Episode 11 — Cars, Guns, and Kisses
"Ok, so I have the plane booked for tomorrow at three in the morning," Collin says walking into the main hall where everyone was trying to relax. "The airport had been given a heads up, no mark of our presence in or out of the country."
“And I’ve called Father Johan and asks for an extension saying that I haven’t fully healed yet and that Astrid is having a time of her life, it took a bit of persuasion, but he finally agreed seeing it is my birthday.” Damien explains, “We only have 48 hours, later than that he’ll be sending in the guards.”
"Good," Ash says. “We have five hours before we need to leave.”
“And only one day to push through this,” Dimitri says before dropping four duffle bags in front of Astrid.
"Loaded?" Astrid asks.
"Yeah, I have five more at the security room." he opens one of the bags and handed Astrid a guy who pulls out the magazine, pulled the slide, and pushed the trigger and they heard a click while Dimitri continues to open the other duffle bags.
"How did you get those here?" Allana asks looking over Dimitri’s shoulder.
"Yeah, about that." Dimitri smirks, "I have my ways."
"Well, then, load me up!" Derek says. Astrid and Dimitri exchanged looks. "What?”
Astrid tries not to laugh, "Dimitri has issues with people handling his weapons."
"So you'll let us march in there with no weapons?" Jared asks.
"Of course not." Dimitri says, "I have three duffle bags just for you guys, even girlie guns for Allana."
"Girlie guns?" Allana asks and gave Astrid a look, who rolls her eyes.
"We are not bringing those puke guns," Astrid says.
"But it’s perfect for Allana, it’s light and girly." Dimitri says, “You would have known that if you gave it a chance- “
"No. Girly. Guns." Astrid says again and laid the gun on the table and walked toward the stairs.
"I think I like the sound of the girly guns," Allana says with a nod.
"Your call, don't tell me I didn't warn you," Astrid calls out.
"Where are you going?" Ash asks.
"Getting loaded." she stops in the middle of the stairs and grins, "Like Dimitri, I have my ways."
"Bring Shadow and Blade with you." Dimitri reminds her, "We might need to check on them since it has been up on your wall for a while."
"It isn't rusty Dimitri," Astrid says and continues to run up the stairs.
"I'm not talking about the blades!" Dimitri shouts.
"Oh, you didn't just say that!" Astrid storms down the stairs again.
The others laughed and Damien walked up to her and held her around the waist pushing her back.
"Let's go cranky." he teases. "We can't have you kill Dimitri right now; we need him."
"Right now?" Dimitri raised a brow.
"Yes right now!" Astrid snaps, "I'll kill you after this is all over... Rusty, really!" She storms off again.
"You really know how to get on her nerves don't you Dimitri?" Damien chuckles.
"Yeah well, she can't just always be on her killer mode." Dimitri says, "Teasing her lightens her mood, but yes, I do have to face her wrath later."
Damien grinned, "Good luck with that."
Seventeen hours later, Damien stirred in his seat on the private plane.
“Hey…” Astrid smiles.
“You didn’t sleep?” he asks.
“I did,” she says, he gave her a look making her laugh. “I did Damien, I’m not bionic.”
“Where are we?” Damien looked out the window.
“About to land.” Astrid says and looks out the window, “It isn’t much, but it was home.”
Damien looks at the city, it was still a bit dark, but the airport seems busy already.
The intercom beeped for the pilot to remind them to put their seatbelts. Then Astrid reached for Damien’s hand and squeezed it.
“You ok?” he asks.
“I just…” she sighed, “didn’t think I’d be back here so soon.”
He faced her and made her face him, “And will be leaving before you know it.” She smiles and nodded.
Then they heard a struggle at the back. Then Dimitri steps out as he was putting back his gun on its holder.
“Everything ok?”
“He’s just being hard-headed, as usual.” He sits back on his sit, put on his seatbelt, and yawned, “Man, when we get back, I’d probably be asleep for a good seven days.”
Astrid smirks, “I can make that longer.”
Dimitri opened one eye and smirked at her, “Still pissed off huh?”
