by Reid, Ruby
But he was hurting now, and he was bleeding. He felt weak, and that did nothing to help him feel better about what he had to do. He hesitantly accepted the fact that he might not win this time.
He was ill-prepared to go on ahead, but he had no choice. He now knew for certain that this was not some desperate ploy by Marco. He had Amanda. And now one of his hired guns had killed a man that had basically been the best friend he’d ever had. Had he not been so overcome with rage and the instant need to exact revenge, Alex was pretty sure he would have been too busy weeping over his loss rather than marching unprepared into a fight he might be too damaged for.
Before he stepped fully into the clearing, he managed to see through his rage and think rationally. If he simply walked in there with guns blazing, he’d be taken down right away. He needed to stick to the edge of the field—maybe he could make it to the thin grove of trees that sat on the other side of the property, leading into the thicker forests beyond. If he could find some other way into the building other than the front door, he stood a decent chance of catching Marco and his hired thug by surprise.
First, he had to get away from the glare of the car’s headlights. While they weren’t blinding him, it was distracting. More than that, it perfectly outlined his shape for anyone down in the clearing that was looking for him. Figuring that he had nothing left to lose, Alex took a deep breath and went running for the tree line on the other side of the building. He knew that he was making too much noise in the tall grass, but that was the least of his worries. As long as he was out in the field so close to the clearing and the small building, he was totally exposed.
He was closing in on the trees when the wound above his stomach started aching. It also started bleeding again, the warm and sticky feeling of blood coursing down his abdomen. Looking past the pain was easy enough, but he wasn’t sure how much the re-opened wound would affect his mobility when it came time to fight.
He was about ten yards away from the cover of the trees when the gunshot rang out. He dropped to the ground instantly, taking a moment to wait for the explosive pain of the shot. It didn’t come, though, making Alex assume that the shooter had missed. He didn’t blame them; hitting a moving target without much light to go by was difficult. From his place on the ground, Alex rolled towards the trees, the wound in his side now starting to flare up a bit more.
When he made it to the trees, he got up on his knees and looked towards the building. He thought he could see brief movement along the rear of the building, but the night and the shadows made it impossible to tell. Just to be proactive, he lifted the gun in his right hand and fired at the place where he thought he had seen motion. He then instantly ran further along the edge of the woods, trying to circle around to the other side of the building.
A return report of gunfire responded, two shots fired one right after the other.
Stupid, Alex thought. The shooter had given away his position, firing into the forest at a target he couldn’t see. Alex took advantage of knowing where the shooter was and quietly walked further around to the other side of the building. Without the glare of the car’s headlights to point him out, Alex dashed out of the trees and towards the building.
As he raced across the clearing, he started to make out more details about the building. It was made of brick and concrete and, from what Alex could tell, didn’t have any windows. He thought that his original thought of this being some old abandoned state building where road equipment had once been held was correct. It occurred to him then, as he came to the building and pressed hard against the side, that Marco was eerily adept at finding out about any location he was in. With a hardened personality and deep pockets, he knew where to go in any city to get good information: who were the dirty cops, where the best abandoned places to carry out dirty deeds were, and so on.
Pressed against the cool concrete wall, Alex could hear people muttering inside. One of the voices was louder than the other and sounded angry. The other was hesitant and concerned. He listened for any signs of distress from Amanda but couldn’t hear anything else.
He could feel his shirt sticking to his stomach as he continued to bleed. He tried to ignore it, but he didn’t know if the cut had gone deep enough to worry about bleeding out. The doctors hadn’t mentioned it, but he still didn’t like the feel of all of that blood leaving his body. He had to get this over with quickly before he started growing lightheaded from the blood loss. With that in mind, he rose both of his guns and slid along the wall, inching closer to the front of the building.
He came to the corner and could see a bit of the clearing due to the car’s headlights. On the ground, he could see the foot of the man that had been shot earlier. As he looked at this man’s shoe, he heard one of the voices again. It was clearer this time, as the door to the building was just on the other side of the corner, no more than ten feet away from Alex.
“I’ll circle the building,” the voice was saying. It was not Marco’s voice, but a higher and more pronounced voice. It was the second shooter, still frazzled from the shoot out earlier.
That’s the one that killed Slim, Alex thought.
“Do it, then,” Marco replied. Hearing his voice sent spikes of rage through Alex. He knew that he had to get it over with right now… if not, his anger was going to make him careless. “Kill that asshole right now or you won’t get a penny.”
“Whatever, man.”
Alex took that moment to crouch down and slowly come out from behind the corner. He leveled both guns up, waiting for the man to come out of the door. Alex saw his shadow coming across the doorway, spilling out due to whatever light source was inside of the building. Alex readied himself, holding the guns without a single waver to his grip.
