by BT Urruela
“They sold me …” The voice belonged to a stranger. She was trapped in a nightmare. Some otherworldly experience. The broken, shattered girl, bleeding in the dirt, had nothing left to give.
Dimitri wanted to console her, to comfort her, knowing she needed it, but the beginning of the audio clip still haunted him. It still gripped his chest like a vise, still dug his heart out with a spoon.
Preach is dead.
He tried to put the words together in his head but couldn’t seem to do it. They just didn’t fit. He had suspected as much, but couldn’t even comprehend the certainty of his demise. In his heart, he knew Preach was gone, knew it when the shots were fired at the second meet site. But to hear it for himself, to know Robbie knew about Preach’s sexuality, and used it against him, it all made Dimitri sick, like he had to vomit but couldn’t. Needed to cry, but found the well dry, his thoughts too explosive, his emotions a tangled mess. “I’m so sorry, Annalise,” he muttered, his voice flat, his mind still processing what he had just heard.
“Enough afterschool special for you pussies?” Robbie taunted from the house, a wicked cackle following his words.
Annalise turned to Dimitri, confused at first. He sounded like a stranger when he had spoken, looked completely lost, hollowed out. And then it struck her. The men who had died, they were his men. They were his family. She remembered Preach from her conversations with Dimitri. And then she glanced toward Trigger, in the window of the house. He just lost everyone. She reached out, her fingers grazing his arm. “You’ve still got me,” she whispered. “Evidently not worth much, but I’ll help you fuck him up.”
“I just can’t risk losing more of my guys,” he said, his voice cracking. “Can’t risk losing you. I don’t know what to do. It’s either storm him, kill him, but sacrifice Trigger and Charlie, or hope a fucking miracle happens. We’re out of options.” His voice hitched, breathing ragged. He wanted to sit in a ball in some dark corner and just cry. But he forced it away. Stowed it, to be dealt with later. If there was a later.
Her heart sank. She didn’t want to see him hurt anymore. “You could trade me,” she offered quietly, her eyes to the dirt. “Me for your guys.”
He put his hand to her chin and tilted her head up. His sharp eyes caught hers. “I would never. It’s not even on the table,” he said sternly.
A tear slipped from her eye. She tried to fight it. This beautiful fucking stranger valued her more than her own parents.
A peculiar look on Knuckles’ face caught Dimitri’s eye and Dimitri glared at him. “You got something to add?”
Knuckles shrugged. “Annalise, I mean no offense by this, but dude, she’s offerin’. And she’s the only thing he wants … those are our friends in there.”
If looks could kill.
“‘Our friends?’ How long ago was it that you were questioning their loyalty to us? Bro, I love you to death, I really do, but you’re not gonna even mention a trade of any sort again, all right? It’s not an option.”
“I’m just s—”
“You’re just nothing. Not an option,” Dimitri repeated, cutting him off.
“Do you think he will let them go if I go in?” She looked past Dimitri to Knuckles. “Would he let you guys go before the others get here? If I can buy you time”—she looked at Dimitri—“I’ll do it.”
Knuckles thought on it for a moment, and then sighed. “No, not likely. He wants this all to disappear, if I’m being honest with myself. He’s not cuttin’ any deals.”
“Helloooo,” Robbie called out in a singsong tone. “Don’t make me start killing these fucks due to boredom.”
“Robbie. If I come in, will you let them go? If I promise to do whatever you say?” Annalise yelled in response. Her stomach lurched with the words but she held it together. Dimitri was the only person who ever really gave a shit, and if she could help him, she would. “Will you let them all get out of here?”
Robbie scoffed. “Of course I will, princess. You’re all I want. The last part of the deal.”
The way Robbie said “princess” made Dimitri’s stomach turn. He gave his head a quick shake. “No way, Annalise!” He felt the swell of emotion inside, threatening to burst from his chest like a grenade. “No way!” His voice sounded foreign to his ears.
She put her hand on his arm. “You said yourself, you can’t lose any more guys. This is the best shot we’ve got. I’m not worth any more bloodshed.”
He grabbed her hands, his own shaking wildly. He leaned in, as if telling a secret. “I said I can’t lose you either, Annalise,” he said softly.
