Red Lady

-10-

Kris

Looking out of the window of the café, I watched as people scurried through the streets, trying to get away from the drizzling rain as soon as possible. Sighing, I moved my eyes down to my drink and followed the movement as I stirred the cream into the coffee. What a way to distract the mind, huh?

I let out a large breath, getting up and leaving some money on the table for my waiter, leaving my untouched coffee there. When I opened the door, the cool breeze and the scent of the rain hit me, and I gave a ghost of a smile. This was one of my favorite types of weather.

I popped the collar of my tan coat up around my neck and buried my hands into the pockets before walking towards the government building where I would hopefully run into Dominic or his boss, Myers. It didn’t take me long to get inside, and I put my coat on the rack, joining many other wet overcoats.

It wasn’t hard to find Dominic; he always seemed to be in the office part of this building, as far away from the assassin as he could be. I walked up to him, causing him to turn around when he heard my heavy footsteps.

“Hey Kris,” he said with a smile. I tried to smile back, but he only got a small uplift of the mouth.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking around at all the people that seemed to be relaxing.

“Eden’s being shipped out of here today, in a more secure prison until her trial.”

“Is that right?” I said, sort of feeling, well, relieved.

“Now I won’t have to deal with her and I can focus on Su.”

I was about to respond, before I heard a loud buzz going around the room. I seemed to be the only one that was surprised. “What’s that?”

“That’s the signal that a dangerous prisoner is coming through.”

And that she was. Eden, with her hands behind her back, was being escorted through the room by bulky men, once I recognized to be a man named Donavan. I was glad to see that she was finally going to be gone, but I had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why was she in such little restraint? Why only hand cuffs?

That’s when I saw a smirk light up her face, and from behind her hands, as well as the others following her, was a can I knew as sleeping gas. They opened them and threw them at us, the gas almost instantly filling the room. I held my breath but could only watch in horror as the group put on breathing masks while pushing and shoving their way through all the people who were weakly trying to fight them off.

Unfortunately, I could hold the air in my lungs no longer and had to take a large breath. The sleeping gas was sucked into my system, and soon, I was on the floor unconscious.

--------------

Dominic

I think I realized it as soon as Kris had, because I saw his eyes widen and felt mine do the same simultaneously. She was breaking out, and with the help of Donavan? What the hell was going on?!

I took in air as soon as I saw the canisters and ran towards the escaping group. It was hard to get to them, seeing as there were bodies littering the floor, but I did reach the person I needed to talk to, or to knock out so he couldn’t get away.

He seemed to sense me and turned around with a smile that I could see through his mask. “Well, hello there Dominic. Aren’t you finding it hard to hold your breath so long?”

As soon as he said it, I could hear my body screaming at me to take more air and that it didn’t matter that it was infected with gas. I glared at him, trying to throw a punch, but he caught it in his larger hands.

“Please don’t be like this Dom, we’re friends.”

“Friends wouldn’t help the bad side!” I finally yelled, breathing normally and knowing that I would be out soon. I saw Donavan shake his head, his eyes full of sympathy. He helped me to the ground as I started to get weak and tired, and I could barely see his face through my blurred vision.

But I could hear his voice so clearly.

“The side I’m helping is good. You just don’t understand.”

I heard a female’s voice talking to the man, and he got up, moving away, but the woman stayed. She leaned down next to me and placed a kiss on my cheek. She was close to my face, so I could see the red hair and blue eyes over me. Eden.

“I’m sorry about this entire thing Dominic.”

That was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

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Eden

“Wow, did I miss this hotel or what?” I said with a happy sigh as I saw Avian rushing around to try and pack his belongings.

“How can you be so calm? We could be caught at any second,” he hissed without looking at me.

“I’ve already been in there Avian, going back wouldn’t be that bad. I would just be reminded of how my escape plan was foiled. It’s not like you have anything to worry about, no one knows you were in on it.”

He just grunted and turned around to face me with all of his things in his hands. “Let’s go. Irene is waiting for us in the car.”

I felt my brows rise at the mention of a feminine name. “Who’s Irene?”

“The friend who always helps me out.”

I followed him out of the door, stripped of my orange jumpsuit and into a black outfit with a hood covering most of my face. “So, I finally get to meet her, huh?”

“Sure, just come on!”

“Don’t panic so much, or you’re going to draw attention to yourself,” I whispered to him as a small family gave us strange looks. I saw him nod and his shoulders relaxed.

With the help of the elevator, we were out of the hotel quickly and there was a black GMC Yukon sitting in front of the building’s entrance. I let out a low whistle as I watched Avian put his stuff in the trunk. He then went around to sit in the passenger’s seat. “You, in the back,” he demanded.

“Okay, that I don’t mind. But there’s something I want to do before we get out of here.”

“What?”

--------------

Was there anyone in the world that actually liked hospitals? Well, besides the staff that is. And I’m sure that at times, even they grew tired of them.

I, like most of the world’s population, disliked, maybe even despised, hospitals. I had been entrapped in them too many times over my life, and entering one always brought back bad memories. But I had something to do here.

I walked towards the receptionist’s desk, waiting for her to get off of the phone. Once she was done with that business, she turned to me with a kind smile. “What can I do for you?”

“Could you please page Dr. Hart?”

Confusion flooded her eyes, but she typed into the computer to see if the doctor was busy, then announced over the intercom, “Dr. Harts, please come to the front reception.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

“If you would just take a seat, he will be here as soon as possible.”

And he came very quickly. He was tall and lanky, with is blond hair gelled back professionally. He asked the woman why he was called and she pointed at me. He turned around and smiled at me. I stood up and we both met at the middle. He grabbed my hand and brought it gently to his lips.

“Hello Eden.”

“Hello Mika,” I replied back.

“Here, let me take you into my office and we can talk in private.”

I nodded my head, but said “We need to make this quick, I need to leave soon.”

Another smile lit his face and a chuckle escaped his lips as he led me towards his private room. “What can I expect from you? I’m glad that you stopped by to see me, but I’m guessing it’s for business and not for pleasure?”

Once we were in his room, I watched him sit behind his desk while I stood there with my hands at my sides. “You’ve guessed right. I need you to do something for me.”

“And what is that?”

“I want to pay the medical bill for a woman by the name of Susanna Ramirez.”

His dirty blond eyebrow quirked, questioning me. “Feeling some guilt? I heard that was someone you injured in a kill.”

“No, I’m not guilty, just paying some dues.”

Mika asked no further questions but typed all the information I gave him into the computer. “This is going to be quite expensive Eden.”

“I’ve got plenty of money Mika; I’ve been doing expensive jobs all my life. I can always bum off Avian too,” I joked.

He shook his head but confirmed the payment for the bill now and for those to come. “It’s done.”

“And one more thing, give her brother this note for me? If I learned you read it, I’ll kick your ass.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Mika said seriously, taking the paper from my hand and putting it in his pocket. I smiled at him, leaned over his desk, and kissed his lips. “Thank you,” I whispered before standing up right and walking out of his office and the hospital.

I climbed into the very back of the car with Avian’s eyes on me the whole time. “What was that about?”

“I’ll tell you later,” I said, the exhaustion sweeping over me from the day. Irene, who I still hadn’t properly met yet, put the car in drive and we were off. I slept most of the drive to our new location.