Bounty Hunter [REWRITTEN VERSION]

Chapter 25: Agent Hill

MAIZE

"This is it," Maize said as she opened the aged creaky wood door.

The old rusted key—which she had pulled from under one of the loose floorboards—was retracted from the lock after she pushed the door ajar. We're as the casino was large, clean and modern, this apartment-sized house was nothing like that. The space inside was shadowed by the lack of proper light filtering in through the shudder closed windows. It made it hard to make out the prices of furniture covered with white sheets in their path as they walked further inside—such, resulting in a thud and a mumbled curse from Kishan behind her. Dust covered the ledges of the window cills. Clearly, this place had not been used for a long time.

"Watch out," Maize warned as she moved around a cloth-covered table.

"Can we get some light in here?" Kishan muttered.

"Certainly." A voice that was neither of their own answered, a moment before the lights flickered on and illuminated the small room.

"Holy hell—!" Kishan exclaimed as his body jerked in a fit of surprise, but the words were cut short as he let out a hiss of pain at the open wound in his shoulder. He had been applying heavy pressure on it, but the sudden startled movement appeared to cause him pain.

Maize glanced at him once before she turned her attention balantely to the casino owner herself, the bounty hunter rolling her eyes at the dramatics.

Cassandra seemed to have appeared out of thin air. And Maize was certain she hadn't announced her presence purposefully, wanting to come in with a grand entrance as always.

Though while that may have been what caught Kishan by surprise, the thing that caught Maize off guard was not the surprise entrance of her friend. It had more to do with the unconscious man she had tied to the wooden chair next to her.

At least she assumed he was unconscious.

"C, glad to see you're alright," Maize greeted, nodding in acknowledgement to her friend before she ever so obviously gazed past her to the man in the chair. His arms were bound with rope behind the back of the chair. Maize then added with a knowing look, "Seems you've been busy."

Cassandra gracefully brushed a wave of locks over her shoulder and grinned down at her captive. "Well, while the three of you were out running the streets trying not to die, I figured I might as well do a little work of my own."

"Interrogation?"

"My way, yes. I'm sure by now you can guess why."

"I can. Care to explain anyway?"

"Simple, I wanted to know who was indirectly responsible for the assault on my casino. Also, I believe a 'thank you' is in order, seeing how I've saved you the trouble of having to do it yourself, Blades."

"Sweet."

Cassandra smiled and glanced over at Kishan, then back at Maize, and she frowned with concern. "Is Testy One not with you?" she asked, eyeing Maize's expression.

"We got split up," she answered curtly, looking down.

Cassandra raised her head, "I see..."

"He said he'd meet us here, later," Kishan said when Maize didn't say anything after that. The truth was, she was worried. She had been the one who convinced Kishan that he would be alright, but now, she couldn't stop the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach asking what if he wasn't...

They quickly gave Cassandra a run-down of the events that had occurred after they went through the underground tunnels, the surprise attack, Kishan's wound, followed by what Alec had done and his agreement to meet up with them when he could, all the way up to when they arrived here. Cassandra listened, finishing with a rather grim look.