Hard Win (Michelle Angelique Avenging Angel Series 3)

by Jason Stanley

  Deja, Trevon, and G-Baby each repeated their position and targets.

  “Brandon, you help Trevon with the two guys by the elevators first. If they drop down and you lose sight of them, focus on the receptionist and two citizens.”

  “Got it,” Brandon replied.

  “I’ll move into position now. It should take two or three minutes to move to the end of the air vent where I can see the backside of the guard desk. I’ll key the microphone like we practiced when I’m in place. When you hear the clicks, everyone report with your number. Only move if you hear everyone.” Suspended above the third floor of the seven story building, Michelle told Tuan, “Give me forty feet.”

  “Click,” pause “Click/click,” pause, “Click.”

  “One, Trevon,” Trevon said.

  “Two, Deja,” Deja said.

  “Three, G-Baby,” G-Baby said.

  “Four, Brandon,” Brandon said.

  “Five, Tuan,” Tuan said.

  Deja pulled out into traffic. In less than twenty seconds, they turned into the underground parking of the building next to Ascia’s.

  Trevon, G-Baby, and Deja each carried two Glock 19’s with extended magazines. Each mag held 30 rounds. Michelle’s was the same. Hers was the only one silenced.

  Michelle figured having her gun silenced would give her a few moments of added confusion. The others didn’t want to have the awkwardness of the added weight or length. Since the guards’ guns wouldn’t be silenced the noise didn’t matter.

  Trevon had point. G-Baby was on the left, Deja on the right.

  Michelle, positioned in the air duct up and to the rear, had the two uniforms at the desk.

  Watching through the air conditioning vent, Michelle saw Trevon, G-Baby, and Deja walk up to the front doors. They put on ski masks. Trevon stepped through the door first.

  It was on!

  One guard who had been standing by the center desk was headed toward the guard on her right, Trevon’s left. He was out of Michelle’s clear line of fire. Mid-stride, the room exploded in a roar of gunfire. Several guns rang out at almost the same time.

  PUHFFIITT!

  BLAM!

  BLAM!

  BLAM!

  BLAM!

  Michelle shot a guard in the head. He fell forward on the desk, then started sliding down toward the floor.

  One of the men by the elevators responded with lightning fast reflexes. Trevon raised his gun toward the man. He was late. The man had moved faster than Trevon. Then his body jerked back as Brandon’s bullet hit him.

  The other man had been turned away from the door. He was slower to respond. Trevon shot. BLAM!

  A split-second late, the bullet hit the wall. The man had dropped to a crouch. He responded with a return round. BLAM!

  It hit Trevon in the chest. The bullet-proof vest saved him, but he was knocked down.

  G-Baby shot the guard who stood on the left. The bullet hit the guard’s chest center mass — BLAM! The guard slammed against the wall and crumpled. His gun clattered on the floor. The second guard keyed his mic, shouting “We’re hit!” He then dove back toward the desk. It was a fatal mistake because it put him back into Michelle’s line of fire.

  Before his gun cleared his holster she shot him through the neck — PUHFFIITT! He collapsed, dying on the floor.

  Deja had a two fisted grip on her Glock. She pointed it at the two men. “Down!” she yelled at them.

  The two men sat frozen in their chairs. One man dropped his coffee. The other one said, “Oh shit!”

  Deja spun toward the receptionist. She pointed her gun at the woman and hollered, “Come out around the desk now!”

  Deja whirled back to the men still in their seats. “Get the fuck down. Now!” she yelled, taking another step toward them. They both jumped out of their chairs, hitting the floor.

  The thug by the elevator shot at G-Baby. BLAM! He missed. G-Baby leaped toward the wall, landing next to the guard sprawled on the floor.

  The guard groaned. His vest stopped the earlier bullet. The force knocked him unconscious. He came-to when G-Baby landed next to him.

  G-Baby spun around. The guard and G-Baby looked at each other.

  When he spun around, G-Baby’s butt stuck out around the corner.

  BLAM!

  A bullet creased G-Baby’s left butt cheek. He jumped back toward the guard. The guard grabbed his gun. G-Baby hit the floor at the guard’s feet. Both men started shooting.

