"What are you planning to do Felix? Do you not realize that kidnapping me in broad daylight isn't going to help your case? And did you not think that we already know everything you've been doing?" I demand as he stands up and steps back from me. He's silent momentarily before his hand swings out striking me across the face my breath is knocked out of me. I turn to glare at him, my face stinging from his palm. "Did that make you feel better?" I can't help taunt but he just slaps me in the face again in response.

"You really threw me for a loop you know, I wasn't expecting an expert in hacking," he says as he brushes his hair from his eyes and glares down at me. "In all the years we worked together I knew you had some basic skills but I didn't think you were on the same level as me."

"I never had a reason to talk about what I'm good at except with Jason and I've never had to go this far until now because of you," I say to him. "How the hell did you even end up in this bullshit?" The second my question leaves my mouth the other side of my face is blooming in pain as he punches it and it's just my luck that he hits the same cheek that's healing from when Aurora hit it. 

"It was when we were working on a case months back and I stopped by the forensics office to talk with Georgia and I saw her plans so I offered to help, it just sounded interesting," he says with a shrug of the shoulder. "The last time I participated in something this interesting was when the mafia was working with the police."

"You really don't give a fuck about anyone do you?" I say bluntly as he laughs.

"I do anything that catches my interest for example helping the mafia and the police, letting the people that caused Jason's girlfriend's car crash last year escape and now this," he says casually and I feel my blood boiling. Here is someone that we trusted in our line of work but he was doing whatever the fuck he wanted knowing that people could get hurt. "How did you even realize it was me working with them anyways?"

"I got Jason to get a warrant for Georgia's computer in secret so I could bug it and access it remotely," I tell him, there's no reason to hide it now since we've reached this point. "Did you think I wouldn't recognize your digital footprint after working with you? You even tried to purge her computer thinking you'd be able to hide and get away with it."

"I only realized you knew when I was rewatching security footage from yesterday when you finally figured it out," he says to me. "It was fun while it lasted but now I need to make sure I get away from all this and start over because of you." I watch him walk and pick up containers and recognize them as the ones you would put gasoline in.

"What are you doing?" I ask warily as I watch him open it and start to pour it onto the crates around me.

"You remember last year when a woman almost killed Jason's girlfriend while she was in the hospital? I decided to take a page out of that her book to do the same though the only difference is that I know I'll be successful," he replies casually and I feel my body freeze when he says that. I remember when Jason called me saying that Victoria was almost stabbed by her ex-best friend. She was lucky she wasn't burned when she did that to her.  

"Even if I die they will catch you," I say strongly as he laughs.

"They'll have a very hard time trying," he chuckles. "I had a feeling you might give me trouble earlier in the investigation so I shot you that time we went to arrest your friend the bar owner." When he says that my jaw drops in shock. We knew there was a second person in the warehouse that day, I was the one that confirmed it since there was no way that Lucas could have shot me. But to hear that it was Felix that did it, this is something that I wasn't expecting.

"What, how, when," my words stumble over one another.

"I convinced Jason that we should split up and while he was looking for Lucas I was looking for you," he answers without care. "You should count yourself lucky since shooting you in the arm wasn't my original target. Sending Aurora after you was another failure on my part as well." A shiver passes through me at his calculated response. If my body was directly in his field of vision I would have died and Felix would have gotten away with it. 

"Do you honestly think you're going to get away with it this time?" I ask him as he throws away the final container and walks towards me again. His hand darts out to grab my face as he sneers down at me. 

"I'll be long gone by the time this place burns down along with you in it," he chuckles coldly. I notice a man approaching Felix and realize it's the guard I saw at the forensics lab, the same one that dragged me here.

"Felix, we should get going. I have your papers waiting for you in your car," the man tells him.

"This is goodbye Natalia, it was nice knowing you," Felix says as he drops my face and turns to walk away from me. He keeps on walking while the other man looks at me and a flash of pity goes across his face before it morphs back into a cool exterior.

I watch him pull a matchbox out of his pocket and take out a single matchstick. My heart is beating hard in my chest as I watch him go to the farthest crate and toss the match onto it. Instantly the crate is lit on fire and with how the oil is spread around it won't take long for it to reach the other crates and finally reach me. The man turns and walks out of my sight and that's when I quickly reach into my bra and take out my pocket knife. Having patience and being prepared is paying off since now I have a chance of getting out here alive. I can't cut the tape from my hands but at least I can deal with the one wrapped around me and on my feet.

I open my knife and start cutting the duct tape away, it's taking all of my energy to not panic as the flames start getting closer. Even through my clothes, I can feel the heat from the fire and I also need to get out of here before this place is engulfed in smoke. I'll be useless if I'm affected by smoke inhalation and I can't rely on anyone to save me either. As soon as I get through the tape around my midsection I lean forward and start on the tape around my legs. 

"C'mon Natalia, work faster," I mutter to myself in concentration. When the knife finally rips through the bottom part of the tape my fingers are quick to pull it off from my legs. I slowly stand, legs numb from sitting for so long and I pull the tape off my shirt before looking for an exit.

My eyes quickly assess my situation and I feel disappointment coursing through me as notice the staircase in the distance. Something in my heart is telling me that not only is there a fire here but there's a fire down below too so even trying to find a way to go down is now out of the question.

