CHAPTER XLI
I threw myself over Liam, desperately trying to shield him from the madness that had exploded around us.
“It’s okay, Liam,” I murmured, my voice trembling. “I’ll protect you.” Tears began to spill down my cheeks.
My heart raced as the door swung open violently.
Strong arms wrapped around my waist, and panic washed over me. “No, please. No,” I chanted, a futile plea for mercy.
“Baby,” Nico whispered. “We have to go. I need to get you to safety.”
“I can’t leave Liam,” I insisted.
“Fuck,” Nico muttered.
The sharp crack of gunshots echoed through the air. Nico had that look in his eyes that said “I’ll fucking knock you out and drag you if I don’t go with him willingly.”
He raised his hand, almost as if to hush me, but I agreed. “Okay.”
For a brief moment, he looked taken aback, but that surprise quickly disappeared. “Let’s go.” He grasped my hand and pulled me toward the door.
Waiting outside was Dante, flanked by three guards, including Miguel. “Dante, stay close to your son,” he instructed.
Dante nodded.
“Where are we going?” I asked Nico as he dragged me down the hallway.
“I need to get you somewhere safe,” he repeated.
With Miguel by our side, we slipped through a quieter corridor.
When we reached the stairwell, Nico turned to me. He reached down to his ankle, pulled out a polished silver pistol from a holster, and handed it to me.
We edged down the stairs. It felt like navigating a minefield, each landing a potential ambush point.
I could feel my clothes becoming damp with sweat. The stairwell was a suffocating tomb without circulating air.
Nico suddenly pivoted when we reached the fourth landing, pressing my back against the wall and shielding me with his body. Miguel stood alert, his gun raised, scanning the area where we had just come from. Heavy footsteps could be heard, and a figure emerged from the shadows.
“Fuck, don’t shoot!” Detective Stone shouted, his hands raised while holding a gun. Something about him was unsettling, a vibe that set off alarms in my gut.
Nico tensed, his grip tightening on his weapon. “Where did you come from?”
“We came from the back,” Stone replied, glancing nervously over his shoulder as his partner materialized from the stairs, gun leveled at Nico.
“Put your gun down,” Stone ordered his partner. The man complied, keeping his eyes on Nico.
Nico pressed on. “How did you get past my guards?”
“What guards? There weren’t any posted at the back entrance,” Stone shot back.
“Maybe they were ambushed,” Miguel suggested, the creases on his forehead deepening.
“Not likely. They would’ve warned me,” Nico replied.
“Not if they were caught off guard,” Stone countered coolly.
“I don’t fucking trust you,” Nico declared.
“Likewise.”
I squeezed Nico’s hips to let him know we needed to go.
“Take us down there,” Nico ordered. But before Stone and his partner could lead us, Stone’s partner dropped to the floor with a bullet in between his eyes.
“Fuck!” Stone shouted, sprinting up the stairs. He skidded to a halt on the landing above us and aimed his gun, firing at the emptiness that surrounded us.
Nico grabbed me and pushed me up the stairwell. “Go!”
My heart raced as I dashed up each step. When we reached the next landing, the heavy steel doors swung open with a metallic clang, revealing a man with a black mask holding a machine gun. I aimed my gun and shot him right in the neck before he could pull the trigger.
Miguel swung around and snatched the guy’s machine gun before he could fall to the ground.
“We’ve drawn way too much attention!” Nico hissed.
Miguel glanced left and right of the hallway. “All clear,” he reported in a low voice.
I found myself wedged between Nico and Miguel.
“Get in the front,” Nico ordered Stone, his tone brooking no argument.
“Why should I?” Stone shot back.
“Never turn your back on your enemies.”
Stone frowned, shaking his head vigorously. “I’m not your enemy, Nico.”
But Nico ushered him forward with a determined shove.
I stepped into something slick and nearly lost my balance, but Nico wrapped an arm around my waist before I could hit the ground. I glanced down and felt my stomach drop.
A pool of blood had spread out from under the door of the room next to us.
“Don’t look,” Nico warned, but it was too late.
Three nurses lay sprawled on the floor, their faces frozen in shock, each with a bullet wound to the head. In the bed nearby, a patient had three bloody holes marring his chest.
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I couldn’t afford to break down. We had to keep moving.
As we pressed on, more bodies came into view, scattered down the corridor like forgotten dolls.
Just as we were about to round a corner, a crack of gunfire echoed through the hall. Bullets whizzed past us, one almost clipping Nico’s head. He ducked, pulling me down with him.
“Stay low!” he whispered. There was no turning back now; we had to find a way out.
Nico glanced over my shoulder at Miguel, panic etched on his face. “We need to retreat. They’re coming from all sides, and there are too many of them.”
Miguel dashed backward as we sprinted toward the stairwell. We shut the door behind us with a loud bang and charged up the flight of stairs.
A startled cry escaped my lips as the door burst open and masked men flooded in. We raced up to the fifth landing, and Nico positioned himself in front of me.
“Get in the corner, Gigi,” he instructed.
I rushed to the closest corner and held my gun out.
Suddenly, gunshots were going off like crazy, and I feared this would attract shooters if there were any. A big, lumberjack looking man tackled Nico to the ground while Miguel and Stone traded blows with the other attackers.
“The girl is on the fifth landing hallway!” a voice bellowed.
“Gigi, run!” Nico grunted, delivering a powerful punch to the man’s jaw, sending a spray of blood across the room.
“No!” I protested, my finger tightening on the trigger. I aimed at the large man advancing toward Nico when he roared, “Go, damnit! Fucking go!”
