by J. A. Huss
“No!” I stomp my bare foot. “No. I’m tired of always being put last. Why can’t you put me first for once? You say you love me, that you’d do anything for me. Then choose me, Nick. Choose me and let’s go!”
I push him in the chest and he grabs my wrists and holds them tight. “I did put you first, Sasha. I left you in that hotel and told you to move on. Get a life. Live it. I put you first and you came here looking for me. With this crazy fucking plan that Tet cooked up and you bought like it was on sale for Christmas. What do you think is happening here right now? You can’t plan a job like this and then go half in. You can’t leave your team behind. That’s bullshit.”
“I don’t care! I just want us to live. I just want us to get away and live our lives.”
“There is no us, Sasha. How do I fucking make you understand? I’m not taking you as a promise. We’re not killing all these people tonight so I can take you as a promise. When we get out of this mess, you’re going home with James. Not me. So stay here and stay out of sight. Or come with me and be prepared to fight.”
And with that, he drops my wrists and starts jogging back towards the stairs.
What choice do I have?
I follow him into the war zone, hoping and praying we get to leave here together, but knowing damn well we’re probably all going to die.
Because isn’t that how James and I planned it? Isn’t that what we decided? Shoot everyone. That was the original plan Tet told me outside the Hummer that day in the Wal-Mart parking lot after Harper was drugged. We’ll shoot everyone. And this party, a party he knew was coming for months, was the perfect place to accomplish that objective.
No one left alive.
And when your army is a street gang who’ve been looking for revenge for a dozen years, well, all bets are off about who lives and who dies when the bullets start flying.
Chapter Thirty-Three
James
I laugh one of those maniacal laughs you only see in movies. I know Harper left with my mother and Sasha followed as planned. So I’ve got a few minutes before all hell breaks loose to have some fun.
“Vincent?” the Admiral asks.
I shake my head. “Wrong.” I watch him come to terms with the fact that I spent last night with his daughter. Hell, I married her—even though it’s not legal, it was still a ceremony of promise and commitment. And he not only watched, but gave me his blessing. “Sorry, Vincent couldn’t join us tonight. He’s not feeling well. Something about seafood poisoning.”
The Admiral’s face goes white.
“Seriously?” I ask, taking a step toward him. “You of all people should be able to recognize me by now.” I take him by the neck, just like I did One, and have his back up against my chest before security shows up. The little red laser dots flash across the Admiral’s white shirt.
“Don’t shoot,” he tells his men.
“We can take him out, sir,” one kiss-ass says. His laser sight flashes me in the eye.
I press my gun to the fleshy part of the Admiral’s lower back.
“For fuck’s sake, lower that laser before you piss him off and he shoots me for fun.”
“Oh,” I say, backing up so I can have a wall behind me. “It’s already been tons of fun, Admiral. Twelve years of good fucking times, right? You thought you’d what? Just keep giving me orders and I’d just keep following them until you decided I wasn’t worth your time anymore?”
He doesn’t answer, so I press the gun into his kidneys to help him along.
“No,” he groans. “I treated you like a son.”
“Yeah,” I say with an ironic laugh. “You sure did treat me just like my father did. But don’t worry, Admiral, you won’t get the same fate. Because you won’t be brought back from the dead like him. I’ll finish the job and end it right.”
I spot Sasha running outside in a crowd who figure it’s best to get as far away from me as they possibly can, and breathe a sigh of relief. Harper must be safe and my mother must be dead.
I check my watch. Three minutes. Harper appears in the room and people give her a wide berth as she approaches.
The Admiral laughs. “There she is.” He says it with some relief as Harper raises her arm, a gun in her hand.
My eyebrows go up as she walks up to us. At first I think she’s aiming for me, but I realize it’s not me, it’s him. Her father.
“Harper,” he says. “Do your job, honey.”
“What’s my job, Daddy?” she asks sweetly.