  A track of bullets marched across the floor toward G-Baby’s head. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  A track of bullets sped across the wall toward the guard. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  G-Baby was faster. The guard slumped back against the wall. The back of his head was gone.

  Trevon groaned and rolled over and sprayed bullets into the elevator area. BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!

  The receptionist grabbed a two way radio off the counter. “They’re in the vents! They’re shooting from the A/C vents!”

  Still shooting from the floor, Trevon slid past the corner of the guard desk. The thug looked to where G-Baby had been, then turned back toward Trevon.

  BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Hit three times center-mass, the second thug fell back.

  Deja ran two steps past the two men on the floor. She pointed her gun at the receptionist with the radio in her hand. “Put it down!” she screamed.

  The man closest to her came up on his knees. Deja spun. Her gun aimed at him. “Stay down!” She spun back toward the receptionist.

  PUHFFIITT! CRACK!

  The receptionist’s head seemed to explode from the inside as pieces of her skull blew out from both sides. She dropped straight down to the floor. The gun she had grabbed when Deja turned away hit the counter, bounced and skittered to the side.

  Later, the forensic lab would determine she had been shot twice. The shots had to be at exactly the same time. One coming from across the street. One coming from the air-conditioning vent. They would be right.

  The man farthest from Deja scurried around the receptionist counter, he snatched the dropped gun.

  PUHFFIITT! PUHFFIITT! PUHFFIITT!

  He died with the gun in his hand.

  Deja turned back to the first man. Still laying on the floor, he had pulled a gun out of his briefcase. He rolled onto his side, raising the gun toward Deja.

  She shot him high in the chest. BLAM!

  Silence.

  Less than a half minute had passed.

  “Oooohhh,” Deja looked at the man she shot. Blood spread across his chest. He raised his 9mm. Her eyes went wide. She jerked up her gun.

  CRACK! Another hole appeared in the plate glass window behind Deja. The man fell back dead from the rifle bullet Brandon put through his chest.

  Silence. Stillness. Momentary calm.

  “Hold up, everyone! Hold up!” Michelle shouted into her microphone.

  “We’re here,” Trevon said.

  Michelle scooted back through the duct to the hanging ropes and clipped on. “Pull me up to the roof!” She told Tuan.

  “Go now,” Tuan said. The ropes lifted her through the main air shaft.

  “Anyone hit?” Michelle asked.

  “I’m good,” Trevon said.

  “In the leg. I can still move,” G-Baby said. “I also got shot in the ass. It stings like my ass is on fire, but won’t slow me down.”

  “I’m okay,” Deja said.

  “Brandon. Are you good?” Michelle asked.

  “All good.”

  “They know there is a lot of action down there,” Michelle said. “They know it’s at least one person in the vents. That second guard got through, and so did the receptionist. I’m sure they heard them. They know they’ve been hit.”

  “Any ideas?” G-Baby asked.

  “Yeah. The vents are out. I’ll rappel down the outside,” she said.

  “Won’t they be watching for that?” Deja asked.

  “No. You see stuff like that in the movies all the time, but nobody real
ly does it. I’ll be good.”

  “Any thoughts on how we come up?” Trevon asked.

  “Are both elevators on the ground with you?” Michelle asked.

  “Yeah,” Trevon responded.

  “Were headed to the seventh floor,” Michelle said. “You and Deja get off on the fifth. G, you hold the elevator for forty-five seconds, then go on up. Trevon, Deja you go up the stairs. Deja, go up a half a dozen steps in front. Trevon you watch for someone coming in behind you. G, you’ll be in the second elevator, lie down on the floor. When you’re on the seventh floor tell us you’re there and start laying down covering fire out the door. Stay in the box and shoot out the door. That’ll focus their attention on you. It should keep their heads down for three or four seconds. That’s long enough for you two, Trevon and Deja, to come out blazing. I’ll be coming through the window so don’t shoot me.”

