Steel, p.25
Steel, page 25
Pressure tightens my stomach. It matches the video. Brook, the small dot, is on the couch sleeping where she was minutes ago but Amelia and Sebastian moved.
Fuck.
I use my phone. I need to know. "Jack, come in. What's happening inside."
"She's stalling. He wants to put on the show in the living room. She's trying to convince him against it. For the little girl's sake."
Jesus.
"Keep me posted if anything changes."
I hang up and signal the men on the other side to cross over. "Joe, talk to me."
"If we can get on to the floor, I would take my chances with them but we don't know if one of them is going to be standing behind that door. We can risk it, but we need to make sure their weapons don't fire since we're the ones with the silencers. They would want their whole crew to know."
It's the only way. If he wasn't hell bent on this video, we would have more time, but if they get to it, this will all end in disaster.
"Let's go. You and I go upfront. We wait until the right moment to shoot. We don't want to alert Sebastian. Understood?"
I start walking without their consents, I don't need it. All I can see is a path to her. I'm taking it.
Joe opens the door and signals me in. I step in, find a corner to crouch in and let Joe do the same. We gaze down the stairs and wait. The men stand just outside the roof door waiting. In my ear piece, Jack is keeping me up to date on the room.
"Your girl is holding up. You should be really proud of her but she's going to be in trouble soon. He's losing his patience."
I press the button in my pocket to let him know I got his message. The first man comes down the hallway. Joe makes a small move and as expected, the fool takes the bait and comes halfway up the steps. A clean shot and the man slumps over the railing. Joe lays him on the steps. That man moves fast.
Another idiot walks up and we take care of him the same way. I run down the stairs two steps at a time. Silencers are our best friends. A little Pht-pht and done. We manage to clear the path down the first hallway. We peek before we turn the corner into the next hallway; there are four of them closer to the door.
Our men descend onto the floor, they line the walls and I'm trying to decide what to do. Joe wants to wait ‘til they come to look for the others and pick them off slowly. We don't know if they have more men on the other side.
My earpiece goes off again. "Leo, he's got her in the bedroom. You need to go in now."
I turn to look at Joe and then at the men, then engage the mouth piece to alert Jack. "We storm."
Joe nods, signals and the four men jump in front of me and then he does. I lift a hand to protest, but he stops me. "We get them, you get her."
We run down the hallway, but they see us and begin shooting. The first bullet whizzes by my ear and crashes on the far wall.
49
"I won't do it here." I'm scared as hell but I won't pretend to do what he wants or what I know I need to do with Brook in the same room.
"You still think you call the shots here, don't you? You don't know when you're trapped, Mel. It's time you learn." The ticking vein on his temple, the glassy-eyed stare, the cutting tone, all signs I pissed him off.
"Come on, Bas. She's just a little girl. She shouldn't see or hear this kind of stuff."
"She won't see any of it. She's sound asleep."
Sometimes you see it all in a split second, in a non-reaction. One look and I see it all there, in his eyes. He doesn’t care, because in the end it wouldn't matter. Brook and I won't survive this. He plans to kill us. My blood turns to ice, freezing me from inside out. I understand taking my life, I’m a means to a vengeance, but he would kill an innocent little girl. He could look in that face and take her life.
For the first time, I'm almost paralyzed by fear. Because I can't fail. Brook won’t survive if I fail. Carissa and Alec, because of them I can't fail. And Leandro with his dreams of a family and a future together, no, I have no room to fail.
I undo the first three buttons of my shirt. His eyes dip to my chest. "Come on, it will be better in a bed."
I reach for his hand and pull him in the direction of the bedroom. At the foot of the bed I turn to him and place my hand on his face. I need to make this convincing. I need him to believe me, so I touch him like I would Leandro, the way I'm sure Bas has seen me touch him so many times. I feel dirty as shit for touching him in a way that belongs only to my love, my man, but I can’t think about that.