“Protect me at all costs. Kill Tet. Kill anyone who threatens us.”
“Is this part of that brainwashing you did on me?”
Fuck.
“Because I have to tell you.” She lowers the aim of her gun and I can actually feel the Admiral let out a breath. But that’s before she shoots him in the leg. “It didn’t take.”
I have to shake my head, because that bullet was so close to me, I feel the impact in my own body.
“Oops,” she says, as the Admiral wails in pain. I let him fall forward onto the ground and take out two security guards. The whole room erupts in screaming and then the bullets start spraying. A woman standing next to me is shot in the torso and blood splatters me in the face.
They’re early.
Lesson learned. Never fucking trust a gang member to do their job on your time.
I grab Harper’s wrist and pull her down to the floor in front of her father so I can keep her safe and relieve her of the gun. “Get the file from One, Harp.”
She crawls over her father’s wounded leg and begins searching One when the Admiral pulls a gun out from his pocket and aims it at me.
“Really?” Tet takes over. He grabs him by the neck just as a shot comes from the gun. Plaster from the ceiling showers down on us, but I don’t even notice when a large chunk crashes on top of my arm.
Because when I have a man’s neck in my grasp, there’s only one way that shit’s gonna end.
Even over the rapid firing of AK’s, I hear the crack.
His head goes limp. His body relaxes. And when I look at Harper, she smiles. “We’re free.”
“Not yet, lionfish. Now we gotta get the fuck out of here.”
The entire ballroom is chaos. People are running, they don’t’ last long, because the bullets are flying. So the runners fall, littering the floor with blood and bodies.
“Crawl with me, harp.” I get down low and make our way to a banquet table. I lift up the tablecloth, but there are several people under there already. “Out,” I hiss at them, pointing Harper’s gun.
They do run, but I grab two of them by the arms and yank them backwards. I pull Harper up as they bolt, and we run with them. Between them.
A living shield.
A woman goes down in front of me, then a man behind. But we book it. The people outside are coming in and the people inside are going out as mass confusion ensues. There’s bodies and blood. People trip, fall, and then get trampled. I pull Harper through the French doors and head for the beach. There’s some Company people running the same direction in front of us, but I shoot them and they go down. Another small group is in front of them, but as soon as they hear the shots, they dart off the path to the beach and head for the trees. Sasha’s army will have to take them out.
Just as we get to the stairs, I see Nick and Sasha.
“We’re gonna make it,” Harper says.
And there’s a split second where I really think we might. I almost let myself hope. I almost give in to the happy ending.
But that’s when Mistake Number One from my time in Honduras steps out from behind Nick, a gun to his side. Sasha is being held as well. They’ve got a hand over her mouth, making it hard for her to breathe.
“Tet,” the deformed Nicaraguan leader laughs. “My pet, Tet! The little girl promised my men you would be here. I admit, I had my doubts. It’s been a long quest, my faithful enemy, but finally, a fruitful one.”
He’s got a red scarf wrapped around his head so you can’t see
the part of his face I blew off twelve years ago. He looks every bit his age. His dark skin is wrinkled and worn. The tattoos on his face, a mark that separates them from some of the other gangs, are fading, they are so old. But he lives. He still lives.
He laughs. And his evil movie-star laugh is enough to give me the chills.
I have not seen him since I was rescued by One. I have not laid eyes on him since that final day in captivity. Even when I was down in San Pedro Sula, I never had the urge to seek him out.
Because I’ll be honest here. That motherfucker scares the shit out of me.
“My men gave the little girl my word.” He nods to Sasha’s captors and they release her with a shove that makes her fall forward on the ground. “And my word is good, even when dealing with the Company.” Now he looks at Nick and Nick is pushed forward too, but he does not stumble. “And her.” He points to Harper and I have a moment of panic.
“Hey.” I divert his attention from Harper. “I just killed One for you. The Admiral as well. She,” I say, nodding to Harper, “killed my mother. The leadership is dead.”
