The Keeper: Alexa LeGardien (8 page)

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. I just can’t . . .”
zip it up
. “Um . . .” she finally opened her door to her room where she saw Matt standing in all his Prince Charming glory. She wanted to gloat that she had been right about him looking handsome, but she held back. “Do you mind?” she asked, gesturing to her half-zipped dress.”

“Just call me Bond.”

She turned around and adjusted his tie, mostly because she needed something to do with her idle hands. “I’ll call you Bond if you call me Ryder.”

“Elegant.” — “Handsome.”

They both smiled, as if not expecting either complement.

“What, not going to tell me that I look beautiful tonight?”

“Doesn’t seem necessary,” Matt said as he lightly chuckled before adding, “You always look beautiful.”

She swallowed, totally not expecting his answer. For some odd reason, she seemed caught off balance. She was thinking of something sarcastic to say when his phone rang again.

He ignored it like she had seen him do before, and turned his attention back to her. “It seems as though you will indeed be the Ryder to my Bond.”

“I’m lost,” Alexa mumbled.

“Apparently, we are the newly-married couple, Evelyn and Richard Michaels. I’m twenty-five and you’re twenty-three,” Matt explained, slipping his hand through his hair and attempting to hide a smile.

“What happened to James?” she asked, referring to the previous alias Leeman had chosen.

He shrugged, still staring down at the new identities.

“And to think I only just turned eighteen last week,” she joked, grabbing his hand in hers. “So, we are both five years older than we were yesterday. That’s good to know.”

He grinned before arching an eyebrow. “Ready?”

“
Oh, yeah
. I haven’t been this thrilled since I snuck into a Mr White’s residence as an attempt to retrieve a pearl necklace. An elite party, a stolen artefact, a dash of magic. It’s like a real-life movie, don’t you think?”

“We’ll see.”

—             —             —

“I
got it. I had it four days ago, and I still have it. I know where the exits are. I know where the easily accessible vents are. I have an unlimited amount of excuses in my head in case I get caught. Which I won’t. And no, for the tenth time in a row, I will not be taking the gun, because I won’t be using it. I am not killing anyone. I did not sign up for that.” She took a deep breath and continued, “Leeman said this would be easy.”

“Oh, Miss LeGardien, this
is
easy. Shall we?” Davidson asked.

Matt put out his smoke reluctantly and followed behind as they entered yet another limo. He shook his head. This was not where he imagined he would be. At all. His job, he thought, his
interesting,
well-paying job. He had meant to tell Alexa about that, but the timing just wasn’t ever right. But this was where he was now. He had agreed to this. He had to be there for her. He couldn’t just leave her at such a confusing time. He hated that he felt he was lying to her every time he pushed the needed discussion further in time.

“You know, Matt, you don’t have to come.”

“But I do,” he countered. “Who’s going to keep you from getting in trouble? And we are friends.”

“The bestest.”

“How cute,” Davidson cut in, clearly not the least bit interested in their chat. “Shall we get on the move?”

Matt’s hand glided to the middle of her back before he had a chance to stop himself. He was glad that she didn’t seem to notice. He let go as soon as they entered the limo.

“The suspense is more than a little annoying. We know basically everything about this artefact—where it was made, who made it, what it’s made of—except what it does. Today’s the day, so you might as well just tell us.”

The sound emitting from his phone disrupted her thoughts once again. This made it the fourth time it had rung during the ride to the party. Yup, Alexa had been counting. She couldn’t help it. “You should probably put that on silent,” she noted, hiding her slight frustration. “Who’s been calling you anyway?”

He shrugged before offering up a half smile.

“Ah, the ex. Am I right?”

He looked at her, but didn’t reply.

“What was her name again? Christina?” she poked.

“Sorry for the constant ringing. She just won’t let up.”

His phone rang again; its blinking screen was still very visible. “Here, let me.” Alexa stretched out her hand and Matt dropped his phone in it warily.

“What are you going to do?”

She smiled as she answered the phone, waiting to hear the voice on the other end.

