AllFreeNovel
Share Us
THIRTY-THREE
‘WHERE ARE YOU’ ELVIS DREW
Luce
After leaving the boat with nothing to show for it, Gio takes us to Central Park where we cruised around for what felt like hours. Gio said his father would be there at some point, of course the prick never showed up. Then we get the call from Lexi and it was no wonder he wasn’t. The motherfucker went to her. The question is, how’d he know we weren’t there?
We speed through the city, listening to Lexi as she gets ready to shoot the gun. I’m not a man of prayer, but I send up a whispered plea that she’s safe and in one piece when we get there. We’re only a mile from the building, but with New York traffic, we might as well be ten away. I hold my breath as the first shot echoes through the line, the sound loud even through the phone’s speaker.
I picture Lexi’s pretty face, smiling as she lays on top of me, her warm skin against mine, her lips brushing my scars. Fuck, my heart throbs for her. I know I can't deny my feelings anymore, I love this woman. I’ve lost myself to her the way a master painter loses himself to a canvas. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted, everything I’ve ever needed. She’s my breath, my blood, my will to live.
“Lexi!” I bark into the phone as a second shot rings out.
Gio growls and pulls onto the curb, the tires squealing as he breaks, leaving the car’s rear end poking out into the street. We exit the car and slam the doors, choosing to run the rest of the way. I hear a thud on the phone before the sound of rustling as though the phone is rubbing against something, then nothing. The call is still connected, but there’s no sound. As I run, shoving people aside, I continue yelling her name, praying her hearing comes back and she answers me.
We run for what feels like miles until finally we’re bursting through the front doors of the building. The lobby is empty, but as Gio presses the call button for the elevator, I run over to the front desk and spot the bellman laying on the floor behind the counter with a bullet to the head. The security cameras are still rolling, and the one on our floor shows all is quiet. There’s dust flying everywhere, even from the position of the camera at the end of the corridor, I can tell there’s a disturbance.
“Call for clean-up. Tell them to get here right away before someone calls the fucking cops.” I tell Gio as the elevator arrives. We jump in as Gio speaks rapidly into the phone, switching from English to Italian. When he’s done, he drops his head for a second before swinging his fists and hitting the wall of the elevator, making the lights flicker with each hit. He roars and curses, rattling the elevator like a gorilla in a cage. I wrap my arms around him from behind, forcing him against the wall, willing the elevator to move faster.
“You’re going to fucking break this damn death box, and we’ll both be useless to her.”
He ignores me, dropping his head on the wall, “He knew. He fucking knew because of me.”
I let him go and spin him around, “What do you mean?”
He shakes his head morosely, sending dread through my body like a freight train. I jerk him forward only to slam him back, “What do you fucking mean!?”
He shakes my hands off him and stares straight at me, “At the boat, I left him a sign telling him to meet me at Central Park.”
I blink, “Is that why we were there like fucking creepers driving around?” I laugh humorlessly before hitting the wall beside Gio's head. He doesn’t even flinch, and that pisses me off even more.
“You told him where we’d be like some kind of fucking superhero and left Lexi completely vulnerable. Did you think you were the one he wanted? No, G, he fucking wants Lexi!
“Fuck!Why did you do that and not tell me!? I could have come back here and kept her safe!”
The elevator stops on our floor, and we both pull our guns out and step into the hall, slowly making our way toward the apartment and scanning up and down the hall, noting the smears of blood along the wall toward the stairwell. As we get closer to the door, my instincts beg me to fuck off with the methodical pace and just run through the apartment for Lexi, but I can’t do that. I can’t risk her or Gio’s safety, no matter how pissed he is me right now.
The apartment door is wide open, blood coating the left side of the door frame and drops of it on the floor. Keeping my gun up and my eyes scanning the destruction of the apartment, I squat and touch a finger to the blood. The blood hasn’t yet coagulated which means the motherfucker hasn’t gotten very far.
I stand and grip Gio’s shoulder, “Alan has to be in the stairwell, he was shot pretty bad. I’ll clear the apartment, go get that motherfucker.”
Gio eyes me, likely fighting his instincts to go to Lexi but knowing he needs to fix this shit. He takes off in a sprint, running back out the door and down the hall, following the trail of blood. I continue my sweep of the apartment, finding Juny knocked out and bleeding pretty badly from his leg, but someone has tied a tourniquet around it. I check his pulse and find it strong, so I stand and continue further into the apartment. The restroom is empty, and the spare bedroom looks undisturbed. I see the hole in the wood of the bedroom door and spy inside, finding Lexi unconscious on the floor with the gun near her legs which are folded under her.
There’s a shit ton of blood under my feet and speckles on the wall, along with what looks like bone fragments. The full metal jacket completely tore through whoever this fucker was, and I’m praying to the gun gods that it was Alan. From the height of the hole in the door and the amount of blood left behind, I’m guessing the person was hit somewhere in the torso, possibly the shoulder area.
I look through the hole, spotting my sweet girl lying unconscious with her legs folded beneath her.[1]
“Lexi!” I shout as I try to push open the door. I look into the lower hole and spot the dresser pushed up against the door, so I holster my gun and begin punching and breaking parts of the wood, yelling Lexi’s name as I work to get in. My knuckles bleed and my arm aches, but all the adrenaline pumping through me blocks it all out. All I can think of is getting to Lexi.
I hear her groan softly.
“Sweetness, I’m here!”
She rolls to her side and heaves, the contents of her stomach spilling out beside her. I finally have enough space to reach in and put all my strength into pushing the dresser back far enough to open the door. I reach around and unlock the door, shoving it open and squeezing through. I rush to Lexi’s side, cupping the back of her head and brushing the hair from her face. Her skin is sickly pale and clammy, but when she looks up at me, it’s as though the whole world bleeds away, and it’s just us.
I kiss her forehead, pulling her against me and sighing in relief.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry, Lex.”
