Taken 12

For a second, Derek's entire life flashed before his eyes.

This was his third time having a close brush with death that day, and it looked like the third time was going to be the charm this time. All because of one g*ddamn Tuesday morning!

He inched closer to the Passenger Seat door; if he was going to die, he could as well die trying. As he pulled on the handle, waiting for the loud bangs that would send him to eternity, he heard a loud bang.

Was he dead? No, he was still lying across the front chairs, so he quickly opened the passenger door and rolled onto the dirt. Then he got on all fours and crawled to the side of the road where he could clearly see what happened.

The men were lying on the ground, clearly disoriented. Lucio's car had exploded in a freak occurrence that provided a rare window of opportunity of escape for him, if only he could....

Their cars. Their cars were still there.

In a wild dash he scrambled into one just as the men struggled to stand. As he switched on the ignition and stepped on the gas, two loud shots rang out and the driver's side mirror shattered as bullets hit it.

Damn!

He sped off, taking his phone out of his pockets and calling 911.

************************

The Boss watched the news with a frown, thinking that the situation was quickly spinning out of control. The news of Camille and Sven's assassinations had finally made it to the news, and then the detective they were supposed to take care of just escaped an assassination attempt... that wasn't from his operatives.

"Those damn Black Lotus guys are getting involved in this, Tony. I really don't think there's any need to tell you how bad this is becoming."

"I'm aware sir." Tony said, even too afraid to take his drink. The Boss was mentally unstable, and the current situation wasn't doing him an favors.

"No, I think you need a little motivation. How does two days sound?"

Tony was confused "Two days? I don't..."

"Forty Eight hours. Find the girl or join the other two you took care of. You do like to be taken care of, don't you?"

"Not exac..."

"So you don't like to be taken care of?" The Boss said, pulling out a pistol.

'I...er..."

"Lighten up you coward. I'm not killing you... yet. Just do what you are being asked to, and that's all." The Boss said.

"Er...Can I..."

"Forty Seven hours, 1o seconds" The Boss said, smiling.

Tony dashed out.

**********************

Zoe wore her clothes meticulously. It was a time to act like the bereaved, mourning wife she was supposed to be. Not going to the station would be really suspicious, and even though she stood the risk of meeting 'her partner' Derek, she had to turn up.

The Black Lotus wasn't happy at her botched assassination attempt, even though she had to admit that Derek had a surprising amount of luck. First of all, she would make sure that she met Tony for more information on how things were going on at Personas in their attempts to find the girl before she made any move.

He still didn't know about her involvement, and she wanted to make sure he was more focused in killing Derek than in finding the girl. She had to stay in secret, even if it seemed that slowly, she was being forced to put her cards on the table.

**********************

As Derek sat down at his table the next day, he was informed of a crying woman at the lobby who claimed to be Lucio's wife. Why was he even here today? Even his superiors and colleagues told him to take time off as the SUI was notified, but he didn't.

Because he knew she would come. He knew exactly how their minds worked, and that she would know it'd be suspicious if she didn't show up.

As he walked into the lobby to go along with the drama she was obviously hre to act, he was struck by the sight of her shoes.

Some months ago, a lousy online marketer who was tying to convince him to buy her overpriced pair of sneakers had told him that the first thing people looked at when they see a person was their feet. At the time he brushed it off, but now he couldn't agree more.

Only once had he seen a pair of shoes so covered in mud.

*******************

PROMPTS: In Bold.

I was unable to use the Random Dialogue today; Either my poor connection or their servers were down.

If you're looking for any of the Taken stories, please head to this post to read them. Enjoy!