"Give me your word, you'll let Brook and me go if I do this."
His lifts his gaze from my naked torso to my eyes. "You have my word." But he can't hold my gaze. Up and away his eyes go and all I can remember is the night I went to dinner with him and he tried to tell me Leandro was messing with my sister. That I should beware of how untrustworthy Leandro really is. That night, like right now, he seemed so earnest. This man has no soul.
"So how do you want this?" I slide my fingers down his arm, over his hands. I inject some breath into my voice. "Do you want me on top?"
His hands circle and snap over mine, holding me tight with so much pressure, it hurts. "I want to be on top."
Something flashes in his eyes and I have to look away. That’s when I see it. It's tiny. It's there, peeking from under pillow.
The tiniest hint of pink.
My stomach lurches, swallows my heart into it. Numbness takes over my face, and I'm lightheaded. I fight the compulsion to look at the spot again. I don't want him to know that I've seen it. I look at my feet and fight the bitterness that climbs over my tongue. That's how he plans to kill me. He'll lay me down on the bed, under the pretense of an agreement, and then when I'm unsuspecting, he'll neatly wrap the tie around my neck and squeeze the life out of me.
Is that what he did with Byanca? Her eyes flash before my own. Did he give her false hope? Did she think he would let her go?
I almost jump out of my skin when his fingers touch my chin and turn me to look at him. "What is it?"
He's going to kill me.
I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. "I never thought I would cheat on my husband."
He smiles, benevolent and sweet but his hands skim my waistline, sliding up towards my breast. "Don't think about it like that. You're saving your life and Brooklyn's. It's not like you want to cheat. Right? Or maybe part of you is just a little curious."
I push down the nausea, swat away my resentment, and center my gaze on his wandering hands. The nod's so faint, I wonder if he even sees it.
"Lay on the bed, then." He says it soft as though asking for a favor. A different person might think it a request. I know better. I hear the bluster in his voice. He's won. I'm going to lay on the bed and he's going to get to fuck me first, then strangle me like he did three other women.
I move to the end of the bed but he stops me.
"No, go get comfortable. Lay on the pillow."
The whole world spins and spins around me. I pray for my knees not to buckle. I don't know how I make it there without vomiting. I'm delivering myself for him to dispatch and that's when it suddenly hits me. This asshole wants me to accommodate him in killing me. Fire rages in my belly, and pushes the fear deep down. I’m going to show him different.
I reach for the zipper on my skirt.
"No, that's not necessary. Keep your skirt on, just hike it up."
I want to say what the fuck but then I remember. The other three women had their clothes on. Byanca had my dress smoothly arranged over her body. This sick fuck.
I climb on the bed, get comfortable with my spread legs. He smiles. God knows I will never forget that shiny, plastic, fanatic look in his eyes. The crown jewel in his revenge is almost complete. He climbs over the end of the bed and is between my legs within a breath. His hands sliding up under my buttocks.
He whispers something in appreciation, but I can barely hear over the thundering of my heart. It's go time and I need to set things in motion.
"Ouch. My bun is killing me."
"Let your hair down like you did in California for Leo’s fingers. I want you to be comfortable and gorgeous. I want you to moan for me like you did for him, dragging your aaahhs as much as you can." His hands glide over my stomach, up my breast and I can't hold out anymore.
I pull the metal hair pin and push down to flip the tip.
"I really like you, Mel. It’s too bad it all had to go down like this.” His fingertips edge my collar bone.
I'm about to say me too, but a shot rings in the air and he freezes and turns back to look in the direction of the living room. He turns back to me. His hands reach for my neck but I jab the needle dagger into his neck. His hands still get around my neck and he falls over me, pinning me under his weight.
I think of my beautiful Nelly, her pretty smile, and her sarcasm. He took her from me and I’m going to take his life. For her. For Byanca. For Lucy and Vick too. I continue to stab his side over and over, and try to buck him off me but he's between my legs. I can't move him and he's not letting up on my neck.
