Chapter 40 #2
“He was in prison.” Z reminds me.
“Yeah. So, he has a partner…”
“Who?”
Our detective work is cut short as the gunshots echo more.
“Fuck,” Zeke grumbles out before our group all picks up the speed. I follow behind Z as he maneuvers throughout the tunnels and, unfortunately for me, back towards the old waiting room.
“Oh, no,” I mumble.
“What?” Drew asks, concerned.
“Nothing, we’re just heading to the waiting room.”
“Oh, no,” Drew repeats the same thing I did.
“Is there something we need to be aware of?” Zeke snaps at me.
“We’ve got them down.” Jag says before adding. “Don’t worry, Eli. I got you.”
Z turns, looking at me again as we slow our pace, closing the distance.
“I can actually confirm now that the entire precinct did, in fact, see it.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“What?” Zeke and Drew both shout, for different reasons.
“Worth it.” I mumble, glancing over and seeing him trying not to laugh this time.
Maybe I was too quick to say they’ll never come around.
“Guys, there’s quite a few more coming down the hall.”
“How do you know?”
“Cameras on the computer here.” Jag pauses again.
Blood lines the hallway as we approach.
“Some of this has to be from when we came out of here earlier.” I can feel them looking at us.
Drew finishes. “We shot our way out. I know a few followed us, but we lost them.”
“How’d they not assume you were going to Low?” Z asks.
“We moved her and Dan.” I tell him.
“Dan’s here?”
“Yup. Who do you think’s keeping her alive?”
Z laughs to himself, shaking his head and mumbling. “Poor guy.”
I notice it as we’re about to breach the door. Motioning to Z and gaining his attention, I point my rifle down at the ground, at the blood droplets as they move down the hallway.
“You guys go.” He whispers to the rest before he moves over to me. “Let’s go.”
“Shit,” Jag whispers.
“What?”
“Drew, be ready.”
“What?” multiple voices mix over the waves.
“They had your room pulled up. They were looking for you, I guess, after they figured out you weren’t in the original one. I can see 6 of them coming down the hall.”
“What?” she calls out.
“Where the fuck are they?” Z snaps out.
“Hallway 300, passing room 356.”
“Fuck,” I mumble. “Drew, baby. You got this.” I don’t ask her; I remind her she can do it.
Z turns, looking at me, about to run. Grabbing him back and pointing at the wall, showing him the room number we’re standing closest to: 110.
“We cannot beat them there.” I tell both of them, simultaneously. He’s shoving me backwards against the wall. “Break the lights. Let your eyes adjust,” I tell her. Staring back at Z as he has me pinned, I don’t back down.
The smashing glass makes me smile.
She gasps.
“They’re outside.” Jag tells everyone.
Z’s eyes widen at me.
She whimpers out. “I — I can’t.”
“Fuck,” Zeke mumbles out. “As much as I hate to admit it right now, he’s right. You consistently surprise me. Always have.”
Staring back at Z, I still don’t back down. We can both still hear her fear as she breathes, lowering my voice so much that I’m not really speaking, but mouthing to him. “She doesn’t need you nor me to save her. Build her up. She can save herself.”
I can feel the fear consuming me, but I have to keep my emotions at bay; I have to keep it far away.
“You’re fearless.” He finally whispers. “You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. You’re so much like Mom… she’d be proud.”
Her cries come through, both our eyes widening as we look at one another, but I force myself to push aside the fear building inside me.
“They’re in. She pushed herself into the corner of the bathroom.” Jag calls out.
“Make them regret underestimating you. Not for being Z’s sister. Not for being Ash’s daughter. But make them regret underestimating exactly who the fuck you were born to be.”
I don’t need her to respond. I know she understands me.
Z looks stunned as he loosens his hold on me.
A handful of gunshots ring into my ear, straight into my heart, shattering it.
“Fuck,” Jag gasps. “They shot out the cameras in the room and in the hallway, but they’re just now going in.”
Pushing Z backward, I tell him, “Let’s go.” Doing the only thing I can do, forcing down the fear that tries to convince me I’m listening to losing her, again.
