...When in Hell

by N. Tetterton

  Two gunshots sound from the opposite side and Luce peeks around before he exhales and I swear a smile tugs on his lips. “Thank god.” He walks and for the first time, he isn’t tugging me behind him. As I round the corner, I see Blaine and Gunner both standing at the end of the hallway over two other bodies.

  “I see you two are still alive.” He nods to us before he hands Luce another gun and we move out of the hallway into the entryway of the house.

  Somehow I am back to being tugged behind Luce again as we continue down what apparently is a fucking maze of a house. The men stop in front of me as one guard laughs. “Get down.” Luce shouts to me as he pulls me behind a large couch sitting in a living room. I hear tings of bullets hitting the wall in front of me as the guards laugh again.

  “They’re like fucking stormtroopers.” I yell at him and watch as a slight smirk pulls up on his face. Poking my head around the side of the couch, I fire off a couple of rounds as he does the same and then we pull back in, completely concealed by the couch.

  “You didn’t answer my question earlier.” I say, looking over at him.

  “What?” He glances over with an appalled look on his face. “You want to talk about this right now.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m a little busy.”

  “I mean I am too.” I look over at him and shrug.

  “We can talk about this later.”

  “Why? Now is as good of a time as any. And you’re being super avoidant about the subject. So spill.”

  “Fuck.” He mumbles as the guy fires off a couple more shots and then the stormtroopers stop assembling before us and he’s pulling me back behind him again.

  As we approach the front door, something slams down to the floor, causing a vibration to rumble through the entire house. “Fuck.” All three men in front of me shout. A slow clapping starts from behind us as Arlo talks.

  “Kudos.” He laughs out. “I will not lie. What you two did upstairs is kind of impressive.” He laughs out again.

  “You’re welcome.” I tell him, causing the men beside me all to have to force their laughs down.

  “What are you all going to do now? You’re locked in here. Nowhere to go. All exits are sealed, windows don’t open and are bulletproof, so good luck trying to get out that way. Luce, try to come up with some sort of agreement now.” He laughs and I look back to Luce before he steps in front of me.

  “I told you my decision.”

  “That’s too bad.” He smirks. “You had real potential. But you had to get caught up in some whore.” He sidesteps in front of me a little more.

  “I would watch how you speak about her.” Causing Arlo to laugh out again.

  “Lucian. That’s no way to show appreciation for a man who gave you so many life skills who looked out for you better than his own father did.”

  “Yeah,” Luce laughs out. “And a man who won’t ever let me live that down. You know what that is? It’s not Love or admiration, it's emotional manipulation.” He laughs. “But that’s how you get everyone under your control, isn’t it?” I watch as the man standing next to Arlo, the man who was in the office earlier with Luce and Arlo stands staring at Luce as if he’s speaking Gospel.

  Chapter 20

  Luce

  “Do you even have emotions?” Arlo laughs at me as he calls out.

  “Finding some.” I shrug as I reach behind and touch Nyx, just needing to feel her. None of us might make it out of here, but she will be at my side through it all.

  I’m not sure I’ve ever had someone who was willing to be by my side for anything.

  We just need something small, something to distract the attention away from us. Something so we can get away. It won’t take much.

  “Oh, and do you want to know how he found you?” Arlo starts. I just glare at him, wanting to rip him apart now. She says nothing, so Arlo just laughs.

  “He lived here for a little while.” Arlo laughs even louder this time.

  “Oh no, sweetheart, he never lived here. I mean, not at this house.” He laughs harder. “Think.” She continues to stand and stare off. I’m not sure if it’s because she doesn’t want to think about it or if she just really doesn’t know. “I know you know the answer… he didn’t live here. Never been here. And your tracker was smashed.” He pauses for a slight second before he exhales again. “There’s one that you’re unaware about.” He nearly fucking sings it.

  “WHAT?” she shouts, looking over to me.

  “We’ll talk about this later.” She pulls her hand out of mine and I feel a tugging in my chest at just the slight action.