“You have no idea.” Astrid glares at him before she turns her back at him.
Soon they were walking out of the jet, Dimitri gave out the whistle seeing the luxury cars lined up in front of them.
“Man, you guys really don’t know how to lie low don’t you?” he says, holding unto Kale who was wide eyes with what he was seeing.
Collin raises his hands up as if surrendering, “Don’t look at me, Astrid set us up here.”
Dimitri gave her a look, then his mouth dropped open. “You didn’t.”
Astrid grins, “If you say so.”
“All of it?”
“Yep.” Astrid walks down toward one of the cars.
“What are you talking about now?” Derek asks.
“She bought these cars.”
“What?!” they all ask in unison.
Astrid shrugs, “Well, it’s easier to explain why I’m carrying five Ferraris, three jaguars, three Ducati and all the others than a dozen bagful of money, isn’t it?”
They all shook their head, awed.
“Just how many cars did you buy?” Jared asks.
“I’m not really sure, I’ve lost count.” She shrugs.
“Astrid, we’re going on a gun down, these cars- “
“Were pimped, bulletproof doors and glass, gears and wheels modified for a hell of a run down like what we’ll be doing…” she wanted to elaborate but that will take too long, “you’ll be surprised what you can do if you know the right people to talk with.”
“Ok, Miss Pimp my ride, give me my keys,” Allana says.
“And who says you’ll be driving?” Collin raised a brow.
“Cause I’m not planning to ride shotgun on a Ferrari,” she says. Astrid tossed her a set of keys.
“The GPS is already set. I’d rather we go to different cars for now, so we’ll be less obvious as Dimitri excitedly pointed out.”
Allana pressed the unlock button on the key holder and looked at the Ferrari California, “Sweet.”
“We’ll head out together.” Collin says, “Astrid?”
Astrid tosses him a set of keys as well. “I’m trusting you on this one Collin, that’s one of my favorites.”
“A Marussia? Among all these this is your favorite?”
“Yeah, well, its classy, simple and don’t get me starting with the speed.” Collin chuckled and unlocking the door.
“We’ll see you at home.” He says, and the next second they drove off.
“Ok, hook me up,” Derek says.
Astrid tossed one key to each of them.
“Sweet, I get the Jaguar,” Derek says.
“I truly am born to be on a Ferrari Enzo,” Jared says, running his hand on the hood.
“Aurea? Seriously?” Ash asks.
“Happy Birthday.” She says with a wink.
“What about me?” Dimitri asks.
“Oh, you are going to love what I got you,” Astrid says, tossing his car key to him.
Dimitri caught it and stared at it, then his eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, and keep it, I’m not much of a fan but I know you love it, so I got when I saw it.” She says, “it's on the other side of the jet. I hope you feel guilty now after what you say.”
“I have to drive it first! See you, babies, later.” He jogged to the other side of the jet.
Then the other boys gave them a beep and drove off.
“So I’m left with the Lotus?” Damien asks.
“Safe, fast just not much space, but I’d prefer a two sitter for you.” She says, “in case you get ideas of doing something on the back seat.”
Damien stifled a laugh, “That depends on who’s on the backseat with me.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” She teased, walking up to him.
“So are you riding with me then?”
“Nope.” She says, he raised a brow, “I have my ride on the other side. I’ll see you at home.” She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss, “Don’t get loss ok?”
She turns and jogged to the other side of the jet. Then a car drove pass by, making Damien laugh, a 1981 Camaro.
Should have known. Damien thought. Then he glances at the car, and he stepped inside and drove out following the instruction of the GPS. It has been 20 minutes and he hasn’t seen any of the other’s car or seen Astrid drive out of the airport.
He hates to admit it, but he was getting worried. Finally, the navigation shows that he’ll be in his destination in a couple of minutes.
He sees a manor with high walls, that all you can see is half of the second floor of the mansion. He honked and the gates automatically opened, and he saw the other’s cars, with the gang hanging around the cars, looking up at the house.
