They were already jumping up and running toward the back hall that led to the parlor before he could even mention the terrace. Reno was still talking, but Dom had dropped his phone when he took off running. They knew Malcolm had been out of their sight. They couldn’t get to that parlor fast enough!
But when they got to the door, it was bolted lock. Because it was a fortified door like all the doors inside the penthouse, their attempts to break it down were useless. But they could hear noises inside the parlor, as if there was a scuffle going on.
Dom began to panic. All he could think about was getting to his mother. Then he pulled out his gun, but Jimmy pushed it down. “You can’t just shoot. You could shoot Ma!”
But Jimmy was panicking too. He and Dom kept trying to break their down with their shoulders, and their whole bodies, but they couldn’t do it.
“Go get the guards to help!” Jimmy ordered, and Dom ran and got the men that were in the hall outside of the PaLargio to come and help.
And they all tried to break down that door. But they couldn’t do it. Jimmy and Dom had tears in their eyes as they did all they could to knock that door down.
Then Reno, Sal, and Monk ran into the PaLargio and down the hall where the commotion was.
“It’s locked, Pop,” Jimmy said in full panic, “and we can’t break it down!”
Sal and Monk tried to break it down too, but Reno ran into his office, grabbed a sledgehammer, and ran back out.
“Back up!” he said to them. Then he began slamming that hammer into the lock part of that door with all the force he had. It was as if he was a madman he was banging so hard. Trina was in that room. There was no way that door wasn’t opening. He had to get to Trina!
With tears in his eyes, too, he banged and banged on that door until that lock finally gave way. And then they all ran inside.
But they stopped in their tracks when they saw Malcolm, with Trina bound and gagged and standing in front of him as his human shield. He had his gun to her head. “Stay right where you are!” he yelled.
They all just stood there. They were terrified to move because Trina was completely in front of Malcolm. There was no shot anybody could take.
“I’ll pull this trigger so don’t even try it,” Malcolm said.
Reno was flustered. “But why, Mal?” he asked him. His face was a mask of confusion. “What did my wife ever do to you?”
“It’s never you, is it, Reno? It’s always somebody else’s fault. Now you wanna blame your wife.”
Reno frowned.“What?”
“You never paid attention to me and my needs. Did you Reno? You’re one of the richest men around, but you never let me get rich too.”
Let him get rich? That sounded crazy to all of them.
But as they were thinking it, the door to the terrace behind Malcolm and Trina slowly began to open. That was when Reno knew he had to keep Malcolm occupied.
“I was your righthand man,” Malcolm was saying. “I would have took a bullet for you. I was your ride or die.”
“My ride or die?” Reno asked as they all could suddenly see Mick easing his way through the terrace door of that parlor. “How could you be my ride or die? You were a fucking employee, what are you talking about?!”
“That’s what you think of me?” Malcolm said.
Then all of them started talking to hide the noise Mick’s entrance might make. They knew Mick couldn’t shoot Malcolm in the back because the bullet might leave his body and enter Trina’s. He had few options.
When Mick realized it, he looked at Dommi, who was standing to the far left of the line of people in that parlor. And he nodded to Dommi.
That was when Mick made a noise to get Malcolm’s attention. He quickly turned sideways to see what that noise was. When he saw Mick, he started backing toward the wall with Trina still as his shield. “I’ll kill her if you make another move!” he yelled at Mick. “I’m not playing. I’ll kill her!”
When Malcolm turned sideways, Reno knew he had to take the shot. Malcolm was going to kill Tree. Reno could see it in his eyes. He had to take the shot. They all knew somebody had to take the shot.
But Dom knew Mick’s nod meant he had the best angle. He was terrified, but he knew if that man pulled that trigger, then his mother would be dead.
Dom always had nerves of steel. He gathered that steel and he didn’t hesitate. He took his shot before Reno, who didn’t have the angle, could even lift his gun.
Dom, who had been a shooter since he was a child, shot Malcolm in the bottom part of his hand. Because of the pain, Malcolm, by reflex, grabbed that hand, causing the gun to fall to the floor, and he moved away from Trina without knowing it. But it was just enough space between them now for Reno to fire several shots into Malcolm.