  The loud crashing at our side causes all of us to jump, and I pull Nyx behind me more. As we watch in complete disbelief as a car comes smashing through the large windows at our side.

  “WHAT THE FUCK?!?” Arlo shouts as his guards move around, guns drawn on our group.

  I’m surprised I can even hear the gunshot ring out.

  I’m not the least bit surprised when I feel the burning of the hot metal as it pierces into my chest. I gasp as I look down at it, and then I’m moving at Arlo.

  This motherfucker just shot me.

  He raises his hand, pointing his gun at me once more before I tackle him to the ground, kicking his gun away from him. Somewhere along the way, I hear Nyx shriek and the sound of her voice calling out to me is enough for me to look over at her.

  That gives Arlo enough of an opening to get a leg up on me and knock me off of him. I’m brought back to where I am when a man grabs my arm and I swing on him as another guard grabs the other one I’m fighting against both of them as blood seeps from my chest. Shaking my head to try to regain focus and consciousness. Trying my best to not pass out. Pulling my arms away from them, I feel my body weakening. Maybe not so much that I’m going to pass out, but only if I stop exhorting energy.

  So I stop, I let myself give in and the guards contain me.

  I can’t let Nyx watch me die.

  Looking over to where the car came crashing through the wall, I laugh out.

  “Fucking Weasel.” I mumble to myself, shaking my head as she climbs out of the car and onto the roof, but she doesn’t move further because she is now also being held at gunpoint.

  “Luce,” Nyx screams a second time. I look over to her and smile as I watch Gunner and Blaine trying to keep her where she is. The look on her face makes me think it may be worse than I initially thought.

  “What are you waiting for?” I hear Arlo shouting and when I look up to him, my head slightly hangs and I can see droplets of blood splatting on the ground. Looking up, I see Sebastian standing with his gun in his hand, still pointing at me. Maybe spinning him up earlier wasn’t the best idea.

  I know I’m losing too much blood and my adrenaline is subsiding. Everything is becoming blurry and my head hangs slightly.

  “Luce!” I hear Nyx screaming and possibly hear sobs as well, but that can’t be real. She doesn’t cry.

  “Sebastian, shoot him.” Arlo screams right before the gun shot rings throughout the room and everything goes black.

  ❖

  Nyx

  “NOO!” I scream as I watch Luce go limp in the guard’s arms. Both men who are holding on to me gasp. They drop their grips just enough for me to rush over to him as the guards drop him because I see their shocked faces.

  “Don’t let him fall.” Sebastian yells from behind me as I catch a majority of his body weight, nearly being crushed underneath it as we fall to the ground, right in front of where Arlo’s corpse lies.

  “Holy shit.” I mumble as I look at him and he nods.

  “You guys, follow me.” He motions to us as Gunner and Blaine rush over, grabbing Luce from the guards before we follow behind him. He walks us to a garage and grabs a set of keys off of the rack, handing them to us. “Don’t worry about anything, it’s all good.” I shake my head as I look at the man who is covered in blood before I hear a female voice behind him.r />
  “I’ll drive.” She nods her head, and he hands her the keys as he shows us to the SUV. He’s telling her where to go.

  “Tell him I sent you.” She nods her head as I open the backseat quickly and slide in. I reach out, gripping onto Luce as we all try to gently ease him into the backseat. Laying him against my body, I sit on the floorboard between the seats as they ease him onto me. His head against my chest.

  “Give me something to press down with.” I shout as Gunner hesitates getting into the car and Blaine stops looking over.

  “Here.” Gunner hands me a shirt from the front seat and I ball it up before I press down against his chest. A groan comes out and I gasp.

  “Luce.” His eyes open slightly as he looks up at me.

  “Little Girl, what’s wrong?” He whispers. His voice is hoarse as he lays in my lap and it’s not until they drip onto his face that I realize I’m crying.

  “Shh, it’ll be okay.” He sighs slightly before his eyes roll back again.