“What you think?” Jared asks the moment Damien stepped out of his car and looked around.
“Think of what?” he asks.
“The house.”
He looks up at it, “Hunted?” he says with a grin.
“That’s what I said!” Derek says.
“Man, Astrid has a weird taste of house.”
“Nope, she has a good sense of security,” Dimitri says, he was sitting on top of his car cleaning one of his guns. Then he points at the top of the pillars on the gate, “two cameras at the gate, another one behind the gate with the perfect shot of the plate. One at the top of the roof with the shot of the whole front, two more in the corners of the house which has a shot of both sides of the house, and a dozen more cameras all over outside the house. So no skinny dipping for you two.” He glanced at Collin and Allana who rolled their eyes at him.
“Well, what about inside?” Ash asks.
Dimitri chuckled, “Probably high ceiling, trampoline in the middle of the main hall, game room at the attic, a theater room somewhere on the second floor, armory beside the library, security room at the basement, and a huge kitchen.” They were staring at him, amazed how sure he was of himself. “She loves to cook, and she loves to eat, I’m sure it’s a huge kitchen.”
Then they heard another honk and the moment the gates opened their jaws dropped.
“You have got to be effin’ kidding me,” Derek says gawking at the car.
Astrid parked behind Damien.
“It lives up to its name.” Astrid gets out with a satisfied smile.
“That’s a Hennessey Venom.” Derek says, “I haven’t even seen one of this up close.” Then he stood up and was about to say something.
“No, you can’t drive it,” Astrid says as she walked past the other and up the front steps.
“At least let me ask, you're just mean,” Derek says.
“We’ll see.” Astrid says, “Anyway, security check ok?”
“Yep,” Dimitri picked Up Kale from the ground where he was sitting, “I’ll put this one on the dungeon.” He glanced up at her, “You do have one, right?”
“Right below the security room,” Astrid says, she finally unlocks the front door and they filed inside looking around.
Dimitri got the high ceiling right.
“No trampoline.” Derek teased him.
Dimitri chuckled and handed him, Kale, then he walked toward the main hall, he looked around and finally see a switch and flipped it open. The floor began to move, along with the furniture, and underneath the marble flooring was the promised trampoline.
“You were saying?” Derek asks, grabbing Kale by the arm and lead him to the security room.
“What’s with the trampoline, Astrid?”
Astrid giggled and run to it and jumped on. After a couple of jumps, she began flipping in the air.
“Astrid!” Allana calls.
“It’s the perfect exercise,” Astrid shouts to answer her as she continued to jump and flip back and front. Then she gave one last jump then jumped toward the floor and landed perfectly on her feet. “We used to have one at the house, I don’t like running much, or gym. So I got myself a trampoline.”
“Uhuh, ten by ten meters of the trampoline for exercise,” Collin says, amused, “interesting.”
Astrid grinned, “Anyway, your rooms are upstairs, you can have any room except for the one by the front, that’s taken.”
“Great, I’ll go freshen up and we’ll see you guys for breakfast,” Allana says pulling Collin with her.
“We’ll have to run through the plan again ok?” Ash says, “So no sleeping Derek.”
“Oh c’mon… I’m tired.”
“Then you can stay here and sleep.” Jared teased.
“Oh, no… I will not…”
Damien and Astrid listened to their teasing until they reached upstairs.
“How about you?” Astrid asks, “Aren’t you tired? Want to go to rest?”
He gave her a look, “Ok, now I’m thinking twice of accepting any food or drink from you.”
Astrid stifled a laugh, “I’m not going to slip you a drug, Damien.” She says, “If I want to knock you out all I have to do is pressure points. But I’m not planning to knock you out seeing I don’t want a fight with you on your birthday.”
Damien smiles, reaching for her waist and pulls her close, “Thank you.”
“But that doesn’t mean that I agree on this.” She says, “I’d still prefer doing this alone, but seeing I’m outnumbered… blah blah blah.”
Damien laughs, “Not that what you want is blah blah blah, we just want you to understand that we’re here to help you, whether you like it or not.”
