Bailout

by Kimbra Swain

  “Shep!” Sebastian yelled from the main floor. He sat on the floor with his arm and sides covered in blood. “Call for air support!”

  As we ran up the stairs, Shepherd pulled out a cell phone. His pace slowed as he tried to dial the phone and run at the same time. “Make the call. I’ve got this. Get help,” I said to him not slowing my pace. I shed my expensive suit jacket along the way. Reloading my weapon, I told myself not to count the floor as I went up the steps. The floor with our offices was the 32nd. When I reached it, I noticed the steps continued up. I bounded up the last flight, panting but driven by adrenaline. I swore to get back to the gym after this. The door clicked shut as I looked up to it. I didn’t even hear them in the stairs.

  As I stepped out on the roof, a body flew toward me. Javier Salida tackled me to the ground. I wrestled with him as LeBlanc struggled with Alexa. Her limp body hung from his arms, but he dragged one leg behind him. Someone got a bullet in him. I hoped it was one of mine.

  The wind whipped around me. Winter’s cold bit into my skin with a sting. The thrashing of the wind made it hard to see. Most of that air came off the blades of a waiting helicopter.

  “Let him take her,” Javier shouted over the humming blades of the helicopter that waited for LeBlanc on a raised platform.

  “No! Get off me, you bastard. I’m not here to kill you, Javier,” I said shoving him off of me. His job was to slow me down. Not stop me. LeBlanc was leaving him. He sat on his knees as I got to my feet.

  “Alexa!” I screamed hoping she would wake up and fight back.

  I rushed toward them as a police helicopter swung around the Westin Hotel building heading toward us. LeBlanc lowered Alexa to his feet and fired several shots at me. Either he would kill me or not, but I wouldn’t stop until I got to her.

  He dragged her along the platform to the helicopter. Someone inside opened the door for him. Shepherd and the other men exited the stairwell on to the roof. “Don’t shoot,” he called to the men. They all rushed forward to the platform.

  I ran up the steps. “Alexa!” I screamed.

  Her eyes fluttered. Yes, wake up, baby. When he reached down to pick her up, she shuffled away from him. I made it to him as he grasped her ankle. He swung around on me knocking my gun to the platform. Alexa scooted away from us in a daze. A bright purple scar already forming along her cheek and jawline fired my blood into a frenzy. This man would not leave this rooftop if I had to take him over the edge myself.

  He took his eyes off her, focusing on me.

  “Come on,” I said, taunting him while Alexa moved away.

  He took several swings at me. My training at the gym was coming back to me. The gym that Sebastian, Damien and I regularly attended, until I quit, was an MMA training gym. I never intended to get into the sport, but I enjoyed the training. It was better than just running on a treadmill or running laps around a track. My muscles remembered the work-outs as he threw each punch. I dodged enough to get a clear strike on his abdomen. He groaned in pain as my fist connected with his gut.

  He screamed like a wild animal ready to charge. I wanted him to charge me. It would be the end of him. He barreled toward me like a bull, and I absorbed the impact the best I could as he bear-hugged me to the ground. He threw a punch across my jaw causing stars to flare across my vision. The bitter taste of blood filled my mouth. I spat at him, and he pulled away. I used the moment to get out from under him, connecting again with his stomach as I moved.

  A man in his helicopter opened fire on Shepherd and the men with him. They ducked behind the air conditioning units and solar panels. I shook my head. Solar panels. Alexa controlled the power in the building because it wasn’t connected to the main grid. It was connected to solar panels. I remembered the fight as LeBlanc thrust his fist into my kidney. I hit the ground again in pain. Rolling over, I felt the barrel of a pistol between him and me.

  Fuck.

  When the shot rang out, I flinched, curling into a protective ball.

  “What the hell?” LeBlanc uttered.

  The helicopter quickly moved away from the roof, zipping off over the buildings with the police unit hot on its rear. I tried to find the wound, but I felt no pain. Looking up to LeBlanc, a red spot started on his chest spreading across his white shirt like wildfire. He clutched at his chest sinking to his knees. When he opened his mouth to speak, blood dripped out along his chin. I backed away from him.

