50. We All Fall Down
50
We All Fall Down
Jessica
“Fucking stop it.”
Startled, I stop moving down the hallway, turning to face Carolina as I say, “Excuse me?”
“She’s talking to me,” Antoinette retorts, having met up with us a ways back. She crosses her arms over her chest, a petulant expression on her face as she glares at Carolina.
Carolina steps into her, glaring right back as she says through gritted teeth, “Your inability to focus is going to get someone killed.”
“Fuck you,” Antoinette snarls. “There’s nothing wrong with my focus.”
“Don’t try to pretend you’re not on the lookout for Dare.”
Antoinette frowns and presses her lips together as she glances away. Carolina’s expression softens as she adds, “I get it. I would totally do the same thing. But we have to focus on the mission, and the mission isn’t to find him.”
“And let’s not forget,” I add. “There are four other men out here who look like Darius.”
Both women turn their focus to me, the coolness of their gaze making me squirm a bit as I smile awkwardly. Then Antoinette giggles and replies, “Can you imagine four Dares for real?”
“Sounds like an epic why choose,” Carolina retorts. They both laugh, and then we’re all headed down the hallway again, them focused on the task at hand and me suffering from whiplash at how quickly they change gears.
We creep through the building, listening for any sign of people in our way, but we manage to make it down a floor into another large room without incident.
Antoinette stops in the doorway, raising her hand to indicate we’re to wait, and then she peers around the corner. She listens intently for a beat, her brow furrowed as she squints off into the distance. Carolina makes an impatient noise and pokes her in the side, making Antoinette slap at her hand blindly in retaliation.
I shake my head, not quite accustomed to their foolery in high-stress situations, though I suppose I best get used to it, considering this is my life now—no takebacks.
Shouting behind us draws our attention away from the room, and we all turn, slowly backing into the room and moving to the side as we await what’s headed our way at a quick speed.
I blink, straining to see in the dim light, and then Darius appears, sprinting down the hallway at top speed. Antoinette steps out, her eyes wide with excitement, a smile blooming on her lips that’s quickly extinguished when he shouts, “Run.”
None of us wait to find out what the rush is. We turn heel and take off into the room, and I move into position behind Antoinette, following her lead.
Darius quickly overtakes us, rushing ahead and taking the lead as we all race away from what sounds like a mob of people. We run faster, my lungs screaming for air and my legs burning from exertion, the sound of a murderous crowd pushing us up, up, up from the deep belly of the building until we burst out a doorway.
We stop running a few yards from the exit, all of us turning to see who will follow. Antoinette speaks incoherently to Darius, and I look over as she frowns and then shakes her head. I take a closer look, immediately recognizing the small mark on his neck, indicating this Darius is actually a decoy.
Tony.
The door bursts open again, revealing another Darius coming out at a sprint, quickly followed by Camilla. The two of them run to us, and I see this Darius is Matt, as Camilla yells, “Fucking move it. They’re coming,” as they run by us without slowing.
We wait a beat until the door explodes, and two more Dariuses run through, immediately followed by Lilith and then a whole mess of angry men. These new Dariuses bolt toward us, the look on their faces enough to have us all turn tail and run.
Tony and Matt take the lead, and we all follow, knowing exactly where we’re headed and needing the swarm of bad guys to follow us.
Because we can’t very well blow up a building in downtown, so the next best option was leading them to an outside location where they can be corralled and dealt with accordingly.
We make it to the ship in record time, barely managing to find the balance between wanting to be followed and not wanting to be caught just yet. A walkway leading onto the ship has been left in place, and I run up it between Matt and Tony.
Antoinette and Camilla are right on my heels as we race up the middle of the ship, but then Matt stops short, and I run into the back of him.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I mutter as I give him a shove.
A gasp behind me gives me pause, and I turn to find Antoinette behind me, her eyes staring beyond Matt in shock. “What the actual fuck?”
I whirl around and peer around Matt, my eyes widening as two more Dariuses stand there, staring back at us. One looks thunderous, and the other looks smug, and then, in a blink, they’re gone, one giving chase to the other.
“How the fuck is there an extra Darius?” Antoinette sputters.
Camilla raises both hands in the air. “I have no fucking idea. But if I can get close enough, I’ll know which one isn’t our Darius.”
