* * *
John
“Allen, on your right!” I shouted when I noticed a guy attempting to sneak up on him from behind one of the parked cars with a baseball bat.
He spun to the side and fired three rounds, the bat falling to the ground with a clatter right before the body followed suit. Allen turned and gave me a nod of thanks before we made our way up the stairs of the house.
Derek stopped us at the door. “Mario is here,” he explained as he pointed to the cherry red Ferrari parked a little ways down the road.
Allen and I squinted, but neither of us could tell if he was actually in the car or not. I raised my gun and fired a few rounds at the car. It was a long shot, but I figured if he was inside, the bullets would probably be enough to scare him off whether they hit or not.
“He must be in the house,” Troy said as he craned his neck to look at the car.
“Don’t let him leave. John, Derek— let’s move.”
Troy jogged down towards the car to wait in case Mario tried to flee the scene. If he did, he wouldn’t get very far. Troy would probably slash the tires the moment he got over there.
Damn shame, too. Such a nice car driven by such a huge piece of shit.
We stepped over the broken remains of the front door and into the house. I felt dread tightly coiling in my stomach at the silence that met us. We waited a beat and listened, hearing nothing but the sounds of the house settling and I wondered where the hell Mason and Amber were.
Did they already take them?
“Allen—”
“Shhh,” he shushed, holding up his free hand and cocking his head to the side. “Basement.”
I nodded and made my way down the hall, glancing in my bedroom when I saw the door was open. The entire room had been destroyed, the contents of my closet and dresser thrown around the room where they had gone searching for Amber and god only knew what else.
“Shit,” Derek muttered as he peeked in. “What a mess.”
Allen glanced in distractedly and nodded. “Let’s keep—”
His sentence died in his throat at the sound of a step in the basement staircase creaking. I moved just far enough forward to see that the door had been broken down. Allen shoved me towards my bedroom and we ducked inside, Derek moving into the bathroom on the opposite side of the hall.
Multiple sets of footsteps moved slowly up the stairs then down the hall. I swallowed hard, waiting to see who was going to walk past the room. Allen’s gun was poised for firing and I mimicked his stance, but crouched in a position that I could also lunge from just in case it was Amber that passed by.
“Tell me what you need, scar face,” Mario’s voice drawled. “I can grant you immunity for the girl. This is not an issue.”
Mason growled and both of our eyes widened.
“Shut up and keep moving.”
I lowered myself closer to the ground as I saw one of Mario’s goons stepping backwards, his eyes never leaving what I could only assume was Mason. How in the hell had he managed to get them unarmed and backing away, I had no idea. Four other men, including Mario himself, slowly backed down the hallway, none of them glancing towards the bedroom and spotting us.
Then I realized how Mason had gained the upper hand in this fucked up scenario.
I could feel the moment that Allen’s vision turned red.
There was the only smallest beginnings of a snarl that escaped before I covered his mouth with my hand, but it was just enough to alert Mason to our presence. He paused mid-step, Amber’s slightly limp body pausing along with him.
“Coming to your senses, scar face?” Mario asked from down the hall, no more than a few feet away judging by how close his voice sounded. “Making us leave won’t help your cause. Hand over the girl now and we will never come back. You and your group will be left alone.”
Mason didn’t make a single movement to let on that he knew we were there— but we weren’t stupid. Allen and I knew him better than anyone and we knew he was just waiting for the perfect moment to do what he had to.
I slowly released my palm from Allen’s mouth and he moved forward until his shadow nearly extended into the hall. He stopped and waited, nodding slightly to Mason and hoping that he could see the movement in his peripheral vision.
Stall him, I thought as I crept around Allen body and tried to get to the other side of the door without making a sound.
“How do I know you would honor your word?”
Thank fuck. Keep going, almost ready.
Mario laughed. “My friend, we always keep our word, I assure you. And what other choice do you have, hmm? Walk us out and relock the door? Didn’t you say you would not die for this girl? If you push us out, we will just come back later with even more men.”
Highly unlikely considering we just wiped out at least twenty of those men outside and twenty more in your human slave factory.
“Fine,” Mason ground out as he noticed me edging to the doorway. “I’ll hand her over if I have your word that you’ll leave our team alone for good.”
“This is all I want,” Mario said, his voice inching closer. “Peace between our groups. Just give me the girl, and we will both get our wish.”
From my vantage point, I saw the moment that Mario stepped directly in front of Amber followed by the moment where he turned just enough to catch sight of Allen waiting in the wings.
Mason moved immediately— shoving Amber hard to his left and into Allen’s waiting arms. I lunged forward, tackling Mario to the ground as soon as he reared back to swing for Mason. The goons down the hall shouted— likely running outside to call for backup only to find all their buddies dead.
Unfortunately, that also meant that the ones left alive were now armed again. I slammed my fist into Mario’s face once, savoring the satisfying crunch of bone before I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around my upper body and haul me backwards.
