It takes a few seconds for me to register the knock on the door.
“Come in!” I yell because I don’t have the desire to move from the bed.
“Hey sis, what’s going on?” Savvy asks me full of concern. “You look like hell”
“Gee thanks” I reply dryly
“I call them like I see them. What is going on between you and my brother?
“We’re not seeing eye to eye on a subject. He’s as stubborn as a mule” I tell her anger creeping into my voice
“They are all stubborn, you know that, was he being unreasonable?”
“Yes! I say vehemently.
“Unreasonable to you? Or just unreasonable?” she asks me one eyebrow raised.
“I mean……”
“Aww unreasonable to you. Loving these brothers is different, they are stubborn jackasses at times especially when it comes to protecting who they love but the benefits are so worth it. On the flip side sometimes they need help and are too unwilling to ask and you have to step in and take the backlash. Figure out which one this is and do what you gotta do. Get up and get dressed, I’ll be back with lunch, Jaasiel cooked.” she says with a gleam in her eyes. And I don’t blame her that man can cook his ass off. Why he doesn’t have his own restaurant is mind-boggling to me.
Atlas
I am looking at Victor’s compound through some high-power binoculars. There are about thirty men that I could see here and they are heavily armed. True was probably right, I probably won’t make it out of this alive but one thing is for sure Victor’s bitch ass is dying too. He has been held up inside the house like the fucking coward he is. Once the sun sets, I am going in. I think of True and even though I might not make it out alive I do not regret my decision to not let her come with me. I’d rather her and my brothers live even if I die. I love them all that much, and no I am not trying to be a martyr, but I watched two people I loved more than anything else in this world die and I refuse to bear witness to that again. But I also won’t let my parent’s death go unanswered. Just a few more hours and this shit will finally be over one way or the other. All I have to do is sit and wait……..
Fuck, they have me pinned down and are advancing on me, I get ready to go at them head-on when I hear the sounds of shots being fired and bodies dropping. Once it’s quiet I stand, gun drawn, and see True standing there.
“You’re so fucking hard-headed! I told you to stay home True, what the fuck are you doing here?” I say equally happy to see her and pissed that she’s here. I get it. True is not the sit-at-home and knit type of woman and I guess I kinda expected her to show up. But if she dies here I would not be able to live with myself.
“We don’t have time for this shit. Let’s find Victor, kill him, and get the hell out of here. We can argue at home.” She tells me. Damn, I love this woman. We head further into the house towards Victor's bedroom where it is guarded the heaviest. A bullet whizzes by us and we duck for cover. True lays down on her stomach, takes aim and begins picking off anyone she can get a bead on. I take out to anyone she can’t. The door behind us opens and more men begin to file in, I pull True over to me using her belt to get her out of the line of fire. There are more men here than I anticipated, and I am glad I have True with me. We crouch down for a couple of seconds we stand together, back to back, a gun in each hand, and begin shooting. We turn like one person like we’ve practiced it a million times. She drops to a crouch and we spin again, she stands up and we begin moving, spinning, shooting, and moving the whole time making our way to Victor. We are almost where we need to be when I feel a burning sensation in my chest and I look down to see liquid seeping through my shirt. Before I can register what happened, I’m hit three more times. My arm, thigh, and side. I drop to one knee holding my side.
“ATLAS!” True screams. She finds who shot me, a guy we shot but didn’t kill is holding the gun that shot me. True empties her clip in the man screaming the whole time. By the time she gets back to me, I am lying flat on my back struggling to breathe.
“Atlas baby don’t you die on me,” she says looking down on me crying. We’re going to make it out of here, together. We still have to kill Victor, you can’t die yet. You’re not supposed to die until we’re old and gray” she’s holding my face crying ugly tears, as she calls them. We hear a commotion outside the door the other men just came through and I lift my gun as best I can just as True turns around, sitting in front of me with both guns drawn. The door opens and Joshua walks in with Joseph, and I swear I have never seen a more beautiful sight.
“Fuck Atlas,” Josh says as he comes over to me. “We’re going to get into this shit once this is over. Victor must have called in for reinforcements, your brothers are outside taking care of that. We have to get you out of here to Aryan so he can try to patch your stupid ass up and we can get you to a hospital”
“No, I’m finishing this tonight!” I tell him. “Just help me up”
“Are you crazy” Joseph exclaims “You’ve been shot four times, you are lying in a puddle of your own blood. We’ve got to get you out of here.
Before anything else can be said more guys start coming in shooting at us, they’re like roaches they just keep coming. The door behind us opens again and in walks the rest of my brothers, except Aryan. They are cutting a swath through these men with ease.