  “No, no… shit.” I cry out as Blaine looks at him and I swear I see tears forming in his eyes as well.

  “Sebastian sent us,” the feminine voice says from the front seat, and then we’re moving forward again. When we come to a stop, they ripped the door open that I’m leaning against and I nearly fall out of the fucking car, but there’s already a stretcher there, waiting.

  “We’ve got it, Senorita.” I hear a deep southern accent in my ear and I look over, the man nods his head as they pull him out of the backseat and I stand off to the side as they lift him up, laying him down on the bed and rolling him into the hospital.

  “Follow me.” A woman calls to us, and then she’s moving quickly through the garage. I see the doors as we approach them when I finally ask.

  “What kind of hospital is this?”

  “Technically, it’s not, it’s a vet, but the Javier’s have taken care of us. So we take care of them.” She smiles at me as I nod my head. “All trained doctors and nurses. It just says ‘vet’ on the sign.” We continue to walk through the doors and down a long hallway to a waiting room.

  It’s only us.

  “Is this normal?” I ask Blaine as I sit down, looking around.

  “Huh? Oh yeah, mostly. Luce has a doc that he pays to do the same shit back home. Anytime we’re in there, it’s pretty much only us.” I just nod my head and continue to look forward in a haze.

  “I brought these for you.” The nurse tells me as I look over and she sets the scrubs down next to me.

  “I’m okay.”

  “You’re covered in blood.”

  “Huh?” I say to her, looking down somehow, having completely forgotten that Luce was just bleeding all over me in the car on the way here.

  “Come on, I’ll show you where the shower is.” she smiles at me as I stand, nodding my head. She picks up the scrubs, and I follow behind her in shock.

  Stepping out of the shower, pulling on the scrubs, and some hospital slippers, I see the woman from the dressing room standing in front of me. Her eyes fall as I just sigh and throw the dress that I was wearing, which is now soaked in Luce’s blood, into the trash.

  I start to move out of the bathroom when her voice stops me. “Thank you.”

  “Huh?”

  “I know it’s not the most appropriate time, but I couldn’t not say it. Thank you, you know, for saving my life.” Pressing my lips together roughly, I nod my head.

  “Yeah, well, I guess we’re even now.” Pulling the door open, I walk back to the waiting room.

  Time seems to stand still as I sit in the waiting room. Looking across the room, I see everyone else moving around. Now and then Blaine brings me food or coffee, but I don’t touch any of them. They just continue to pile up on the tables surrounding us.

  “Nyx,” I hear him speak next to me and I look over. “You’ve got to eat, you’ve got to drink something.”

  “I can’t.” I whisper, looking down quickly.

  “You have to keep your strength up. If not, he will kill me.” His words, as morbid as they might be, make me laugh out, causing everyone else to look at me, surprised. Quickly, my laughter turns into sobs. Blaine panics for a second until he pulls me into him and lets me sob into his chest.

  I can’t even remember the last time I cried before today.

  ❖

  Luce

  There’s a beeping. Everything is slightly fuzzy as I continue to lie in bed. My head is slightly elevated, though. It’s a weird position. My chest is heavy as I inhale.

  The light hurts my eyes when I open them, and at first all I see Nyx curled up in a chair next to the bed that I’m in. The beeping still sounds and I turn, trying to find out what is causing it. Gunner sits up when he sees me look over at him. His movements cause Weasel’s hands to fall away from him and she then looks over as well.

  “Where am I?”

  “A vet.” Weasel says as Gunner glares over to her.

  “You’re at a hospital. You were shot. Sebastian sent us here. The vet is just a front. They’ve been paying for it for years.” I just nod my head, piecing together all the things that have happened.

  “Sebastian?” I ask him and he nods.

  “Oh yeah, you passed out before it happened.” I just look at him, confused. “Arlo’s dead.”

  “What?” I try to sit up slightly before the radiating pain in my chest causes me to back down.