  “Send the other car up empty, then jump in your car. Uncle G, let me know when you start up after you drop them off on the fifth floor. I’ll time my jump from that,” Michelle said. “Any questions?”

  After a short pause, Trevon came back, “We’re all good.”

  “Let’s go get our girl back,” Michelle said.

  “And kill those muthafuckas,” G-Baby said.

  “That too.”

  Thirty-Four: All The Way

  BRANDON LIFTED THE CURTAIN covering the hole where the back window of the pickup had been removed. A quick check didn’t show anyone looking his way. He levered himself back through the hole into the cab. He lowered the truck’s side windows, listened for sirens, and pulled out into the street.

  With his adrenaline pumping, it was hard not to speed away. He resisted the urge and drove like nothing had happened. A few blocks up, he turned left, then left again at the next corner. He found a random spot and parked on the street.

  Brandon talked quietly to himself. “By the numbers, One.” He held up one finger. “Drop the keys on the floor by the gas pedal.” He held up two fingers. “Two, make the call.”

  “Hello,” a man with an Asian accent answered.

  “It’s parked by the Hyatt on Dallas Street,” Brandon said.

  “I see it. Are the keys on the floor?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll take care of it. The truck will be torched in less than an hour.”

  Brandon held up three fingers. “Three, drop the phone by the keys.” He climbed out of the truck. “Four, hustle your ass to the car.” He ran the last block to the underground parking. The Suburban, modified into a makeshift ambulance, sat where they left it.

  * * *

  Ding! The elevator bell chimed. The doors opened.

  With a floor plan similar to the downstairs lobby, an outer office filled the front of the floor with two elevators in an alcove located in the middle of the back wall.

  Scattered around the room, ten men crouched behind the furniture, desks, and bar at one end of the room. From their positions in the office, four of the men had a line of sight to the elevators. They watched the open elevator doors while the others listened. Nothing happened. Ten seconds passed. Nothing happened. Fifteen seconds passed. Nothing happened. Two of the men closest to the elevator moved toward the alcove.

  “Stay still you fucking morons,” Ascia shouted.

  Twenty seconds passed. The doors started closing.

  “What the fuck?” a voice came from across the room.

  Ding. The second elevator bell chimed. “Now what?” the same voice said.

  “Shut up!” Ascia hissed.

  “Now!” G-Baby yelled into his microphone.

  The elevator doors opened, “Happy birthday to you . . .” G-Baby started singing the birthday song.

  He sprayed Ascia’s outer office with bullets while he sang. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  Return fire pocked the front and back wall of the elevator. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  The men’s and women’s restrooms were located along the wall to the left of the alcove. At the far end of the wall, past the restrooms, snuggled in the corner, the door to the stairwell popped open.

  A man crouched behind the bar at the end of the room directly across from the stairwell. Trevon shot the man, BLAM! BLAM! Then firing wildly — BLAM! BLAM! — dashed across the end of the room.

  Trevon was still running across the room when Deja started shooting from the stairwell. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  Several men fired. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Returning shots peppered all around Trevon as he dove behind the bar in the corner.

  Deja hit one of the men in the arm. His gun flew out of his hand. The gun skidded a few feet away.

  Deja kept shooting at him. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Bullets hit the desk and floor next to him. He was fully exposed. Sooner or later, one of those bullets would hit him. He grabbed for the dropped gun.

  Swinging down the outside of the building from a rappelling line, Michelle shot into the plate glass. BLAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM! The crashing glass joined the explosive sound of a Beretta ARX-160 assault rifle as she came through the front plate glass window.

  The bullets stopped hitting the back of the elevator. G-Baby stopped shooting and popped his head out. He barely ducked back inside before bullets filled the alcove.

  BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  Deja’s bullet hit the man reaching for his dropped gun. Hit in the chest, he stopped still.

  Two men spun toward the automatic fire and crashing glass behind them. One man fell dead. The other man lurched toward Michelle. He had been hit in the side by a bullet coming from the end of the room where Trevon and Deja continued laying down constant fire. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! A second bullet started him falling toward the floor. Michelle’s bullets stitched through his chest on the way down. He was dead before he finished falling.