“We’ve got to get Atlas out of here!” One of my brothers says I’m fading so I can’t determine which brother. I feel True pulling on me to sit up, she puts her shoulder under my arm and tells me to get up! I use my hand to push myself off the floor and use her as leverage but she cannot support me by herself and my brothers are fighting. Just as I get ready to buckle I feel someone grab me from the other side and realize it’s Savvy. Holy shit Josh let her come? Together we make it outside while Aryan is out there picking off anyone who tries to escape or go in to help. We get to Aryan and Savannah takes over for him while Aryan works on patching me up. He stops the bleeding with battle dressings and gives me a shot for the pain. As soon as I am patched up to his satisfaction he takes back over from Savannah. A few seconds later Aryan heads into the house too. They are communicating with earbuds, Savvy puts one in my ear so I can hear what is going on. Josh tells her to get me to a hospital. They get me up and try to get me to get in the car, but I am finishing this tonight.
“I need to go back in,” I tell them. They stand there for a few seconds and just look at me, and I ready myself for the argument I know is coming but instead True says ok.
“I’ll stay here, this is between you and True. Savvy says.
True and I make it to the side of the house where Victor’s personal door is and walk-in unhindered. We make it to Victor’s bedroom but he is not there, we keep going until we find him in his home office. He is sitting behind his desk smoking a cigar and drinking what looks like whiskey. He looks up at me and True and blinks completely unbothered by us being here. The house is quiet and I hear Joshua in my ear telling me all clear.
“True, you little bitch, I knew you were behind this” Victor says. “How did you convince this guy to help you? Is your pussy so good, that this guy would risk death to help you? He says and laughs. “Your mother was, it was so good I haven’t been able to get over her even after all these years,” his glazes over as he remembers True’s mother. When she came back to me with a child I should have just killed you then but I couldn’t do that to your mother. I couldn’t hurt that way. But she left me anyway, ungrateful bitch. So who is this chump?”
“I didn’t have to find him, he found me and we both realized what a public service it would be to wipe your ass and everything you created off the face of the earth,” she tells him. “You didn’t love my mother, you groomed her and destroyed her, you narcissistic delusional bastard! She had to kill herself to get away from you.
“Semantics,” he says, completely monotone. “And what did I supposedly do to you? He looks completely bored.
“You killed my parents,” I told him. “You destroyed mine and my brother's world that night.”
“Hmm, you’re old so this must have taken place at least thirty years ago. I was just building my empire then, who were your parents? I do not remember them.” He comes around to the front of his desk, leans his butt on the edge, and crosses his ankles. “I want to hear the story, tell me the story.:”
And I do, as I tell the story he listens intently.
“Aww yes I remember this, those idiots told me they killed all of you, had I known they left any of you alive I would’ve come back and killed all of you and the family you were living with too. This is why it is easier to kill everyone you have a problem with so they don’t have the opportunity to come back after you. He says laughing. “Truthfully if your stupid useless mother would’ve just went along with the program she would be alive today, it’s her fault she and your father are dead, not mine. I didn’t give her, your father, you, or your brothers a second thought. They were insignificant then and they are insignificant now. He stands to his full height and before I can register what he is getting ready to do he pulls out a gun and shoots True.
As she falls forward he grabs her and puts the gun to her neck. I knew this day would come eventually, I did all I could to avoid this shit. Killing all my enemies and their families and not having any children or anything that could and would be held against me. And something that I didn’t even order comes back more than thirty years later to bite me in the ass, but if I have to go, True is going with me.” He says as he prepares to shoot True. Our eyes lock and she pulls a blade from her belt and stabs him in his thigh. He screams in pain but does not let her go. I make a move for him and he turns the gun on me, True pulls the blade out of his thigh and slices his wrist with it as I grab the gun and release the clip. True finally moves out of his grip, I release his hand, pull my blade and slice him across his abdomen. He takes the hand and hits me on my temple with the butt of the gun, I stagger and he swings again but this time he hits True and she staggers. “You two are both pitiful, you’ve both wasted over thirty years of your life trying to kill me and where has it gotten you?'' he says laughing, holding his abdomen. “And you still can’t kill me and I am standing right in front of you. Before I can think about it I take my blade and stab him in the top of his head and True takes her blade and stabs it up through his mouth at the same time. The look in his eyes is almost comical, he is genuinely surprised that we have killed him. I think in his delusional mind he was going to make it out of this alive. We pull our blades out and his body drops to the ground like a sack of rotten potatoes. I look at him lying their eyes wide with surprise and spit on his body. I wish I wasn’t hurt because I would have taken hours torturing him. Although I look over at True and know I wouldn’t have wasted any more time on him.
“I’ve spent enough of my life on this sorry piece of shit, let’s go home,” I say to True. I reach out to take her hand and everything goes black.