“Well, that’s an understatement.” She says, snaking her arms over the shoulder. “Just, be careful ok?”
“If you promise me the same thing,” Damien says.
She smiles, “I promise.”
“Then yes, I will be careful.” He leans forward to kiss her when they heard a slamming from the second floor.
“What the- “
“I found it; I go first!” Derek shouts.
“I called on it first!” Jared says.
“It’s my sister’s house,” Ash shouts as well, “twin sister! That trumps all your dibs and whatever!”
“I think they found the game room,” Astrid says, she pulls Damien upstairs and found Allana and Collin watching the other three boys wrestling on the floor.
“What the hell?” Astrid asks seeing the mess they’ve already caused.
“He started it!” the three shouted.
“Are you kidding me?” Astrid asks walking up to them, “Seriously guys, you’ve been here for what, three minutes?”
“Well if Ash gives the controller- “
“No way, I- “
“It can’t always be what you- “
“Shush up!” Astrid snapped. “God, you three are acting childish, what’s wrong with you.”
“We’re bored.” They say in unison.
The other laughed.
“Thought so.” Collin says, “You got this one princess?”
“Yeah, sure...” Astrid says, her hands on her waist and was still looking at the boys with disbelief. “Seriously, no one’s playing until you clean this up.”
“What?”
“No fair!”
Astrid raises a finger to shut them up, “Or I’ll be locking the game room.”
“Fine.” They mumbled and started cleaning up.
She walked toward the door again where Damien was waiting.
“Wow, mom, good job!” Damien teases.
“Don’t start with me Damien or I’ll make you clean.” She says.
“Sorry, no bullying the celebrant.” He says following her out of the room and toward her room.
Astrid laughed, “Fine.”
“Now, how about that kiss that was rudely interrupted at the beach and downstairs?” Damien asks, he grabs her around the waist and tossed her on the bed.
Astrid laughs as Damien grabs her by the foot and pulled her toward him.
“Damien, stop it,” Astrid says laughing.
“Not until I get my birthday gift.” He says, kissing her neck and up.
“Wait, wait…” Astrid reached for his face and made him face her, “No kisses.”
“What? No…” his voice was muffled when he hid his face on the crook of her neck where he started licking and nibbling her.
Astrid laughs, “Listen first…” she says, Damien rolled his eyes and made her continue. “I won’t kiss you now, I promise to kiss you only if you come home unscathed.”
Damien stares at her and gave it a thought. “Well, that’s hard.” He says, “How about no gun holes or stabs wounds, scratches are allowed of course, and no broken bone.”
Astrid put on her thinking face. “Deal.”
“Same goes for you,” Damien says, not moving.
“No problem with me,” she says as she ran her hand on his chest downward.
“No teasing…” Damien says, grabbing her hand making her stop.
“What? Why?” she pouted, teasing.
“Cause we’re in a bed and I can do more than kiss you right now.” He whispers. Astrid looks up at him surprised, making Damien laugh. “Be careful who you’re teasing…”
“That was uncalled for Damien…” she says, her heart skipping a beat faster after Damien’s innuendo.
“You started it.” He says.
He moves off her and lies beside her, Astrid didn’t have any come back for that. In all honesty, she was curious about what it felt like to make love with Damien. But whenever she starts thinking about it, she remembers the night with those men, and she pushes the thought away.
It was the only moment that she will slightly move away from Damien.
“Angel…” Damien whispers to her, feeling her stiff beside him. “You don’t need to think about making love with me now, I’m in no rush.” He says. She knows he wasn’t, but what if she never becomes ready? What will he do? Then as if hearing her thoughts he pulled her closer, her back leaning on his chest, her whole body perfectly fit his. “I promise I’ll make you forget what those bastards do to you.”
Astrid snuggled closer to him but still didn’t respond. Instead, she just closed her eyes and rested.
An hour later they were in the kitchen, a blueprint laid on the table, Kale was tied up and sitting with them on the table.
“Everyone got it?” Dimitri asks.
