The Rules Series

by LaShawn Vasser

  Each floor we passed beeped. Time seemed to stand still as we stood ready to handle our business. Everyone had their weapons out and ready. The elevator finally dinged on our floor, and the doors opened. Hahn spoke as we exited. “Here we go.”

  Brody pulled me by the arm and placed me behind him. “Stay behind me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

  “I’ll knock you out myself, if you don’t do as you’re told, Gina.”

  Who did he think he was? Pissed, I snapped. “I’m not the little woman who can be put in a box. I can take care of myself.”

  Hahn checked his watch. “We’ve got about twenty seconds before everything gets hot. Are you and Brody good back there?”

  We didn’t respond. That sobering fact quieted down the impending showdown between us. Until then, I gripped my weapon a little tighter and based on Hahn’s statement counted backward in my head. 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1!

  Chapter 22

  The explosion knocked me into a wall, but Brody grabbed me by my waist to prevent me from falling. I righted myself as Hahn and Solo each rolled a can of smoke down opposite ends of the hallway. Quickly, it started to fill up with white smoke. Then, all hell broke loose.

  An alarm went off as soon as the doors to individual rooms opened, no questions were asked. Guns started popping off. Flashes of light from the ends of barrels were everywhere. It was almost like the Fourth of July. Lights flashed and like fireworks, the pungent odor of not firecrackers, but guns filled the air.

  Hahn shot at a door in front of us, then kicked it in. Brody did the same thing to the room directly across from Hahn. Only Hahn’s room was empty. Brody’s was not. Without a thought, he fired off two shots into someone lunging for him. The person fell onto the floor. He pulled me into the room behind him.

  Standing inside the door well trying to dodge bullets, Hahn yelled. “I’ve got high!” Solo didn’t respond, he just took a low position and started firing.

  We mimicked them as Brody fired off shots in the opposite direction going high, and I got in on the action crouching low.

  “I’m out. Cover me.” Brody pulled back into the room to reload his weapon, while I continued to shoot mine. Minutes seemed like hours by the time Jamal and the rest of our team arrived on the scene. They joined the firefight for another several minutes before everything started to die down.

  Once Brody reloaded his weapon, I pulled back inside the door and glanced at my watch. This was taking too long. We had less than six minutes for this entire operation to work. We were running out of time.

  I needed to get to Cecily. I knew that Nina couldn’t run with her because we had men stationed in the stairwells and Solo jammed the elevator after we got off. Still, I had to get to Cecily before Nina did something stupid.

  Kitty-corner from us was suite number 1420. That meant suite 1405 was at least seven doors down. I hollered above all the noise. “This is taking too long.” Then, dashed out into the hallway.

  Brody yelled out my name. I ignored him and continued to stay low as I made my way down the hall in the midst of all the smoke and commotion.

  I didn’t get too far. “Aaaaaaaah!” The sound of my high pitched squeal shocked even me. The impact of the bullet tearing through my flesh pushed my body flat onto the floor, and my gun fell out of my hand. My shoulder burned liked hell. Dammit! I’d been hit.

  I couldn’t let that stop me. There was no choice but to suck it up. I crawled on my stomach with my good arm outstretched reaching for my gun. It was hard to see, but I felt around for my weapon until my fingertips touched the cold hard steel.

  I must have made it further down the hallway than I thought because when I looked up, the number on the door read 1405.

  *****

  Five minutes. That was all that was left.

  Shortly after I arrived at the door, Brody, Hahn, and Solo were on my heels. Brody helped me up off of the floor. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “What I have to. We don’t have much time to be messing around.”

  Solo kneeled placing some plastic explosives on the door. Jamal, Pier, and a couple of our other guys showed up too. Brody asked, “What’s our damage count?”

  Jamal responded. “We didn’t take any fatalities. A couple of guys are down, though.”

  Brody turned angry eyes towards me. “Gina! Get behind me or I swear I’ll shoot you myself.”

  I wasn’t going to budge, but Hahn pushed me out of the way. Our team backed up but was ready to make a forceful entry into the room once the explosives detonated. This was the moment. We were walking into what we knew would be a firestorm.

  The explosives went off tearing a whole into where the door had been. Everyone stormed inside with their guns drawn only to come face-to-face with Nina . . . and Cecily. They were standing behind her remaining three bodyguards—waiting.

  Cecily’s eyes were huge. It was obvious she was terrified. I made my way up to the front lines. I started to lower my weapon. “Nina, let’s not do this. Hand Cecily over to me, and I walk away. I mean really walk away from everything.”

  Nina drew Cecily closer to her side. “She doesn’t want to go with you. She wants to stay here.”

  “Don’t play games with her head, Nina. I get it. I understand. You don’t want me breathing over your shoulder, fine. I’ll leave the country if that is what it takes for you to feel safe.” I was scared. Not for me but for Cecily. My voice broke. “Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Just leave Cecily out of this.”

  “Out of what? She’s my daughter.”

