Chapter 36.

**Narrator’s POV.**

“Mr. O’Connell”, the door was pushed open abruptly, scaring the hell out of Alex, “You need to leave now, your father is sending some men to pack your things up”, the worried, frantic look on Andrew’s face told him that it was an urgent matter, “Have you acquired what you needed?”,

“Yes”, Alex nodded, holding up a hard drive in his hand, it was a shocker that such a small device contained evidence that could bring such a big man as Andrew O’Connell down, but the irony was perfect.

“Let’s go, now! Follow me sir”, Andy was the first out of the door and Alex followed suit after realizing that he didn’t have any other choice than to listen to the man- the other choice was staying there to argue about who was meant to be in charge and compromising the whole mission, oh, and probably get killed in the process.

The rush of escaping from his father’s home brought a certain rush to Alex, he felt as if he was in some kind of spy movie but he hoped it was not- usually, the person leading the clueless person was usually a traitor and would always end up backstabbing them or leading them straight to the enemy. So, maybe it was the best idea to watch his back until they left the house.

“There is an exit that nobody else uses, it is in the basement”, Andy whispered as he came to a halt just by the turning of a hallway,

“And you know this how?”, this was when his trust for the man went from five to one and the suspicious look that was given to him said it all,

“I like to explore”, he shrugged, “Look, I know you find it hard to trust me after what I did but I promise you I am here to help”,

“I will believe you when I get out here in one piece”, Alex shrugged as well, Andy nodded,

“Fair enough”, he moved into the hallway quickly and went straight for the basement but unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as they thought as they heard footsteps coming their way quickly- whoever they were, they were running, fast. “Go inside the basement, now! I will stall them”, Alex did as he was told and went into the dark basement, pressing his ear up the door so he could hear what was happening.

Andy on the other hand straightened up his jacket and adjusted the microphone that was currently switched off. Once the footsteps got to him, he tried to halt the six men who stood in front of him, “Hold your horses’ men, what’s going on?”,

“Did you not hear over the communication speaker? There has been breach of security”, Andy feigned surprise but wondered how this could be possible, he had tried his best to disconnect all cameras, maybe that was the breach.

“No, I didn’t hear, I was taking a shit in the toilet so I switched everything off, that’s protocol, right?”, the other men looked at Andrew uncomfortably- exactly what he had been going for,

“Yes, I assume it is”, one of them said awkwardly,

“Okay then, I will leave all of you to it. My stomach as really been on a frenzy today, I think I might have to call in sick, would you lot help me with that?”, tired of this unnecessary conversation, the men nodded and began their run once again but Andy had already done what he wanted- buy more time for himself so he could have an alibi once they figured the intruder was working with one of the security guards.

Once they turned the corner, he jogged silently there to make sure that he wasn’t being watched or followed by any of the men. They had taken the fall, they believed what he had said and were now at the other side of the hallway. Relieved, he made his way into the basement and was surprised to see Alex standing there, in plain sight,

“Would it have killed you to hide?”, Andy questioned Alex with a large frown on his face,

“I was listening to what you guys were saying so I would know”, Alex shrugged his shoulders,

“Expect the unexpected, Mr. O’Connell”, Any pointed out,

“Right. I will keep that in mind for when you finally decide to betray us”, Alex still found it hard to believe that Andy had good intentions, he believed that everyone working for his father was just as bad as him- Bethel Agreste, Tessa’s mother being a living legend to this.

“Technically, that is expected- at least by you, so it wouldn’t exactly be the ‘unexpected’”, Alex gave the man a dry look and even he knew he had touched a soft spot right then, “Too soon? Okay”, Andy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and walked further into the basement, “Follow me”, he told Alex,

“It’s not as if I have much of a choice now, do I?”, Andy was tempted to ask him what his damage was but he already knew that answer, it was disgraceful to see the father whom you had been living with for your whole life in another light- a darker, scarier light.

Andy turned on a flashlight and lead him down the dark, mildly empty basement which was not surprisingly full of wine and old furniture and stuff but damn it! This basement was extremely huge, “There is a trap door somewhere above us”, Andy reported as they went in deeper,

“Where does it lead?”, Alex asked curiously,

“The workshop”, one of his eyebrows went up in questioning,

“Workshop?”,

“You know, where they fix some valuable things in the house?”, Andy was surprised that Alex had never noticed a workshop before, especially since he had been living there for almost twenty-two years, “It’s a shed that is beside the garage, it has been there for years”, he pointed out further,

“Well, I always have someone bringing my car to the front for me so I never saw the need to go there or visit a shed”, Alex shrugged, he knew he was as rotten as the other rich kid next door and he wasn’t ashamed of it- it just proved that he had everything he wanted while growing up and he just wasn’t ready to become a visitor of poverty or suffering but he was ready to do anything to get Tessa back.

“My car is parked just outside the shed, I assume the workers are not in today and-”, he was cut off by Alex who gave him a frown,

“You’re basing this off of assumptions, are you begging to get us killed Andrew?”, he whisper-yelled,

“We can get to my car unnoticed, Mr. O’Connell”,

“I am not my father Andrew, call me Alex and what if we do not get there unnoticed as expected?”, Alex hissed in questioning, Andy turned around to face him and lifted his jacket up revealing a shot gun and a taser, “You’ve had that with you all this time?”, he asked in surprise,

“A little coercion never hurt anybody”, he shrugged with a sly smirk.

It suddenly clicked to Alex, “That was how you got the hotel receptionist to let you in, wasn’t it?”, Andy nodded and turned to continue their journey, “You lucky bastard, I had to pay her one thousand dollars to let me in”, he frowned,

“Why didn’t you just get a room of your own?”, Andy asked,

“Well, I wasn’t thinking that Gabriel would agree to all this so I didn’t bother, plus, I needed his room number”, Andy nodded in understanding but he was still confused about one thing,

“Why are you helping Gabriel?”,

“I am not helping Gabriel, I am helping Tessa because like it or not, I still love her and I want her to be happy, even if it’s not with me”, he answered honestly, “Plus, Gabriel isn’t that much of a bad guy but you know, our father had his ways of causing rifts between us ever since we were kids so I guess it was just up to us to leave him for everything to be settled”, Alex explained, “But if you tell any of them that I said this, I will deny it and pin you out to be a traitor”,

“Understood, now, let’s get the hell out of here”, Andy climbed a ladder and pushed the trap door open slowly and once he realized that the coast was clear, he pushed it open fully and came out, “We have to run from here”, he told Alex who nodded in understanding.