  G-Baby continued to fire out into the office. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  Ascia’s head snapped around toward the exploding window and the automatic assault weapon fire. He sprinted toward the double doors leading to his inner office on the left of the elevator alcove.

  Ascia ran. Deja shot. BLAM! BLAM! She missed.

  Automatic fire from Michelle’s rifle sprayed the room. BLAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM! Three men fell, fatally or seriously wounded.

  Michelle continued spraying the area, BLAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

  Men jumped or spun away from the automatic weapon and returned shots at Michelle. Hanging from the rappelling lines, standing on the window ledge, she was fully exposed. A couple of bullets whizzed past.

  BLAAAAAAAMMMMMM!

  Ascia’s remaining men lay dead.

  “Happy birthday, dear Nikky, Happy birrrth-day toooo you.” G-Baby finished his second round of the birthday song. It was the only sound in the room. Less than thirty seconds had passed from G-Baby’s first shot. Nine men lay dead. Ascia had run.

  Still hooked to the rappelling line, Michelle rolled over behind a couch. It was the only cover from the door that Ascia had run through.

  “I’ve got your girl in here.” Ascia yelled.

  Michelle pointed to Trevon. She made a hand gesture like a duck quacking. He looked back and shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. She jabbed her thumb at herself, then zipped her lips. She jabbed her finger at him and made the duck gesture. Then with great exaggeration, forcefully mouthed, “You, you, you talk.”

  Trevon’s eyes opened wide and he nodded. He yelled, “Is she alive?”

  Michelle ran back to the shattered window. She jumped out into the nothingness. “Tuan pull me up fast!”

  “How do we know she’s alive?” Trevon yelled.

  “She’s alive,” Ascia yelled back.

  “Not good enough. I have to hear her,” Trevon yelled.

  —

  “Fucking cunt! Wake up!” Ascia growled as he slapped Nikky’s face. Nikky groaned. Ascia slapped her again.

  Ascia grabbed Nikky by the hair and pulled up her head. She was alive; mostly unconscious. One eye was swollen shut. Th
e other only a slit. The one eye he could see was unfocused. She didn’t seem aware he pulled her head up.

  A bucket of water sat on the floor close by. During last night’s beating, they used the water to bring her around several times. Someone had refilled it. He threw the bucket of water on her. Her head rolled slightly then stopped with her chin resting on her chest. Again, pulling her head up by her hair, he snagged an edge of the duct tape covering her mouth. He yanked. One eyelid fluttered. But she didn’t regain focus.

  “I don’t hear anything. You’ve got one chance to make it out of this and it’s with her alive,” Trevon yelled.

  —

  Michelle ran across the roof and jumped over the side. Hanging on rappelling lines, Michelle hopped sideways across the back wall of the building, then smashed through a bedroom window.

  As soon as Michelle went through the back side window, Tuan ran for the stairs.

  She landed on the floor of a bedroom. Michelle rolled up on her knees and immediately unhooked the rappelling line. Jumping up, she sprinted across the room. The door was closed, but not locked. She turned the handle and threw the door open.

  Ascia spun toward the opening door. As he spun he raised his gun.

  In one fast movement she stepped through the door and fired. The 5.56mm bullet from Michelle’s rifle went through his stomach and out his back. Staggering, he dropped his gun and clutched his stomach, then stumbled backward to the floor.

  “He’s down,” Michelle yelled.

  Trevon, Deja, and G-Baby ran into Ascia’s inner office.

  “Deja, Trevon, cut her outta the chair,” Michelle said.

  She stepped up to Ascia. “All this shit. And all that shit out in Anglewatts, it doesn’t matter why. It’s all about the money so it’s the same thing. What matters is you have to pay for killing my brother.” She glanced around the room, finding G-Baby. “Uncle G, come over here.”

  Ascia’s eyes, red rimmed in pain, bored into Michelle.

  “This is G-Baby, Gabe Jr.’s dad. You had his son killed with my brother. He helped me take out your man Jackson. Now, he’s going to help me kill you.” Michelle nodded. Michelle and G-Baby pulled their triggers.