  “You don’t give a damn about her. You want money and power.”

  “Some people might say the same thing about you?”

  “But, I’m willing to give it all up. I’m ready to give you anything you want.”

  “Anything?”

  “Yes.”

  “Since you tipped off the authorities that it was possible Jules Ming-Sherman wasn’t dead, I need you to make sure she stays buried.”

  Nina was talking in circles. “I haven’t tipped off anyone about anything. We handle our business in house. You know that.”

  She yelled at me. “I mean it! Call him, right here and right now, or things are going to get messier than they already are!” Nina raised a shaky hand holding a gun up to Cecily’s head.

  I couldn’t believe it. Was she actually doing this? It was a small miracle that child wasn’t already crazy. I didn’t know who she was talking about, but I was going to fake it until someone could get a clean shot of her. “Okay.” I bent down and placed my revolver on the floor then slowly stood up as I put my hands out in surrender. “Okay, Nina. I’ll do whatever you ask but not one second before you let Cecily go.”

  “Well, that’s going to be a problem because I’m not letting her go until you make the phone call.”

  “How about we do this? Me, you, and Cecily go into your bedroom . . .”

  “No!” Nina shook her head. “We can do this out here. You’re just trying to get me alone.”

  “I can’t think with guns pointing at my head Nina! I can’t do it. You can’t either. Look at you, your hands are shaking.” If I could just get her by herself or at least get her away from Cecily, I could take her. Then Brody, Hahn, and Jamal could handle the rest.

  “You still think I’m dumb and obviously stupid. WE don’t have all day. Pick up the damn phone and call. Tell them that I’m not Jules.”

  “But, you were Jules, Nina.”

  Nina yelled out as she became more frantic by the second. “Jules is dead! She died in that river. If they exhume that body and find out differently, I can’t be responsible for what I might do.”

  I was much calmer than I felt. “Consider this, if you hurt Cecily, there won’t be a corner on earth or in hell that I won’t find you. I’m willing to do all that you’ve asked and more. Let’s just go in that room and take care of business.”

  Nina took a moment to
think about it. “Fine. Check her to make sure she’s not hiding a weapon.” One of her goons came over and patted me down.

  “She’s clean.”

  I glanced back at Brody, I could tell he was more than uncomfortable with what I was about to do. I’d been shot, that was true, and if it came to physical blows I knew he wasn’t sure I could handle it.

  “After you, Gina. Cecily and I will follow behind.”

  I pressed my lips together and walked towards the bedroom. Seconds later, Nina pulled a teary-eyed Cecily along.

  She was going to pay. It was time to put an end to this game.

  We entered the bedroom, and Nina closed the door behind us.

  Chapter 23

  Gina, Nina, and Cecily

  “Don’t pull any crap, Gina.” Nina threw her cell phone at me. “Place the call.”

  I still wasn’t exactly sure who she wanted me to call, but I played along. “You’re making me nervous pointing that gun at Cecily.”

  “Should I point it at you?”

  “I wouldn’t mind if you pointed it at yourself and it went off.”

  Nina smirked. “You’ve always been too cute for your own good. Make. The. Call.”

  “They won’t believe me.”

  “You can be very convincing when you want to be. Maybe, I should just kill you right here and now and then assume your identity. That would have made things so much easier.”

  “That would have been the smart thing to do, but can’t say you’ve ever been known for that. Seriously, Nina. You ripped off all those people’s money. Do you honestly expect them not to want to exact revenge? Whether I make this call or not, they are going to come after you.”

  “Not as long as they think Jules is dead.” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “Make the damn call, Gina!”

  All of a sudden, shots were being fired outside of the bedroom. When the gunfire started, Nina turned her head slightly in the direction of the sound. Just a second of distraction was all I needed. She was caught off guard when I rammed my body into hers and pushed Cecily onto the floor at the same time. Nina’s gun fell out of her hand, and Cecily was able to kick it out of our reach. Thank god it didn’t discharge.

  We tussled back and forth on the floor until I was able to gain the upper hand and land on top of her. I wrapped her hair around my fist and started pounding her face with the other. I landed several hard blows. I wasn’t sure how many times I connected as I unleashed my rage. Blood gushed from her nose and mouth.

  “Stop. Oh . . . gaaaawd, please stop!” Cecily screamed and cried.

  It was her screams that saved Nina’s life. I couldn’t kill her, not when Cecily stood right there.

  Somehow, I managed to stop. Damn, Damn, Damn! I rammed her head into the floor one last time. It would be so easy to do it. Nina better thank God. That child has saved her on more than one occasion.

  Just as I rolled off of her, the bedroom door crashed open. Brody and company entered the room . . . late.

  It wasn’t just Brody, though; they were joined by the Chinese authorities who weren’t quite sure who were the bad guys in this situation. They yelled at all of us to drop our weapons and put our hands in the air.

  I put my hands in the air, got up off of the ground, and slowly backed over to Cecily. “She’s just a kid.” I was able to kneel down in front of her without getting shot. “Are you okay?”