  “Don’t do that.” I hear Blaine whisper to me as he steps into the room.

  “Sebastian killed him.” I shake my head as I sit kind of stunned for a second. Fuck, I guess people can surprise you after all, but I’m honestly not that surprised. When I looked at him after Arlo told us he was the one who had my mother killed… I could see him contemplating it then.

  He felt as if he had no clue who his father actually was. I can understand that. Although I’m not sure I ever actually thought I knew who he was to begin with.

  “Nyx hasn’t left the room since you got out of surgery.” Weasel says next to me. “I’m actually surprised she’s still asleep.” The image of her coming crashing through the wall at the house comes playing back in my mind and I shake my head.

  “Thank you.” I nod to her and she smirks at me. She knows that I’m not thanking her for telling me she’s been here this whole time. I’m glad that she doesn’t make me explain what I’m actually thankful for. “Why don’t you take Weasel and—” She laughs.

  “Really?” she asks. “You think now that I saved your asses you can start calling me by my name.”

  She catches me off guard, but I guess she kind of does have a point. “Yeah…” I trail looking over to Gunner, who laughs slightly before he mouths her name to me, but I can’t quite make out what it’s supposed to be. Furrowing my brows, I look at him again as he mouths it once more before she looks over at him and looks shocked before she looks back at me. “Sorry, I tried.” I shrug, causing her to laugh.

  “Laney.”

  “Yeah, we’ll get a place.” Blaine nods to me before he nods to Gunner to leave the room.

  Watching them leave, Laney stops and looks back to me as she smirks and pulls the door. The slamming of it makes me jump even if I had watched the entire thing play out. Nyx jolts awake as I look over at her and she gasps. “You’re awake.”

  “I am.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” She asks sadly as she looks up at me.

  “I was getting ready to.” I slowly shift over so that she can come and lie next to me. She hesitates for a second before she takes a deep breath and then steps towards me. Sliding in next to me, she finally relaxes into my body, leaning her head onto the left side of my chest. I can’t help but let out a small laugh as I look down at her lying and ask, “Why are you wearing scrubs?”

  “Um, I was covered in blood.” My blood.

  “Oh,”

  “Never do that again.” She whispers out before she slowly looks up at me. “I thought you were
dead.”

  “You can’t kill the devil, Little Girl.” She smirks, looking up at me. “You can only subdue him for a bit. Give him a plaything to keep him happy and distracted for a bit.” She looks up at me, shocked.

  “Did you just admit that you’re happy?”

  “I did.” I nod, leaning over into her and kissing her gently once. “I’m also on so much morphine.”

  ❖

  My door opens and I’m about to yell at Nyx, having made her leave the room and go get something to eat earlier.

  I’m only partially surprised when I see Sebastian step inside. “They said you were awake.” He tells me as I just nod my head and he walks inside.

  Sitting down next to the bed, we don’t look at one another in an uncomfortable silence.

  “You killed him?” I just ask as he nods his head, staring off in the distance, not looking at me, or at anything in particular. He says nothing for a few moments, just continues to stare in the wall's direction.

  Come on kid, if you’re going to run the fucking cartel without getting ran the fuck over, you’ve got to toughen up.

  “He was an asshole who needed to die.”

  “What’s your plan, Bash?” I ask him as he looks at me, surprised. I haven’t used his nickname since we were kids.

  “Pick everything up.” He nods.

  “They’re going to come and try to take over.” He nods his head as I look at the man in his late 20s who isn’t afraid, almost as if I was a proud older brother. Which, I guess, I kind of am. We kind of fought like siblings.

  “I know.”

  “You need help?” I ask him as he just stops and looks at me curiously. “I’m serious. As soon as everyone hears Arlo is gone, they will come. As soon as I get out of here, I’ll put Nyx on a plane back home, stay back and wait with you. Get the rest of my men back home to come out here.” I pause, laughing. “How do you feel about bikers?”

  “Which ones?” He laughs.