“We have company,” Gruff announces abruptly.
He snatches his hand away from my centre but continues to hold me, his eyes following the direction in which Gruff is looking, down towards the bar and dancefloor. Three men in suits stand menacingly but there’s one who stands out. My father. Or who I thought was my father. Benjamin Lawson. He’s staring right at me and there’s nothing familial about it, he’s furious, hatred pours off him as he stares at me. His eyes jump from me to Lex and back again.
“Who are they?” I hear Lex ask but I pay him no attention, my eyes stay trained on the man that raised me. Slowly, I see him reach into the inside pocket of his jacket.
“Lex!” I cry, grabbing him and pulling him to the ground just as a shot is fired. The glass panel of the balcony shatters into thousands of tiny pieces. Another shot has a man behind us hitting the deck hard. Our positions are suddenly reversed, with my body shielded by his.
Screams now overpower the music, the chaos and panic below palpable. Alexander’s hands cup my head whilst his big body shields mine but he’s shifting on top of me. We’re out of sight of Benjamin but the shots keep coming.
A loud bang close to us makes my ears ring and then another, this one coming from directly above me. I twist my head, seeing Alexander holding out his gun.
The screaming continues but minutes pass and no more shots are fired.
“Get her out of here,” Alexander growls as he climbs up off my body and then helps me to my feet. His eyes do a quick scan of my body, snagging on the cuts on my arms, hands and legs from the glass but I don’t feel them. I don’t feel anything other than sickness as I look down at the mass of panicked bodies, only seeing one.
Benjamin lays face down on the ground, a pool of blood blooming from his head. He’s dead.
Greif robs my coherent thought. Despite it all, he was still the man that raised me, the man I called dad. We didn’t have a great relationship, but we hadsomething.And now he’s dead. Killed by the man holding me as if I’m fragile.
“You killed him!” I scream.
“He tried to shoot you!”
Was he aiming for me? Why?
“Valentine wouldn’t have sanctioned that,” Gruff says, taking me when Lex hands me off. He tucks me into his side and I let him because if I don’t, I’ll end up a crumpled mess on the floor.
“No, that was rogue.” Alexander looks back down, “Grab one of those guys he was with, we need answers. Now.”
Gruff says something to someone and I’m handed off again. This one is unfamiliar and cold but he ushers me to the elevator as he is told to do and walks close to me as we make our way back through the underground area. It doesn’t appear they heard the commotion upstairs, they all still sit and play and shove shit up their noses. We’re paid no attention and then we’re stepping outside. The cool air calms my heated skin. Screams and sirens echo through the streets of Brookeshill. I’m guided into a SUV and then we’re peeling away from the sidewalk, leaving the chaos behind.
Silence settles like a hammer, deafening. The shots fired tonight continue to ring in my head and my stomach rolls.
I have no idea what to think. Why would the man that raised me try to kill me? Was it me or was it Lex he was aiming for? Maybe it was both. I don’t know.
I don’t know anything anymore.
Lex
This is a fucking mess.
I may have control over this city but shit like this looks bad. Cops have to get involved. Statements have to be made. It has to look like all the processes are being followed. The club is empty now, the lights on revealing the complete mess of the place. There’re shards of glass scattered across the floor, blood on the chairs, the walls.
It wasn’t only Benjamin that took a bullet tonight. A girl, no older than twenty-two is sat at the edge of the club, looking pale and sweaty as the paramedics stabilize her ready for transportation to the hospital. She took a bullet to the arm. Another is dead right along with Benjamin Lawson. Both bodies are covered but their blood still stains my floor. One innocent and one not so much.
He had aimed for Wren, whilst she was sat in my lap, he had aimed for her and if she had not done what she did it’s likely her body would be beneath one of those sheets.
Ryker speaks to an officer downstairs, weaving some story whilst I try to figure this shit out.
I had confirmation that we caught one of the guys that bolted after the first shots were fired, he’s currently unconscious in the back of a car being transported to the compound. They’ll string him up out in the barn ready for when Ryker and I get back.
This wasn’t what I had hoped tonight would come to.
I knew Valentine’s men would show, I knew they would report back that Wren is looking awfully cozy with the enemy and maybe it would have ended up with said girl naked and willing under me. But that shits not going to happen now.
Benjamin Lawson is dead. We have one guy and the other guy is probably back in Valentine’s ranks, reporting back.
But why shoot Wren? What was that angle?
Valentine wants his daughter back alive.
My mind whirls back to this so called Syndicate. I haven’t managed to figure out anything about them but that’ll change tonight. I had plans to interrogate one of Valentine’s men and I have one ready and prime for the taking back at the compound.
As soon as this shit is sorted I’ll be on my way. Appearances and all that shit require me to stay put for the time being but I’m itching to get back.
If only to make sure my little bird is okay.