“Matty. And here I thought you were ignoring me.”

“Oh, he was,” Alexa responded, trying her best to hide a sharp snicker.

There was a pause on the other line and Alexa had to stifle a rising chuckle. Matt mouthed you’re crazy, and she replied with a wink.

Christina finally spoke again.
“Um, who’s this?”

“This would be his . . .
wife
, you bitch. Call this number again and you’d be dead in the literal sense, I promise.” She cut the call before Christina could find something else to say.

“Wow, that was . . . My wife?”

“Why, yes, Mr Michaels.” She let out a small laugh and shook her head. “Oh, my god. I can’t believe I just did that. That was crazy.”

“Yeah, it sort of was.”

She handed him back his phone. “Crazy awesome, though.”

He hesitated briefly before speaking, “I’ll have to take your word on it.”

“That’s enough talk,” Davidson said, ending the friendly chatter going on. “We are here,” he announced.

“Okay. Remember, Matt. You distract and warn me in case of—”

“I remember, I remember. You can always count on me.”

“Right. Of course. I know that.”

“Is your earpiece in place?”

She quickly ran her ran around her right ear to make sure. She had totally forgotten about that, but thankfully, it was in place. “Yeah, everything’s good. I have the earpiece on, I have the taser strapped to my leg, away from the public’s wandering eyes, and other things . . . Everything’s in place. I crammed the blueprint. Trust me, I remember it like I remember the lyrics to Nine Inch Nails’
Hurt
. I’m good.” She tried putting on a brave front for both Matt and Davidson. “I’m good,” she repeated with less trembling in her voice.

“All right.” Davidson nodded as he tapped his fingers on the headboard separating the driver from the passengers. “They are ready.” And then he turned to face Alexa and Matt. “Good luck.”

As the side door of the limo opened up, they were immediately welcome by a swarm of cameras flashes and cheers of a nearby crowd. Granted, the cheers weren’t for them, but that didn’t stop the cameras from being pointed at them.

Alexa instinctively reached for Matt’s hand with one thought in mind: What the hell did she get herself into? “Whoa,” she exclaimed as a bright flash almost blinded her.

“I guess it’s lights, camera, action.”

“I guess it is. Fingers crossed, we don’t die on our first mission. Smile.”

—             —             —

“W
HAT
are you doing?” Alexa asked on high-alert when Matt took her hand and pulled her to the entrance of the ballroom.

“What does it look like? We are blending in, right?” he extended a palm in front of her. “May I have this dance?”

“Sure. I’ll have to slip away in, like, twenty minutes, so we—or
you
will have to socialize.”

As they neared the very elegant, very spacious ballroom, they were approached by a married couple. Alexa immediately knew who they were from the pictures they’d studied—Emily and Peter Rownley. They were not only the owners of the mansion that Alexa and Matt were in right now, but also the holders of the artefact she had been tasked to retrieve.

Here goes nothing
, Alexa thought, putting on the most realistic fake smile she could. “They are headed towards us,” she muttered. “Game face.”

“Hi. You must be Evelyn, and you, you must be Richard,” the woman that approached them said.

Must be,
Alexa thought while burying a snicker. The whole scenario was a tad bizarre. She and Matt playing a rich couple as a ruse to steal an artefact that was—according to Leeman—
très très
important. “Yes, we are.” She spoke as softly as she could, her mind still on retrieving the artefact.

“You look so young. You’re going to have to refer me to your doctor.”

Should I be insulted or flattered?
“Funny. I’m afraid it’s all genes.”

Emily smiled wildly, but in a way that didn’t scream ‘friendly’, more like the exact opposite of that. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. And there we were wondering why we had never been acquainted before.” The first thing Alexa noticed was the woman’s very prominent accent—English, not Italian in the least.

“Probably because we live in a completely different continent,” Matt said.

“Where, America?”

Alexa slightly nudged Matt on his side. They weren’t supposed to give out personal information, so it probably wasn’t best to reveal their actual residential location. “No, Africa,” she quickly corrected before she had a time to think through her answer.
Africa
? She knew next to nothing about the continent.

