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Pressing one hand to the wall, I close my eyes, ignore the ringing in my ears, and focus on the feel beneath my feet and my palm. I level the pistol at the drywall and wait. If they were smart, they would’ve rushed me by now. But they’re scared. Of me. Good. Fear creates mistakes.
So I wait. It doesn’t take long. The faintest vibrations telegraph through the soles of my feet and against the nerves in my hand. They’re coming. I can’t tell how many, but they’re creeping down the hall.
I don’t move. A spider knows the tastiest prey is the one you wait for, the one you savor, the one you drain dry and leave spinning--and the one that never saw you coming.
I breathe out slowly, my breath silent as I remain completely still. When the vibrations tell me what I need to know, I fire, each round cutting through two sheets of drywall before embedding in the bodies on the other side. Backing away, I spray the wall again as cries and groans of pain sound. The ringing in my ears has lessened, and I can see again. When I pop my head around the corner, then back, I get a glimpse of three men down. There are at least two more somewhere ahead.
Darting around the corner, I put a bullet in each of their heads, then jump into the nearest office as more gunshots ring out. Searing pain rockets from my thigh, and I realize I’m hit. The blood is already running from the wound on the outside of my leg, but it’s not bad. Nothing I haven’t had before. It won’t slow me down.
“Mr. Black.” Baines’s voice sounds through the speakers of all the phones in the office. “While I’m glad to have you back in the fold, I’m afraid this wasn’t how I envisioned your return.”
“Let her go,” I yell.
“And then you’ll let me live?” he counters. Baines knows me too well. There’s no way I’ll let him walk out of his office alive, much less this building.
He sighs. “I didn’t think so. So we’re at an impasse. I’d also like to add that the agreement we had? It’s over now. Your remaining cousin is fair game. In fact, I’ve already dispatched a group of assassins.”
“You won’t find him.” I smile, the expression so new for me. I have Margaret to thank for it. Smiling had been foreign to me for a long time, until her. “He’s gone to ground. I warned him the moment you made the mistake of putting a hit on Margaret.”
“Perhaps. Even so, my men will enjoy their trip to the Bahamas. Eleuthera, I believe is the island they’re visiting. A resort. Moonlight Cay, perhaps was its name?”
I grit my teeth. Of course Evan decided to hide in plain sight on a sunny beach, probably drinking like a fucking fish and paying no attention to the killers coming after him. If he makes it out of this alive, I’m going to kill him.
“I can call them off,” Mr. Baines cajoles. “But you’ll have to agree that Margaret be eliminated.”
“No.” I can’t stop myself from yelling that word.
“So your cousin, then?”
“Fuck you.” I stride to the phone, pick up the receiver, knocking Baines off the line, then dial Evan’s burner phone.
“Evan’s Breast Massage Service, how can I serve you?” He answers with a hiccup.
“Your old boss is sending men to kill you. Hide. Now. I’ll be there soon.”
“What the--”
I slam the phone down, then drop to the floor as slugs tear through the wall and shred the desk where I’d just been standing.
“That’s cheating,” Mr. Baines calls.
I return fire, then army crawl into the hallway and take out the knees of one guy. Another dives into an office a few doors down. Margaret’s desk sits at the end of the corridor, right in front of Mr. Baines’s oversized doors.
The man on the ground still tries to shoot me. I pop him in the head and heart as I stride past, then jump and roll, landing in the office doorway where I kill the final security guy with an easy headshot. I keep going into the office and examine him, his body armor intact though his head is half blown away.
“You’re taking this too far, Mr. Black. It doesn’t have to be this way.” His voice is a little higher, his heart rate probably just a notch below a stroke.
“It’s just you and me,” I call as I re-enter the hallway and take cover behind Margaret’s desk. “Let her go.”
“What do I get in exchange?” he yells through the glass and wood.
A quick death. That’s the truthful answer. I don’t respond.
“You want to play this the hard way?” Panic creeps into his voice.
A scream rips from Margaret, and my blood rises like boiling lava.
“We can do that. I’ll make it simple. You kill me, I’m taking her with me.”