And that’s when another shadow emerges from the darkness. “Not quite,” Vincent says.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Harper
Vincent steps forward, looking a mess from his two-day Ativan coma. His gaze is on me and for some reason, I can’t stop looking at him. It’s such a mind-fuck for him and James to be identical.
“Harper,” he says.
“Take one fucking step towards her,” James growls, “and I will snap your fucking neck.”
The disfigured gang leader laughs as his men come towards James and I expect a huge fight to break out right then, but he doesn’t fight back when they grab him by the arms. He shoots me a look as they tug him from my side, and then he looks over at the leader. “Just let them go. I’ll come with you, but just let the girls go. And let Nick Tate get them to safety.”
“James,” I say. But my desperate whisper isn’t even loud enough for him to hear.
Sasha is pushed forward and she runs to me, clinging to my waist.
We’re gonna let this end like this? We’re four killers. Trained assassins. Surely we can at least put up a fight?
The men walk James to the leader’s feet and then push him down on his knees. He looks up at the ugly man and smiles. “Let them go, Matias. Let them go and I won’t finish what I started twelve years ago.”
Matias kicks James in the stomach, making him double over. “Fuck you, perro mascota. My new pet dog.” He squats down so he can look James in the eye and then he presses the barrel of his gun to James’ temple. “You’re not in any position to negotiate. And if you say one more word, I kill those girls right now.” He smiles to reveal only half a mouth of teeth. “And make you watch.”
Then he straightens up and takes his attention to Nick. “Let’s walk down to the beach so I can have time to consider my options.” He waves a hand and his entourage starts shoving us towards the steps. James is pushed forward and he begins the descent first, but he’s surrounded by Matias’ security, so I can’t even see him. Sasha and I hold hands on the way down. She’s trembling. For all our bravado, we’re not seasoned in these kinds of confrontations. Not like Nick and James are.
I’m terrified. I feel like one of us is about to be murdered, and that is most likely James.
When we finally make it to the sand, Sasha and I are pushed off to one side while Nick and James are lined up in front of the ocean. The tide is high, there’s very little beach left at the moment. And I have a brief moment of anxiety as I worry about the water crashing us against the rocky cliff that is only a few yards away.
“Shoot them both,” Vincent says. “Just shoot them. I gave them to you, now let me take the Tate girl and leave.”
“Shut up, cabrón. No one is leaving yet.”
Sasha hugs me tight, and then she leans into my ear and whispers. “James has the file, Harper. If they take James, they take the files.”
“Where the fuck is that guy James said was waiting with a boat?” But as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I see the boat lights in the small harbor. It’s motoring towards us as a very slow rate. Everyone turns to look, but then the engine cuts and it drifts over to the dock and bumps up against it.
“Your ride?” the gang leader asks me.
I nod. The Hispanic man walks towards us and stops right in front of Sasha. To her credit, she meets his gaze. “We made a deal,” he says. “You gave me what you promised, so I will give you what I promised. Go.”
“Nick too,” Sasha demands. “I asked for Nick and I’m not leaving without him.”
“Take him,” Matias says with a laugh. “I have the only man I came for.” And then he looks over at James. “Since One is already dead, my new dog, you will pay for his sins instead.”
Sasha grabs my wrist, but I can’t move. I cannot leave here without James. There’s no fucking way I’m walking off this beach and leaving him here.
I pull away from Sasha and—
“Harper,” James says, from down the beach. “Harper, stop. Listen to me.”
I shake my head and back away from the ugly man and Sasha. “I’m not part of this deal.”
“You’re damn right you’re not part of this deal. She’s coming with me, Matias.” Vincent walks forward like he’s gonna take me away, but Matias aims at the ground in front of his feet and shoots. The sand flies up in his face, making a cloud of dust.
“Someone shut this asshole up.”
