Thirty-Eight

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

Thirty-Eight: Shots Fired

Tyler

    I feel as if I am a sinking ship; like I'm drowning and taking everyone down with me.

    I can't shake the thoughts that Octavia wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for me and my own actions. I let my selfishness and greed get the best of me, and for that, Octavia has to pay the price.

   "You good?" Harley asks me as he looks into the rear view mirror of the car to check on me.

   "Yeah," I say in a monotone voice.

    A lie, but Harley doesn't know me well enough to actually care. He's focused on Octavia.

    We all are.

    Jace is ghostly white. His hair is a mess from how often he has ran his hair through it. He pretty much ripped his tie off the second we got in the car and threw it as if it was the cause of all his distress.

    "How much further?" He asks, keeping his eyes focused on the road despite being in the passenger seat.

     "Almost there," I answer back.

      I had only been to the lake house once. John had invited me on a trip when we first started doing business together.

     Believe me, it was probably the most awkward thing of my life, staying at a massive lake house with men who are twenty to thirty years my senior while they discussed things that weren't business related at all.

    It was my initiation to the group. John said once you were in, your money would easily be tripled. Gaining the trust and friendship of John's colleagues was important to me at the time.

    Now, I just feel like an idiot.

    "I think I see it," Harley says as the familiar building takes shape behind the trees.

    Soon enough, the trees become scarce, and the long driveway to the house takes shape. The orange glow from the windows illuminates the outside just enough to see the exterior.

   I always wanted to drive Octavia out here and let her see the house. She has always had this thing about houses. She always made jokes about my house turning her on. It always made me laugh, and it always made me have this dream for us to live together.

    Hell, I even thought about buying us this house. John has mentioned selling and relocating up north. Knowing what I know now, I would never buy the house.

    Especially since the love of my life may be dead inside.

    Harley and Jace get our first, and they're careful to shut the car door as quietly as possible. I try to mimic their every move, knowing they've been trained in instances like this.

   Jace crouches below the window line as he moves to the front porch. Harley opts to go towards a back door. Knowing I'm unarmed, I choose to follow Jace.

   "Listen, the goal here is to get Octavia. Backup is on its way. Don't let any of your rage or ideas of revenge get in the way. Your job here is to get Octavia out. If Harley and I go down, stick to the goal. Get Octavia out," Jace whispers.

   I can barely see his face, but the moon gives off enough light for me to see the outline of his features.

   I nod and Jace turns around. He turns the doorknob, but as expected, it is locked.

    "We're going to have to be loud with this," he says as he reaches into the flowerbed for a large rock.

    I stand back and watch as he chucks the rock into the large bay window we were previously crouched beneath. The glass shatters, loud enough that everyone in the house probably heard the noise.  

   I stand to my feet, ready to climb into the window, but Jace yanks me back down.

    "What the fuck?" I ask, growing annoyed with him.

      Seconds later a familiar face appears, looking out the window for whatever culprit threw the rock.

     Jace surprises me when he reaches up and pulls the person out of the window, their body landing on the ground between us. 

     With his body pressed the the ground, Jace is quick to grab his wrists and bind them together with a pair of handcuffs.

      "You make any noise and I won't hesitate to shoot you," Jace threatens.

      I'm pretty sure that's something they don't teach you in the academy.

       I push his scrawny body over, making him lay on his back so he can see us. With wide eyes, Lewis looks at me, a plead for help to get out of the situation.

      "Tyler!" Lewis shouts.

       "Hey! What did I say?" Jace says, reaching to pull the gun from his holster.

       "Wait!" I say, putting my hand up to stop Jace from actually shooting Lewis. "Is Octavia here?"

       Lewis nods. "She's in the wine cellar. You have to hurry! Nathan and Kensley both are down there with her."

     "Is there anyone else in the house?" Jace asks.

      "There's two more guys. One is posted in the kitchen, right where the door to the cellar is. The other is by the back door. They're both armed," Lewis explains.

       Harley went to the backdoor, meaning he could be encountering the one of the other guys at any minute.

      "Listen, they both heard the window shatter. You need to be quick," Lewis continues on.

     "Uncuff him," I tell Jace, who glares at me.

     "It doesn't matter if he helped us or not. He's still apart of this," He counters back.

      I shake my head and Jace scoffs.

     "You don't know him like I know him. He shouldn't be apart of this. Jace, he's just a kid," I try and explain.

      Jace rolls his eyes and stands to his feet. For a second, I think he's just going to leave him cuffed. I see a flash of humanity in his eyes for a second as he tosses the keys at Lewis.

    Seconds later, Jace is climbing up through the window, leaving the two of us outside.

    "When you get the cuffs off, run. Get out of here. Backup should be here any minute," I explain and Lewis nods, working to get the cuffs off of him.

     "Thank you," he says.

     I nod and follow after Jace, ducking under through the space where the window previously was. I'm careful not to let any glass shards cut through my skin. The last thing I need to to be unarmed, and injured.

    I don't see Jace at first, but after some careful scanning around the room I see his body pressed up against the wall of the living room, taking peaks down the foyer and into the kitchen.

    The setup to the house is simple, despite the large size. Once you step through the front door, you step into a large foyer with a chandelier. On the left is the formal living room, and on the right is the formal dining. Down the foyer is the kitchen, which is open to the great room. A hallway branches off of the kitchen leads you to the garage, while the hallways off the great room leads to bedrooms and laundry, and the back door where Harley should be.

