Karen Rose - Scream For Me

“Walk me out the door… and I’ll drop the gun.”

Alex gave him a look of incredulity. “You’re insane. I’m not helping you.”

“Then you’ll never know… where I put Bailey.”

Her chin came up and her eyes narrowed. “Where is she?”

“Get me out… and I tell you.”

“He… probably has… a boat,” Daniel said, grimacing. “Don’t.”

“Bailey,” Granville taunted.

Behind her Daniel’s breathing was labored. She needed to get him to a hospital.

“I don’t have time for this.” Alex aimed for Granville’s heart, but hesitated. Granville was right. Killing a man in self-defense was one thing, but killing a wounded man in cold blood… Shooting him, though, she could handle.

Aiming, Alex squeezed the trigger and Granville screamed. Blood now gushed from his wrist, but his hand was open and the gun was on the floor. Alex put it in her pocket and knelt next to Daniel, searching for his handcuffs with one hand and feeling for his pulse with the other. It was weak. Terrifyingly so.

His color was still bad and he still struggled for each breath, but the spread of blood had stopped, at least. “I have to get help for you and I don’t trust him not to hurt you while I’m gone. But I can’t kill him. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Might need him later. Cuff him… behind his back.” Daniel grabbed her jacket with one bloody hand when she started to get up. “Alex.”

“Hush. If I don’t get you to a hospital, you’ll die.” But he didn’t let go.

“Alex,” he whispered and she leaned close. “Love you… when you’re ruthless.”

Her throat closed and she pressed a kiss to his forehead, then straightened, her expression stern. “Love you,” she whispered back, “when you’re not a dead hero. Stop talking, Daniel.”

She went back to cuff Granville. It was harder than it looked and she was breathing hard and covered in his blood when she turned him on his back. “I hope you rot in prison for a long time.”

“You think you know… everything.” He dragged in a breath. “You know nothing. There are… others.”

Her head came up and she grabbed her gun. “Others where?” she asked, alarmed.

Granville’s eyes had gone unfocused. He’d lost a lot of blood. “Simon was mine,” he muttered. “But I was another’s.” Then, dazed, he looked up, his eyes flaring wide in fear.

She started to look over her shoulder but stopped when she felt cold steel shoved against her temple.

“Thank you, Miss Fallon,” a voice whispered in her ear. “I’ll take that gun.” He squeezed her wrist until her fingers opened and the gun dropped to the concrete floor. “Things wrapped themselves up well. Davis is arrested, Mansfield is dead and…” He fired and her stomach wrenched as Granville’s head exploded all over the floor. “Now, so is Granville. The seven are now none.”

“Who are you?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“You already know,” he said quietly, and she knew she’d never known true fear until that moment. He forced her to her feet. “Now you’ll come with me.”

“No.” She struggled and he dug his gun back into her head. “I just need to get help for Daniel. I won’t tell them you’re here. You can go. I won’t stop you.”

“No, you won’t. Nobody will stop me. But I won’t let you go. I have plans for you.”

The way he said it made her knees buckle. “Why? I never even knew you like Gemma or the others.”

“No, you didn’t. But you’ll die, just the same.”

The sob was building again, but this time it was mixed with terror. “Why?”

“Because of your face. It all started with Alicia. It’ll end with you.”

Alex went cold and still. “You’d kill me for a grand finale ?”

He chuckled. “That and to make Vartanian suffer.”

“Why? He never hurt you.”

“But Simon did. I can’t hurt Simon, so Daniel will have take to take his punishment.”

“Like you were punished for what Jared did,” she murmured.

“I see you understand. It’s only fair.”

“But killing me isn’t fair,” she said, trying to stay calm. “I never hurt anyone.”

“That’s true. But meaningless at this point. You’ll die, like the others, and you’ll scream, loud and long.” He pulled her backward and she fought wildly.

“We called for backup,” she sputtered. “You can’t get away.”

“Yes we can. I hope you don’t get too sick in a boat.”

The river. He was going to take her away by the river. “No. I won’t go like a lamb to slaughter. If you want me, you’re going to have to drag me by my hair.” He was going to kill Daniel. But when he did he’d have to move the gun from her temple. It would be the only chance she had. The second she felt the pressure against her temple decrease, she twisted, trying to claw his face. Abruptly he loosened his grip and for a moment she was too surprised to do anything.

Then she blinked as a final shot rang out. She had only a moment to look up into the face of… the paperboy… before he dropped. Stunned, she watched as he went down, focusing on the neat hole in his forehead.

“This is the paperboy.” She shuddered when she realized how closely O’Brien had been watching her, then looked up and sucked in a silent scream. A man with a dirty, bloody face stood holding O’Brien’s gun in his hand. He was weaving on his feet.

Alex peered closer. “ Reverend Beardsley? ”

He nodded grimly. “Yeah.” He leaned up against the door and slid to the floor, carefully placing O’Brien’s gun on the floor beside him.

She looked at the hole in O’Brien’s forehead, then back at Beardsley. “You shot him? How could you shoot him? You were… behind him.” She spun around to see Daniel slowly lower his head to the floor. In his hand he held his backup revolver.

“ You shot him?” Daniel nodded once and said nothing. Alex stuck her head out the doorway and looked both ways. “Anybody else here with guns?”

“Don’t think so,” Beardsley said, and grabbed her leg. “Bailey?”

“Granville said she was still alive.”

“She was alive an hour ago,” Beardsley said.

“I’ll find out. I have to get help now.”

Clutching Daniel’s cell phone in her hand, Alex ran until she saw light streaming in through the small window in the outer door. She stopped for a moment, almost blinded by its brightness. Then she opened the door and walked out and dragged in the deepest breath she’d ever breathed.

“ Alex .” Luke came running. “She’s hit,” he yelled. “Get the medics.”

She blinked as men came running with a gurney. “Not me,” she snapped. “Daniel’s been hit. He’s critical. He needs to be airlifted to a level one trauma center. I’ll show you where he is.” She ran, adrenaline fueling her muscles. “Bailey escaped.”

“I know,” Luke replied as he ran beside her. Behind them the gurney squeaked. “I found her. She’s alive. In pretty bad shape, but she’s alive.”

Alex knew the relief would hit her once Daniel was on the gurney. “Beardsley’s in here, too. He’s alive. He may be able to walk out on his own, but he’s bad, too.”

They got to the room at the end of the hall and Luke stopped dead at the three bodies that littered the floor. “Holy Mother of God,” he breathed. “Did you do this?”

A bubble of hysterical laugher tickled where minutes before a sob had burned. The medics were lifting Daniel to the gurney and she could breathe again. “Most of it. I killed Mansfield and wounded Granville, but O’Brien killed Granville.”

Luke nodded. “Okay.” He nudged O’Brien with his shoe. “And this one?”