“
Yeah
,
Africa
. It’s a
long
story,” Matt added, suddenly feeling a little uneasy about the whole situation.

“Don’t be creeped out, but we had a background check on both of you guys. We do it for all our guests,” Mr Rownley said, his voice deep and just a tad scary.

“That’s good to know,” Alexa said, stopping herself from visibly gulping.

“Truth time, we did know you lived in Africa. We were just testing the waters. Forgive us.”

“Already forgiven. If anyone understands that, it’s us,” Matt spoke confidently. And for a minute, Alexa forgot that he was her Matt. Her Matt that never went to elegant parties, the same one who apparently wore converses to prom, and the same one who puked shamefully after watching a slasher movie with her. The way he spoke conveyed confidence, and for a while she began to wonder what else he was good at other than playing the part of a rich husband.

They stayed for a little chatter before parting ways and talking up conversations with other random people.

“It’s time,” Alexa whispered as Matt handed her a glass of wine. “We can’t be drinking. We have to keep our game faces on.”

“I know. It’s soda.”

Her face brightened again and she happily took the glass from him. “As if I couldn’t love you any more than I already did. Who knew talking this much could make one so thirsty?”

He smiled and rubbed her shoulders. “Are you ready?”

“Yup, let’s get this over with.” She walked over to the opposite end of the ballroom, making sure to leave a great distance of space between them before nodding her head visibly. In the next minute, Matt was on the floor asking for help. She smiled proudly. He was good.

She took the distraction as her queue and slipped away towards the door she needed to go through without being detected. She couldn’t lie to herself though because her heart was beating like she had just taken part in a wrestling competition. It had been so long since she had done anything so risqué. She felt a head rush before finally picking the lock open. She quickly slammed it shut as she stepped in.

Taking a deep breath, she looked around and quickly recognized the room she was in. Now all she needed was an entryway to the ventilation system.

“Hi there.”
The voice was emitted from her earpiece, startling her for a short minute.

“Matt, you were good. I’m considering handing over my Oscar over to you.”

“And I would willingly accept.”

“Where are you now?” she asked, instinctively glancing back one more time to ensure that she was alone.

“In a black van with Mr. Black-suit-and-tie.”

It took her another long second to catch on to Matt’s words because her mind was still wandering around the room, looking for the vents that were supposed to be there. “Who, Davidson?” she smiled as she finally saw it. It had been weirdly covered up to flow with the Victorian era décor that the room had been decorated in.

“Yeah. Are you in the vent yet?”

“Um . . . I’m working up to that.” She hadn’t quite put the dress in her thoughts when she finally finished up the retrieval plan. “I’m ripping the dress apart.”

“Leeman said it was a one-of-a-kind dress. I don’t think you can just rip it in two.”

“Yeah, well, I just did.” And she had. Her red dress now included a very large slit on one of its sides. “Way more flexibility this way.”

She heard Matt chuckle through the intercom.
“Did you purposely invoke those images in me, or what?”

“Eww, Matt.”

“A boy can dream.”

“Well, don’t.” She finally entered the vent, locking it back as securely as she could in order not to be infected. “Okay, I’m in.”

“I
’M
heading east right now and it’s getting darker than expected.” Alexa had already gained a few scabs on her arms due to unseen sharp edges along the vents.

“Are you good?”
That voice belonged to Matt.

“Yeah.” She reached out to the band around her right thigh and pulled out a tiny flashlight. “It’s so quiet up here,” she stated mostly to herself and no one else in particular. She cleared her throat before speaking to Matt again. “I’ve got about two more turns before I make it to the room.”

She crawled as covertly as she could in order to avoid the loud clanking echoes that her movements made. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. You know, just . . . it’s all glass—clear glass.” The appearance took her by surprise, because the last thing she expected was this big of change. The plans must have been upgraded since then. This change made her return impossible. There was no visible way for her to make it back up.

“What are you talking about?”
Matt asked worriedly.