The man came out of the door and was unfortunate enough to be facing directly towards Alex. The moment of shock was all Alex needed. He placed two shots in the man’s forehead, one of which was a bit messier than Alex had suspected.
He wasted no time in getting to his feet and charging into the door. He held both guns out in front of him, ready to start firing.
He wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but what waited for him inside made his knees lock. He froze after taking three steps inside.
Amanda was sitting in a chair with her arms tied behind her. She was bleeding from her nose and she looked as if she had been through hell. This is not what alarmed Alex the most, though.
What truly made his heart go cold was the fact that Marco was standing behind her. He smiled at Alex as he entered and placed a gun to the side of Amanda’s head.
And then he pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER 10
Alex actually shouted when Marco pulled the trigger, but he still heard the dry little click noise that came from Marco’s gun. Seeing the distressed state on Alex’s face caused Marco to let out a hateful bray of laughter.
Amanda let out a moan that was a desperate sound somewhere between hope and horror.
“Gotcha,” he said.
“You son of bitch,” Alex said.
“You should know better,” Marco said. “Why the hell would I kill the only bargaining chip I have? Don’t get me wrong… I will kill her if you don’t cooperate.”
“I’m not going to cooperate with you on anything,” Alex said.
“I think you might when you hear me out.” He paused here, tapping the barrel of the gun against the side of Amanda’s head. “Look, Alex… I’m not stupid. I’ve watched you beat Larry to death and then saw how you and your friend handled my latest two scrubs like it was nothing. And I’ll be man enough to admit that you’ve kicked my ass, too. So quite frankly, I’m done trying to be beat you physically. I know when I’ve met my match.”
Marco’s words didn’t sway Alex in the least. He stood his ground, not daring to move an inch just yet. He held both guns steady, pushing past the throbbing pain from the broken fingers in his left hand.
He locked eyes with Amanda, trying to gauge her demeanor. The look of helplessness in
her eyes tore into Alex, and seeing her like that made him more vulnerable than he cared for. Hesitantly, he lowered his guns.
“What do you want, then?” He asked Marco.
“Good boy,” he said. “You and I have been through the ringer the last few days, haven’t we? It’s good to know that after all of that, we can negotiate like gentlemen.”
Amanda squirmed in the seat a bit. A tear trickled down from the corner of her left eye as she looked pleasingly to Alex.
“Well,” Alex said, “you know what I want. I want you to release Amanda and let her out of here alive.”
“I assumed as much. And of course, that’s the easiest part of this bargain.”
“So name your terms, then.”
Marco smiled a huge grin that Alex badly wanted to smash in with his fist. “First, you’re going to drop your guns. If you don’t do that, there’s not going to be any negotiations. You have three seconds to do it, or I’ll blow out the back of her head.”
“Do it, and I’ll fire my guns directly afterwards. And we both know I’m faster than you.”
“That you are. But I don’t care. I’m willing to risk it because what I have to ask of you is big. Without it, I don’t really have much of a career left.”
Alex knew that Marco was almost insane and wouldn’t bluff about such a thing. Still, releasing the guns was madness.
“One,” Marco said. “Two…,”
“Fine,” Alex spat, and threw down the guns.
“No,” Amanda wept.
“There,” Marco said. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? It’s almost as if you don’t trust me or something.”
“I don’t trust y—,” Alex said, but he stopped as she saw Marco turn the gun away from Amanda and directly towards him. Marco tilted the gun down and fired.
Alex’s right leg was filled with fire. A pain like he had never experienced raced up his leg and coiled in the pit of his stomach like a venomous snake. Alex yelled out in pain, reaching down to clutch at his knee. The bastard had put a bullet just above his knee. The pain was immeasurable, and despite that, Alex found himself lunging towards Marco.
He fell on his face though, and his knee slammed into the floor. He yelled again and pounded the ground in frustration.
“That’s for killing Larry,” Marco said. He slid the gun into a holster that was apparently hidden away behind his waist and then looked almost lovingly at Amanda. He looked back to Alex as he drew back his hand.
“And this is for killing those two thugs,” he said. “They cost me three hundred bucks each.”
He then slapped Amanda hard across the face—so hard that her chair toppled over and she went crashing to the ground with a scream.
Alex screamed her name, and when he saw the pain on her face and felt the absolute uselessness swim through him, he knew without a doubt that he loved her. He’d let Marco shoot him again and again if it meant that Amanda could go free.
But Marco didn’t have such plans. With the gun tucked away, he came walking slowly over to Alex. He hunkered down beside him as if they were the best of friends and looked at Alex’s right knee with disdain.
“That looks like it hurts,” he said.
“Go to hell,” Alex said.