  “My love. We were finally going to be together again,” LeBlanc said with his eyes fixed behind me. I rolled over to see Alexa in a torn Oscar De La Renta holding my smoking gun.

  “Fuck you, Ryland,” she said. Her eyes looked wild. The wind had whipped her hair around her face. The bright purple mark on her set jawline made me cringe.

  “Alexa,” I said, getting to my feet as LeBlanc sank to his knees. He tried to speak again, but only the sound of garbled liquid escaped his mouth.

  I grabbed the gun, holding it away from us. Her eyes focused on him until he stopped breathing. She looked at me, and her chest heaved. Her body shuttered. I knew it was coming. Wrapping my arms around her, I drew her to my body.

  “Alexa, who am I?” I asked her.

  She shook her head as her heart pounded against my chest. “No,” she said.

  “Alexa. Look at me, baby. Who am I?” I said, squeezing her tight.

  “The man I love,” she said, fixing her eyes on me and taking a deep breath.

  Leaning my forehead to hers, I said, “No, I’m the man that loves you.”

  “He almost killed you,” she muttered.

  “Nah, I had him right where I wanted him,” I said, knowing very well that she saved my ass.

  A small laugh escaped her lips as she leaned into me. “Don’t let go,” she said.

  “I won’t. It’s over now,” I said.

  “Abrego,” she muttered.

  “He will deal with us now, I think,” I hoped.

  “Maybe. Jamey, I couldn’t let him shoot you,” she said, as if it were a confession.

  I pulled her face to look at mine. The bruise on her face couldn’t hide how beautiful she was. Her green eyes glittered with tears. “You did the right thing. Next time we give you a gun,” I assured her.

  “You did great,” Shepherd interrupted. I shot him a look that I quickly regretted. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. You kept his goons from shooting at me,” I said to him.

  “She saved your ass,” he grinned.

  “She saved me long before today,” I said. “This was just the follow through.”

  “You both are stupid,” she muttered.

  “There’s my girl!” I laughed. Shepherd joined me as Damien stepped out from behind one of the solar panels. Her eyes drifted to him.

  He shook his head. The big guy had tears in his eyes. She kissed me on the cheek, then walked to her brother. “Come on. Let’s go get Sebastian,” she said offering him her hand. I wanted to punch him for being an idiot.

  Maybe once I started back at the gym, I would get my chance. I owed both of them a bloody nose.

  Forty-Two

  ALEXA

  Jamey braced me as we descended the stairs. I was thankful for him because without his arm around me I’m pretty sure I would have melted to pieces. I quipped jokes and maintained that I was fine. I wasn’t. He leaned into my ear. His breath brushed over my skin.

  “Hang in there. I’ve got you,” he said. This man. He knew me.

  As we entered the top floor, the warmth of the heat in the office welcomed us all in from the cold. Javier Salida sat slumping in between the two elevators.

  “You bastard,” Jamey said rushing toward him. I held him back. Shepherd rushed past us, hauling him up. He slapped cuffs on him. He wasn’t gentle which I appreciated.

  “It was my family,” he said with a thick accent. “I did it for them.”

  “Too bad they are on a plane back to Mexico,” Shepherd hissed.

  “What? No, Senor Abrego has them,” he said.
<
br />   “No, ICE has them,” Shepherd replied.

  “I don’t understand. When? How?” he asked searching all of our faces.

  “Javier Martinez Salida,” I said. “I hacked you all. Too bad all your credit receipts traced back to a little bodega in Tucker. I think you said it belonged to your family, but it actually was a stronghold for Abrego.”

  “The Atlanta Police in conjunction with the Tucker Force as well as ICE invaded the bodega yesterday. I suppose you were too busy trying to break into Malone to realize your family was being deported,” Shepherd said.

  “I’m damn good at what I do, Javier,” I boasted. “Why do you think your badge still worked?”

  “You knew I’d let him in? You let him come in here. He might have killed you all,” Javier said.

  “Maybe. Not likely,” I said, stroking the bruise on my face. Jamey winced at the sight of it. “Is it that bad?”

