by Mike Dagons
“Please everyone stop speculating and just calm down!” Mr. Joshua commanded. “Are you sure they aren’t taking any hostages, Stevie?”
“Yes sir, they shooting everybody,” he said, confirming what Matt had told them.
“Then the kids working as valets are not safe where they are,” Joshua explained.
He didn’t have to say anything else. Choc knew what had to be done. “We have to go after them,” he said.
“Did you see how many men are blocking the passage?” Rayce asked Matt.
“No, but I saw three of them attacking Latrice. I didn’t see how many were stationed at the elevator, but it sounded like more than two,” he answered.
“Segal, it sounds like there are more of them outside than in. You and Scott go after the kids. I’ll escort these people to the safe room,” she said.
“I don’t know if splitting up is a good idea,” D’Agon frowned.
“We don’t have a choice,” she snapped. “Somebody needs to help those children, and we can’t leave these people alone.”
“My son is out there,” a man stepped up. “I’ll go with you.”
“You’ll only get in the way out there, sir,” D’Agon said. “You go with Avenia. We promise to get your kids to safety.”
The man nodded an okay, and stepped back. “Do you have any guns?” Rayce asked Mr. Joshua.
They had all been restricted to carrying one handgun, and an extra clip, ironically to avoid exactly what was happening.
“I have a shotgun,” Sherman answered. He rushed into the pantry and came out with a double barrel shotgun, and a box of ammo. “It’s loaded, and there is about twenty double aught shells in this box,” he said. “I use it to hunt deer. Mr. Basin loves venison.”
“Give it to Scott,” she told him, and then tossed Choc her extra clip. “Mr. Joshua, I need you to show me the way. The rest of you stay close behind us,” she instructed.
“Wait you’ll need this,” he removed a card hanging on a cord from around his neck and handed it to Choc. “It operates the elevator to the subbasement. Use it after you collect the children.”
“How will y’all get down there?” Choc asked.
“Mr. Sherman and Ms. Loretta both have key cards. Thank you for this, and please be careful.”
“We will,” Choc said. He took the cord, draped it around his neck, and then pushed the card inside his shirt collar.
Mr. Joshua directed Rayce through one of the kitchen doors, and Choc opened the back door. Immediately, they saw the reason Stevie had been so spooked. All of Basin’s guards were dressed in black tanks and dessert army fatigues, so it was easy to pick them out. There were plenty of them in the yard, but they were seriously outnumbered like the kid had said.
“Damn, it looks like Tyler Basin overestimated Viper’s capabilities,” D’Agon commented as they exited the house and got in the fight. “You think this is Yeltsin?”
“And whoever is backing him. Maybe he found out he didn’t have the real card,” Choc said.
It was bedlam. The mercenaries on that side of the house were barbaric assholes. They saw one of them shoot a caterer in his back when he was clearly unarmed and running away.
Men, women, or children, nobody was being given the option of surrendering. “This is crazy,” Choc said when they chanced upon a man beating a fallen teenage girl with his fist.
He kicked the man off the girl, and then plunged a knife he’d taken from the kitchen into his throat. “Muthafucka,” he growl.
D’Agon blasted two men coming in their direction with the double-aught buckshot while Choc was helping the girl up off the ground.
She was badly beaten and could barely stand. “Where’s the barn the valets are using?” he asked.
She pointed to their left where a paved drive led to three large barns behind a corral fence. The girl’s face was swollen and bloody. Choc thought her jaw might be broken. She was weak, so he lifted her in a fireman’s carry, and took her with them.
D’Agon was bringing up the rear, and doing a lot of damage with the shotgun, sometimes taking down two men with one shot. He observed some of the people he knew were there for the auction helping the guards fight, and assisting the injured. Although a lot of them were just fighting to get to their rides, and were hauling ass out as soon as they did.
They made it to the barns without getting shot. Cars were parked all around them, and some of them had dead bodies inside. Choc put the girl down, and she pointed them to the barn farthest from the drive.
There were no mercenaries in sight, but they couldn’t be sure they hadn’t already taken the barn, so they moved cautiously with Choc assisting the girl and D’Agon watching their backs.
Choc pushed the door open, and looked inside. There was not a kid in sight. They entered, and D’Agon pushed the door closed.
“You sure this is the right barn?” D’Agon asked, and she nodded yes.
“Listen up!” he announced. “Your friend Stevie sent us to help you. We have an injured girl with us, so please come out!”
Heads started popping up all over the barn. There had to be at least twenty kids in there, some of them were dressed in the valet red shirts, but the majority of them were wearing the white shirts reserved for household workers.
Choc handed the girl off to a couple of the larger boys. “We’re going to take you to the safe room in the subbasement. Does anyone know how we can get there without going through the south side of the property?”
“There’s a garden path that leads around back. We can go that way,” a small girl spoke up.
“Okay, then let’s get ready to go,” Choc said. “I want you all to line up behind me and…” he looked at the girl. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Evie,” she smiled. “You’re Mr. Segal, and that’s Scott. You gave my brother a hundred dollar tip for bringing you a drink.”
“Okay, Evie, let’s lead these kids outtá here. Line up!”