“Actually, the deal you’re about to help me with will ensure that I stay out of hell for quite some time. See…here’s what we’re going to do. Once you agree to my terms, I’m going to get out of here. I have a truck hidden up the road a ways. I’m going to haul ass back to Chicago. You and your lady friend can take the car outside and go wherever.”
“What terms?” Alex said through clenched teeth. The pain in his knee was immobilizing but he would be damned if he’d let Marco see him squirming.
“After you’re all healed up, you’re going to call Jameson and tell him that you want back in to the Unknowns. You’re going to be all buddy-buddy with him again and reclaim your spot as his right hand man. And then one day, I’m going to call you and give you the order to kill him. I’ll set everything up and make it look like it was another of the Unknown’s competitors. Then I’m going to kill that guy and the beef the Unknowns have with me should be squashed.
“You see, working for the Unknowns kept me in business for a long time. But when Jameson started griping about me, a lot of my other clients aught wind. And right now, business sucks. Because of Jameson.
“And that’s the deal. Heal up, go back to Jameson, and then kill him. Agree to that right now, and I’ll get up and walk out. If not… well, if not, I’ll take out your other knee, and you can lay on the floor and watch while I carve your girlfriend up piece by piece….but not until after I enjoy tasting every inch of her first.”
“I’ll kill you,” Alex said.
Marco raised his right hand and brought his fist down on Alex’s right knee. Pain roared through him, and Alex screamed.
“I’d like to see you try it.” He then looked back to Amanda, still on the floor. He waved warmly to her, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I’ll give you thirty seconds to consider,” Marco said. “I know it’s a tough decision.”
Alex wanted to scream in frustration and to block out the pain. He couldn’t think straight. He had been stupid to throw the guns down, but what choice did he have?
Whatever choice, it had been much better than the one he was facing now. His knee throbbed, and he realized that he was losing even more blood. He had nearly forgotten about the injury to his lower chest; it had been dwarfed by the monstrous pain in his right leg.
“Twenty seconds,” Marco said.
Alex balled both of his hands into fists, a scream of utter defeat rising in his chest. He looked to Amanda and wanted to apologize to her, wanted to let her know that he was sorry for letting her down.
She returned his stare, and it broke his heart to see that there was still some hope in her eyes. That was somehow the worst thing about the situation.
Their stare was broken by Marco’s voice. In an almost cheerful tone, he said, “Ten seconds.”
CHAPTER 11
Amanda’s face felt like it was being nibbled on by fire ants. The open-handed slap Marco had delivered that caused the chair to topple over had been vicious. She’d seen stars for a moment and then she had fallen over and struck the floor. She’d tightened up her shoulder to save her head from hitting the floor, and that was the only thing that had kept her from getting knocked out.
But now she was motionless on the floor, still tied to the chair and helpless to do anything but look at Alex as Marco counted down by tens from thirty. Alex looked like he’d been through hell. The lower half of his white tee shirt was nothing more than a crimson stain, and there was a pool of blood forming around his right leg. Still, despite all of that, the look of determination on his face was stronger than anything she had felt since Marco had stepped through her front door dressed as the mailman.
She wanted to at least be able to reach out to him, to extend her hand to let him know that she wanted to be in his arms—that it meant the world to her that he had come for her. But she couldn’t even do that because her hands were tied behind her back and—
Only, something was different now.
When Marco and his two goons had brought her here, Marco had immediately tied her to one of the two wooden chairs that had been in the place. There was nothing else in the old building except a few empty boxes and a few decrepit car parts. She’d been tied to the chair with rope Marco had taken out of the car.
The chair was made of wood, the back consisting of decorative spindles. The rope had been threaded through the spindles and around her wrists. The knots had been tight, and she’d started to feel a pins and needles sensation in both hands as the blood circulation had been slightly cut off.
But that was different now. She could move her hands freely, although they were still bound together. Her heart felt a spark of hope when she realized that the rope was no longer restricted by the wooden spindles of the chair. The ent
ire back of the chair had broken down the center when the chair had toppled over. The spindles hung loosely from the frame of the chair, allowing her to move her arms.
“Twenty seconds,” Marco said.
Amanda tested her shoulders by behind, her hands awkwardly trying to push herself as much as she could from the floor. She bent her legs and tried to use those, too. She did all of this slowly, barely moving at all as she locked eyes with Alex. He looked sad, and she wished she could tell him that she wished she hadn’t have asked him to leave. Of course, she could tell him that, but what good would it do now?
As she tested the rope and the limits of her body, she saw one of the guns that Alex had dropped. It sat four feet from her, almost directly between her and Marco. With his back to her, he didn’t see it, nor did he care about it. He was far too concerned with taunting Alex.