  “It’s pretty damn bad. You weren’t supposed to go to him,” Jamey protested.

  “I didn’t see any other way out. I was the only one in that room he wouldn’t kill,” I explained.

  Shepherd interjected, “She never follows the plan. She has to be in control of everything.”

  “Shut it,” I said. I felt like I was wearing my weaknesses on my sleeves. Shep knew me better than anyone here, and either he avoided setting me off by acting like a hard ass or he really didn’t see it. I don’t know who I was kidding. Of course, he was acting along for my sake.

  The elevator doors opened, and Damien stepped in with Shepherd and Salida.

  “We will take the next one,” Jamey said. Shep nodded allowing the doors to close.

  We walked back to my office to retrieve the laptop. Once I had it secure in my satchel, I told Jamey I was ready to go. We walked down the hall back to the elevators hand in hand.

  “If you baby me right now, I’ll lose it,” I said.

  He wrapped his arms around me, anyway. I pressed my cheek to his chest. The opposite one of the bruise. Being pistol whipped hurt like hell. He hugged me, then finally his voice filled the empty offices on the executive floor of Malone Enterprises.

  “Let go, Alexandra.”

  My chest tightened, and a small sob escaped my throat. I didn’t even open my mouth for it, but it forced itself out of my stomach, across my chest and through my throat. My knees buckled, but Jamey held me up. He leaned over, allowing me to wrap my arms around his neck. Picking me up off the floor as the other elevator opened. He walked with me in his arms into the waiting lift.

  “When we get to the bottom, I’m going to put you down. You deal with the rest of this shit, then we are out of here,” he commanded.

  “Yes,” I answered softly. I held on so tightly that I might have choked him. He didn’t complain.

  After a few quiet moments, he lowered my legs to the floor, steadying me just before the doors open. We walked into what seemed like mass chaos in the main lobby of the building.

  I scanned the room. Charity sat to one side in the waiting area while a cop and paramedics questioned her. Kelly was strapped to a gurney. Jamey’s body tensed when he saw her. She appeared to still be unconscious as several paramedics attended to her. Shepherd gave directions to the cops in the room as Javier Salida sat next to him. His face buried in his hands to hide his tears. Security held the doors closed as reporters tried to get in the building.

  Damien stood over another gurney that was about to be wheeled into the parking garage.

  “Wait,” I called out, rushing over to Sebastian.

  “Hey, Lex,” he muttered. “Damn, your face.”

  “Damn you back, Bastian. Getting shot!” I exclaimed. I wasn’t really angry. Mostly scared that my actions got him shot in the first place.

  “I know. That wasn’t part of the plan,” he said, never mentioning that I was the one that made a move we hadn’t planned.

  “How bad is it?” I asked.

  “He will be fine. Just lost a lot of blood,” the paramedic said.

  I worried about him going to the hospital. We still hadn’t dealt with Abrego. “I’m going with him,” Damien said. “Please stay with Elliot. Okay?”

  “Yeah, sure. Just don’t take your eyes off him,” I said, pointing to Sebastian.

  “I won’t. I promise,” Damien said. “Lex, I’m sorry about all of this.”

  “We will talk about it later,” I said. “We are still family. It’s not like I’m getting rid of you anytime soon.”

  “You could fire me,” Damien said.

  “Whatever. Bastian is fired,” I said. Sebastian laughed painfully. I kissed Bastian just before they wheeled him away with Damien by his side.

  We turned back to Shepherd who met us. “How is he?”

  “He will be okay. You got someone to send with them?” I asked.

  “Sebastian said don’t,” Shep said.

  “Damn. Okay,” I replied. “He probably has some of his guys already on the way down there.”

  “He will be fine. I’m willing to bet Abrego will deal with you now,” he said.

  I reached into Jamey’s pant pocket. He lifted his eyebrows at me even though he knew what I was doing. I shook my head at him. He smiled, and it was so damn handsome. When I turned back to Shep, he rolled his eyes at me. I shrugged and handed him a silver thumb drive.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “Abrego. On a silver platter. Or a silver thumb drive. Whichever,” I said.