    I hear a scream emit from where the cellar door is and I have to stop myself from charging down there like a mad man.

    I feel uneasy feeling erupt throughout my body. Just knowing that the scream I heard was Octavia's hurts me in ways I never knew I could be hurt.

   Jace springs out from his hiding place on the wall and runs to the kitchen tackling another guard to the ground. The two of them begin to roll around the ground, making too much noise.

    "Hey!" The other man yells, running down the hallway and into the kitchen where Jace and guard one are fighting.

     I feel panicked as the other guard pulls out a gun, aiming it at Jace. I knew I needed to act quickly, but I can't find the power in my body to make me move from my spot.

     The room starts to spin, but I know this isn't the time to pass out like a pussy. Octavia is still down there. She still needs me.

   Just as I begin my run to the kitchen where everybody is, a shot is fired, then another, and I nearly fall over from panic.

    Sounds of Jace coughing drown out any other sound, but it's not form a gun shot wound. It's from the weight of two grown men's body pushing down on top of his.

     Harley shoves his gun back in his holster and pulls the dead bodies off of Jace.

    I can't help but feel like this isn't real. That I'm only dreaming. It's the same feeling I felt when I found my dead family, but only now I'm seeing people die in front of me.

     Regardless of how they had to die in order for Octavia to be safe, it still takes a lot out of someone to see somebody die in front of you.

    I'm just thankful it wasn't Jace who was shot.

    "Next time, just shoot," Harley says, helping Jace off the floor.

     "I had it," Jace says, shrugging as if what just happened was normal to them.

     Both Jace and Harley turn their gazes to me, who probably looks like a deer caught in headlights right now.

    "Stay focused, Watts. No need to get all freaked out," Harley tells me. 

     Great idea. Let me just tell my body to calm down. I'm sure that will make everything okay.

     "Where's the cellar?" Jace asks me and I point to the door by the garage entrance.

     Octavia

     My body aches all over. They say that the brain cannot focus on more than one pain at a time, but I feel like that theory isn't try at all in this moment. From the bruising of my ribs, to the cuts on my thighs, to the bloody nose that Nathan has given me, I feel it all.

     I beg for him to kill me. To get it over with. To finish me and let me leave this world.

    "Just kill me. Please!" I beg him as the tears continue to stream down my face.

     Nathan laughs, and with another slice at my leg, I let out a scream of pain and begin crying even harder.

Kensley steps back out into the light, and its then that I realize he's watched the whole time. Not only is he the one causing all this, but in some sick and twisted way he finds amusement in watching me be tortured.

"You'll die when I let you die, Miss Bradley," He hisses at me. "Again!"

Kensley steps back into a hidden view, and I'm left alone with Nathan once again. I feel the feeling of yet another cut being made to my thigh and I can't even imagine how much blood I have lost. I can tell it's been a large amount as I feel myself becoming light headed.

I never imagined this would be how I would die. Of course, I had always given my death a though. Always realistic circumstances, like old age or a car accident. Never did I imagine my death would come at the hands of someone else.

Would they find my body? How would they dispose of my body? Would I be cut up, or will they dump me in the lake? Will they know that I am dead, or continue a long search for a missing woman?

Jace would never stop. I could be missing for years and he would never stop looking for me. That's the thing with Jace and I; despite our love being platonic, we can't live without the other.

"Octavia?" I hear Jace's voice call out as a light suddenly illuminates the room we are in.

"Jace!" I scream as I see his body come running down the stairs.

Nathan turns away from me, knife still in hands. He charges at Jace, but he's shot before he even has a chance to attack.

Harley comes into view, gun in hand and I feel an overwhelming sense of happinesses.

Never have I ever felt so happy to see Harley before, but certain situations erupt emotions you would never expect yourself to feel.

Then I saw him.

    At some point he lost his blue suit jacket, but the white button up that's unbuttoned at the top still makes him look sophisticated. His hair is a mess, but I'm sure mine looks much worse. Brown eyes search for mine, and his jaw drops when he spots me. 

    Jace runs to my aid, beginning to untie the ropes around my wrists that have me bound to the chair.

    "Let me go find something to stop the bleeding before the paramedics get here," Harley says as he hurries back upstairs.

     I try to make a sound come out, but from the screaming and crying, it feels as if I can't speak anymore.

    Tyler joins Jace and unties the ropes from my body, and he's the first to embrace me in a hug.

    Embraces in Tyler's grasp, I look around the room, knowing Kensley is still here.

    "Kensley," I choke out, trying to warn them.

     From the around a shelf stacked full of wine bottles comes Kensley, gun in hand.

     He takes aim at Tyler, and my eyes grow wide as I try and push Tyler away from me and out of the line of fire. Kensley's hands grip around the trigger, and faster than I have ever seen anything move in my life, comes a bullet heading straight for him.

    Before the bullet has a chance to hit Tyler's body, Jace is sprinting in front of him to take the bullet. 
  
    I watch as his body falls to the ground, and that's the last thing I remember before the loss of blood has finally knocked me out, my body going limp in Tyler's arms.

A/N: very short chapter but im ready to finally finish this book and move on to something new. final chapter coming soon. remember to vote!!
    

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net