“Yup,” Derek says, putting his hand behind his back, leaning on the chair. “Jared and I are on sniper duty.”
“Allana and I will go through the back,” Collin says.
“Damien and I will take the side,” Ash says.
“And I’m going in front,” Astrid says casually.
“Good. I’ll be in the getaway car, everyone makes sure their earpiece and communication are working the whole time, no one is allowed alone- “he glanced at Astrid, “except Astrid.”
“Why do you get to go alone, no partner, and in front?” Derek asks.
“Cause I’m familiar with the place already,” Astrid says. Kale grunted and they turned to him, “You want to say something Kale?”
He tries to struggle out of the ropes that Dimitri had on him. Dimitri ripped off the packing tape that was sealing his mouth.
Kale gasp at the pain of tied and the sting of having the tape removed.
“You were saying?” Dimitri asks him with a smile.
“You’ll never get as far as the main hall.” He sneered, “Your face is everywhere in the mansion and I’m pretty sure that the master has a bone to pick with you after that stunt you did.”
“What stunt?” Jared asks.
“Urgh, here we go again with this…” Dimitri says.
“Good lord Kale let it go, it’s been a year,” Astrid says.
“A year of humiliation for him!” he shouts, “Do you know that he now ties up every woman at home to have his way with them?”
Astrid cringed at the thought, “Well, thank you for telling me that, now I have more reason to kill him.”
“No, they have more reason to kill you.” He says, “They know that it’s your fault why he does it.”
“Well, it was his fault, wasn’t it?” Astrid snapped, “He should have never tried to peeve me and make that remark that I can’t kill anyone without sleeping with the target!”
“I really don’t want to ask, but…” Ash sighed, “what did my sister do?”
Astrid crossed her arms, “You’re making it sound like I’m at fault here.”
“I’m not saying that,” Ash says, “I just want to know what you did to the poor guy.”
“She tied him into the bed,” Dimitri answered, a smirk on his face.
“That’s it?” Allana asks.
Dimitri chuckled and Astrid sat back, mad and blushing.
“Jetson, though a rival house is a friend of the family,” Dimitri explained. “It isn’t unusual that we work together as well, Kale here had been a constant partner of mine or Astrid in the past. Mikael Jetson, the new Master of the house had always fancied Astrid, ever since we were young. And well, she never really returned the attention so that irked Mikael. Last year, during the Collin festival that was held at the Jetson’s mansion, Mikael- being turned down by Astrid yet again- got drunk and began telling everyone that she is better off as a prostitute than an assassin.” He grins, enjoying reliving the memory. “And so, what our princess here does is seduced him to his room, and got him naked, he didn’t even get to take off even one piece of her clothing.” He snickers. “Probably wasn’t able to touch her either. -“
“I strapped him in bed naked and left him.” Astrid finishes. “End of story.”
“What? You aren’t going to leave the best part.” Dimitri says, amused.
“Dimitri…” Astrid whines and ran her hand on her face.
“She then runs back to the party, panicking and says something was wrong with Mikael. That he was in his room, in pain.” Dimitri laughed again.
“It isn’t funny!” Kale says.
“Shut up.” Astrid says, “You brought this up, dumbass.”
“Ok, so what happened?”
“We all rushed to his room and saw him tied up, with a message on his chest saying, I pay men to do things for me. We were all stunned as he shouts in anger, we of course untied him, and he demanded to have Astrid reprimanded or else Jetson and Duchovny will have a problem.” Dimitri says, “He wanted Astrid dead, but none of the houses can afford a run-in with her.”
“Are you happy now Dimitri?” Astrid asks.
“Yup.” He says making a popping sound.
“Let’s get back to business then.” She says.
“Wait, I just realized something,” Derek says.
“What?” Astrid snapped.
Derek grins, “You in a lot of trouble Damien, someone likes it rough.”
They all laughed while Astrid just cringed and blushed.
“Can we get serious now people?” Astrid snapped, still red-faced.
“Ok, ok… kill joy,” Derek says, laughing.
“I still think this is a suicide mission.” Kale sneered, “You eight will never get out.”
