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“Who are you? What have you done with Mason?”
“Curtis Nichols. And your boyfriend fucked up my life. So, I’m gonna make it so that his life is destroyed. As for your goon, he’ll survive,” Curtis says. We’re almost at the door, and I know if we get to his car, there’s a good chance I’ll never see Caleb again. Thank goodness for high heels. I pretend to stumble forward, and to stop himself from falling with me, he lets me go. I take that opportunity to ram my spiked heel into his foot and push him as hard as I can to the ground.
I run, which isn’t easy in heels. I kick them off and keep going. A shot goes off, whizzing by my head. I don’t look back. I don’t want to know how close he is, but I can hear the footsteps getting faster and coming closer. I swear if I get out of this alive, I’m taking up jogging.
A hand shoots out and grabs me, pulling me off to the side and behind a wall. Stunned, I see it’s Mason, who pulls me behind him. Blood is dripping down his cheek and he looks dazed, but that doesn’t stop him from pushing me into a study room. I want to ask him if he’s okay, but he quickly puts a finger to his lips, warning me to keep quiet.
“Gwen! Gwen, where are you? Fuck, Fuck. Fuck!” I hear Caleb calling for me. He’s racing through the library.
Another shot goes off, and I hear scrambling. Mason sees the teens we saw earlier peering cautiously, their eyes wide and faces pale. He waves them back to where they came from, and thankfully, they do as he asks.
“Well, well, look who showed up to be the hero,” the attacker says.
“Where’s Gwen?” Caleb demands.
The attacker’s voice gets fainter. He’s moving back to the middle of the library. The voices are farther away. Mason faces me and in a hushed whisper says, “Do not move from this spot. Caleb needs backup.”
I want to argue, but I’d only get in the way. I nod grudgingly.
* * *
Caleb
Gwen is nowhere in sight, and neither is Mason. Suddenly, I see a bunch of kids sneaking from the back room. They’re going to walk right into the line of fire and get themselves killed, or worse, this guy can grab one of them as a hostage.
I’m about to pop my head up above the main counter and shout, but they pull back to where they came from. Another gunshot sounds through the echoey halls. I duck in the nick of time.
Where the hell are Mason and Gwen? I hope to hell he got her out of here and to a safe place. I can’t even get close enough to get a good look at this guy. I glance around to see what’s available as a barrier. If I can switch my position, I may have a better view.
That’s when I see Mason stealthily climbing a ladder. He sees me and motions that he doesn’t have a shot. I’ve got to get this guy into open space.
“Yo, dickhead, seems to me you know who I am, but I’ve got no clue who you are. I’ve put away so many of you punks, it’s impossible to remember all your names,” I egg him on. I’ve learned that in the heat of anger or fear is when we make mistakes.
“You wanna see who I am, then show your face. I’ll let you take a good look before I blow your head off,” he replies.
I hear him step closer. “You killed Karen, didn’t you?”
“Karen was just another way to fuck with you. She outlived her usefulness when she couldn’t break you and your pretty librarian up. Then the bitch wanted to come and warn you. Couldn’t have that happen now, could we?” he taunts.
I look to Mason. He shakes his head. Not close enough yet. I continue to needle him. “You must be pretty pissed to go after a cop. They’ll give you life without parole at the very least. Humor me, give me a clue about what you think I did to you.”
“You took my life, asshole!” he shouts. “I made one little mistake, and you arrested me. I begged you to let me go. My wife left me, took my kids from me, and won’t let me see them. The bitch remarried and wants me to give parental rights to her new man. Well, fuck that. She’s next. But not before I kill Gwendolyn. You took my family. I’ll take yours.” He laughs, then says, “Better yet, maybe I’ll keep her around, and when I fuck her, every night and in every hole, I’ll have the memory that I won.”
The thought of him touching Gwen nearly makes me violently ill. It’s time to end this. I look up at Mason, then come to my feet. Now I see the man standing. He turns to look at me.
Curtis Nichols stands before me. Christ, he was a small-time petty crook. We busted him on a breaking and entering charge. He completely bungled the robbery. In his younger years, he had history of hanging out with a rough crew. He did a stint in juvie, but nothing until five years ago, when he pulled this job and got caught.
He did beg us to let him go. He said his wife would never forgive him. Seems like he was at least telling the truth about that. But the way I see it, he committed a crime. The judge went harder on him that I expected, but that wasn’t my call.
“Curtis Nichols.” I call his name. “All this because you bungled a job and wanna blame it on me?”
He starts to close the gap between us, waving his gun around. “I fucking begged you to let me go. You could have turned a blind eye, just that once. You didn’t give a shit about me or my family. Meghan left me because I broke my promise. She didn’t want to hear that I couldn’t find work, or I didn’t know how else to make the mortgage payment.” His voice gets louder and louder. “She took my kids!”
“You should have thought about that before you broke into the place.” I’m holding my gun on him and he’s holding one on me. It’s a standoff. I could blow his head off, and God knows I want to just for the mere mention of violating my Gwendolyn. It takes all I have to follow protocol. “Put the gun down,” I command.
“You’re fucking shitting me, right?” He laughs. “I’ve been planning this for months, and if I go, I’m taking you with me.”
“No one has to die,” I say calmly.
