Page 187 of One Minute Out

I hear the other man again, the one I take for Cage. “Sean! I’ll double your salary! I’ll double it! And no hard feelings, swear to God. Just hold out till the cops come, do your job protecting me, and I’ll double... fuck it, I’ll triple your salary! Permanently.”

Hall speaks to me, not to Cage. He just says, “This fuckin’ guy. Right?”

But I respond, “That’s a lot of dough, Sean. It’s gotta be tempting. It’s your call.”

The squadron of LAPD helicopters flying overhead nearly drowns out his soft response. “I’m just a surfer, bro. I don’t need much. But I need my life.”

Cage shouts, “Sean! Sean!”

I hear Sean’s weapon thud on the carpeted floor right above my head, and then he steps in front of the mirror. He’s directly above me, but I don’t shoot the ceiling. Two more men come into view, their hands raised. One has blood smeared on his face, and more blood stains the sleeve of tats on his right arm.

All three men walk downstairs, past my position. Sean, the last of the three, looks at me as he passes. He nods in cool appreciation, then forces a smile as he says, “Maybe we grab a beer when you’re done.”

I look away, back to the staircase. “Why would I do that? You’re still a piece of shit. I’d love to be your karma, but I know it will catch up to you someday.”

Sean looks downcast, and then he turns away and walks towards the door behind his men.

I call over the radio. “Three coming out. Don’t fire unless they pose a threat.”

Rodney says, “Roger. Be advised, cops have blocked off the roads out front, but they haven’t moved on the property. Helos in the air all around. Got a call from Carl. He was forced to land at a heliport in Hollywood. The LAPD will have him in custody by now.”

“Okay,” I say. “You boys try to get clear. I’ll wrap up here.”

Kareem answers now. “We’re not going anywhere, Harry. We’ve got your back.”

“Sean?” Cage calls out again from upstairs. “C’mon, Sean.”

But I am the one who answers. “He’s gone. It’s alone time for you and me, Kenny.”

“Look, Gentry! I can—”

“Yeah, yeah,” I interrupt. “You can make me a rich man, I know. But I don’t need money. I just need Roxana. If you don’t hurt her, I’ll let you live.”

He doesn’t respond. I step over to the kitchen, open the freezer, and retrieve a massive frosty bottle of Grey Goose vodka. I bite the glass-and-cork lid off, then pour some on my bloody shoulder, coating my wet tunic, my wound, and the hilt of the dagger protruding there. Vodka runs down my arm and drips with blood from my fingertips. Then I recap the bottle with my mouth and head up the stairs, the pistol in front of me and the vodka down to the side now in my nearly noncompliant left hand.

On the second floor I see blood on the carpet, obviously where the wounded bodyguard had been standing. Cage’s voice came from a back room, so I walk up the hall, push in the door slowly, and find him standing there, with Roxana tight against his chest.

There’s a knife to her throat.

I look at her. The veins in her throat pulsate; her breathing is fast and shallow. “It’s going to be okay,” I say, and I actually believe it now.

She doesn’t respond.

I point the Walther at Cage’s face with my right hand. My bloody left shoulder is screaming at me now. I say, “Let her go, or you will die right now.” He holds the knife against her carotid, but I just aim in carefully. “Dude, you are a dozen feet away. Do you really think I can’t put a bullet in your eye socket if I want?”

“I’ll kill her!”

“Nope, you’ll drop like a sack of wet sand.”

Cage gets it. The only chance he has is to comply. He lowers the knife and lets it fall to the floor. He raises his hands slowly into the air.

“Roxana,” I say, “there are men outside. They’ll help you. Go to them.”

She seems utterly bewildered to be alive as she heads for the stairs, still in shock. As she passes, she stares at the knife sticking out of me, and the left half of my body, which by now is all covered in blood.

With my pistol on Cage’s face, I transmit to the guys. “Blue coming out. Talyssa’s sister. Protect her.”

“Hell, fuckin’ yeah!” Rodney says.

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