WILLOW #4
I stay flush with the wall behind him, keeping my footsteps as quiet as possible.
He’s at the bottom of the staircase, which makes it easier for me to reach out and put my hand over his mouth to muffle his screams as I slice through his throat with my knife.
It slides like butter as his arterial spray coats my hand.
“Shh, honey, if you scream, I’ll like it too much. I’ve got work to do,” I whisper into his ear as his legs give out.
I bend down and take his walkie so he can’t try to signal for help, and I’ll know if someone stumbles across his body if we are not out by then. As of now, I have thirty minutes to get us out of here before they realize anything is wrong.
I go back and grab hold of the girl again so we can walk out of the hallway. No one typically comes to this floor except when the supervising maid makes her rounds to clean it in the evening. So, if all goes according to plan, we shouldn’t run into anyone else.
There’s a service stairwell at the other end of the floor that we slowly make our way to.
I talked to the other household staff. Doesn’t sound like anyone’s used it after they installed a service elevator.
It comes closer into view as I help the girl hobble to where it stands forgotten at the other end of the house.
I fling the door open. I left it unlocked last night before leaving so I wouldn’t need to waste any time picking the lock again during the escape.
My teeth grind. I know the way down is going to be miserable for her with the injuries.
We go as slow as possible while I take all of the weight from her that I can.
I palm my .22 with the silencer screwed on.
It’s out and ready as we make our descent.
Once we make it down the three flights, I check my watch. Shit! It’s been twenty minutes. Ten more minutes before the guard’s check-in is missed. At least the radio’s been quiet thus far. But we need to pick up the pace. The door at the bottom of the staircase leads to the kitchen.
I crack it open, breathing out a sigh of relief.
The staff that’s usually working are still in the walk-in pantry and freezers, unloading the supplies that came in on the trucks.
I open it the rest of the way and we hobble to the side of the kitchen out the sliding glass that leads to the patio garden.
It’s packed with beautiful, well-manicured flowers.
It’s funny how the worst people usually have the most beautiful gardens.
We edge closer towards the ten-foot wall that surrounds the back of the property. I’d stashed some climbing gear for the girl, since I wasn’t sure if she’d be hurt or her ability to climb over.
Just as we reach the gear, the radio crackles to life.
“Mateo, cómo va eso?”
Shit. We’re out of time. I start unraveling the gear as fast as I can.
Using my foot, I key the mic as I work, pressing the speaker into the ground. Hoping it sounds like static and to jam the channel. They may think there’s just static and can’t make out the words, hopefully giving us a few more precious seconds.
I hook up the climbing equipment to both of us, taking my foot off of the walkie, and tell her to stand there as I climb up. I make it to the top as an alarm blares through the estate, and yells sound from the stolen walkie.
I tell the girl to start climbing, making sure I have good leverage on the equipment, and I support most of her weight. She is halfway up before I see someone running towards us in the distance. He screams into a walkie and reaches for his gun.
Still holding onto the line, I lift my .22 and fire. I get a clear shot of the center of his head. His lifeless body is still moving forward with momentum, then plants face first into the dirt. I know they were able to hear his yells back at the house.
Meanwhile, the girl’s still climbing. It gives me hope that she’ll be able to recover with how determined she is. Some of the victims I go in for will freeze up or crumble under fear, but she keeps moving, trying to fight her way out.
She crests the wall where I’m standing. When I see three more men running towards us, I tell her to look forward, climb down, and wait for me at the bottom. She gives a determined nod and does what I say.
I turn back to the men, and they already have their guns drawn.
I still have mine out and aim at the one in the middle.
When he goes down, the other two keep running and shooting off shots that miss me.
I can tell that they don’t know how to run and shoot at the same time.
Didn’t their mamas ever teach them that the person that has the high ground has the advantage? I giggle at my own internal comedy.
I aim, breathe, and shoot the one on the right, and as his body drops like a sack of potatoes. Fuck yes, two points, right between the eyes!
A searing pain scorches through my side. Without looking at where I got hit, I line up my last shot and take out the third guard.
I look down to the sting and see that the bullet grazed me on my side, just above my hip.
It’s not bad. Even if it’s bleeding like a bitch, it’s not life threatening.
I’ll take it as a win, seeing as there were three of them shooting at me, and I only got hit once.
I know my brothers will give me shit, but I feel like that’s a pretty good percentage of bullets dodged.
The girl did exactly as I asked and is waiting at the bottom of the wall. She even unhooked her gear. I climb down to join her and can feel the warm blood dripping from my side, but choose to deal with that later, keeping my focus on the task at hand.
When I reach the bottom, I help her walk towards a side alley that I’d found, slightly hidden by an overgrown shrub along the front of the surrounding wall. The alleyway’s narrow and winding. It lets out about a block away from where I had Grey park the car.