N: So, I totally forgot that I had a picture or something for the cover all the time and didn't put them for the last few chapters. But I noticed it now. So I fixed it, lmao. Anyways, you wanted a new chapter, here it is. Enjoy! xx

Alec was tapping on the steering wheel as he followed the people on the streets with is eyes. 'The Lair', the place Jonathan supposedly visited frequently, was not much of a club. It looked more like a brothel or a drug den, just like Jace had said. They had parked a little ways down the street, so they could still make out the entrance and the people going in and out, but not so close that it would be suspicious. The streets were flooded with rainwater, it had been pouring for about an hour now. The building, attached to others of the liking, looked old. It appeared to have two stories, but their intel told them that there was a basement level. The brick walls were crumbling and covered in graffiti. One of the second floor windows was barred up with wooden blanks. 

Just outside, there was a bulky man standing, smoking and appeared to be on the phone. Another was standing next to the door. While the man on the phone was already soaked (how did his cigarette stay alight?), the other one just narrowly escaped the drops coming down from the sky. Alec reached for his binoculars again and pointed that at the man at the door. He was standing like a bouncer, hands behind his back and he wore all black, though his trench coat had seen better days for sure. The buzz cut made his face look rectangular, somehow, and Alec could even make out the dark blue colour of his eyes - Simon's gadgets were really something. The man seemed irritated and his gaze was fixed on the other, bulkier one, who was waving his hands around, clearly raising his voice at whoever he was talking to. Alec wished he could hear what was being said.

"Want one?" Isabelle asked, bringing him out of his reverie. He turned his head towards his sister, eyeing the box of doughnuts. "No, thanks." he shook his head, moving back to what he was doing earlier. He heard a scoff and lowered the binoculars with a tired expression. "What?" he asked, glaring at Isabelle. She shrugged and put the box in between them, her legs in high-heeled boots over the dashboard and her ankles crossed. Her black jeans reached only her ankles and Alec could see the bracelet around her left one - the one he had given her for her 18th birthday. It was elegant and from silver, with a little arrow charm dangling from it. That was the year where Alec had almost gotten killed on one of their missions (a murderous big corporate owner, some pyschopathic gang members and an assassin were involved, Alec never went back to Puerto Rico after that) and Isabelle had completely flipped out, acting like the world was ending and didn't let his brother leave the bed for almost two weeks, and fussed over him even when his stab wounds and broken bones were healed. 

"So I'll always be with you. And this is your lucky charm, okay? So I'll know, that you're always going to be alright. And should anything happen, you have something to remember me by." Alec had told her. Isabelle had cried for the second time in the span of two months that day (The first being when she learned that her brother was in the infirmary, fighting for his life) and hugged him. "Don't say such things. You're always going to be here to take care of me, big brother." Isabelle had said to him. She had worn it ever since. The arrow was supposed to symbolize the way Alec could handle a bow - he had been trained in archery since he was 10. Isabelle always teased him because of it, in a friendly manner, so Alec thought it'd be funny to make her wear it. In the end, she only took it off when she went to the shower.

Isabelle twirled one long lock of hair around her index finger and her red lips curved into a dismissive, straight line. Her dark green bodysuit had a transparent, kind of net-like, area close to the neck and the sleeves were of the same thin material. Alec could see the little bird tattoo near her collarbone through the fabric and smiled. She wanted to get a tattoo when she turned 16, but obviously, their parents wouldn't allow it. So Alec had secretly taken her - he knew Isabelle would go anyways, and she looked 18 with her short red dress and high heels, the make up a bold red and gold, her eyeliner making her eyes look bigger. So, there were two reasons Alec took her - one, he didn't want Isabelle to get kidnapped in the middle of the dark streets of New York, and the way she had been planning to go outside, she would be, and two, he didn't want Isabelle to ink something that she'd regret. Like the words 'no ragrets' or something.