They go for him, but Vincent is big and he pushes the first guy out of the way. They start fighting, but Vincent breaks away, and the last thing I see is him running into the ocean and diving into a crashing wave.
“Shoot him!” Matias calls. “He’s no one. Just a copy of the man here on his knees.”
A few men run along the water shooting into the waves, but it’s dark and I don’t see anything.
A shot rings out, hitting the cliff behind Matias, and then all four of us have guns to our heads.
A voice comes over a speaker from the boat still banging against the dock.
“Fenici party of four, your table is ready.”
Sasha snorts, but then the little red laser dot appears on James’ chest. “Let him go, Matias,” the voice in the boat says. “Or I’ll shoot him right now. And if you make me shoot my friend, I’m gonna shoot you next, motherfucker.”
“Shoot him!” Matias calls. “It’s a mercy killing. Because we’re going to set him on fire. Right here on this beach.” A man approaches from the stairs carrying two cans of gasoline and Matias walks over to meet him, his arms outstretched.
“See how efficient we are?” He stops and looks back at James, who is strangely calm for a man whose fate involves going up in flames in a haze of accelerant. “But don’t worry, dog. I’m not going to kill you, cabrón. I’m going to makes sure you live to feel the pain, just like you did me.” He points to another man who is holding a fire extinguisher. “I don’t want you to die, dog. That’s too easy. I’m going to make sure you live to feel the humiliation at being disfigured.”
“Stop,” I shout. “Just stop. This is not happening. You are not doing that.” I point to Matias. “I won’t let you.”
“You won’t let me?” He walks forward, pushing Sasha out of the way as he approaches and then he grabs me by my hair. I twist under his arm and spin around his back, my hands ready to clamp down on his throat, when a shot rings out at my feet.
Matias pushes me to the ground and then smacks me in the face.
“That’s enough, Matias,” James says. “Touch her again and I take someone out. Let her go and you can do whatever you want with me. But you’re gonna let her go first.”
“As if you can negotiate,” Matias spits.
James smiles. I can see it even in this dim moonlight. “You know I can, motherfucker. You know I can. I’m playing ball with you right now because these girls are here. But you hurt one of them, and I’ve got no
reason to be compliant. So let them go. Let Nick Tate walk them up the dock so that boat can take them away. And I’m yours.”
“No,” I say from the ground at Matias’ feet. “James, I’m not leaving here without you.”
“Take her away, Nick.” James looks at my brother and they stare hard into each other’s eyes.
Sasha stands in front of me and offers her hand. I accept and she helps me to my feet. “Let’s go, Harper. Before he changes his mind.”
But I shake off her grip and walk towards my new husband instead. There’s protests in Spanish from the gang members, and probably Matias himself, ordering me to stop. But I don’t stop. I walk right up to James and wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m not leaving you here. I’m not. I refuse to leave here without you. I can’t live. I told you, I can’t live. I’d rather die than live without you.”
His hands wrap around my neck and he threads his fingers into my hair as he pulls me tight to his chest. “I love you.” And then he sighs.
“Wait,” Nick says off to my right. “Wait, Matias. I have another option for you.”
I don’t want hear the option. I really don’t want to hear the option. Because I know what he’s going to say, just by the tone of his voice.
“Take me instead.”
Sasha screams. “No! No! That was not our deal!”
Matias laughs, looks at James one more time, then my brother. He’s considering the options. He’s considering who Nick is. How he might help him.
“I have information, Matias,” Nick says quickly. “Information James does not. Information that you will want.” Sasha is still screaming and there are several men holding her back from running up to ruin this deal. Nick’s voice is strained. “The Company isn’t dead, only subdued. I can get you all their assets. I can offer you resources you will never get on your own. I can give you more power than you’ve ever dreamed of. Just let James go. Let him take my sister and the little girl. And don’t ever look for them again.”
Everyone goes silent. Even Sasha stops her wailing to wait for the answer. I count the number of times the waves crash as the deformed man stares down my brother.