  In the midst of all this chaos, she bravely responded. “I’m not hurt.”

  I inspected her arms and face to see if she was telling me the truth. She squeezed the air out of my lungs when she wrapped her arms around me then buried her face in my neck. All I could do was wrap my arms around her and hug her back.

  *****

  We spent several hours in Chinese custody unraveling our situation. The mess we’d made was too big to cover up, but somehow, we were able to spin this entire thing where the blame was laid squarely at Nina’s feet.

  Both she and Jonah weren’t going to be in a Chinese custody for too long. The United States wanted to have a word with them. The rest of us were released because of Brody’s connections. They were vast, and I was more than grateful. Otherwise, I might have gone broke trying to pay everyone off. If you have enough money, any government official, could be bribed.

  It was late by the time we made it back to my compound after stopping off at my physician’s office to get stitched up. Luckily, the bullet went clean through my shoulder.

  Cecily and I rode in one car, and Brody was in another. She hadn’t said a word since earlier. However, before we got out of our van to go inside the house, I reached out and squeezed her hand. “Are you really okay?”

  She shrugged. “I don’ know.” Her voice was more like a whisper. “I found and lost my mom in less than twenty-four hours.”

  “That’s got to be hard. I can’t imagine. So, I won’t say that I understand . . . I don’t even though I lost a sister. But, I’m happy you’re safe.”

  “She said she loved me, yet she put a gun up to my head.”

  “I don’t know if this helps, but I don’t believe she would have ever pulled the trigger.”

  “It didn’t seem like that to me.”

  “Nina would have never hurt you.” Too bad it wasn’t because she loved Cecily. No, she was as selfish as they came. She knew as long as Cecily was alive, I’d do anything to protect her. My greatest strength and weakness sat right next to me.

  Cecily sniffed. “I don’t understand. What did I do wrong?”

  My heart twisted. “It’s not you, Cecily. It’s us, Nina and me. We’re just . . . wired wrong. You, on the other hand, are nothing like us. You’re smart, kind, and everything she and I wish we could be.”

  She looked up at me with tears on the tips of her eyelashes. “Aunt Gina, you saved my life. I think you’re amazing.”

  “More people would disagree with that statement than would agree.”

  “I’m not one of them.” She hugged me again. My throat closed up a bit. Never would I have imagined that I could love someone else more than I loved myself.

  After a second of allowing this one moment, I pulled away. “Let’s go inside. We could both use a good shower and a nice drin . . . I mean, a nice glass of milk.”

  *****

  I stayed with Cecily until she fell asleep. We called Alexandro to let him know I’d be flying her home tomorrow. Now, it was time to face the music with Brody. He’d been incredible, but I’d messed up any real chance we might have had.

  When I entered my bedroom, just as I’d suspected, his suitcase was on my bed. He was packing. Briefly, our eyes locked before he turned away.

  A deep sigh escaped from my lips. “It’s late. Can you do that tomorrow?”

  The sadness in his voice was unmistakable. “I wanted to get it out of the way. Our flight leaves early.”

  As I sat down on the bed next to his things, his answer wasn’t a surprise. Brody was putting up a wall. I wasn’t quite ready for the distance between us. I knew I was prolonging the inevitable, but still, I had questions. “I spent some time thinking about what Nina was babbling on about—all the call them now madness. She apparently thinks I ratted her out. It was you wasn’t it?”

  “I didn’t want you killing your sister on your conscious. I wanted a future with you.”

  Wanted as in the past tense. His tongue was like a thousand cuts to my soul. I chose not to respond to that part. Instead, I laughed. Not real laughter but one of those, you’ve got to be kidding me kinds. “A conscious. I don’t have one of those. You of all people should know that.”

  Brody went over to my dresser and removed more of his things before walking back to put in his suitcase. He was making a point not to look at me. “It’s there. I’ve seen it. But, you do a very good job of hiding it.”

  “You knew Nina assumed Jules Ming-Sherman’s identity?”

  “Yeah, I knew.” He exhaled as if exhausted. He probably was dealing with me. “After the accident, Nina became Jules wit
h the help of your late cousin Joseph. The real Jules Ming was an investment broker in some small town in Iowa. Your sister took her identity and moved to New York where she worked for Sherman Investment Securities, LLC as an investment broker. She met Lawrence Sherman III, the owner, and CEO, at one of his charity events. They only dated a few months before getting married.

  I shook my head. “She couldn’t just live a quiet life. She had to marry a millionaire and be a part of that society life.”

  “From all accounts, Lawrence was running an investment Ponzi scheme and was under Federal Investigation when he shot himself in the head. Apparently, so was she. I guess she decided to fake her death again seeing as how successful it worked the first time, and reassume her real identity when she found out about Chang’s death. I placed a few phone calls, sent a few pictures, and the right people decided to look into Jules’s death. They either have or are in the process of exhuming the body.”