Page 21 of Sage

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Whoever it was, seemed persistent. Sage shooed at Hans while he quietly crept toward the front door, hoping that he wouldn’t misstep and cause the floor to creak beneath his feet. The universe was on his side and Hans made it to the door undetected. When he peeked through the peephole there was a familiar face standing on the other side.

Sage watched carefully as Hans leaned back and stared at the ceiling in frustration. After a moment he turned to her and Marcy and putting his finger to his lips, encouraging them to keep quiet until the coast was clear.

Chapter Fifteen

Charles

Charles.

Why is he here? What does he want? Fuck, Marcy’s car is out there, he’s going to know someone is here.Hans stood there, quietly, continuing to stare through the peephole, praying to the Gods that Charles would decide to give up and leave. He made a mental note that he should also plan to call the person in control of his case to have a bullshit conversation and potentially snag some information on what the plan could possibly be.

After about five minutes of waiting, Charles looked down at his watch and wandered off.

That was weird.

Hans watched until he saw him drive off down the road and made sure that there was no one else poking around Marco’s property. He quickly backed away from the door and hurried over to the girls, taking his place next to Sage once more.

“It was Charles.” Sage’s eyes grew wide and a fear crossed her face that Hans hadn’t seen in awhile. “Are you okay?” Hans’ concern grew.

“H-he was h-here?” Sage started to stutter. “That means he saw Marcy’s car and knows that something is going on. He’ll be back.” Hans sat there, trying to develop a plan in his head while the two women went into a state of panic.

“We’re going to have to figure something out,” Marcy spoke up. “Otherwise you’ll get caught and end up going to jail.”

“Or worse,” Sage interjected. “It’s Charles, there’s no way that he wouldn’t try and get into my head first.”

“I’ll kill hi-” Marcy started to respond but Hans interrupted her.

“First off, no, you won’t.” Hans looked over at her and raised his eyebrow. “Second of all, between the two of us, we aren’t going to let anything happen to you, Sage. You just need to stop being so fucking stubborn and let us take the lead on this.”

Sage rolled her eyes and Hans knew that she was struggling with the idea of relinquishing control over the situation.

“You can trust us.” Hans placed his hand on her leg. “I’m going to give Charles a call here in a bit and see if I can casually get information from him so we at least have a timeline to develop a game plan.”

“That’s good.” Marcy nodded in agreement. “For now, I suppose I can find a hotel somewhere and we can hide out there.”

“Good plan.” Hans stared off into oblivion while he thought of the best-case scenario for Sage. “I know it feels risky, but I think you should stay here. Gather up the things you might need and then we can all meet back this afternoon.” He looked between the two waiting for one of them to either agree or disagree.

“I’m fine with that,” Sage chimed in, glancing over at Marcy who appeared anxious. “Hey, everything is going to be okay,” she assured her. “Remember, I’m a pro at killing people if I need to.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of, Sage.” Marcy’s voice was stern. “I don’t want us to leave and come back to an absolute massacre.”

“Don’t worry,” Hans cut in. “The plan is solid, no one will be dying today.” The energy in the room shifted and became so quiet that you could almost hear a pin drop and know its exact location. Did Hans actually believe the words that were flowing from his mouth or was he just trying to remain positive to keep the spirits of Sage and Marcy lifted?

“Let’s make a plan to all meet up for dinner. I will stop and pick you up, Sage.” Marcy broke the silence. Hans stood up, wrapping his arms around Sage and he placed a soft kiss against her forehead. He was surprised when Marcy continued, “Mister Cop-With-a-Vendetta interrupted a very important conversation we were having earlier. It would be nice if we could all have a chance to revisit it.”

Hans and Sage looked at each other and shrugged, as far as they knew the conversation had been completed with everyone agreeing that this was what they wanted. Hans found it odd that she was hinting at the fact that it had not concluded, but agreed that at least a few things needed to be solidified.

“Yeah, of course, Marcy.” Hans sauntered over to the kitchen so he could grab his wallet and keys off the counter. “Ready?”

Marcy stood up and kissed Sage on the forehead, almost mimicking the way that Hans had and squeezed her tightly. “Please be safe. I could never forgive myself if anything came between us again.”

“The only thing coming between you-” Glares from both Sage and Marcy stopped Hans dead in his tracks from finishing his less than corny joke, though it did cause Marcy to lighten up her mood a bit as she chuckled and shook her head at him.

“Boys will be boys.” She grasped Sage by the hand before letting go and heading to the front door. Hans watched as Marcy dug through her purse to find her car keys before she removed her purse from the coat rack next to the front door.

“I’ll go out first.” Hans had already devised a plan to make sure that they were able to sneak out without being caught. “That way, if someone is out there, it will be easier for me to talk my way out of it.”

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