“What the—”
My words were cut off by the roar of guns firing down the hall and I twisted my neck back to look at Allen, thanking him with a shaky nod. His eyes were wide with worry, glancing between the bullets flying down the hall over to where Amber lay beside the bed, only half-conscious.
“Is she—”
“She’s fine. Just slightly out of it,” he shouted over the hail of bullets.
We waited, frozen with fear as the gunfire ceased and the footsteps came marching down the hall. I heard Mario’s pained groan right before he shouted, “Give me that!”
Allen and I jumped to our feet as Mario appeared in the doorway.
Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion from that point.
I didn’t bother to think about my actions—I simply lunged for Allen as soon as I heard the bullet loading into the chamber. Allen’s arm rose and he lightly tapped the trigger, firing off a shot at the exact same moment Mario did.
Then—Pain.
Searing, white-hot pain that echoed through my entire body, rendering me unable to move.
I landed on top of Allen with a huff, barely able to register his panicked movements and the sound of gunfire as Mason and Derek stepped into the hall and took down the rest of the Sanchez goons.
Allen’s bullet had hit its target dead-on, lodging right between Mario’s eyes and splattering blood all over the hallway.
But Mario’s shot had missed. Instead, it hit me.
Right in the fucking back.
As everything started to get dark, I noticed I was bleeding all over Allen’s chest as he frantically shouted my name. With a slightly incredulous laugh, I realized the bullet was a clean shot—in through the back and out through the front.
Is that good? I can’t remember.
A strangled noise captured my attention and I turned to face Amber just as she was starting to sit up, rubbing her throat a little before her confused eyes locked on mine.
“Love you,” I whispered.
Her terrified scream wasn’t enough to push away the darkness that claimed me.
Allen
“John, JOHN!” I shouted, pushing his slack body off of mine and rolling over to straddle his waist.
Amber was sobbing beside me, crawling over to John as he bled out. I pulled my shirt over my head and pressed it to the front wound, then turned to Amber.
“Keep as much pressure on as you can,” I said, a sense of pride coming to me when she immediately moved into place and pressed down hard without protest.
A gurgling noise came out of John as I pulled my phone out and dialed the all-too-familiar number.
“Get here. NOW!” I shouted the instant the call connected.
“Three minutes.”
The call ended and I stood up, going over to the wreck of his closet and grabbing another t-shirt before making my way back to his side. Mason and Derek came into the room next, but Derek cursed low in his throat and ran out of the room as soon as he saw the blood.
Mason lowered to his knees and tried to take the bloody shirt from Amber, but she shook her head, her eyes never once leaving John’s face.
“Baby, I need to put this under him,” I said gently, grimacing when I realized that I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking.
She let up just enough for me to position the shirt beneath him, then I gently lowered his body back to the floor before going to get a clean shirt for the front.
After two minutes of counting the seconds, a loud group of voices approached the bedroom. Troy and Derek stood to the back, Mason joining them to give Jim room to work as he kneeled down and dropped his medical bag beside John.
“Fucking hell. Back up, darling,” he said to Amber, easing her back so he could lift up the shirt and look at the wound.
Amber let out a sob and I reached for her, holding her shaking body tightly against my chest as she cried. I watched as Jim poked around at the wound, then reached into his bag for a clamp to help slow the bleeding.
“We need to get him to my place. I don’t have enough equipment here to keep him from bleeding out.”
Mason and Troy stepped up, lifting John into the air while Derek resumed Amber’s earlier task and kept pressure on the wound. Thankfully, Jim lived less than two blocks away and there were enough fucking vehicles around that they could get there within seconds.
“Stay here,” Mason demanded when I tried to get up to help. “We’ll take care of John. You need to wrap up this shit with Dante and take care of your girl.”
I wanted to argue—I was ready to argue—but Amber’s frazzled presence and the reminder that I still needed to make the call to Dante were enough to settle the urge back down. I cleared my throat and nodded, watching as they carried my best friend’s limp body out of the room. Amber cried harder and I rocked her against my chest.
“He’ll be fine, baby. John’s taken a lot of bullets and he’s still up and running. He’ll be fine, I promise. I promise.”
She nodded, but continued to cry and I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat.
It was true—John had taken a lot of bullets in his life and always lived to tell the tale.
But this was the first time he had ever taken a bullet for me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Allen
“This isn’t going to be a pleasant conversation,” I warned Amber, holding up the phone and waiting for her to leave the room.
She tilted her chin up defiantly, her quiet sniffle and bloodshot eyes the only evidence that gave away how hard she had been crying only a few minutes ago.
“Oh yeah? Put it on speaker.”
Even with all the shit that was going on, a small smile formed on my lips. “Have I ever told you how adorable you are when you try to act tough?”
She frowned. “It’s not an act, Allen. I want to hear what this dickwad has to say.”
I understood her anger completely, but she wasn’t going to be doing either of us—or John, for that matter—any favors by sticking around for this.
