Under the silent whispers of the night breeze, a dark booted foot slowly lowered itself until it stepped onto the balcony of the topmost apartment of the high-end apartment building. A second foot followed, before, after a careful look at the calm darkness beyond the moving curtains, the thick dark rope that had been used to rappel was quietly put to the side.
The woman who was the owner of the feet made sure her backpack was tightly secured, before she pushed the sliding door in front of her to the side, and carefully stepped inside the room beyond it. She looked at the defenseless form of the sleeping Alex with her dark eyes, then carefully walked toward the bed, stepping on the ground from her heels to her toes as softly as possible.
By the time the mysterious woman arrived beside the bed, she had a piece of cloth in her hand which she pressed against Alex's face as fast as possible to prevent any unexpected change.
Alex barely reacted before he plunged deeper into unconsciousness. Even then, the woman fully decked in black from head to toe kept the cloth on his face for a while longer for good measure, before she let out a muted exhale of relief. She checked the result again, just to make sure her inexperience did not shine through on her first try as an anesthetist, before she stopped leaning over the bed.
She exhaled again, this time less silently, evacuating the fear and the nervousness that was making her heart pound. She put her hand over her heart, and forced herself to calm down, before she looked around. With the owner of the place knocked out, she went for the last strand of hope she was holding onto, a hope her intelligent mind was telling did not actually exist.
She stopped standing around, and searched the bedroom, going through all the cupboards and the drawers, but without finding what she had been sent to bring back. She paused at the sight of the safe below the large screen, and her heart dropped ever so slightly. She exhaled, and went on to search the rest of the apartment until she came back, empty-handed, and she looked at the unconscious Alex.
The hope to simply find what she had come for and leave the place did not bear fruit. It had come to the inevitable. She pulled the chair beside the only table in the room to the foot of the bed, the space between the latter and the open cupboard where the safe was, and returned to drag Alex down the bed. She struggled, but at last, she managed to put him on the chair, then tie him with ropes she took out of her backpack. Then she waited, as that was the only thing she could do.
It was then that she had the leisure to look around, but the tension she was feeling prevented her from truly appreciating the design of the place. She fidgeted, sometimes sitting down, other times pacing around while looking at Alex and waiting for him to wake up.
But half an hour passed, then an hour. And adding the time she had spent searching the apartment, her heart skipped a nervous beat, and she decided not to wait anymore for Alex to wake up on his own.
_ _ _
_ _ _
When Alex came to, he woke up with a start, then frowned at the water that was dripping from his face. He shook his head to clear his brain off the fog weighing it down, before he took stock of his situation.
He looked at the dark intruder at the side, then at the wide open balcony door. He tried the restraints tying him to the chair he had bought with his own money, then exhaled:
"Sigh… Either I didn't pay the property management enough, or I simply paid too much."
He shook his head to shake some of the water he had been splashed with away, and focused back on the dark figure. He ignored the twitch at the corner of the dark eyes his casualness had caused. He didn't show any panic. If anything, there was some appreciation in his eyes as he appraised the curves of the figure. He commented as he focused on her chest:
"Not bad. Almost as good as Caitlin, but I will have to try hands-on to determine the winner between the two of you."
He smiled with the practiced charm of a playboy, and winked at the woman. The latter didn't have to lower her head to follow Alex's gaze. The gaze almost felt tangible on her chest, making her frown in distaste. The dark mask over her face moved slightly as her nose was wrinkled in disgust. But far from being bothered, Alex's smile actually widened.
"No need for that face. You are the one who intruded into my house in the middle of the night. And…"
He lowered his head to look at his restraints, then added:
"You seem to be into BDSM."
The mockery hit home, and the masked woman's chest heaved for a moment. She calmed herself down, and with her distaste unhidden in her voice muffled by the mask, she spoke for the first time:
"I thought the rumors about you were exaggerated, but they are actually far from the truth."
Alex smiled with interest:
"Oh, and what do those rumors say about me? That I am a rich heir? A woman connoisseur? A prized bachelor?"
Alex seemed to feel no nervousness at his situation, enjoying getting under his captor's skin, and his smile hid none of that.
The masked woman breathed in, and stopped wasting time:
"Alex Lenner, where is the box? Give it to me and I will leave immediately. We will never meet again."
Alex raised his eyebrows, and his smile took on a mocking hue:
"Good question, but let's be straightforward. We both know exactly where that box is."
Saying that, Alex looked at the room which showed obvious traces of having been searched through, before he rested his gaze on the exposed safe.
The mysterious woman said nothing. She simply turned around and opened her backpack. She took out a hand pruner, a small blowtorch, and a drill. Then she left the room, and came back with the knives holder from the kitchen which she added to the tools on the bed, before she faced Alex again. Under the gaze of her calm dark eyes, the casual smile that had been there since the beginning lost its amusement, and started fading away little by little.