Antoinette nods, then shakes her head briefly as if she’s trying to clear her thoughts. She turns to who we assume are our Darius decoys and says, “Get rid of the disguise.”
She doesn’t wait for a reply. Instead, she takes off with Camilla, running in the direction of the other two Dariuses, knowing if there’s anything shady with these four, it will be handled.
Within seconds, the masks are peeled off, revealing Matt, Tony, Declan, and Kaian. All four appear relieved to be themselves again.
I meet Matt’s gaze, my half-smile matching his for only a brief moment, and then we all turn and race after Antoinette and Camilla.
Kaian and Declan take off in one direction as I follow Matt and Tony along the large freighter, completely awed by how massive it is, even while scurrying like a fool. Matt motions between a stack of containers, and I take off down it, locating the ladder that’s rigged there and hurrying up it.
The containers are stacked six high, and though I’m not opposed to heights, running from bad people on top of stacks of metal has my nerves on edge.
The others join me as I carefully run across the tops of the containers, but then I slow as two people come into view on the stack across from us.
“Motherfuck,” Matt snarls from beside me, and I turn to him, my heart jackhammering in my chest. He frowns, cursing under his breath as he looks around, only to once again focus on the stack of containers across from us as two more bodies pop up.
Tony appears on my other side, cursing the same as Matt, and then he spits out, “This was not part of the fucking plan.”
“Everyone else set?” Matt asks, his eyes still watching the scene play out across the way.
“Yes,” Lilith answers from behind me. “Locked and loaded and ready for shipment. We just have to go in and get the stragglers.”
“We have to get over there.”
Tony shakes his head, a helpless expression on his face. “There’s no quick way. Can you get a shot?”
Matt shakes his head, then moves to the very edge of the container, looking down for a moment, and then back up to the edge of the other containers.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” I mutter.
He raises his brows at me, shrugging as he goes to speak, but a shriek cuts him off.
I look back across the aisle. Camilla is now in hand-to-hand combat with someone we’re assuming is not our Darius. The man manages to shove her off, stepping in and kicking her square in the chest, sending her to the ground. She rolls onto her front as the man moves in on her, obviously intent on causing more harm, but then Antoinette is there.
He gives Camilla another solid kick, effectively knocking her out of the way where she lays there, stunned, then he turns on Antoinette.
The other Darius appears, drawing Antoinette’s attention away just long enough for the man to grab her, and he spins her so her back is pressed against his front.
She reaches back with both hands, scraping her nails down the man’s face without mercy, and within seconds, the intricate Darius mask gives way, revealing a haggard face twisted with fury.
Bloody welts rise on his cheeks and over his eyes as Antoinette continues to assault him, going completely wild in his hold. He manages to snag her wrist with one hand, but she hits him again with her free one, oblivious to the man reaching behind him.
He pulls a gun out, whirling it viciously, catching her in the side of the head, and she stops fighting. Blinking dazedly, she sways on her feet, and then she’s staring vacantly out half-closed eyes.
Darius shouts incoherently, his pained words taken by the wind, but I don’t have to hear him to know what he’s saying.
No. No. No.
Then he’s running, blindly racing toward the edge, where the man is standing next to Antoinette who is weaving precariously, an evil grin on his distorted face as he turns the gun toward Darius.
But Darius doesn’t slow.
He doesn’t pivot, parry, or even attempt to dodge the inevitable bullet that erupts from the barrel of the gun he’s staring down. He races straight as an arrow, taking the shortest path possible in the hopes of saving her.
Even knowing it’s coming, the crack of the shot still startles me. We’re all standing there in a row, too far away to intervene, the angle of our view too sharp to attempt to take him out as Darius bears down on him.
He lets off a couple more shots, but Darius keeps coming, a bellow of rage emitting from within him, echoing through the dock and sending a vibration of energy through all of us. I shiver in response.
The man smiles wider, dropping his empty weapon as he uses both hands to shove an almost limp Antoinette to the side. She teeters there, right on the edge of the containers, like a slow-motion ballet of gravity.
And then, she’s gone.
Darius doesn’t slow as he runs into the man head-on, his low rumble of rage a vibrato of fear that surrounds us as he sweeps him up, driving him over the edge with a scream.
Then, they both disappear, followed by a succession of splashes.
And then all there is is silence.