The kids were terrified, but they understood the importance of remaining orderly. They only took a few minutes to get assembled with the two bigger boys he selected to help the girl at the front of the line. Choc couldn’t help noticing that they both looked older than D’Agon.
Choc opened the door and saw a group of men marching in their direction with purpose. He shut it quickly, and turned to face the group. “Fall back, trouble is heading our way!” he shouted in a whisper.
Amazingly, the kids didn’t make a sound. They dispersed quickly, and ducked into hiding places. The two boys helped the injured girl crawl under a Bentley, and then they rolled underneath it with her.
Choc and D’Agon took position by the door. “How much ammo you got,” he asked D’Agon.
It had been a long trip out there, and he had been doing most of the shooting since Choc had been carrying the girl.
“The double aught is all gone except for what’s loaded, and I got an extra clip for the Glock. You want to take the fight to them and try to draw them away from the barn?”
“Yeah, on my mark…three, two, go!” he shouted, and they came out the barn firing.
Chapter 36
The house was under siege. People were fighting all over the place, and men were blocking the emergency exits to the stairwells. Mr. Joshua led them through several secret passages to the corridor where the subbasement elevator was located.
Rayce had questioned Matt about the men guarding the elevator, asking for detailed descriptions of their weapons, and comments. The more she knew about them, the better equipped she’d be to form a plan of attack.
Matt told her that they were loud, and vulgar. “Did they threaten to shoot Latrice like they did Mr. Rick?” she asked.
“No, but they didn’t threaten him either. They just shot him, and took her.”
“Why is that important?” Mr. Joshua asked.
“The fact that they would take the time to commit a rape in the middle of an operation tells me that they’re undisciplined. It’s s
omething I can use against them.”
Rayce backed up against the wall, and sneaked a look around the corner at the elevator. There were seven men huddled around it, and they were all armed.
The men Matt had described were cutthroats and rapist, and these fit that description right down to their wrinkled fatigues. Rayce was a good fighter, but taking on seven trained men was a challenge she wasn’t sure she could handle alone, so she decided to use the women in the group to help her.
“Listen ladies,” she whispered. “Men like those guarding the elevator will only shoot young women after they’ve had some fun. It’s best if we take the lead, and let the men hang back.”
“How we know they won’t shoot us?” a petite blonde asked.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Mary and I will say what we are all thinking. You’re just a woman, and I don’t feel safe with you leading us.”
Rayce cracked a smile. “I ain’t mad at you, Mary. I am wearing booty shorts and a midriff, but I do have a gun that I’m very good at using. It makes me more than just a woman. It makes me a deadly woman,” she winked. “Now, I need your help ladies to keep them from killing your men.”
“I’ll help,” a young black woman with a thick relaxed ponytail stepped up. What you want me to do?”
“Your name?”
“Angie and my sister, Yvette, will help too,” she looked at a taller woman that looked like her.
“Alright, I’ll help,” she rolled her eyes.
“I’ll help, too,” Mary stepped forward.
“Good, I want you to open the buttons on your shirts, and then take them off when I tell you.”
“You want us to do a strip tease?” Mary gasped.
“Don’t act like you ain’t ever done it before,” Yvette teased.
“I want to distract them, and I can’t think of a better way to do it,” Rayce explained. “The first gunshot will be your signal to hit the floor. Just drop where you are and stay down. Do you understand?”
They all nodded yes, but they looked nervous. Rayce expected them to be. They were about to offer themselves to men without honor or mercy.
“I want to go with y’all,” Matt said. “If you sure they won’t shoot a bunch of women, then I’ll be safe behind you.”
“Me too…I want to go,” the man who had volunteered to go with Choc stepped forward. “My name is Roy.”
“Sorry, Roy, they may not perceive Matt as a threat because he’s just a boy, but you may cause them to be guarded. The hall is wide enough for the four of us to stand shoulder to shoulder. Matt, I want you to walk close behind us, and keep your head down in case they’re good shots.” She put her gun in the back of Mary’s waistband because reaching behind her own back would surly alarm a professional. “Stay close to me,” she said.
Mary nodded nervously, and then took position beside her, and the sister’s bookended them.
“Okay, then let’s do it,” she smiled to hide her nervousness. “Everybody, keep your hands where they can see them,” she ordered as they marched out.
The ladies turned the corner and came into view with their hands up. As soon as the men standing between them and the elevator saw them, they started cat calling. Rayce stopped ten feet before they reached them. Close enough for accuracy, but too far away to be touched.
“What do we have here, girl treats?” one of them grinned.
“I’d like to sample the boy treat,” another one joked, and they all laughed.
“Can we talk about surrender?” Rayce pulled her top off over her head and let them see her black satin bra. She dropped her shirt on the floor at her feet. “We’ll do whatever you want if you don’t hurt Matt,” she proffered.
“Of course you can negotiate surrender, honey,” a different man answered enthusiastically. “And if you’re good, we won’t hurt the boy.”
“Undress, ladies,” she said. The women obediently began unbuttoning their shirts.
“Damn!” a man howled when Mary took off her shirt. She had a nice rack of DD’s that had eyes popping. Angie disrobed, and got a similar reaction.
