Chapter 3 Bang! #2
The brothers made their way down the staircase. The giant chandelier hung above the two-storey foyer and sparkled in the dimly lit open space.
Tyler limped toward the front entrance with Tommy holding him up.
“Nicki!” Tyler screamed toward the inside of the house again, to no response.
“I’m gonna go get her, but you have to get to the boys and go to the hospital!” Tommy said.
“No! I’m not leaving without her!” Tyler yelled, and then screamed out in pain as the lodged bullet burned a hole further, searing into the flesh of his thigh as he limped.
The brothers made it out of the house and through the open gate.
Jake and Vinnie, at the end of the long driveway, saw the brothers coming out and that Tyler was injured. They sprinted up the driveway toward them.
“Take him! Take him now!” Tommy shouted to Jake and Vinnie.
“I’m going back in to get Nicki!”
Tommy bolted back into the house as soon as the boys grabbed Tyler to carry him back to their fleet.
Tyler was getting pale and his bleeding intensified. Blood was gushing down his leg and he was losing consciousness.
“Nicki,” Tyler whispered, right before passing out.
Trevor ran up with a turnicid and wrapped it around his leg.
Bright lights appeared down the road as Luca and Rex arrived on the scene.
Jake rushed to open the back door of Rex’s truck.
“Tyler’s been shot! Get him to the nearest hospital! Now!” Jake yelled.
The guys pulled the now unconscious Tyler into the back seat, his head held up by Vinnie in his lap. They drove off with a screech.
“FUCK!” Jake screamed out.
Three snipers on top of the roof sat and aimed their long-range firearms directly at the group of Dorien soldiers in case they were to make a move.
The guys had no choice but to standby and wait for Tommy to find Nicki and bring her out on his own.
Inside of the grand foyer, Tommy ran back upstairs.
“Where the fuck is she?” Tommy yelled at Kane, standing at the top of the stairs, this time holding a celebratory brandy.
“Now, don’t you just miss playing hide and seek as a kid?” Kane teased.
“Where the fuck is she? A deal is a deal!” Tommy screamed.
Kane smiled and nodded with his head toward a room at the end of a dark wing.
Tommy ran to the very end of the hall and barged through the last door.
Nicki, still blindfolded and gagged, was sitting on the floor, handcuffed to a heavy table. She was trembling.
She jolted as she heard the door fly open.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m here honey, you’re going home,” Tommy said quietly, shaking himself from the adrenaline.
Nicki cried out from her gagged mouth.
Tommy took off the gag first.
“Tommy?” Nicki asked. Her heart busted open with relief.
Tommy undid her blindfold and tears poured down Nicki’s face in a silent cry.
“It’s OK, honey, it’s OK,” Tommy whispered and grabbed her face to inspect it. Her tearful eyes looked up at him, cutting an incision across his heart.
“Where’s Tyler? I heard a loud bang, is he OK?”
“He’s…downstairs, sweetheart.”
Tommy touched the darkening bruise on the side of her face.
“I’m so happy you found me!” she said, shakenly.
Tommy kissed the side of Nicki’s face along the bruises, holding her face in his hands.
He migrated downward and kissed her cheek, lingering there.
He continued to her lips.
His relief was overwhelming and he was unable to stay behind the line that he knew he was now crossing.
I’m an asshole. I’m an asshole. But her salt tastes so sweet.
Tommy kissed her soft lips one more time, memorizing the sensation before tasting her tears. The salt snapped him out of his selfishness.
“Tommy, get me out of here!” Nicki shouted, hammering reality harder into him.
“Right!”
Tommy reached for the chain that her handcuffs were attached to, under the table. There was no way to break free.
“Fuck!” he shouted. “I’m going to have to go and get the handcuff key from these assholes.”
“No! Please don’t leave me here, Tommy!” Nicki said.
“Don’t worry, stay here,” Tommy whispered.
“As if I have a choice, I’m handcuffed to the desk!” Nicki added, now impatient.
Tommy ran out of the room and down the hall to Kane’s office.
The two guards stopped him.
“Give me the fucking handcuff key!” Tommy demanded.
Both guards laughed.
“You mean, this?” one asked, taking out the small key from his pocket. It was the same guard who punched Tyler in the jaw. He had a scar above his left eye and bluish pale skin.
“Go fetch, dog!” the guard shouted and tossed the key into the grand chandelier.
Tommy’s fiery eyes followed the key as he listened intently for it to fall. After a couple seconds of chiming through the dangling crystals, the key dropped below, onto the polished marble floors.
“Fucking vermin,” Tommy whispered, and ran down the curved grand staircase to look for the key.
His eyes spotted the key rather quickly and he bolted back up to the room where Nicki was.
“I got it, sweetheart,” Tommy said, out of breath and rushed over to her to undo her handcuffs under the table. Nicki’s wrists were red and swollen.
Tommy uncuffed her and she threw her arms around him tightly.
Nicki let out a few heaving cries from the relief, pressed hard against his chest. Tommy held on to her tightly, there on the floor, under the desk, cradling her head.
Both of their hearts pounded a mile a minute. Her tears soaked his sweater.
“It’s OK, honey, we’re going home now,” Tommy whispered, feeling that Nicki was holding onto him tighter than she ever had. He tried to absorb as much fear from her as he could, selfishly wishing for her tight hold to mean more than just relief.
“Come on, honey, let’s go,” he said.
Tommy took her hand and pulled her out from under the desk and into the hallway which led to the grand staircase.
As they made their way out, the scarred-eye security guard met them at the ground floor.
Tommy looked around to confirm only the one guard was there and couldn’t resist. He let go of Nicki’s hand and leaped to the neck of the man, choking him and pushing him backward onto the floor.
Tommy unleashed several vicious punches at the man’s face, as hard as he could. The blows almost knocked him out.
“Tommy!” Nicki shouted, while looking around to make sure no one else was there. “Tommy, we gotta go!” she repeated.
“This is for punching my brother!” Tommy said, and gave a final upper cut into the guard’s jaw. It cracked like a hardboiled egg.
“And this is for calling me a dog!” Tommy said, and opened the man’s mouth to shove the tiny handcuff key down to the very back of his throat.
“I’m a fucking WOLF!” Tommy slithered into his ear.
The man choked on Tommy’s fingers and in his panicked gargling and grasping for air, swallowed the key.
The guard tried desperately to cough it back out, but it was too late. Down the oesophagus it went.
The man lay there helplessly.
“Come on, baby,” Tommy said to Nicki and opened up his hand for hers.
She grabbed it and they ran out of the house together, sprinting down the driveway as if the house was about to blow up behind them.
The path felt like it was five miles long but the exhilaration of nearing freedom in the cold night air kept them going.
Jake was the first to greet them and shooed them into the idling truck to get out of the area immediately.
He had a bottle of water for Nicki ready in his hand and helped her up into the Escalade.
Trevor wasted no time and started driving immediately with Tico in the truck behind them.
“Is everyone OK?” Jake called out.
Nicki chugged the water as if she didn’t eat or drink in 48 hours, because she hadn’t.
“We’re good, bro, just drive,” Tommy said.
“Where’s Tyler?” Nicki asked, looking around, wiping the water dripping down her chin.
The car was silent.
“WHERE IS TYLER?!” she screamed this time.
Jake finally answered. “He’s in surgery, Nicki. Tyler’s been shot.”