“Don’t worry,” he whispered, although obviously too loud, “I have a plan!”
Eden glared at him again. She hated that he was acting crazy like this; it wasn’t the time for stupid jokes. She couldn’t even understand why he had agreed to let himself be taken in the first place. This is his lair; there is probably much more protection in place. Moreover, didn’t he have another hideout, a backup plan? Why stay here at all if he had known Eden was bringing the Italians back to him?!
“Alright, let’s wrap all of this and go home,” declared Dante, grabbing a cigarette from his pocket.
“Boss, are we taking all this... stuff?” asked one of the guys, baffled by the number of screens and random technology gathered there.
“Of course we are!” retorted Loir, as if he was now in charge. “Stuff? This isn’t just stuff! You big noobies! Do you even know how to use a keyboard?! This isn’t for playing Scrabble!”
The mafioso glared at him, visibly annoyed to be called names like this, but Dante just chuckled.
“Alright, grab all that stuff and the crazy one,” he said, pointing at Loir with his cigarette.
Loir checked over his shoulder as if he was expecting to find someone else.
“Who’s crazy?” he asked.
No one bothered to answer him. All the Italians moved to guard the area or gather the technology to carry it to the cars. Loir was yelling at them from time to time and complaining about the doofus carrying his cables and screens in a way in which he didn’t approve. On the side, Eden was stubbornly staying put, her arms crossed, with Bullet growling at her feet. Strangely, no one seemed to approach her or force her to go with them. Instead, Dante was calmly smoking his cigarette, letting his men work while he stood there.
“...Why are you so fixated on me?” she finally asked.
They were standing a few steps away from each other and there was also a ruckus going on in front of them, but she knew he’d heard her just fine. Indeed, he took a long drag and slowly exhaled his smoke.
“...I wonder,” he whispered. “All my instincts are telling me I must have you, and I must not let you go...”
Eden froze as his golden eyes looked at her. There was something about the way they shone that made her... shiver. She felt her heartbeat accelerate and her cheeks flush red. Why? Why was he so bent on having her? They had only met once in that bar. They had nothing in common, and he wasn’t even sure she was the one hacker he was looking for. So... why?
“My teddy bear!” exclaimed Loir. “My teddy—”
“You’re so annoying!” yelled one of the men, brutally pushing Loir’s chair. “Go get it yourself!”
The man had pushed the rolling chair so brutally that it tipped over, sending Loir to crash on his flank. The chair broke, and the sound echoed in the garage.
“You asshole!” yelled Eden, running to them.
She pushed the man away from Loir with a threatening glare. She didn’t have as much strength in her arms as she did in her legs, but she wasn’t defenseless. The man glared back but still stepped away with an annoyed expression. Ignoring him, Eden’s focus immediately switched to Loir, who was still lying on the floor, not getting up.
“Loir, are you okay?” she asked, grabbing his skinny arm to try and help him up.
To her surprise, the hacker sighed but did not try to get back up. He only tipped over to sit, ignoring Eden’s efforts to pull.
“Ha...” he mumbled. “I really liked that chair, though...”
“Come on, Loir, get up,” insisted Eden, tired from trying to pull him up by herself.
“I can’t, Kitty.”
“What? What do you mean you can’t?”
Eden tried again, but it was no use. Unless Loir made an effort himself, he could not be moved. Annoyed, the other guy rolled his eyes and walked to the other side of the hacker to help him up.
“Enough of this circus,” he groaned. “Get up, now!”
He grabbed Loir’s arm before Eden could protest, but just as he tried to pull him up, a bit of Loir’s shirt was pulled up as well, and they saw it. The little bit of skin exposed was covered in scars. The man, surprised, suddenly let go, but Eden was already frowning.
“Loir, what the...”
She went directly to his legs and pulled up the bottom of his pants to reveal his ankle.