The women stood before them in bras, and like most of the ignorant hillbilly types, they were thinking with their dicks. Rayce planned to time it perfectly and shoot at least three of them before they realized she was armed with more than great boobs.
“Would you like some girl on girl action first,” she offered to fulfill every man’s fantasy, and they abandoned caution and cheered loudly.
Rayce slipped her hand behind Mary’s back like she was about to touch her, and gripped the Beretta. She pulled it and fired two shots in rapid succession, hitting one man between his eyes, and another in his throat.
The women and Matt hit the floor like they’d been told, and Rayce moved with the grace of a ballerina, shooting a third man through the heart.
She had taken three of them down before they even realized they were under fire, but now the others were on the move and no longer being stationary targets.
Rayce didn’t believe she could hit four moving targets, before she got shot, but it didn’t stop her from trying. She spun into a low crouch that made her a smaller target, and winged one of them a split second before Matt surprised her by coming up off the floor like a sprinter off the starting block. Charging with his arms spread, he plowed into them in an impressive tackle that knocked two of them on their asses.
It put those two out of play for a minute. Unfortunately, it also put Matt within their reach, and the one he left standing, dragged him in front of him to use as a shield. “Drop the gun, bitch!” he shouted.
Rayce kept him sighted, but she couldn’t fire another shot safely, and her reluctance to risk shooting Matt was probably going to cost the ladies their lives.
The two men Matt had knocked down were getting up, and since they weren’t shooting at her, she assumed they had plans to enjoy her before they killed her.
Rayce only had a split second to decide if she was going to sacrifice them all to save Matt. Then the elevator doors chimed open behind them, and Ceylon Battle stepped out the car, shooting the two men getting up off the floor and finishing off the one she had winged.
He was at the man’s back that was holding Matt in a millisecond, gripping his forehead and chin. Before the man could register his presence, he gave his head a vicious twist, snapping his neck like a dry twig.
“I’m going to check on Latrice!” Matt took off running as soon as the man holding him dropped dead.
Rayce noted that Ceylon Battle in killing mode was a fascinating thing to watch. He had assessed and exterminated the threat with an ease not many men possessed.
He moved forward without so much as a glance back at the carnage he’d left behind. Rayce just stood there staring at him in awe. She believed he might be as good as Ice and Valow.
His eyes were fastened on hers, and she realized that she was standing between him and the workers, and she was holding a gun.
He was holding his firearm down by his thigh, and his posture was unthreatening, but his eyes were telepathing any sudden move would surely get her one of those tickets to the morgue the men on the floor had just received.
Rayce did not want him to perceive her as a threat, so she raised her hands, released the gun grip, and let it dangle on her finger by the trigger guard.
“She’s helping us,” Mr. Joshua walked up behind her with the others.
“Where you taking them?” he kept her locked in a hard gaze that made her tense.
“She’s taking us to the safe room in the subbasement while her friends try to rescue the valet kids,” Mr. Sherman stepped forward. “I think they could use your help.”
He simply nodded an acknowledgment, and then quickly disappeared around the corner.
Feeling like she had barely escaped death, Rayce took a moment to breathe. “Was that Mr. Basin’s security chief?” she asked, like she didn’t already know the answer.
“That was Ceylon. He’s the he
ad of the security team Mr. Basin hired for this event,” Mr. Joshua explained. “Mark is the head of Mr. Basin’s regular security team, but he hired on extra for the party.”
“Good thing,” Rayce smiled. “Please, everyone get in the elevator,” she stepped back and let them pile in first. It was a large car with the load capacity of about thirty.
With everyone safely inside, Rayce was just about to get on herself when she thought about Matt. He had run off while she was in her Ceylon induced coma, and he hadn’t returned.
“Matt’s not back, yet. I’m going to go look for him,” she announced to the group. “Mr. Joshua, hold the elevator for five minutes. If we’re not back by then, take it down without us.”
“Hurry child,” he said, and pressed the button to hold the doors open.
“Wait, here’s your shirt!” a girl called out, and then tossed it to her.
Rayce pulled the shirt on over her head as she jogged down the hall in the direction she had seen Matt run. She had turned the corner to another corridor and was halfway up that hall when she heard the gunshot.
Instinctively, she knew it was Matt, and she started running faster. Before she reached the end of the hall, Matt came around the corner running. He was carrying a small black girl in his arms.
Rayce ran to meet them, and when he saw her, he did exactly what she had told them to do earlier. He hit the deck, diving into a slide on his back with the girl on top of him.
The gunman turned the corner five seconds behind them, and Rayce didn’t hesitate or worry about missing the shot. She fired a 9mm slug into his head, and put the brakes on him.
“He’s got friends,” Matt warned her as he scrambled to get back on his feet.
“Let’s go,” Rayce took hold of his arm and pulled him into motion as he scooped the girl up in his arms again.
Rayce was impressed by the kid’s athleticism. She was a trained runner, and he was keeping up with her, and carrying the girl like she weighed nothing.
Shots rang out behind them as they turned the second corner. Rayce had been gone longer than five minutes, and she was happy to see Mr. Joshua had disobeyed and waited for them.