50
We're exchanging fire and I'm nowhere close to the door. Two of our men hit, and we're about to retreat. I'm about to jump out of my skin and risk it all. Throw myself into the hallway and shoot it out with those fuckers. I’m dead if she dies anyway. The swarm stops me. It's not insects but a group of my new best friends clearing the road for me. I turn the corner and set down the hallway, skipping over bodies and careful not to slip on the blood. I barely nod at Alec before I storm through the door. Brook is wailing on the couch.
I turn to make sure Alec is behind me.
"Go," he yells, and I keep running to the bedroom and into my worst nightmare.
Sebastian's slumped between her legs. His hands closed around her neck.
I lift my gun to shoot him but I risk hitting her. In a split-second decision, I whip him with the butt of my gun and fling him onto the floor. I kick him in the stomach and dig my foot into his chest. I’m blind except for his face. I fist the collar of his shirt in my hand. I smash my fist into his face, reveling in the crack of some piece of him. I can't shake the image of him strangling Amelia.
Then, I see everyone's he taken: Shel, Nelly, Lucy. If it weren’t for him, Amelia wouldn’t have lost our baby. She wouldn’t have gone through hell for more than a year. We could have been together, not suffering apart. My knuckles scream but I don't care and force myself to stop feeling. I keep hitting him, seeing his cruel smirk. I can't hear anything else, only my breath and then the words filter in.
You have to breathe, Mel. Breathe. Mel?
Amelia.
I drop him, ignoring the thud as his body hit the floor. Joe's a few feet away and has his gun trained on Bas.
I turn to her and sober up. I forget the asshole and make my way beside her.
Amelia is covered in blood and sputtering for breath on the bed. Her hands claw at her throat like she’s trying to pry his hands off. I lift her into a sitting position and she's making small choking sounds. "Breathe, come on, breathe."
She doesn't see me, just keeps fighting, trying to free her throat from something that's not there. I pat her pale face. She doesn't respond, won't look me in the eye but beyond me.
My stomach ices into a rock.
"She's in shock," Joe says.
And in that second everything crashes. I can't take it anymore. I take her shoulders into my hands and shake her with force I've never reserved for her. "Fucking breathe, Amelia."
Her eyes round, and she freezes, stops clawing at her neck. She focuses on me, looking straight into my eyes. Her gasps turn longer and drag. She's breathing and finally, so am I. I take account of her face, the digit marks on her neck but focus on the blood spread over her. She still can't talk so I am patting her down to make sure she's not bleeding.
"I think the blood is his. He sure is bleeding and not just from the whopping you heaped on him. There’s a gushing hole in his neck."
"I…got…him." She points at her side.
"Don't talk for now."
One of her men comes in with water for her. She drinks it and I can't turn my gaze from the marks on her neck. I failed her. I let him victimize her once more. She's alive because she fought him enough. But I should have come sooner, he shouldn't have gotten this close, ever. Her hand clamps over mine and tears my eyes from the blood over her chest. She's calmer now, except for the desperate rises and lows of her chest.
She clears her throat and winces. "He didn't… I was trying to get close enough."
Her voice is scratchy and every word sounds labored. It must hurt like hell. It pains me just the same.
I nod because I can't do anything else. "You did good, Virus."
Her face crumbles and she sounds like she's coughing but the tears roll. She lays her head on my chest. Her hands fist around my shirt and her sobs slay me. I'm so relieved I don't know what to make of myself. I look over at the slumped Sebastian, getting bound and gagged by Joe. I can't wait for my next turn with him. The stab wounds Amelia inflicted on him will seem like a swat.
But it's not my time with him yet.
I hold her, let her cry it out. Take my comfort in the warmth that's returned to her skin.