I tried to convey with my stare how serious I was as I said, “You don’t want to hear this. It’s only going to make you angrier.”
“Why do you think that?”
I grit my teeth together as I started to get irritated. “Because I’m not calling to threaten him, Amber. I’m calling to make a peace offering.”
She gaped at me, eyes wide and incredulous. “You’ve got to be joking! After what his people did to John?”
“Do you think I want to do this? You don’t get it! Shooting John wasn’t a calculated move that was made to upset you! It’s business and you’re too emotionally attached to see things reasonably!”
After my voice quieted back down from the shouting, I watched as her anger faded back to sadness. She slowly nodded, her eyes glassy with tears that made me feel like a total prick, but I didn’t stop her as she stood up on wobbly legs and left the room.
The door quietly closed behind her and I couldn’t even imagine the horrified look that must have appeared on her face when her eyes inevitably landed on the bodies in the hallway. But I couldn’t deal with consoling her right now. I had a phone call to make first.
He answered on the second ring.
“You! You son of a bitch, I’ll end you for this! How dare—”
“Shut up and listen,” I cut in, leaving no room to argue. “Your boy Mario is dead.”
“What? How—”
“I fucking shot him, that’s how. If you want proof, I’ll gladly send you a picture considering his dead body’s only a few feet away from me at this very moment. You’re probably also aware that your slaves have been freed.”
“You motherfucker, I’ll—”
“SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” I screamed over the line, startling a loud yelp out of Amber that I could hear through the door. I lowered my voice and said, “I think you should seriously reconsider my offer before my boys and I raise hell on the rest of your organization.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
“What offer?”
“The one I made you last night, you idiot. I’ll pay you double what Chris owed you and we’ll walk away with the truce back in place.”
“You think I would agree to this? The Sanchez family—”
“—Should think twice about fucking with a team of highly skilled assassins. Don’t you think there’s a reason we chose to send this particular message? Don’t you think there’s a reason why we didn’t kill you? Because I personally would like to salvage what little is left of our alliance before rashly declaring war between our groups. But make no mistake—the girl is mine. Fight me for her and you will lose.”
The words tasted like ash on my tongue and I wished there was some other way to solve this that wouldn’t wind up with a lot of us dead. I had no doubt that my team could wipe out the entire family, but only once we were fully assembled again.
But there was also no doubt in my mind that we would suffer casualties in this war. I didn’t want to risk that—not when it could easily be John or myself—leaving Amber behind to suffer through the pain of loss.
“Perhaps you are right,” Dante reluctantly agreed. “I will accept your offer—double the payment for the girl—and we will cease this senseless violence.” Dante paused, a humorous chuckle sounding over the line before he said, “My father would not be happy if I started a war over a cunt.”
I slammed my eyes closed and took a deep breath, then slowly let it out along with every ounce of anger.
“Meet me tonight at Monaco for your payment.”
“I will see you at ten o’clock, my friend.”
I ended the call and slid my phone across the floor, trying not to let the nauseous rise in my stomach from him referring to me as his ‘friend’.
My own morals may have been pretty twisted, but I could never be friends with someone like him. It would take every ounce of self-control I possessed to keep from slitting his throat in one of those secluded booths tonight.
The phone chimed and I crawled over to it, quickly scanning t
hrough the message from Derek and jumping to my feet. I rushed out of the room and found Amber sitting in the kitchen.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“We need to get to Jim’s. John is slipping.”
* * *
Amber
“What do you mean slipping?” I asked as I tried to keep up with Allen’s frantic pace.
“You know what I mean,” he said softly.
“No. No. He can’t die!” I shouted stubbornly, grinding my feet into the pavement and yanking my arm away from Allen’s death grip.
He turned back to me and snarled. “Let’s go. We need to be with him in case—”
He cut himself off mid-sentence and turned away from me. I approached him carefully and laid my hand on his shoulder, willing him to turn back and face me.
“Allen, please. Don’t shut me out now.”
He turned back around and while the tears weren’t actively falling, I could still see them glistening in the corners of his eyes. I cupped his cheeks and gently pressed my lips to his, smiling a little at the way he sharply inhaled the same way he did every other time.
“He’ll be okay,” I told him, even though I really had no way of making such a promise. “Let’s go.”
I took his hand in mine and we walked together quickly, but not with him dragging me behind him. We were on even ground this time.
At least we were until he lifted me into his arms and broke into an all-out run. I shrieked and clutched at his shoulders, closing my eyes and hoping that he wouldn’t drop me.
* * *
Even on foot, we were at Jim’s building and up to his apartment within five minutes. Allen led the way into the apartment and I followed closely behind, glancing around the filthy living room with disgust.
They took John here for medical treatment?
But when he led me into another room that was startlingly different that the entrance, I realized why. Jim lived like a pig, but he also seemed to know what he was doing.
Dominion (Alpha Domain #1) Page 18