“Shit.” Shaking my head, I can’t let myself think when I hear the first shots start. My feet only pick up speed, and feeling Z directly on my heels.
There’s shouting and thuds as I imagine bodies dropping, only praying that hers isn’t one of them.
The panic starts in my chest as the shots abruptly stop. There’s a long pause and a couple more shots. I force myself not to listen as she screams, not being able to focus back in until the silence.
I’m sure I hear Zeke panting as I’m sure he’s racing towards the room as well.
A body’s forcing the door to stay ajar.
Pushing the door completely open, I see the rest of the bodies on the floor.
“Sketch?” I call out into the room. Carefully stepping around them as I move.
It’s only when I make it to the bathroom and flip on the light that I see how empty of life the room is and how the wall to the left of the door is filled with bullet holes.
“Fuck,” I shout, as I aim my fist towards the wall.
It stops an inch from its destination as I look up. Z’s holding my arm and shaking his head. “Keep it together. A broken hand isn’t getting you anywhere.”
“Drew,” Z calls out, then glances around. “Where’s Low?”
“Across the hall, hidden.”
“Good call.” Jag says. “Just looked and I don’t see them but no one’s gone it.”
“Z.” I gain his attention, pointing to the ground, at the crushed earpiece.
“There are droplets.” Zeke says as he pops his head into the room.
We follow the droplets as they move down the hall.
“We need to split into different rooms.”
“What? Why?” Zeke asks.
“I just know?”
“How?”
“I just do? Okay? There are too many rooms.” I snap. Pointing them at doors down the hallway.
Stopping in front of a good. Is it lame for him to be in here? Yes. But I know he’s here, in room 377, but he’s written a small eight after it, making it room 3778.
Opening the door, step inside, closing and locking it back behind me.
“Come on, Lewis.” I call out, my arms coming up at the sides. “I know you’re in here. It’s just you and me, the way you wanted it, right? I saw she got a shot at you before you figured out where she was.”
The bathroom light flicks on, but I can’t see anyone.
I shouldn’t be surprised when Matthews steps into the doorway; I was just shit-talking him.
“Take your earpiece out.” He whispers so it doesn’t pick it up.
Doing what he says, I pluck it out.
“Drop it.”
As soon as it hits the ground, I hear the crunch as he steps on it.
“Elias Leech.”
Holding up my hands to show him, I dropped my gun.
“Lock the door.”
Turning around, smirking as I show him I’m not fucking afraid of him.
“Turning your back with a gun pointed at you isn’t a good idea.”
“I’m not afraid to die.” Reaching up, I flip the lock on the door. I’m sure they heard it. How could they not? Before I can turn around, I feel the gun’s muzzle pressed against my head.
“What are the police going to think when they get here in a couple of minutes and find the MC, girls locked in cells, and dead bodies all around?”
I don’t mean to laugh, but I do. “I mean, the girls are all out. You guys kidnapped Drew and a doctor. Also, kidnapped Low and then shot her.”
“Please, we can blame that on the club as well.”
It makes me laugh as I shake my head.
“What?”
“How have you made it this far in life?” Letting my hands slowly drop to my sides. “Why would the MC kidnap their president’s sister?”
He’s too quiet, as if he hadn’t thought of that.
“That makes no sense.” Laughing. “Now, us coming in here because you kidnapped their president’s sister, that makes a lot more sense. You think a jury’s gonna buy it?”
“Move,” changing how he wants to go about this, I guess. “Into the bathroom.”
I know exactly where he wants me to stand. Although I feel like he hasn’t thought this through either. Having the shower curtain down on the ground, like he’s gonna roll me up and cart me away so they don’t find my body… no sense, but whatever.
The light catches my eye from under the door, or really, how it darkens.
“Did I hurt your feelings?”
“What?”
“Did you think we were friends, and you think I betrayed you?”
“You did.”
Shaking my head, “doesn’t really seem to be what the evidence proves, is it?”
I can see the rage building on his face.