“Your right,” Astrid stood up and cocked the gun that she has been playing with, “Because there will be nine of us, I’m taking Tenshi home.”
“Angel you can’t- “
“I’m responsible for her, not you.” She snapped, “I should have never trusted you with her Kale.”
“You’ll be putting her in danger- “
“Leaving her there will be putting her in danger,” Astrid argued. “So it's either you are in this or not Kale.”
He looked at her surprised. “I- I…”
“Either way Kale I don’t need you to stay.” She says, “You’ve served your purpose for me, I’ll be taking Tenshi and you can go back to Jetsons or leave, whatever you want, but right now what I want to know is who is the assassin assigned for me by the Jetsons.”
He frowns, his throat was dry, making him swallow his saliva before he answered. “Tenshi.”
Astrid frowns.
“She still hasn’t accepted the assignment.” He says quickly, “I told you, she was being molded by Mikael to be like you.” He says, “Mikael says she wants her to grow up deadlier than you, heartless and guiltless. She’s his number one project.”
Astrid tightens her grip on the gun, then it dawned on her, something that Kale says earlier. “Kale.” He looked up at her, she wasn’t angry, she was worried, almost scared. “Has he had his way with her?”
Kale’s eye shift, that was answer enough already. Astrid slammed his hand on the table and stood up, “I told you to protect her!” Damien stood up and grabbed her by the arm.
“And I won’t be able to if I start rejecting assignments just to keep her safe!” he spat back, “Mikael is already asking why I have such a soft spot for her, I can’t make him think that he can use her as my weakness!”
Astrid slammed her hand on the table again, then she carefully stepped away from Damien’s hold, but the safety lock on the gun. “We’re heading out now.”
“What?” they all ask.
“I want Tenshi here now.” She snaps and walked toward the door.
“Astrid calm down.” Dimitri grabbed her by the arm, “You can’t risk everyone’s life- “
“Then I’m going alone.” She says.
“We’ve talked about this Astrid.” Ash snaps. “We’re doing this together.”
“No,” Astrid says, “that was when we were only to get Tenshi. But this time, it’s personal.”
“Let me just make a few changes in the plan and we’ll leave in fifteen minutes,” Dimitri says.
“I’ll help,” Kale says. “Mikael will be taking her to a hotel today, he does it every Wednesday afternoon. He introduces her to every mobster and drug dealer as her daughter, they stay at the dining hall for three hours, they live before dinner.” Everyone was listening to him.
“There is four entrance to the hotel, the front door that leads to the lobby, the side door that leads to the ballroom, the back door for the workers, and the entrance from the underground parking.” He enumerates. “Mikael enters through the front door, he likes the attention, and the hotel personnel knows that. He brings about fifty guards with him, ten guards are sent thirty minutes before their arrival to check the area. Twenty will go undercover and enter from the parking lot. The other twenty is their escort. Ten of them are for Tenshi and ten for him.”
“Wow, he doesn’t know how to lie low,” Derek says.
“Mikael is known in this parts as one of the biggest drug dealers, ever since Angel here killed the big bosses he had been running the show, of course, some of the old faithful men of the syndicates still try to run him down, but he’s just way too high up now,” Kale says.
“What else do we need to know?” Collin asks.
“The guards who go ahead always chooses who serves Mikael, a girl is usually the choice, and a boy to assist her.”
“I’d take that,” Allana says.
“And I guess I have to make sure that I’ll be your partner,” Collin says.
“You know how to speak Russian?” Kale asks.
“No,” Allana says, worried.
“Good, Mikael doesn’t want a talkative server,” Kale says. “Most likely they will be having what they usually have and staying at their usual table outside the balcony overlooking the pool, there will be guards at every corner of the terrace, three behind Mikael and Tenshi, two in the door that leads to the terrace four at the top of the stairs and four at the bottom.
“What are the orders when there’s a takeover?” Astrid asks.
“Front door with Tenshi, there’s an unmarked car waiting outside.” He nods.
Astrid looked around. “Great, time for dress-up.”