Chapter Sixteen
Several minutes went by. Then Hector opened the door, stepped out, looked around, and moved out of the maintenance room and out in the open ready to walk out of the garage.
“Where is the fuck is he?” he hissed.
“Hector,” a deep voice said behind some pillars in the garage.
He tensed up immediately and wrapped his arm around her neck. Then he pointed the gun at her temple. She grabbed his forearm that was pressing on her windpipe, to keep him from blocking her air. She looked around frantically and couldn’t see anyone, and the person’s voice seemed to bounce off the concrete walls of the underground parking lot, making it impossible to locate him.
“You’re surrounded, Hector. You’d be wise to drop the gun and let the girl go.”
Hector laughed. “No fucking way. I’m leaving, and she goes with me. If you come after me, she dies.”
“Think about it. You know how this is going to end if you try to take the girl.”
Sienna looked toward that different voice. Another one she hadn’t heard before.
“I’d rather fucking die than go to prison.”
She clawed at his arm when he tightened it and started taking steps to the side toward the big door.
“Goddammit, Hector. Stop messing around and quit dragging me,” she wheezed. She looked around and didn’t see anyone but made her hand movements anyway. Without Hector seeing and struggling to stay upright as he dragged her along, she pointed at herself and then down and then held up three fingers.
She held the three up, dropped one, so she had two sticking up, and then one finger before she fell down. It startled Hector so much he lost his grip.
“What the fuck?” he yelled.
Sienna didn’t know how many shots rang out. She curled into a ball and put her hands over her head. Then Hector dropped next to her. She didn’t have to look to see the man was dead. She rolled to her feet and stumbled back the way they came to get Nia.
Someone yelled for her to stop, but she didn’t hear. A commotion started when the door closed behind her.
Tears seeped down her face as she dropped to her knees and untied her friend. The first thing she did was pull the gag out.
“Oh, God, Nia. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Stop, Sienna. You didn’t do this.”
She cringed when she saw the blood around Nia’s wrists from trying to get out of the duct tape they’d used to bind her.
“I did. He was here because of me. You should have never been involved.” Sienna sobbed and helped Nia to her legs. She was surprised when the woman wrapped her arms around her.
“Sienna, this is not on you.”
“But it is. Nia, I knew there was a possibility the people around me could get hurt, and I stayed anyway. I was selfish.”
Nia rocked her as men surrounded them. Then Nia was pulled from Sienna’s arms and into Travis’s. Sienna stumbled back against the wall and watched them.
She saw the relief in Travis’s face and hoped he would be able to forgive her.
“What the hell were you doing down here, Nia? You were supposed to wait for the driver to come up and get you.”
Nia sighed against his chest. “I thought it would save time to meet him down here, and that’s how Hector grabbed me.”
“We’ll talk about listening and minding your daddy later.”
Sienna couldn’t take any more. She pushed off someone who tried to touch her. “Stop,’ she cried out. “Just leave me alone.”
“Miss, we need to have the medics look at your eye.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s fine. Just let me through.”