The whole falling on his sword thing 1
The whole falling on his sword thing 1
2019, December 19th
(Aaron)
I was burning the candle at both ends. Jesse and I had been following both Emily and Troy around for the last ten days, and it was starting to take its toll. I honestly didn't have the foggiest what the big fuss was about, but they were both on the move constantly. And they were both surrounded by serious security details. Emily had Hotel Elegantor Ludo's penthouse suite drowning in Purple Guard soldiers and Troy wasn't being shy about showing off his manpower either. This was it. Whatever or whomever the big hype was about, shit was going down today.
I now knew the identity of the woman in the photograph. Once my head cleared after my drunken night in Maine, I had Jesse find someone to clean the photograph up and find out who she was. She turned out to be Troy's dead sister, Diane. I was stewing, turning this information round and round in my head. Was that it? Did she somehow survive the war, after all? And what would become of Aria and her throne if she did?
Just what was Troy playing at? I never could figure this guy out. When he was engaged to CC, I was dead sure he was a dick. But then, in the end, it turned out he was just following orders. And as much as I hated the idea of relating to Troy, I understood having to fall in line better than most.
(Troy)
I was getting nervous about Neil being late for the meet. Dealings with Neil Dormer made me uncomfortable, but the man really did love Diane once and I was short on allies. Keira was in the wind and who knows if she's on my side or Dean's after the way shit went down in Sartis Est. The rest of The House of Assassins wasn't being too chatty either. Once Dean ascended the throne, The House of Assassins withdrew from dealings with me and I've been pretty much on my own ever since.
(Aaron)
I watched from the backseat as Emily got out of a car and entered a motel room.
“Shady motel rooms, lots of firepower. What are you into, Em?” I asked, now getting worried.
I took out my phone and called Henry.
“Hi, Dad. I need a no-questions-asked favor.”
“Where the hell are you? I haven't seen you for days.”
“Save the fatherly love for later, Henry. This is life or death, maybe. I think. I need The King's Guard.”
I heard a gunshot go off in the distance.
“Okay, definitely. Definitely life or death. Jesse will tell you where.”
“Aaron, don't do anything stupid.”
“Me? Never,” I said, pulling my gun out of the glove compartment as I tossed the phone at Jesse. “Got to go. Bye.”
“Aaron!”
I flung the car door open and raced to get to the motel room the gunshot had just come from. Gun in one hand and the doorknob in the other, I opened the door slowly.
“Hi, Em, do anything shady lately?”
Emily was sitting in a chair, refusing to say anything. Her eyes kept darting about as she tilted her head back. I approached cautiously, holding up my gun. Trying to figure out what she was hinting at as I entered the room. I found myself in a standoff, a guy coming into view behind Emily.
“Big, scary-looking dude a friend of yours?”
“Does it look like we're friendly?” Emily snapped.
It wasn't often that I saw fear in Emily Maine's eyes. Whatever this guy did or said to her scared the shit out of her. It was no wonder. I could handle myself in a shootout, but this guy was giving me the creeps. He had some serious dark vibes coming off of him and he didn't look too happy.
“It's not here,” said Dean. “Where's the parcel?”
I stopped looking at Emily and focused all my attention on the creepy guy with the gun. He and I were doing a little dance, both watching for the other to make the first move as we took cautious steps through the room.
“What's he talking about, Em?”
“I don't know,” said Emily.
As the cautious steps around the room continued, my shoes came up against something.
“Okay, dead guy. Did you ice the dude, Em? Is that why prince charming over here is so ticked off?”
“Seriously? You do see who's holding the gun in the room, right?”
The new guy made it to right up against Emily's back. He was too close for comfort. In a surprise move, he spun Emily's chair around. My grip on the gun tightened.
“That was me,” he said in a bored tone. “Dormer didn't know either.”
“You've got stones, I'll give you that,” I said, taking my first shot at him.
He took one too. I took another shot, this time wounding his shoulder. This elicited an annoyed grunt from him, who fired three rounds in succession, forcing me to back up and take cover. Even as he fired, his reaper eyes bored into Emily. He smiled the ugliest grin I'd ever seen.
“I'm in a bit of a hurry, sweetheart,” he said, grabbing her cheeks and jamming the gun into her mouth. “Are you sure you don't know?”
The dead guy's phone rang. His eyes met mine, and we both made a dash for Dormer. Emily took the opportunity to dart out of her chair and make a run for it. I was closer to the dead guy, the new guy having backed me up on the end of the room where the body was. So I answered the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Troy?”
“Aaron?”
As the new guy approached me two seconds later, I threw the phone at him and said, “Catch,” before making a run for it too, firing blindly in his direction as I backed myself out of the room.
But it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. By the time I got outside, I found Emily in the middle of a shootout between the new guy's men, The King's Guard and The Purple Guard.
“When this is over, you and I are having so many words. Go," I yelled, shooting my way back to our cars.