truth, just a henchman like the others, Selene settled into her role as a badder bad guy. She’d been to many a faculty meeting, which meant she could turn what should have been one well-worded email into a forty-minute conversation.
Stall for time.
All she had to do was stall for time until SWAT got there. And, if possible, get them out of the basement. As it stood right now, they were hemmed in with too many weapons and too many loose cannons.
“Because I’m the one people come to when they have that type of need,” she replied vaguely.
Another low-voiced conversation between the henchmen. Between their legs, she could see Luca, who lifted his head. One cheek was magenta, but he didn’t look as bad as she’d thought he would. Oscar was right, he’d been exaggerating his reactions.
Or they’d concentrated on body blows and he was bleeding internally.
Luca widened his eyes and shook his head at her.
Selene ignored him and folded her arms, as if impatient. It helped hide that her fingers were shaking.
“Who are you?” Boss asked.
“Who are you?” she countered.
“No.” Boss raised his gun, pointing it at her head, his Eastern European accent stronger now with his irritation. “You answer.”
“Shoot me and you’ll never know the answer.”
“Answer!”
“Selene,” Oscar hissed. “This isn’t—”
“I have access to resources,” she said, maintaining her calm facade, while inside she was barely holding it together. “Resources no one else has, and which he wanted.”
Another statement that was open to a variety of interpretations.
Boss looked at the man next to him, the one who’d first dragged Luca away, as if seeking input. If all of them had been like those two, attempting a bluff would have been suicidal.
Chicago scratched his elbow with his gun, while the second man said something in Serbian. Boss listened, then refocused on her.
To her everlasting shock, Boss lowered his weapon, a definite glimmer of what looked like respect in his eyes. “Ah, we are in the same business.”
Crap. She totally was a supervillain.
“You buy or sell?” Boss gestured to Luca, without looking back at him.
Lying on the floor, Luca mouthed, “Sell.”
“Sell,” Selene said, then she narrowed her eyes. “What does he have that I would want to buy?”
Boss shrugged uncomfortably, aware he may have revealed something he shouldn’t have.
“If she sells the chemicals and stuff, let’s take her t—” Teenager started, only to be cut off by Boss, who reached out and shoved him.
Selene looked back at Oscar. “Perhaps we were too hasty, leaving—” crap, she’d almost said Luca, and knowing his name might not be what her supervillain persona would know. “—the Italian to them, if he has something to offer.”
“He is ours.” Boss raised the gun once more.
Selene paused, pretending to consider it. “Then as a matter of professional courtesy, I leave him to you. However, my presence here is not necessary.”
“You and I are not finished talking,” Boss said. “Maybe we buy what you sell.”
“You didn’t follow proper channels, either.” She turned away from him and approached the foot of the stairs. She expected to feel a bullet rip through her body any minute. Mercifully, it didn’t.
“This is taking too long,” Chicago muttered, clearly unhappy with the way Boss was running the show.
Boss ignored that complaint, then turned to the other men and gestured to Luca. “Take him upstairs. We finish there.”
Selene remained at the base of the steps and tried to take a deep breath, grateful they would be going upstairs. Upstairs where she and Oscar wouldn’t be trapped and would at least have somewhere to run and hide if the opportunity presented itself. And if they were more spread out, maybe there’d be a way for them to grab Luca…
But upstairs would also mean the henchmen might see SWAT coming and take her and Oscar hostage again.
Then again, if they were in the basement, they’d be even easier to grab and use as human shields when SWAT arrived.
Oscar stepped next to Selene when Chicago waved his gun at them. “You two next. And don’t try any funny business.”
Yep. Bad movie.
“Go,” Oscar breathed, putting his hand on her back and urging her to move.
As she started up the stairs, she saw Henchman Two and Teenager reach beneath Luca’s arms, half-carrying, half-dragging him up the stairs. Selene couldn’t tell if Luca was too weak to walk up the stairs on his own or if he was simply pretending he was more seriously injured in order to make their job harder.
Or maybe Oscar was wrong and Luca was in far