I turn and the first thing that I see is a window and I don't even have to think as I run to it. As soon as I reach it I'm sighing with relief as I see it's cracked open. If it was fully shut there's no doubt that it'd be frozen and my only other option of getting out of here would be running through the fire. My hands grip the handle and I grit my teeth as I use all my strength to widen it. I manage to push it open above me and I stick my head out to see what I'm dealing with below. 

Even though it's dark outside I'm thankful there's one light outside near where I am to see. It's not high up with the only thing below being a  long metal crate and there's no emergency staircase to get out of here. I glance back at the fast-approaching fire and I don't even have to weigh my options as I tip my body out of the window, my arms rising so my head goes between them as I fall. I lose my breath as my body hits the crate, pain and nausea coursing through my whole body as I lie still. 

"Fuck, that fucking hurt," I wince as  I slowly sit up. I go through the motions of rolling my shoulders and feet, moving around my joints to see if I can move which I thankfully can. Once the adrenaline wears off I won't be surprised if I have a couple of injuries that I can't see. I shift onto my knees and move to the edge of the crate and see the pile of snow beneath it. Once again I'm falling over but this time mostly the snow protects my fall but I feel ice when my knee hits the ground. I hold back a pained scream that wants to come out and I quickly turn to my side as I empty out my stomach into the snow next to me. 

I'm breathing heavily as I wipe my mouth with the sleeve of my shirt and move to stand but I'm stumbling into the snow as involuntary tears fall down my face. There's no doubt in my mind that my leg is fractured but I can't let that stop me, one way or another I'm getting out of this place and getting Felix. I drag my body through the snow, the wetness from the snow helping me finally rid myself of the tape around my wrist. It's a slow journey as I move from the back to the front of the building and I know using all my remaining energy is paying off. 

A couple of feet away from me I notice a black car parked and a man standing beside it. I can easily make out the face of the man who just lit the warehouse on fire and it looks like he's just been out here the whole time. If it wasn't for my knee maybe I could have sneaked up behind him but the best I can do is wait for him to come here. He'll find it suspicious that there's just a body laying out here for no reason so I know he'll come to check it out. I wait silently for a couple of minutes for him to notice me and I don't miss the 'what the fuck?' coming from him. My eyelids are semi-closed as I watch him approach me and it's when he's within my reach I make my move. 

I use whatever strength I have left inside of me to sit and push him hard by the legs, catching him off guard as he falls into the snow. He goes down hard with a yell and I know he's also hit a patch of ice. I'd sympathize with him but he deserves some pain after leaving me in there. I don't give him a chance to move as I push myself forward I'm punching him in the face. My body is on autopilot and I don't stop landing hit after hit even ignoring the blood that's smeared all over his face and my hand.

"Tell me where that piece of shit is going!" I yell as I grab onto the man's collar.

"He just said that he's going to a safe house until things calm down so he can leave, I was only hired just as a bodyguard and I don't know anything else except that," he splutters. I let go of his collar and start going through his coat looking for his phone but instead of finding that I find a gun. I check to see if bullets are loaded inside and a wicked grin spreads across my face when I see that there is.

"You're going to help me get to your car and I'm going to leave," I tell him as I unclip the safety of the gun. "You won't like what will happen if you refuse." The man scowls at me as I get off of him but he stands up before reaching down to pull me up. I keep the gun firmly pressed to his side as we walk to his car and as I look around the barren area I faintly remember seeing this place earlier in the day. "How many times did you have to knock me out to get me here?"

"You wouldn't stop waking up on the way here and even when we reached here, kept trying to fight every time," the man says in a gruff annoyed voice and I'm laughing on the inside.  We soon reach his car and I see his phone blinking on the passenger seat. I slowly get inside, forcefully dragging my busted leg inside as I reach over to grab his phone and pass it to him to unlock it.

"Take the password off," I demand as he takes it from me and it's not hard to miss the contemplation that passes across his face at wanting not to follow the order but I just wave the gun in my hand that gets him moving. He passes it back to me, steps back from me but before I close the door I leave him with one message.

"I'll be sending my people here and it wouldn't be a wise decision for you to try and run away," I say to him as I close the door and put the car in drive. My fingers are numb from the cold, they even look a little frostbitten but I hold onto the steering wheel as best as I can. I turn up the heat as high as possible to avoid getting hypothermia before driving away. I glance at the rearview mirror at the fire that's now engulfed the whole warehouse and relief is coursing through me that that nightmare is over. 

I hear the phone beeping in my lap and I slow down the car before picking it up, looking at the message to see it's from Felix asking if the job is done. I type out yes before hitting send and I wait a minute before two more messages come in from him. The first is saying that he needs one more thing done before he disappears and the second is an address. I copy the address before opening the internet to find the place on maps. 

It takes a couple of seconds for the phone to configure my location and the address but once it goes through my foot is stepping onto the gas to speed up. They took me out of the city, roughly three hours away and Felix is an hour away from where I am. I pick up the phone again, dial a familiar number and wait as it rings. 

"Hello, who is this?" the voice questions and I can't help but feel calm when I hear it. 

"It's me."

✘✘

A/N Of course we have to get our dose of action, it took so long to plan out this chapter but I feel so satisfied with how it came out. Our Natalia is badass as always and I know there were some expecting Felix and some weren't so I hope this is the twist everyone was expecting. The story will be wrapping up soon and I'm so sad but I'm going to make sure the ending is just as good as the rest of the Convict series. 

Anyways I hope you're all doing well and be sure to leave your thoughts of the chapter in the comments!! ^^