My Life In Ruins

24. You're Not Very Good At Keeping Track Of Things, Are You?

Chapter 24

You’re Not Very Good At Keeping Track Of Things, Are You?

Once the jet landed, everyone got out and piled into three cars that were waiting on the runway.  Edmund and I got into the middle one as it waited for us.  It wasn’t like the limo in New York City where I could just move as far as I could away from him.  I had to sit right next to him.

“You speak Spanish, don’t you, Callie?” Edmund asked as he shut the door. 

I nodded, but didn’t say a thing. 

“Good,” he said.  “Tell the driver where we’re going.  Say anything else…well, you know what will happen.”

Speaking in Spanish, I told the driver which museum we were going to.  I didn’t say anything else, mostly because I knew Dad’s promise to get me back depended on us going to the museum.  I didn’t want to take that chance and mess everything up.

Once we were driving down the crazy streets of Madrid, I moved over to the door as close as I could, watching everything go speeding by.  Edmund was mostly on his Blackberry, not paying any attention to me, which was totally fine with me.  I didn’t want to talk to the man anyway. 

When the cars pulled up in front of the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, I looked up at the beautiful, old two-story building that was right in the middle of the city of Madrid.  There were dozens of people walking around and a couple large groups of students walking up the front steps and into the museum’s front entrance. 

“Let’s get this going,” Edmund said, going to open the door. 

When I stepped out behind him, I could see his men go in before us.  They were all looking around like they were making sure not many people were watching them. 

“They’ve got this,” he said.  “The two of us are just going look around while they get the coins.  How does that sound?  You like looking at old things, don’t you?”

I looked at him, glaring, before I twisted on my heels and headed for the front doors.  I could hear Edmund chuckling behind me as he followed. 

There were half a dozen security guards at the doors when we walked in.  I could see them checking out everyone, they’re eyes skimming over me.  Little did they know, I could have robbed them if I wanted.  Just tell that to the guys at the Natural History Museum back in D.C. since I already did there. 

But no, we had other guys to do that for us.  Let’s just hope they didn’t screw up.

Well, they would, since there weren’t any coins at all. 

Ah, to be sneaky and try to get me away from Edmund.  Let’s get this plan going!  Well, whatever the plan is…

It was kind of a tight fit as we walked down one of the smaller hallways of the museum.  I could barely hear myself think over the noise of the crowd as I pushed through them.  Edmund was a little ways behind me, trying to keep an eye on me.  It wasn’t until I’d broken from the group of people.

But not before I ran into someone. 

Hands caught me before I could fall backwards, steadying me.  My heart was beating like crazy as I looked up at the person I ran into.

“I’m so…”

But that’s when my eyes widened. 

It was Max. 

Only he didn’t look the way he usually did.  His hair was slicked back and he was wearing black rimmed glasses.  He also had on black slacks, a crisp, white collared shirt, and a black vest over it with shiny black shoes.  There was also a name tag pinned to his vest, saying his name was Richard, with the museum’s emblem.