Aalyiah collapses, her body crumpling to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut. Blood seeps from the hole in her forehead, dull eyes staring into the abyss of death.
Rhett stands over her, holding the gun, his chest heaving with labored breaths.
Stunned silence blankets the warehouse.
It doesn’t last...
Rhett whips himself back from his lunacy and his vengeful façade cracks. He crumples to his knees beside Aalyiah, the most agonizing, animalistic anguish tearing out of his mouth.
“No, no, no...” he chants, gathering her lifeless body up off the floor, his face twisted with grief, shock, and an ocean of agony. “No, baby, no, no, no. Please... I’m sorry.” He grabs her chin, shaking her head like he’s trying to wake her up. “Come back, baby,” he begs, his voice barely audible. “You’re okay, little girl, you’re okay... Please come back...”
Tears slide down his cheeks in sync with the tears dripping from the tip of his nose as he gathers Aalyiah further into his arms. He rocks her back and forth, her blood seeping into his clothes. He tangles his fingers in her hair, begging and apologizing on repeat, his body shaken by pained cries.
I watch, paralyzed, as the ruthless mafia boss I’ve heard so much about is reduced to a broken shell of a man, undone by his own hand. His momentary lapse of judgment, a split-second loss of control, cost him his daughter.
It’s not until the other man speaks that I realize I’m shaking and hugging myself, sorrow tearing through me as if I was the one to pull the trigger.
I’m still hidden in the shadows, the gravity of what I’ve witnessed sending a rush of panic through my nerve endings.
But I can’t move, my legs feel like two tubs of water.
It seems an eternity before Rhett’s sobs cease and my muscles unwind. Slowly, he lays Aalyiah down, closing her eyes with a trembling hand. He marshals his emotions, standing up as if in slow motion, like he can barely move under the weight of what he’s done.
My stomach churns.
There’s so much blood. It’s everywhere... spattered over his white shirt, brown coat, and gray pants, dripping from his hands, speckling his forehead—a jarring contrast to his pale complexion. He’s white as a sheet, staring at the crimson river pooling around his feet.
I’m transfixed, watching him wipe his hands down the front of his shirt. His chest rises and falls as he steadies his breathing, lifting his chin higher, his dark gaze still on his lifeless daughter.
In a mechanical move, like he’s done this a thousand times before, he tucks his gun into a coat pocket.
“Boss?”
As Rhett turns toward the other man, his eyes are vacant, face sinister and torn. Every line and wrinkle screams about his grief, but not just grief... there’s more. A mindless, deranged kind of thirst for vengeance.
And that’s when I realize the danger Alex and I are in.
Holding my breath, I stare at the ground, inch away from the window as quietly as possible. My mind races faster than my heart. My flight instinct kicks into its highest gear, burning through my shock. Soundlessly, taking every step as if it were my last, I back away, one hand clasped over my mouth until I’m far enough away that I can’t hear anything from the warehouse.
Spinning on my heel, I pull my phone out and break into a sprint. Tears sting my eyes, panicked sobs catch in my throat, but I run, simultaneously dialing Alex’s number.
I trip, land in the mud, then gather myself up and keep running, lured by the doubtful safety of the distant streetlamps, sending call after call to Alex’s phone that he keeps rejecting.
“What?” Alex finally snaps into the receiver on my fifth try. “What do you want?”
“Rhett’s coming for you. You need to run!”
“What the fuck are you talking about? Where are you?”
“Alex, listen! Aalyiah... she’s dead, I—”
I fall again, bracing against the damp ground, my knee hitting a large rock. Pain doesn’t register, pushed to the background by the adrenaline.
“Hailey!” Alex booms into my ear when I pick up the phone. “What’s going on?! Where are you?”
“I went to see Aalyiah at the warehouse, but Rhett came first,” I pant, looking over my shoulder in case I’m being chased. “He knows you’re a cop. He shot her, Alex. He didn’t mean to, but he did. She’s dead and his men are coming for you!”
I run out onto the empty street, sprinting across, then left and right between buildings while Alex stays silent, nothing save for his heavy breaths sounding in my ear.
