Page 101 of Once A Crime Lord

“She’s up there?”

“Lyla—”

She ran toward the iron staircase and ignored the bodies littered over the steps. Nothing penetrated the urgency rushing through her. She needed to see her mother to make sure she was okay. When she reached the second landing, Barrett stepped forward, face grave.

“Mrs. Pyre, you don’t want to—”

“Let me pass,” she ordered.

The men didn’t move, so she shoved her way through their ranks and stopped in the doorway. She took one look into the room and felt her world disintegrate. She screamed, a sound filled with rage and despair. No. No. This had to be a nightmare.

“Lyla.”

Blade gripped her shoulder and tried to pull her backward.

“No!” She ripped free and passed three naked dead men to reach her mother who was bound by wrist and ankles to the four posts of a bed. The mattress was saturated with her mother’s blood. Her mother had been whipped and beaten so severely that the only feature she recognized was her mom’s platinum locks. Her shaking hands hovered a foot over her mother. No part of her had been left untouched. It looked as if a wild animal had mauled her. There were deep slashes across her face and abdomen. Her hanging skin glistened with cum and blood.

“Mom?” Her stomach lurched as she used the sleeve of the jacket to wipe slime from her mother’s face. “Mom?” She tugged on the restraints. “Get these off her.”

No one moved.

“Get them off her!”

Four men rushed forward and quickly cut the restraints. One guard shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over her body.

“Mom? Can you hear me?” She placed one hand over her mother’s lips and one on her chest. Her chest moved a tiny fraction at the same time that Lyla felt a small puff of air on her palm.

“She’s alive!”

Blade picked her mother up as gently as possible. Her mother didn’t make a peep as Blade started toward the door, rapping out orders. She turned to follow, but stopped when she tripped over one of the naked men sprawled on the floor. Her mother had been in this state and they—. She pulled out her gun and emptied the magazine into his body, which shuddered from the impact. She reloaded, walked to the next man, and repeated the process until all three men were bullet filled piñatas. She wasn’t sure she had a heart anymore. She didn’t feel anything.

She started toward the door, but a flash of red caught her eye. She looked up and saw a camera with a red light over the doorway. She didn’t ask for permission. She snatched the gun from the nearest man’s belt. The guards backed up as she aimed at the camera and shattered it with one shot. She slapped the gun against the guard’s chest and walked out of the room. Gavin’s men gave way as she walked down the staircase like an automaton.

Blade had her mother in the back seat of the SUV. She cradled her mother’s head on her lap and stroked her hair, which was caked with blood and other stuff she wouldn’t let herself examine.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

18

Lyla

Lyla staredat her mother who lay in a hospital bed in the ICU. Her body was wrapped in bandages, and a machine was helping her breathe.

Their entrance into the emergency room caused a sensation. Her mother was whisked away, and she had been treated as well. They cleaned the wounds on her legs, arms, and face while asking questions about her mother and why she was covered in blood. Blade said something about a camping accident, and she nodded since the doctor seemed to need some kind of confirmation from her. As for her mother, Blade concocted a story about hiring a private investigator that was looking into her disappearance and located her in this state. The doctors said the police would have to be contacted. This should have scared her, but she felt nothing. After her latest near-death experience, being questioned by cops didn’t rouse a hint of anxiety.

The doctor’s litany of her mother’s injuries played over and over in her mind.

“Your mother’s injuries are traumatic. She’s lost a lot of blood. She’s had several strokes due to someone choking her. She has multiple head fractures as well as a broken ankle, broken shoulder...”

The doctor continued, but she couldn’t hear over the white noise. Seeing her mother in the warehouse had been bad enough, but knowing the extent of the physical trauma made her entire being recoil.

“She’s in a coma,” the doctor said clinically. “It’s amazing she survived such a brutal attack. I hope the cops can find the monster who did this.”

Lyla dropped onto a chair beside the hospital bed. She reached for her mother’s hand, which had chunks of flesh missing from it. Three of five fingers were in braces. They hadn’t left an inch of her untouched. She kissed her mother’s palm, right over a deep gash.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice sounded as dead as she felt.

Their history faded into nothingness. This woman was her mother, her flesh and blood. She couldn’t bear to look at her face because it was so gruesome. Her mother didn’t deserve this. The dam that kept her from losing her mind since the attack crumbled. She rested her mother’s hand on the bed, buried her face in the sheets and sobbed her heart out.

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