The elevator dinged and the doors started to slide open, and all hell broke loose. Kelly jumped up screaming, “Duck!”
And I could hear Vincent screech, “No, don’t!” from their end of the hallway.
A bullet pierced the silence as Anton stepped out into the hallway and even though I heard the unmistakable sound of one of my friends being struck behind me, I didn’t want to waste the opportunity and fired at Anton. I unloaded, firing enough to make sure that my bullets struck him, but not in a way that left me without a weapon or ammo. I watched as the bullets sunk into Anton, knocking him further and further back until he just fell straight back into a heap on the floor.
“Anton!” Vincent screamed, then he roared out. “I’m gonna fucking kill you, Raines!”
Looking back over my shoulder, I could see Punk huddled half-in and half out of the elevator holding Kelly in his arms. There was a deep red spot around her stomach growing in size.
“Who,” she coughed out. “Who takes an elevator during a raid you f-fucking idiot.”
There were tears forming in Punk’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Hey… Don’t do this, okay? Just hang in there.”
“Press your hand to the wound,” I said, fighting back my own emotions at the sight of my best friend covered in blood. “She needs to get to Dr. Aurora.”
“Dr. Aurora is already dealing with your dad,” he grumbled out.
“She’ll just have to deal with--”
The door to the stairs opened, fortunately more hidden from the hallway than the elevator, and Avion stepped off with Tamryn right behind her. I was so relieved that I could have passed out, but I didn’t have the time for that. Avion looked into the elevator and her jaw dropped.
Tamryn immediately hopped to attention, pushing Punk and Kelly further onto the elevator. “I’ll get them upstairs.”
The doors to the elevator closed with the three of them, and Avion ducked where Kelly had been before. “What happened?” she asked.
“Eye for an eye?” I said, nodding my head down the hallway.
Avion peeked her head around and I saw the look of sadness flash across her face. “Anton.”
“I’m sorry. He shot Kelly, I--”
Avion shook her head. “No, don’t apologize. He was too far from me. He wouldn’t stop until we were all dead.”
“Is that a fucking traitor I hear?” Vincent screamed. “Look what he did to your brother.” To both Avion and I’s shock, it actually sounded like Vincent was emotional. “Because of you, Anton is dead.”
“That has nothing to do with me!” Avion called back. “We didn’t storm your home to do this! You made a deal with the devil. This is the cost.” She stood up and started to walk down the hallway, and I reached up and grabbed her hand. She looked back at me and shook her head. “I’ve been afraid of him my whole life. I refuse to be scared anymore.” Seeing that she was committed to doing whatever was in her head, I jumped up and pushed her behind me and held my gun up. Avion stayed close to me with her gun up as well. “I killed your friend,” she called out and I looked back at her. She gave me a nod to confirm it wasn’t a bluff and if I wasn’t in the dire situation I was in, I’d be half inclined to drag into one of these rooms.
Dark Avion was even sexier than the innocent one.
“What? You want a truce?” Vincent said.
“That would be best for us both, wouldn’t it?” she called back. “We’ve both suffered injuries and loss. It’s time for us to stop this.”
“I won’t stop until the man who turned my sister and killed my brother is dead,” Vincent said.
“Then you’re gonna have to shoot yourself,” Avion replied. “I’ve been long gone from you since way before Gio and I met, and Anton killed his real spirit to become your mini me a long time ago.”
We reached the end of the hallway and I stopped us there. Any further and wherever Vincent was, he’d be able to get a clean shot off. Avion, however, ducked around me and kept going. I tried to pull her back, but she refused. She walked clear into the opening of the foyer, stepping around the bodies of my unfortunate underlings and staff that had met their demise at the Narzand’s hands. Avion looked to the left and down and I knew that she’d landed on Vincent.
With her gun pointed down, she shook her head. “What was all of this for? Just for power? You already had so much, and don’t sell me some shit about doing it for your family. You’ve never given a shit about us.” I crept out into the open and over to Avion’s side, looking down to where Vincent was sitting with his legs up and no gun in his hand. “Surprised?” Avion said. “He always makes other people do his dirty work.”
“Everyone is always making dumb fucking decisions and holding me to them. I have to follow dad, I have to follow the law of the Raines; I wanted power without restrictions. I felt I’d earned at least that much.” He sneered up at Avion. “That sickly innocent attitude. It was just as fake as mine.”
I laughed--so that was what his warning was about.
“We all had to learn ways to survive, Vince,” Avion said. “You didn’t though. You just put enough defenses around you, like dad and Anton.” She looked down at her dead brother and then back at Vincent. “What are you going to do now that all of that is gone?”
“Why don’t you just kill me?” he spat back at her. “I know you want to.”
