He’s right. I turn to follow him.
Just as we go to take the first step, the door we were heading to opens and two men step out, their guns aimed.
Beast fires the first shot, taking out the first guy. Simultaneously, I fire the second. The other guy drops to the ground, and we run toward the door.
“Is there another exit from that basement?” I ask Zel.
“Yeah, back of the building,” he replies.
I turn to Maksim and Many. Before I could say anything, Maksim speaks. “We’ve got it covered.” He taps Many on the chest and they head in the opposite direction of us.
I lead the way, stepping over the fallen bodies. Beast and I make our way down narrow stairs. We check before turning corners, our guns aimed in front of us. The closer we get to the lower level, the more voices we hear.
“I don’t give a fuck,” the voice I know to be Adam’s shouts. “I want you to go check and make sure the job is done.”
I look over my shoulder at Beast. Without saying a word, I ask him if he’s ready. He gives a subtle nod. Reaching at my back, I pull out my Bowie. Let’s get it done.
I walk around the corner and quickly scan the room. Behind a gated fence are three women sitting behind a desk. There are stacks of money on the table and in counting machines. On the floor in the same back room are the other duffle bags filled with money. Also, in the back of the room are two of Adam’s men.
Standing in front of the gate is Adam and a taller man. I’m assuming that was who he was talking to. There are three other guys in the room. It took only seconds to scan the area.
Before I could fire the first shot, the man standing with Adam steps in front of him, blocking my view. I chose to shoot the guy closest to me. Taking him out quickly. Beast fires a shot into the gated room taking out the guy with the biggest gun.
One of the other guys in the room runs up to me. I toss my knife in his thigh, causing him to bend slightly. I quickly put a bullet in his head. A quick glance to my left and there is another body on the ground. I’m assuming Beast took him out. A shot whizzes past my head as I move through the room. The gunman is the second guy in the gated room. He’s hiding behind one of the women, taking shots at me.
Does he think I won’t shoot that chick? I laugh in my head.
I shoot the woman in the shoulder. She cries out before dropping to the ground. I then put a bullet in his chest.
While we were shooting, Beast and I were moving further into the room. At some point, Beast and the guy protecting Adam were in a hand-to-hand fight. The guy punched Beast in the face, but I wasn’t worried about my brother. He’d be fine. I was more concerned about Adam. I knew he hadn’t run out the door to the outside because it still had the padlock on it. Which meant he went back up the stairs.
I grabbed my knife off the guy I stabbed. “Going after Adam.” I yell to Beast before rushing up the stairs.
I can hear Adam's heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. Turning the corner, I spot him just as he got to the door leading back out to the sanctuary. I toss my Bowie through the air, and it lands right in the back of his thigh. He howls in pain but doesn’t stop.
Adam shoves through the door. As soon as I rush out, I duck back in, narrowly missing the bullet he shot. I push the door back open to find Adam limply running down the aisle. I rush after him. He turns to shoot at me again, but I tackle him to the ground. We roll across the floor until my back hits one of the pew ends.
Adam kicks out his foot, connecting with my stomach before jumping to his feet. I grab his leg, sending him crashing back to the floor.
“Get the fuck off me.” He kicks at me.
My grip loosens, allowing him once again to get to his feet. I jump up too, facing off with him.
At some point, I lost my gun in the scuffle and the knife at the back of his thigh is gone as well. Thankfully, he’s without his weapon too.
Adam sneers. “You muthafuckers are like roaches. You just won’t fucking die.” He says as we circle each other.
A slow smile spreads across his face. “Well, except for your daddy. How was his funeral?”
The red haze slipped over me so quickly, my body heated up.However, before I could act, another lesson from Priest popped in my head.
I was fighting one of the other deacon trainees. The kid had been taunting me for months. The priest and the kid’s handler finally decided to let us fight it out. I was a better fighter than the kid, but that day, he was kicking my ass. Priest pulled me to the side and thumped me in the head. I remember charging at him, but stopped short when he pulled his gun out and pressed it to my head.
“The quickest way to lose in any fight is when you fight blindly with anger. Fighting requires you to use your head. Had you been thinking straight and not pissed, you would have known my gun was in my hand when I thumped you.”
I remember looking down at the weapon and realizing I missed a vital detail.
“Reign that fucking anger in, Twin. Then go out there and beat that kid’s ass.” I will never forget the smirk on his face after he said that.