The vulnerability in his tender face radiated and cracked Annalise’s soul. The very eyes that made her feel alive brimmed with an exquisite pain that took her breath. She had to do it for him. She shook her head. “See, that’s where I’m a selfish bitch. I can’t bear to lose you either. But if I know you are out there somewhere, safe and sound, I’ll be fine. If you die in this fight, I won’t have anything left to live for.” She tried to pull back from him before she couldn’t stand to go. “Robbie, send them out and I’ll come in,” she yelled.
“That’s gonna be a while,” Robbie said with a chuckle. “They’re a bit incapacitated.”
Sick fuck. “Well, then I guess we are at a bit of an impasse. If you can get them out alive, and no more injured than they already are, I will be yours.” She swallowed hard, hating the words leaving her lips. She couldn’t even look at Dimitri. The audio clip played over and over in her head. Sold, like livestock. Fucking worthless.
“You’ll have to send someone in to get one of them, princess, the worst of them, but you don’t get the second one until I have you.”
“Now, Robert, darling. I’m sure we can trust you about as much as my hundred pounds can throw you. If I step in the clearing, you can point your gun at me until they are both clear of the house. Then I will walk to you. If I run, you shoot me. But I will keep my word.”
“Killing you isn’t in my plans, dear. How about I point at Dimitri instead?”
“No fucking way. Once those guys are clear, I will come to you and then you let them all go. All of them.”
Dimitri put a hand up. “It’s okay. If he wants you that bad, he’s not gonna shoot me.” He leaned in a little, resting his hand against her arm, and whispered, “We’ll figure something out once the guys are out of there. Before you step foot in that fucking house. I promise.”
Annalise had to look at him then. “I don’t trust him not to shoot you. He fucking hates you. He won’t shoot me.”
“What’s it gonna be?” Robbie asked, grabbing ahold of Trigger’s hair again and twisting it.
Trigger groaned and then grunted, “Fuck you!” his hoarse voice cracking.
No doubt dehydrated, Dimitri thought, his head hanging low. He had involved Trigger and Charlie in all of this, he had told them to come out of the attic when they heard gunfire … it was all his fault.
Annalise looked at Dimitri, tears brimming her eyes. “I need you to know I think I love you.”
He felt it, so completely foreign that it caught him off guard—an unexpected tear rolled down his cheek. The tightness in his chest strengthened. Her words hit him head-on. “I think I love you too, Annalise,” he said, and he had no doubt. He felt it the first time they had really gotten to know each other in that piece-of-shit house, when he saw her strength and her will laid bare in the face of Robbie, when they kissed for the first time. He knew what life was like before he met her, just couldn’t see himself going back to that, couldn’t see living if she was left to die. “I do love you,” he said, looking into her eyes, cradling her cheek with his hand.
Her heart swelled with so many emotions it threatened to burst. “Love is madness, Clyde,” she whispered, “but I do love you too.” She laid her guns in the dirt. “Robbie,” she yelled, her eyes still locked on Dimitri’s. She knew this was it. “I’m going to walk halfway. Let them go. I will be yours. You win. Just let them go.”
Dimitri�
��s hand still resting against her cheek trembled with each word she said, the tears billowing in her eyes, a few cascading over his fingers and tumbling to the ground, before she snuffed them out with a steady breath.
“Everything’s gonna be fine,” he whispered. “We’re gonna make it through this.” He kissed her hard, deep, as if it were the last time. Pulling away, he whispered, “I love you.”
Then he dropped the rifle and ran to the front of the house, his hands in the air.
“All right, Robbie.” Dimitri saw Trigger seated by the window at Robbie’s feet, his eyes unsteady. The gun that was pointed at Trigger’s temple was then aimed directly at him.
“No! No! Dimitri, stop! Goddammit!” Annalise jumped up, grabbing her guns, her heart in her throat. “What the hell are you doing?” she screamed.
Dimitri turned his head, locked eyes with her. “What’s best for … everybody,” he said. Turning back straight, his arms still high, he found the gun still aimed at him. He took a calming breath, though his heart still drummed. “Okay, Robbie. How about you let me get the worst of them out of there like we said. You can have one gun on me the whole time, but I won’t try anything. I swear. I just wanna get my guys.”
