Page 58 of Chaos & Carnage
Dammit. I see a lot of beautiful dresses and fake smiles in my future.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I come to a stop when I notice a guard up ahead manning a door.Bingo. That must be where the stairwell is. Watching him, I mull over my options for how to get rid of him. As I’m thinking, I quickly scan the other end of the corridor, noticing a service elevator. Anunguardedservice elevator.
I could take the guard out and go up the stairs, but how long until someone notices he’s missing, or he doesn’t check in and someone comes to investigate? The closer I can get to Giovanni without being noticed, the better.
With that in mind, I glance back to the elevator before making a quick dash toward it. Darting inside, I scan the keypad for the button for the top floor—level five. Jamming my finger down on it, I wait, but nothing happens. No shutting of the doors, no rising of the car. Panic begins to settle as I push the button again, aware that anyone could walk past at any second and spot me in here—backed into a corner with no escape.
When the elevator still doesn’t come to life, I perform another search of the keypad and surrounding area. This time I notice a panel set to the side, and flipping open the cover, I let out a low curse. An eye scanner, the same as the tunnels. I bet every access point to Giovanni’s floor has the same requirements, and I’m also going to guess that Dante’s eye no longer activates it, not that that does me any good right now.
I’m either going to have to force a guard to scan their eye or kill them and rip their eyeball out.Oh god, please don’t make me do that. Fucking gross!
Frustrated, I glance out through the elevator doors, trying to figure out my next move. I could try the stairs or…
Pushing a random button—level three—I hold my breath until the doors begin to slowly close, only releasing it when I feel the whoosh of the elevator rising. Okay, so I can’t get to Giovanni’s floor, but Icanaccess the others. Next step, I need to ascertain how many guards are on each floor and where they are positioned.
I slip a knife out of my thigh holster and slink into the corner of the elevator, flattening myself against the wall beside the doors as the car comes to a stop.
Gripping the blade’s handle, my muscles tense, ready to pounce as I hold my breath and the elevator doors slide open.
The soft scuff of a shoe on carpet is the only telltale sound that someone is on the other side, followed by the distinctive unclipping of a holster. I don’t dare take a breath in case it gives me away as I wait for the person to step into the car.
His polished shoe and black pants appear first, followed by a hand wrapped around a pistol held at his side. His head is turned away from me, giving me a split-second advantage which I use to its fullest as I launch myself at him. With my blade poised, it sinks into the soft flesh of his throat as my hand clamps over his mouth. Immediately, his body starts to fall, blood gurgling from between his lips.
Keeping my knife embedded in his neck, I push away from him as he sinks to the floor, wasting no time as I effortlessly pull the gun from his slack grip and tuck it in the back of my jeans. Next, I brush my hands over his suit jacket, making a concentrated effort not to look at his face as I empty out his pockets and steal his keycard.
Flipping open the cover for the eye scanner, I frown down at the large man at my feet. I reallyreallydon’t want to have to cut out his eye. Slitting throats? Not a problem, but wiggling my knife in his eye socket and touching his eye? No, thank you!
Sighing, I bend down and haul the guy into my arms, straining as I lift him so that his face is eye-level with the scanner. I’m breathing heavily and sweat dots my brow by the time I have him at the right height, and I struggle to stay standing as I shift him so I can peel back his eyelid.
I hold him up to the eye scanner with trembling arms, cursing under my breath and dropping him whenever the scanner flashes red.God fucking dammit.I should have known it wouldn’t work. He’s probably too low level to have access to Giovanni’s floor.
Swiping my arm across my forehead, I place my hands on my knees and breathe deeply until my heart rate returns to normal. My arm and leg muscles still feel heavy when I stand upright to peer out the elevator doors, an alternative plan forming.
I need to move quickly. I only have until someone calls the service elevator to get him out and hide him somewhere.Fuck, maybe I would have been better off taking the stairs.
I shake off that unhelpful thought. There’s no point in worrying about that now. What’s done is done. I just need to keep moving and try not to get caught.
My palms are sweaty as I dart out of the elevator with the keycard in hand, whisperingplease, please, please,under my breath as I tap it against the sensor on the door. The light turns green and, wasting no time, I push open the door. I quickly search the room, noting that someone is staying in it, but they don’t appear to be here at the minute—let’s hope it stays that way.
Propping the door open, I hurry back across the hall. Tucking my hands under the guard’s arms, a grunt escapes me as I use all my strength to drag him across the corridor. My breathing becomes labored with each step, sweat forming on my brow until my arms are shaking with the strain.God, he’s a heavy fucker.
He might not have Cain’s broad frame—thank fuck—but that doesn’t mean he’s light or easily maneuvered. The second his shoes clear the doorway, I drop him and hurriedly slam the door shut, flicking the lock before sinking to the floor. I stay there until my limbs no longer feel like jelly and my heart rate has returned to a near-normal rhythm, but unfortunately, I can’t afford to waste any more time. Whoever is staying in this room could be back at any second, and I don’t know how long I have until the guard in front of me is noted to be missing.
Reluctantly, I push to my feet and scan the room, chewing on my bottom lip as I decide what the best thing to do with Mr. Dead Security Man is. There isn’t enough space under the bed, which leaves the closet or bathroom. Neither are excellent choices and seeing as it’s closer, I choose the closet.
Moving over to it, I pull open the door and push the few outfits hanging up over to one side. As I do, my fingers brush over a soft silk dress, so smooth it glides through my fingers. Not really sure why I’m doing it. I lift the dress out, admiring the black-colored seductive outfit, before setting it aside. Then I bend down to push shoes aside until there’s enough space for the security guard.
With a final burst of effort, I drag him over and shove him inside. He’ll be instantly noticeable to see as soon as anyone opens the door, but it will hopefully buy me a few precious minutes if anyone returns. And, hey, maybe I’ll get lucky and the owners of the room will come back too drunk or horny and not look inside the closet until the morning.One can only hope.
Only when the guard is nicely tucked away for the remainder of the night, do I shift my focus to the dress hanging over the door. As my eyes roam over it, an idea forms. Perhaps violence and stealth aren’t the best ways to get to Giovanni. Maybe I need to think less like the guys and more like the Reaper. Falling back on my seduction skills and being underestimated to get close to him. At his core, Giovanni isn’t any different from the men the Reaper goes after. He’s arrogant and narcissistic. He’d never believe that a woman could best him, and because of that, he’s more likely to let down his guard around me. But that won’t be the case if I go in there gung-ho with the blood of his men on my hands and a gun pointed at his head.
Chewing on my bottom lip, I do a final sweep of the dress before ducking back into the closet, searching for shoes to match. It will suck to lose my boots, but if I’m going to pull this off, I need to sell the image, and that means wearing heels.Ugh, kill me now.
Finding a pair of strappy black stilettos that will do the trick—even if my feet will protest the entire time—and I carry them and the dress into the bathroom. Before I can second guess what I’m doing, I quickly strip out of my clothes and slip into the dress. It’s a little tight around my hips, and I must have bigger breasts than the woman it’s intended for, as there’s some serious side-boob.
When I dare to glance up into the bathroom mirror, I’m momentarily taken aback by how different I appear. How… seductive I look. It’s different from the skimpy clothing I usually wear as the Reaper, which barely covers more skin than what I wore at Strip Tease. This dress is classy, elegant. It makes me appear regal, as though I could actually fit into Dante’s world.
Two black strips of fabric twist around the back of my neck and drape over my chest, just about covering my boobs and displaying my skin all the way down the center of my chest to my navel and leaving my entire back exposed. The rest of the dress clings to my curves like a second skin before falling gracefully to the floor, with the exception of the high slit up one leg.