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Me and Thunder, we charge straight for the fucking middle.
The smoke offers just enough cover for me to find the closest of Mesner's goons and wrap my arm around his neck. A hard twist as I carry him with me is followed by a grunt and a snap. When I drop him, he hits the ground and stays there. Pretty sure he's never getting up again. Good fucking riddance.
A sharp cry of pain followed by a vicious crunch on my other side makes me pretty sure Thunder's taken the other guard out of the picture.
Eileen screams.
Fuck.
As the smoke clears, Mesner and Eileen are gone, escaped through a door at the back of the room. Carnell's been left behind, gagged and tied to his chair.
“Mom!” shouts Harper as she runs into the room.
“Hang back!” I snap so harshly that she stops dead. “Not yet.”
“Nitro, Havoc, check on Carnell,” orders Shadow, and then it's the four of us giving chase.
We pop out in a hall with dark mahogany panels on one side and big windows on the other. Several doors lead away from it, and a staircase leads down. I make a split decision and go for the stairs. “Check the rooms. I'm going down.”
The stairs wind down two floors and end in a door. It looks solid, but it’s been left open. Looks like I'm on the right track. Gripping my piece in both hands and using the frame for cover, I kick it open. The elevator is right in front of me, and so are Mesner and Eileen. His arm is around her throat and his gun is pointed at her head.
“Let her go, Mesner. The whole fucking club's down there. You got nowhere to go.”
“Jesus, why won't you just leave me the fuck alone?”
“Too late for that. Don't make it worse for yourself.”
The elevator dings and the doors open. “Just fuck off!” he yells and gives Eileen a big shove forwards as he levels his gun at me and fires.
Even throwing myself aside, the bullet catches my arm, tearing through my jacket and burning a line of fire along my bicep. Just a graze, I think, but it stings like a motherfucker. Before I'm back on my feet, the doors to the elevator close and he's gone.
“Fuck!”
Shadow, Thunder, Outlaw and Harper come running out the door.
“Mom!” Harper dashes for her, throwing herself down on the floor by her. “Are you okay?”
“Watch them!” I run for the stairwell as I pull my phone out and call Snark.
“Talk to me.”
“Stop the guest elevators! Mesner's on one of them.”
“On it!”
Fuck, my legs are burning. There are footsteps behind me, but no time to see who's following.
“Lightning? I got it! Got him stopped on the seventh floor! Trying to jam the door.”
“I'll have your fucking baby, Snark,” I tell him and jam my phone in my pocket.
Tenth.
Ninth.
Eighth.
Seventh.
I burst out of the stairwell, just to see Mesner running from me, heading for a door labeled “STAFF ONLY.” Good job, Snark.
I tear open the door and find familiar territory. It's the hall for the chandelier access ramp. Sweet fucking irony.
And Mesner, with nowhere else to go, is backing up on the narrow catwalk, aiming his gun at me.
He fires, and it clicks. Again, and it clicks again.
He's out.
Fuck, that's the kinda sound I like to hear. I step onto the catwalk with him. Shake it a little, make it rattle. “Give up, Mesner. There's nowhere for you to go.”
“What the fuck do you want from me?” he screams hysterically.
Far below us, the ballroom is still being cleaned up. The fountain's still in pieces, and while the glass and debris has been swept into piles around the remains of the fountain, a lot of the structure is still exactly where we dropped it. And where the chandelier was attached, there's just a gaping hole, thanks to Nitro's explosive charge.
“Honestly? I wanna see you fucking die. I'm fucking done chasing you around, and I'm never, ever letting you fucking threaten Harper again.”
“Lightning.” Thunder's behind me, but I'm not gonna stop now. And I don't even think he wants me to. Just letting me know I've got backup.
For every step I take, Mesner backs up one. He must see the grim determination on my face, because he's given up begging. He throws his useless gun at me, but it isn't even close. Just strikes the glass dome and bounces as it slides down towards one end.
He reaches the end of the ramp. All that's left is the hole. “Stay away from me!”
“After what you did to Harper and her family? And so many other fucking people?” I close the final step and grab him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him clear off his feet. “Fuck you.”
I drop him.
Six floors worth of air gives him just enough time to scream before he hits the shattered remains of his precious fucking chandelier. A steel rod goes straight through him, leaving him hanging there, dripping onto the remains of the glass. His eyes and mouth are wide open, trapped in shock.
