Page 86 of Shifting Gears

I gasped silently as the butler-looking man I had bumped into at the fight ring the day Raven disappeared walked over to the man in the chair.

What the fuck? Why is he here?

I couldn’t leave now. If I did, the butler would see me backing out since he was facing in this direction. So, I stayed still and did the only thing I could do. Listen to the conversation unfolding in front of me.

“It’s been handled, sir,” the butler said.

The man in the striped suit took another drink as the smirk on his lips grew.

The butler nodded. “The car is packed and ready whenever you’d like to go.”

The man in the striped suit held his cup up toward the garden, almost like he was giving a toast, before taking one last drink, emptying his sake glass. Then he handed the butler his glass before he stood up. He reached down, grabbed the fedora, and placed it on his head.

“One last thing, and then we’ll leave,” the man said as he turned in my direction.

His butler nodded as the man walked toward me.

I quickly dipped back into the corner, hiding in the bamboo's shadow as best as I could.

He passed by, and when I glanced behind me, I saw the butler had busied himself with cleaning up the drinkware left behind. It was my chance to follow without being seen. I stayed close to the wall as the man in the striped suit moved through the mansion like it was his own.

Every step he took was sharp, certain, like he’d done this a hundred times before. He didn’t look around. He didn’t need to. It was like he knew exactly where he was going.

He moved fast down the long hallway, shoes making almost no sound on the marble floor. I stayed a few steps behind,careful to stay as quiet as possible. He didn’t stop to admire anything—not the huge paintings or the gold-framed mirrors that decorated the walls, not even the expensive furniture. His focus was locked on wherever his destination was.

We entered the grand entrance of the house. The staircase loomed in front of us, wide and modern, with each step illuminated by light. He hit the first step without slowing down, climbing two at a time. I waited until he was halfway up before I followed, breathing shallow, praying he wouldn’t glance back.

At the top, the hallway stretched out again. One side was lined with windows, spilling in warm light from the lamps outside. The other side was filled with closed doors, each one shut tight, keeping whatever they held inside hidden.

He didn’t hesitate up here either, didn’t even glance out the windows. Just kept up a steady pace as he strode down the hallway.

I pressed deeper into the shadows between each window, my palms sweaty against the wall. One wrong move, and I would be screwed.

He came to a stop next to a set of large double doors. These weren’t the same doors we had passed along the way; they were made to withstand some serious beating. And they were locked by an electronic pad on the wall next to them.

The man walked up to the keypad. Smirking, he punched in the numbers, deliberate and methodical.

Three. Eight. Six. Eight. One.

I repeated the combination in my head over and over as the door mechanism clicked, and he placed a hand on the handle.

“There you go,” he said as he shoved the door open.

My heart pounded.

Did he know I was here? Did he hear me walking behind him? I thought I was so careful. Maybe he was simply talking out loud? God, snap out of it. You’re just being paranoid.

He didn’t say anything else and disappeared inside the room. I waited as I heard him shuffling through things. The sound of something heavy being set down. More buttons being pressed. Another click.

A few minutes later, he reemerged.

“Let’s put some plans into action,” he said as he slipped an envelope into his vest’s inner pocket. He held out a key on his finger and twirled it to land inside his palm.

With that, he smirked, and I could swear he glanced right at my hiding spot before he walked back down the hallway where he had come from.

I held my breath, listening to see if he or anyone else would come back down, but it was silent.

I heard a car start up outside the window across from me, and I walked over to it, peering outside.

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