Robbie motioned toward Dimitri’s ankle with his pistol. “And your gun?”
Dimitri smirked. “Yeah, okay.” He grabbed the small snub nose from his left ankle and threw it to the ground in front of him. “Better?”
“Much … but I wanna see her while you’re grabbing him. No weapons either, missy,” Robbie said.
“Somebody’s gotta keep your ass in check,” she yelled back, still shaking. “I throw my guns and then you can just shoot them all. I keep my guns until they are clear, then I’ll lay them down in the dirt.”
“Clever girl,” Robbie said, chuckling. “Fine. On with it then. Let me see you, princess.”
Annalise fought any shred of pride she may have had left and walked around the Blazer, both guns pointed at the house. She squared her shoulders and stood for fucking inspection.
Robbie huddled closer to Trigger, putting the gun into his left shoulder blade. “You move I kill you, big boy.”
Dimitri walked in slow steps toward the front door, his shaky hands held high. He looked toward Robbie through the window frame when he hit the front door. He pushed through the squeaky old screen door and shuffled inside.
He saw Charlie, lying on his back on the floor across the room. His face was ashen and he looked to be muttering incoherently.
“Ding, ding, ding,” Robbie heckled, smiling wide. “That’d be the one.”
Dimitri saw Trigger’s knees and it stopped him in his tracks—the flesh, the blood, the bone. One seemed to be attached by skin and skin alone. He took a thick swallow, his eyes meeting Trigger’s, and he said, “I’m sorry, bro.”
Trigger sighed, shaking his head just slightly. “Ain’t your fault, man.”
Dimitri slowly continued forward and picked Charlie up like a child, cradled in his arms. His breathing hitched, his eyes distant, and he was deadweight in Dimitri’s arms. Dimitri made it halfway across the room, one of Robbie’s guns still on him, when he heard the faint rumble of motorcycles outside. His heart jumped and he froze, his eyes meeting Robbie’s, who was wearing a new toothy grin.
“Don’t you fucking move a muscle or I’ll kill you where you stand,” he said to Dimitri. He dug the gun into Trigger’s back and looked over his shoulder at Annalise. “You’re fucked now, sweetheart” he called out to her.
Annalise’s head whipped around in the direction of the roar coming up the road. Fuck! “Knuckles, is that what I think it is?” Goddammit!
“I’m afraid so, darlin’,” Knuckles yelled, crouching lower against the vehicle. “You need to get back over here, pronto!”
“Shit!” She turned and slid around the Blazer, into the dirt beside Knuckles. “Dimitri!” Annalise rapidly reloaded both guns. Shit! Shit! Fuckin’ Robbie. She looked around, desperate for ideas.
Robbie’s focus drifted back toward Dimitri as the rumble of motorcycles intensified. “You’re dead, you know?”
As the four prospects pulled in, Robbie stood straight, his gun remaining on Dimitri. “Lower him.”
“Robbie, listen—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Robbie took a step forward, his arm straight, his finger on the trigger. He wanted to kill Dimitri, but he wanted her more, and he knew Dimitri could be used to lure her. “Lower him,” he repeated slowly, the barrel nearing Dimitri’s face.
Dimitri did as he was told, lowering Charlie to the ground carefully.
“Hey, man,” Charlie said in a cheery but gruff voice as he came back from half-consciousness, his eyes just slits.
“Hey, Charlie.” Dimitri smiled, working his arms out from under his friend and back into the air. His eyes remained at his feet and on his friend as he took slowing breaths, ignoring the gun just inches from his face. “How you feeling, buddy?”
Charlie gave him a weak thumbs-up. “I’m really warm, bro. But I’m, I’m cold too.” His eyes went distant for a moment and then they focused on Dimitri’s once again. He coughed as blood pooled in his mouth, and he tilted his head, spitting it to the ground. “I just finished reading Shutter Island yesterday, bro,” Charlie muttered, chuckling weakly, both hands resting by his side, a spittle of blood left behind on his cheek. “Funny how often things aren’t quite what they seem, huh?”