  “How much of this is legal?” he asked.

  “All of it. It will give you all the information you need to nail him. I only request that you let me talk to him before you bust him,” I said.

  Shep nodded, then wrapped me up in a hug despite Jamey’s glare. He kissed my forehead. “Go rest,” he said. “We can talk about this later. What do you want me to do with Miss Rimmel?”

  “She’s dead to me. Do whatever you want,” I said. I regretted that I said it, but bitterness toward the woman I considered my best friend for so long gripped my soul. In all of it, she was the shock that pushed me over the edge. I’d rolled with all the punches until I realized she was the one that set it all up. I might have even run away with Jamey had I not discovered her involvement. It was the catalyst that triggered my actions to fight back one last time. I knew driving into Atlanta that it might be my last day on earth, but if it were, I was taking LeBlanc and Abrego with me.

  “The car is waiting in the parking garage,” Jamey said in my ear.

  I made eye contact with her as she talked to a cop. Her wrists were bound in cuffs. I saw the bruises around them. My heart ached for her for just a moment. Once in my life, I’d had the same bruises. I knew who gave them to her. Ryland LeBlanc didn’t know any other way to handle a woman. Brutally.

  Maybe it made me a bad person, but I was glad he was dead. Part of me was glad I pulled the trigger. The other part of me cringed knowing that I had it in me to kill someone. I didn’t kill him because he was Ryland, the man who allowed a room full of men to rape me. I killed him because he held a gun to the man I loved. I hoped there was some redemption in that fact.

  Jamey pulled me away. He helped me into the red Mercedes. A car full of our own security followed us all the way to Smoke Rise. They set up a perimeter around Jamey’s home while we went into the house.

  Before I could speak, Jamey swept me off my feet carrying me to the bedroom. He sat me down on the edge of the bed kissing me gently.

  “I’ll start you a warm bath,” he said. I sat the satchel down on the bed. Peeling the clothes off my body, I had a pang of guilt for the destroyed dress. It was very nice. I’m sure it had cost him a ton to have all of it brought out to us. I wrapped a blanket around me as I went into the bathroom. He had the large tub in the room full of hot water. He motioned for me to come over. Pulling the blanket off of me, he looked at my body. My legs were scraped and bruised from the tussle with Ryland. He winced at the damage.

  “Damn, Alexa,” he said. “Don’t you ever do that m
e to again. We do things together from now on.”

  “No. You trust me to make the right decisions when I can’t speak to you about them first, and I’ll do the same for you. It’s about trust,” I said.

  “We can argue about that later. Get in,” he said motioning to the tub.

  I started unbuttoning his shirt. His abdomen was bruised too. Then, I understood what he felt looking at me.

  “Are there more?” I asked.

  He took off his belt and pants. His legs had bright pink rug burns on them from the rooftop fight. I stepped into the tub, motioning for him to join me. He slipped down into the hot water behind me. I sank back into his chest, and we sat quietly absorbing the warm water. My body ached from the fight, the stress and the fear of what was to come.

  “I get it,” I muttered.

  “Do you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Good,” he said. “Together?”

  “Together,” I responded relinquishing control of my life to him. We would share it now, and I would be equally responsible for his. Until that moment, I don’t think I truly allowed my heart to belong to him. He knew it too. I felt him sigh, relaxing behind me.

  Forty-Three

  JAMEY

  Alexa stood looking out over Atlanta. We were just a week away from Christmas. I sat on the leather couch in her office looking over the latest numbers from the tech sector. Bright’s shares had skyrocketed in the last two weeks. We secured several deals that pushed our profits up to the place where I felt that I could finally handle the company on my own.

  However, when we discussed it, I decided that more than anything, I wanted to be in this building and part of Malone Enterprises. Part of the world that Alexandra Malone built. She agreed to absorb Bright making it the new tech wing of Malone. I worked a lot with Humphrey on securing the correct materials. We had plans to visit a few production lines of companies who were struggling in the sector to have the foundation to make our own parts and product lines.