Five

Mae tried to keep calm and lower her loud breathing as she laid in the back of a jeep. Her hands were chained behind her before she was tossed into the car by the man. She didn't need to be told who he worked for and whose order it was that she be captured.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked the man while trying to mask her fear but the man said nothing in response. He just drove on.

The car stopped so she knew they had gotten to wherever he was taking her. She wished she could sit up and see where they were but doing that would only hurt her arm so she remained in the position the man had left her when he forced her to get into the back seat of the car.

The man opened the door and pulled on the chains binding her hand to drag her out of the car. Mae got out of the car and tried to steady where she put her leg but it was already too late. She fell with a loud thud and looked up to the man for help.

He pulled her up and helped her stand before closing the car door. As Mae was being dragged along by the man, she felt her sides hurt and knew her knee was bleeding but she couldn't stop to check it else she'd fall again so she just followed the man and tried to breathe through the pain.

She was led to a tall building. They were some men and women but mostly men hanging around the reception of the place when the man walked through the entrance with her. She was surprised as some of them turned to look at her only to return to their previous chatter.

They all acted like it was something normal for someone to be dragged along with a chain binding their wrists. The ones who didn't stop looking at her as she was being pulled on by the man looked at her with expressions she found disgusting. She started to wonder where it was they just walked into.

The people who were there were all dressed elegantly like they were there for an occasion but she wondered what.

They soon got to an elevator and the man pressed a button to go to the fourth floor. She tested her back against the wall of the elevator when she wasn't being dragged anymore and didn't have to try to walk as fast as the man did.

Her rest didn't last long as the elevator beeped before it opened. Like before, the man pulled on the chains holding her hands together and she followed him.

He soon stopped walking when they got to a door. She noticed how the man stood for some seconds arranging his posture before walking in with her.

Mae saw a man seated with his back facing her. He seemed to be talking to someone on the phone. He was in a suit, a navy blue suit. She knew from his suit jacket. He had black long hair that was being styled with all strands to the back of his head. She immediately knew who it was. It was Leo Vance, the man she was supposed to extract information from and then kill after.

Fear gripped her when he swinged around in his chair to face both she and the man who brought her. Leo smiled when he saw her in front of him. A smile that made Mae shiver.

She still couldn't tell why she didn't just stab him that day or just crack his neck and kill him. She was trained for that and knew very well how to take him out when she got to him but she messed things up, she knew she did. She had allowed her fear to get the better of her and didn't carry out what she was tasked to do and now he was going to kill her.

She swallowed when his eyes fell on her, scrutinizing her body from head to toe. He had told her on the phone that day that he would come for her no matter how she hid and she had ran to Omar for extra protection but here she was, in front of him.

She watched as Leo got out of his chair and started towards her and the man holding her by the chains. She flinched back in fear when he came in front of her because he had taken his hands out of his pocket and she thought he would hit her so she closed her eyes to brace for it but didn't feel any blows to her body.

Her eyes still closed, she wondered why she didn't feel him hit her because she heard the slamming of one's palm against someone's face. She opened her eyes and met the sight of the man who had brought her having his face turned to the left.

Did he just slap him? She asked herself. The man turned his face back to Leo with his head bowed. Mae could see some blood on the man's lips and could only imagine if he had slapped her and not the man.

"I asked you to bring her to me alive not with bruises on her." She heard Leo's cold, thick voice from that night, the voice that had annoyance toned in it.

"I'm sorry sir." She heard the man apologize.

"Did you bring her in through the front?" Leo went back to his desk and leaned against it, his hands going to his pockets.

"Yes sir." The man answered and Mae saw Leo's expression go from annoyed to angry.

"Everyone down there saw you bring her in?" Leo straightened from leaning against the desk when the man nodded."What were you thinking? Don't you know that could reduce her value for tonight?"

Tonight? What's happening tonight? Mae asked herself when Leo said that. She saw him walked around his table and take out a little box. He set the box to his desk and opened it while both she and the man who was just slapped watched.

She could see from where she stood that it was a pistol. Her heart skipped. Was it time? Was he going to kill her now? He screwed the silencer to the muzzle and smiled after he was done. He came back to where she and the man stood and brandished the gun in front of them, swirling the trigger guard around his pointer finger. The moment he stopped spinning the gun, Mae's throat hitched.

He pointed the gun to her forehead so she closed her eyes expecting the bullet to go through her head at anytime. She stopped shaking with fear and decided to die being fearless. Leo noticed how she became less shaky and fidgety when he pointed the gun at her and smiled. He was going to torture her with the gun and watch her beg but she just shoved her fear away so the fun of it was gone.

He traced the muzzle of the silencer across her face and she shuddered when he took it to her neck and cocked the gun. He bit his lips, happy that as much as she was trying to hide it, she still had fear in her. He took the gun away from her skin and shot at the man.

Mae opened her eyes when it occurred to her that she was still alive. She looked to the ground after the man fell with a thud. He died instantly. Mae didn't find the sight gory, it wasn't the first time someone was dying in front of her but she just couldn't believe the man who had single handedly killed six men to bring her yet was just shot dead by him.

"This is a Russian pistol, Tokrev Tt-33," Leo was back to swirling the gun's trigger guard around his finger when he spoke to her."Someone recently gifted it to me and look, I just launched it." He laughed and brought his face to her."You didn't think I'd just kill you like that, did you?"