Dimitri watched as Charlie chuckled again, causing him to grimace from the pain it brought, and he took one more struggled breath—a gasp, really—and then his lips ceased moving, his eyes went hollow, and his heart stopped beating.
Dimitri thought about crying, thought about the kid who grew up under his watch, and how that kid was no more. Thought about the quiet runaway he gave a home, and what he thought was a family.
“Yeah, cry it out, Dimitri boy. Just do it while you’re walking.” Robbie tilted the gun and gestured toward the screen door with it.
Dimitri stepped around his friend, took one last remorseful look, tears glistening his eyes, and then he glanced toward Robbie. “In this life or the next, you’re gonna pay for this, Robbie.”
Robbie scoffed. “Just walk, bitch. Save me your lip.”
When Dimitri hit the front porch, Robbie grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanked it, and pulled him in close. “Move along, little boy,” he whispered against Dimitri’s ear, walking with him to the patch of gravel out front, and the motorcycles left behind, and he welcomed the four prospects as they dismounted their Harleys, keeping Dimitri between him and the two behind the Blazer—one he wanted dead, and the other he wanted for so much more.
“What in the name of baby Jesus is going on here?” Adams asked, dismounting his bike. He looked from Robbie and Dimitri, to the two with guns high behind the Blazer.
Robbie laughed. “Oh, we just had some visitors. While you fucks were out playing with your dicks instead of looking for them, they were trying to make a move on my house.” Robbie tugged Dimitri’s hair violently. “And now, as always, I’ve gotten things done myself.”
“Let him go, Robbie!” Annalise yelled, one gun aimed at him and the other at his men. Of course, with her complete lack of skills, she was well aware that could mean hitting Dimitri too.
Robbie didn’t look at her, keeping his eyes on Adams. “You hear me now, and you hear me clear, Adams. You are not to kill that woman. I don’t give a fuck if she shoots you or one of your buddies, you take her alive. Do you hear me?”
Adams surveyed the situation, eyeing the three guns pointed right at him, and the petite brunette handling two of them. He shrugged. “All right, boss. Whatever you need.”
“Annalise,” Dimitri said, his voice worn, shaky. “Just run. Please, just run.” Picturing Robbie getting his hands on her, and the rest of them, he couldn’t stand the thought of it, couldn’t stand to imagine her suffering. “Both of you, run!”
Robbie hit Dimitri hard against the cheek with the butt of his pistol.
Dimitri felt a few teeth chip, maybe knocked out entirely, and he barreled over in pain with his hands to his mouth.
“No!” Annalise screamed, as the sickening sound of the steel against his skin echoed in the silence. “You fucking let him go, Robbie. I swear to Jesus.”
The other prospects had joined Robbie, as a sort of barricade between him and the Blazer.
Robbie laughed, kicking Dimitri in the ass hard, and yelling, “Stand straight, you pathetic shit.”
Dimitri’s face hit the dirt and he sucked in a breath, lifting himself up in a half-daze.
Robbie grabbed Dimitri’s hair once more and yanked his head back. “Princess,” he said, and it sounded more like a hiss, “what’s it going to be, his life or yours?”
“Stop! You crazy fuck! You’re going to kill him!” Annalise was shaking all over. Tears burned her filthy blood-stained cheeks. “I will give you whatever the fuck you want. Just please … let him go. Just let them all go.”
“All I want is you,” he said frankly, and he tugged at Dimitri’s hair once more. “I’ll make a trade. You put down those guns and come to me, and I will let him free.”
“Now, Robbie. You know we have trust issues. Your men slide their guns over first. Then I put mine down. Only you and Knuckles keep them. His life for mine. Then I’m all yours, the pet you’ve always wanted.” Annalise stood firm, a battered princess against a giant.
Robbie hesitated, letting out a heavy breath, then he looked to the prospects and nodded for them to proceed. His eyes met hers. “And what a pretty pet you’ll make.” He grinned, motioning toward the pile of guns his men made between them. “Now yours, sweetheart.”
Annalise bent at the waist gracefully, her legs remaining straight and her eyes never leaving Robbie and Dimitri. She placed the guns in the dirt slowly, as only a ballerina could. When she raised up, she slid them to the pile with her foot.