The frantic expression on his face compelled me to obey. I raced up to the sixth floor, heart pounding, and flung open the door. I searched for any sign of danger before I bolted down the dimly lit hallway.
I spotted an ajar door and dashed inside, slamming it shut and locking it with a click. I backed away until I hit a metal rack, my breath coming in sharp gasps as I scanned the cramped utility closet.
Gunshots shattered the silence, and I dropped to the floor as bullets whizzed through the air. I pressed my head against the cool tiles, clutching my gun. Voices rumbled outside, deep and menacing, followed by the crackle of a walkie-talkie.
Time seemed to stretch as I lay there thinking about Nico, my father, Liam, Dante, Malik, Miguel—worry gnawed at my insides, each face a reminder of what was at stake. The doorknob rattled, and I went still. I held my breath, every muscle tensed, waiting for whatever would come next.
Shit. I didn’t even know how many bullets I had left.
“Damn it,” a low grunt echoed from the other side of the door.
It sounded like Stone.
“Gigi?” He called from behind the door.
I shot up from my hiding spot, moving toward the door, but hesitation gripped me. How could he possibly know I was in here? Where were Nico and Miguel? I backed away, gun still trained on the door, heart pounding.
“Gigi, listen. It’s Stone. Open up.”
I hesitated. Nico said he didn’t trust him, and my gut was telling me to do the same.
“Open the door, Gigi.”
I retreated further back. But then came the sound of keys jingling.
The door creaked open, and Stone cautiously stepped into the room. Our eyes locked, tension crackling in the air between us.
“Gigi. Put the gun down,” he said.
“How did you get in here?” I demanded.
“I went to the nurse’s station and found the keys,” he replied, the calmness in his voice unsettling.
“But how did you know to look in this room?”
“It was the only door I hadn’t checked yet,” he explained. I begrudgingly conceded that made sense.
But then my mind raced with further questions. “Where’s Nico and Miguel?”
Stone hesitated for a beat, and that hesitation was telling.
“We split up, but Nico asked me to find you,” he said.
Laughter bubbled up from my throat. “Nico would never send anyone he didn’t trust to find me. You’re one of them, aren’t you? A dirty cop?”
He scoffed, his expression flickering between offended and frustrated. “Of course not! But…I hate to break this to you, Gigi. Nico was shot. So was Miguel. I don't think they made it.”
My heart stopped beating. “No.”
That couldn’t be true. Nico was invincible.
“You’re lying,” I said through my clenched teeth.
He lunged at me with incredible speed, and I fired the gun, aiming for his shoulder. He let out a sharp grunt, and we both stumbled backward. My back hit the wall, and we tumbled to the ground with him on top.
“You bitch! If I can’t kill your boyfriend, then I’ll just take out what’s most important to him.”
I dodged his punch, kneeing him between his legs. He cursed and rolled off me, clutching himself. I seized the moment and bolted, but my heart sank as the door swung open. It was the same brute who'd been after Nico.
“Oh, no. Nico!”
Was it true? Had he been killed?
Pain like I’d never felt before shot through my chest like an arrow.
“Looks like it’s two against one,” Stone grunted.
“This is going to be fun,” the blurry man said seductively.
I quickly scanned the room for a weapon and spotted a metal bedpan. As soon as he charged toward me, I grabbed the pan and whacked him in the face. Not once, but three times.
I screamed, unleashing my fury.
He knocked the bed pan out of my hands and tried to grab my wrists, but I slapped and scratched his face. He picked me up and pushed me back until he pinned me against the wall.
“Not so tough now, huh, bitch?” he snarled.
My thumbs found their way to his eye sockets, and I pushed in as hard as I could until blood oozed out. He howled, and I slipped free, running for my life. My legs burned and my chest heaved, but fear drove me down the hall. A bullet whizzed past, and I darted right, dashing into the breakroom.
My eyes landed on a knife beside a birthday cake. Grabbing it, I flicked off the lights and crawled into the cabinets under the sink. I struggled to calm my breathing, praying they wouldn't hear me.
The door creaked.
Shit. I held my breath.
Just stay still. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound.
I could hear footsteps on the tile floor, each soft thud sending shivers down my spine.
The footsteps grew closer, and I braced myself, waiting for the door to swing open.
But just as suddenly as the footsteps approached, they began to fade away.
I exhaled a sigh of relief, thinking I was safe…
until the cupboard doors flew open with a dramatic clash, revealing Stone, beaming that infuriating smile.
“Did you really think you could hide from me?” he teased, yanking me out by my hair and tossing me onto the floor.
I crawled to get away from him, but he grabbed my ankle, pulling me back. Despite my grip on the table leg, he overpowered me. He forced me on my back and hovered over me.
“You know, if your asshole boyfriend just stayed out of our business, none of this would be happening. But he had to kill the mayor, didn’t he?”
What? The mayor?
“I see the wheels turning in your head. I worked for Walsh,” Stone continued, his voice bitter.
“I don’t understand. You’re a police officer and it’s your job to protect the public,” I said in a shaky voice.
“A cop’s salary isn’t shit!” he snapped, but I stayed still.
“All he had to do was stop looking for Walsh. But no, he had to kill him, and I lost my share of the profits! So this is what’s going to happen.” He straddled me, pinning me down. I tried to buck him off, but the bastard wouldn’t budge.
“I got a call from the Puppet Master, and he offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse. He’ll pay me enough to retire early and be set for life. As long as I bring you to him.”
His hands tightened around my neck and he slammed my head against the floor, my vision blurring. Darkness crept in, my life flashing before my eyes. As I was about to pass out, he was suddenly off me.
Then a vicious roar filled the room.
Nico. He came for me.