Page 95 of Sweet Poison

Immediately, I located the gun that was on the floor of the car and kicked the car door open. I tried the back door but was unable to pull it open. I pulled her out through the window just as I began to hear shouts.

I knew that the other men were behind us.

I had to get us out of there and to the bunker. I would've loved to hold her in my arms and comfort her, but it would slow us down too much.

“We have to go, Anya,” I pleaded with her.

She started to move, but she could only move slowly.

“Please, Anya. Hurry,” I cried.

“Okay,” she said, and we ran for our lives.

We ran in the woods for at least ten minutes straight, and with each passing moment, it felt like my legs were going to give away with pain. I realized I must have hurt myself in the accident. My heart was pounding hard and I was out of breath, but still, I couldn’t stop. This was the vital moment, and everything depended on this.

Our very lives depended on it, and so no matter how much pain I was in, we couldn’t stop. Anya eventually stumbled on a rock and fell. I nearly fell myself, and so I had to stop for a moment to catch my breath.

I looked ahead then and saw the stream I was searching for was only a few yards away.

“Just over there, sweetheart,” I told her. “We’ll be safe as soon as we get over to that side. They won't be able to find their way then.”

This, however, I soon found to be untrue when I heard the men coming behind us.

I was shocked. I had taken too many turns. They shouldn’t have been able to follow us unless … suddenly I looked at the little girl and quickly began to search her person. It didn’t take long to find it. I retrieved the device from the pocket of her jacket. Incredibly upset, I ran in the opposite direction from where we were going and flung it into some bushes.

“I thought we had a head start, sweetie, but we don't,” I told her. “We need to hurry even more now, so get up please, Anya.”

After taking a few more deep breaths, she rose to her feet, locked her hand in mine, and once again, we were on our way, scurrying through the dense, dark woods.

Chapter 57

Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ1UxkjhELU

“What the fuck do you mean?” Paganini shouted.

I was instantly intrigued. Although he was a heartless monster, he took great pride in using civilized language. He never outrightly cursed, but when he did, you knew that there was a huge problem afoot.

I walked to the door and put my ear to it, but he had stopped shouting. I picked up the water glass on the desk and pretended I was going to the water cooler down the hallway for some water. They didn’t notice. They were in his office trembling before him. As I refilled my glass, I was able to put two and two together.

Montana and Anya had escaped!

At first, I couldn’t believe it. It was too good to be true. How was that even possible? There were at least four men guarding them. I started to think it was a mistake. Maybe I’d misheard or misunderstood. But from the way Paganini and his men were behaving the unbelievable had happened. Somehow Montana had managed to escape with my daughter. I wanted to shout with joy.

I went over to my desk and made my decision. I was going to finish the job he had hired me for. With a few strokes, I began to retrieve all the money that I had transferred to untraceable accounts all over the world.

It was the skill that had brought me to Paganini’s notice. Almost half a billion dollars had been hidden from the government and ferreted away, thanks to me. I glanced through the window. Paganini was having a tantrum. I instructed the AI to initiate the process of transferring all the money, every cent of it into tens of thousands of charities all over the world. The AI asked me to confirm the order. I clicked yes. The AI began to work its magic. The money disappeared from his account at the speed of light.

Finally, when his account showed zero balance, the process stopped.

Now came the final leg of the process. I installed the malware from the hard drive, and it served to destroy all the information on the established routes. There was no going back. Now, either I lived or he did.

First, I undid the laces of my right shoe, then I rose to my feet and headed over to his office after announcing that I had done what was needed, I waited for the next bit of interaction.

“You’ll be living here from now on,” he said. “You and your daughter. You’ll get everything you need here, so focus on serving me the best way that I need, and maybe in a few years, you’ll be allowed once again to venture out on your own.”

This man, I understood now, was sick in the head.

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