“You’re a bitch,” Tish yelled!
Kelley began to say something to Tish but paused. With her smirk from before gone and replaced with an anger-soaked expression, she said, “Watch yourself.”
Tish seethed. Her jaw was set hard. I thought she was going to scream or even charge Kelley. Instead, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Sam tried to say something to her, but it went unanswered.
Kelley, satisfied that Tish was no longer a problem, nudged me over to where the lone rifle was leaned against the wall. She quickly put the pistol in her waistband and had the rifle in her hands in one fluid motion. She checked to make sure a round was chambered before saying, “Let’s go to that conference room. Now!”
I tried to close the door that blocked off the second floor from the third, but Kelley wouldn’t let me. She told me that her people would need the door left open, so they could get in. Kelley paused. The second floor was almost completely dark. “Turn on the lamp,” she said.
I fumbled with it for a second before finally finding the switch.
“Hold the lamp up, so I can see where you’re taking me,” she said, pushing the barrel harder into my back.
“Okay, okay.”
Other than making sure Kelley didn’t reunite with Miley’s prisoner, I didn’t have much of a plan. The only thing I had going for me was the pistol Miley had given me hidden in my waistband. I just needed a chance to get at it. I thought about dropping the lamp and going for it, but I’d already seen how nimble and fast Kelley was. I didn’t have a chance in hell. I would take her on as long of a wild goose chase as Miley’s office building would allow for and hope the opportunity would present itself.
Something occurred to me. There was a small cafeteria in the back of the second floor. Miley had a private dining room where he ate with executives. For reasons only known to Miley, he had the floor lowered in that room. There was a decent step down that maybe if Kelley wasn’t prepared for, it might trip her up just enough to give me the extra time I needed to go for the pistol. I mean, that’s all I could come up with. Saving my friends rested on that winner.
SHIT. I went for it and failed miserably.
“Well?” She asked, pushing the already imbedded barrel deeper into my back.
The cafeteria was no more. It had been completely torn out and was in the midst of a full remodel. “I haven’t been down here for a while. They’ve remodeled the place since I was last here. We’ll just have to keep looking…”
“You’re stalling.”
“It’s dark… they’ve changed things.”
“I warned you. Put the lamp down on the floor,” she said.
“Come on. I can take you…”
“Now!”
I kneeled enough to sit the lamp down. Sweat poured down my face, as I was reacquainted with the rifle barrel. I was afraid and embarrassed. Mostly, though, I was angry with myself. I was a buffoon. I had failed my friends once again. I was going to die without even going for the pistol. Was that what I was going to do. Just die without a fight, I wondered to myself in those last seconds. Did I really lack that much of a spine? “Fuck that,” I said aloud, as I went for the pistol.
Kelley screamed something. Then there was a single loud pop. I recoiled as I felt intense heat on my face. It hurt but not as much as I thought it would. Over the terrible ringing in my ear, Sam yelled something. I heard something else, too. Kelly was chambering another round in the rifle. She had missed everyone on the first try, including me. She must have fired wildly at Sam and Titouan. There was no other reason I was alive.
There was a struggle – a body hit the floor. I fought with the pistol tangled in my belt and oversized fleece top I was wearing. “Goddammit,” I yelled.
I saw Kelley swing the butt of the rifle around, catching Titouan hard on his upper shoulder or the side of his face, it was hard to tell. With lightning quick reflexes, she had her pistol up and ready to fire at Sam, who must’ve been unlucky enough to be hit with the rifle as well, as he still seemed to be reeling from something.
I finally managed to untangle the pistol and brought it up to firing position just as she was getting ready to shoot Sam. I remember hoping that I had clicked the safety off before leveling it to fire. Kelley shrieked while staggering backwards before finally falling hard to the floor. She lay there screaming and kicking, as much out of anger as anything, I thought.
I kicked the rifle out of her reach, and then picked up the phone she had dropped. It was big for a modern phone, somewhere between the size and look of a satellite phone and an older Blackberry. On the keys were symbols I didn’t recognize – maybe Korean or Chinese. Goosebumps spread up and down my arms as the potential implications washed over me.
“What do we do with the bitch?” Sam asked, his face set in a hard grimace, as he hobbled his way to my side. With his leg banged up like it was, he was very lucky he didn’t end up dead.
“We take her back upstairs. We’ll deal with her there.” I then handed Sam her pistol and told Titouan to get the rifle. He didn’t move, though. He was probing his mouth with his fingers.
“Are you okay, Titouan?” I asked.
“No!” He walked over to where she sat, and, without any warning, kicked her in the face with his heavy boot. Her neck snapped back with such force, I thought he might’ve broken it. “You crazy bitch,” he spat. Something solid hit the floor.
Kelley was a tough chick. I had to give her that. A solitary tear flowed down her cheek. She angrily pawed at it, erasing any signs of weakness. With the copious amount of blood flowing from her busted lip and potentially broken nose, she looked to be possessed. She glowered at Titouan, and he returned the favor, moving ever so slightly back in her direction.
“Easy, son, she’ll get hers,” Sam said.
“Fuck!” Titouan yelled.
Sam and I gathered her up and took her back upstairs.
When we got back to the conference room, Avery stood at the door, nervously awaiting our fate, while Tish sat in the corner of the room, blankly staring at what seemed like nothing. From what I could tell, the baby was no longer with us. She lay limp in Tish’s equally-limp embrace.
Tish finally looked up as I sat Kelley down hard in one of the executive chairs. The two of them exchanged angry glances, but no words were proffered. Kelley didn’t flinch or look away. There was no remorse or anything bordering guilt residing on her anger-ladened and battered face.
I asked Avery to fetch me some duct tape and a wet rag. He quickly did as I bade.
“You alright, bud?” He didn’t answer. Instead, he gave me what I asked for before walking over to where the baby’s blankets were, grabbed them, and draped them over both Tish and baby.
I turned my attention back to Kelley. She’s lucky as hell I was a terrible shot. The bullet grazed the side of her shoulder pretty good, but not enough where she would bleed out. With a few stitches, she’d be fine. As for her nose, it was broken. I let her wipe the blood from her face, while I applied the bandage.
“Go get the bastard from the conference room. Make sure you lock the stairwell doors on your way back up. They’ll be coming sooner than later,” I said.
Sam checked the pistol for sufficient ammunition and headed out the door. Titouan slung the rifle over his shoulder and was on Sam’s heels.
“Titouan,” I said, “he needs to be alive. No stupid shit.”
He spat another mouthful of blood but nodded his head in agreement.
After she was cleaned up and bandaged, I secured her to the chair with the duct tape. Only then did I check her pockets for weapons or other useful things. I suppose I should’ve done that before taping her up like a mummy, but frisking was new to me. She spat a bloody glob on me as I removed a small vile of white powder from a small pocket on the front of her coat. The poison, I thought.