Alec appears at the door, one hand secures Brook in his arms tight against his chest, the other rubs circles on her back. The bandage on his forehead is soaked but he’s managed to pacify her. He lifts a brow, inquiring how Amelia's doing. I nod. He tilts his head towards Sebastian.
We need to hurry.
With reluctance, I shake Amelia as gently as I can. I hate that I can’t give her time to cry right now but we need to move, and I swear to myself I'll give her whatever she needs and wants later. If she wants to cry for a week, she can. "We need to finish this and take the police off our trail."
She stares at me for a few blinking seconds and I wonder if she hears me at all. She does. A new emotion comes over her eyes, and she pulls back, wipes her eyes. A single nod is all it takes for her to convey that she’s ready. My chick is fucking badass with pure steel in her veins.
“We’re going to take him and you’re going to call the police.” Alec comes to stand by the bed next to me, but closer to her. He puts a hand on her shoulder. “Tell them everything like we talked about before this. He called to tell you he had Leo. You wounded him, and he stumbled away. Leo will come get you to the station. Can you do this?"
Her nod is almost imperceptible. "Is he awake?'
Joe answers her. "Yes."
Amelia reaches to touch Brook's curls, like Joe never spoke. Her fingers, like her eyes, linger on our sleeping goddaughter. "I want to tell him something before you take him."
I don't want her to talk to him again, but she has the right to do whatever she wants. She faced him, played his game, and lived.
She places her feet on the ground and I help her stand. She moves a little shakily but every step is more solid than the last. She squats in front of him. His eyes focus on her. "Did you really think I didn't know what you had planned for me?"
She takes a deep breath. "I know it's there, under the pillow. You were going to strangle me with it. You made all that circus about doing it in the living room to make me think it was my idea to go to the bedroom. What were you going to do with Brook…"
She can't say it. She presses her hand to her heart and her pain slices through me.
My throat thickens and I'm turning around looking at the pillow.
"Don't touch it," Joe says.
I see what she saw. It's there, like a hint, an evil fucking peek-a-boo. He came so close. Thirty seconds later and she would have died like my sister, Byanca and Vic. I turn back around, determined to go kick his head off his shoulders but she stops me with one hand in the air.
Amelia leans closer, into Sebastian’s ear. I can’t hear what she whispers but he begins to struggle, with pathetic attempts to launch himself at her. She scoffs, delivers a kick into his chest, and steps back and away into the living room.
The next second, Gia storms through the door and beelines for Amelia like she knew just where she would be. Noah's right behind his wife and stops to kiss mine on the temple. Then, he heads to meet Alec and me.
"We got to get moving." And without missing a beat, he delivers a swift kick into his brother's ribs. "You’re going to die tonight, asshole."
I echo the sentiment. I'm itching to dedicate my attention to the piece of shit.
"We recovered their command center. We're taking all tapes to make sure Brook is not on any of them. We need to go so Mel can call the cops."
My bones crash into each other at the thought of being separated from her. But we need to end this, so we can all be free from the fucking pigs.
Joe tries to separate Amelia and Gia and though they ignore him, he starts giving Amelia instructions on what to do. He eyes me for help and I go put the poor bastard out of his misery.
"Come on, ladies, let's put a bow on this one before we take care of that one."
51
I can't hold the gaze of the little boy in the photo on Captain Patrick’s desk. In his soccer uniform, standing on the field, he's giving me a frozen smile and eyes that dig deep. That kid in the photo can see through my bullshit. Thank God the adults around me are less perceptive. The captain nods, his eyes filled with sympathy. Officer Franklin has been more than accommodating and even Detective Ramirez, wearing another fabulous Humpty-Dumpty-inspired get up, ordered someone to get me a blanket.
"Ms. Solis?"
I pry my eyes away from his mustard-yellow tie and into Ramirez's eyes. "Yes?"
"You received a call from Sebastian McLean saying he had your husband and you needed to come to a parking lot to save him. You were taken into that building where we found you. What was the address?"
