Page 51 of The SongBird's Love

“Why would I?”

“There are dozens of other hackers out there who’d be happy to work for your money. I can even find you one if you want, but I’m not interested. Find someone else.”

Dante sighed, still staring at her with a mysterious expression.

“That’s too bad,” he said. “You’re the one I want.”

Eden felt cold chills going down her spine. Why? Why did that man have to be so bent on her? She couldn’t understand. Was it because she had saved his life? His sense of duty or something? A man like Dante De Luca wouldn’t be capable of something like that!

“...Find someone else,” she repeated.

His smile grew larger.

“I don’t want to. You seem pretty interesting, Eden. I don’t like mindless puppets. Your survival instincts are quite admirable too. You have what it takes to take down a Zodiac.”

“You’ll be the first to go if you don’t let me get away from here,” hissed Eden, determined.

She didn’t like this situation.

Although she was the one holding the gun, Eden felt at a disadvantage. Not because of the dozens of other weapons aimed at her, but because of that cunning grin of his. As if he was still in charge. As if he was on her end of the gun, holding the weapon, deciding on her survival or not. Eden was trying to think, and think fast. How? How could she get out of there without murdering a Zodiac and getting shot down right away?

She wanted to survive. No matter what, she wasn’t stupid enough to just sacrifice herself. She had a weapon in her hand, and it felt like if she didn’t leave now, she would never be able to.

“...Let’s make another bet,” he said.

“W-what?”

“I’ll let you go if you survive this.”

“Survive what?”

Suddenly, all the lights went out. Not just the lights, but the fake windows turned pitch black too. Eden heard the first gunshot somewhere over her shoulder, and someone grabbed her and threw her onto the floor. She rolled, her shoulder injured. She heard another gunshot, and one of the fake windows was blown, a downpour of glass falling over her head. Someone yelled an order in Italian, but she didn’t catch it. She heard her pups whimpering and crawled toward them, trying to stay as low to the floor as she could. More gunshots echoed above her position.

The restaurant had been thrown into total chaos in a matter of seconds, and she could hear people running all around. Someone stepped over her legs, and she heard a body falling somewhere on her left. More gunshots echoed, and she realized the shooters were outside. Snipers shooting from a building opposite? Eden grimaced when more gunshots ricocheted. She could only hear one of the pups whimpering, and she grabbed him. She swung her arm around, trying to find his brother. Where had he gone?!

The gunshots kept firing, and she suddenly understood that this was her only window of opportunity. Eden’s heartbeat slowed suddenly, as she realized. All his men were busy trying to keep him alive, if he still was alive. No one would care if she left. No one would shoot her. She looked around, trying to find the exit; it was already full of people, more guards who had run from the outside. Eden grimaced and turned around until she found another option. The kitchens. She had seen the woman come through there. There had to be another exit. She couldn’t spend more time there, and she had no idea where the other pup was. She only had this one shot.

Staying as close as she could to the ground, Eden ran in the direction where she vaguely remembered the kitchens to be. Another raffle of bullets blew more of the windows, sending light inside again. Eden glanced behind her shoulder, but there was no sign of the other pup. No time left.

She dove behind a panel, rolled down, finally close enough to the exit. She ran toward the door.

“Boss!”

Eden stopped, her hand on the door, and after half a second, looked back.

Dante had been shot. She couldn’t tell where, but two of his men were over him, and there was blood. Still, she met his eyes, and he stared right back at her. His lips moved, saying something.

Eden ran past the door as soon as she understood what he had said, and she kept running as if the devil himself was after her. She could hear the gunshots still resonating behind her. The only objective was to put as much distance as possible between herself and the restaurant. She finally found the emergency exit, and with all of her body strength, she pushed the door open and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. In her arms, she could feel Bullet’s little heart beating like crazy, and the dog didn’t dare emit a sound either.

Chunks of glass exploded somewhere above her. Eden had to cover her head so she wouldn’t be injured. Where were they shooting from? She couldn’t even locate the enemy! However, she didn’t have time to pause and look. She knew those kinds of fights never lasted for more than a few minutes. And Dante’s words were haunting her...

Her heart beating fast, Eden tried to remember where she was and where to go next. She wasn’t familiar with the Italian territory, and for a good reason. She had never wanted to be here in the first place. If she was in the northern part of their territory, she would have to go southwest to get back to the Eagle’s. However, what if Dante’s men found her before she could get there? She had to cross all of the Italian territory to get to the border, and she wasn’t even sure about where she was heading.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Eden just kept running, only picking narrow streets that went in the same direction. She tried to see the signs around, seeing if she was on the right path. Perhaps she was heading more west than she thought.

Finally, she found an underground station, Polk. Although it was called an underground station, it was actually one floor above the ground, not under. Eden climbed up, feeling nervous; no trains were running this line since the explosion of 2098, and she wasn’t sure what she was going to find upstairs. Many abandoned stations had become the lairs of dangerous people or hosted some very shady businesses. Thankfully, as Eden finished climbing she realized that was not the case with this station. Instead, rows of homeless people turned their heads to her, looking scared. However, Eden had no time for them. She remembered what outfit she was in, and she certainly couldn’t stay here wearing name-brand clothing. She was too easy to spot and didn’t fit in. So she got down onto the tracks and followed the direction to the south. It was easy from this height, as she could see the buildings in the distance. She put Bullet down, as he could follow once she started walking.