Page 44 of Medusa's Revenge

“He knows how to get in there.” TJ points to Luka who spits the blood out of his mouth onto the ground.

“Trip, do you have a bomb we can tie to Luka?” I ask in my ear. TJ’s wicked smile reminds me of Amelia’s and my heart clenches.

“Ruthless. I love it.” Tripline’s voice echoes in my ear. “On my way.”

“Joker, can you get a hold of Shrink and see if she can ask Michelle about the code? Let her know that Amelia is shot and Tommy is trying to kill her. She might not be so hard gone and will want to help.” Joker tells me to hold please as she’s going to mute but can still hear us. Tripline comes skipping into the office. I did a doubletake to make sure I was seeing it. TJ laughs.

“You’re psychotic, you know that right?” TJ remarks as Tripline smiles big like you just told someone they won a million dollars tax free.

“You always say the sweetest things.” She blushes and pretends to be bashful. Luka struggles in the chair. He can’t get up and walk away as his knees are blown out. Tripline begins to sing Fireworks by Katy Perry. I can’t help but laugh when she bops Luka on the nose when she gets to the chorus as she’s belting it out. I stare at TJ who stares at Tripline like she has two heads.

“No wonder her and Amelia get along so well. Trip is crazy for fireworks and Amelia loves her pew pews.” TJ and I walk over to Tripline after she steps away from Luka.

“Anything else?” she asks and I shake my head at her. “It’s armed and there’s not timer on it. I have the switch for it. Don’t worry, it won’t go off until you tell me.” She walks off after winking at Luka still singing Fireworks.

“Now, we can remove this bomb if you tell us how to get in there.” I point to the old bank vault looking door. “Or we can roll you out to the parking lot and the crazy girl will hit the button.” Luka’s eyes widen. “You know in that room your dad is going to die. She will kill him. Your family is gone. Your men are gone.”

Luka laughs. “You think this is all we have?” He smirks. “We are bigger than you’ll ever know.”

Bubbles comes to stand near us. She leans on the desk. “Listen here asshat. Your brothers, sister, their mothers, your mother are all gone. We killed them this morning. The men guarding them are gone. The men in Kentucky at your drug warehouse are gone. The drugs and money are nicely tucked away somewhere. The autobody shop is gone as well. Your books were a mess too. All that money laundering, sheesh. Who was your accountant? They were robbing you blind. You barely made a profit. Oh, she’s gone too.” Bubbles snaps her fingers like you see people doing the “aw shucks” motion with her arm.

“I want to know something, Michelle. Was it real or just a con?” TJ stands with his arms crossed. The vein above his eye is popping.

“It was real. She’s actually my wife. We married about three months ago. You know that brunch she missed, we were at the courthouse. We love each other. I didn’t know who she was when I first met her, but Dad knew. Once she found out who my father was, she didn’t give a fuck. She hated Amelia and how she controlled Michelle. I gave her the freedom she craved. Michelle is not a Baxter, she’s a DeMarco. She would rather die than turn on me.” TJ curses as he punches Luka again. He laughs as he spits a couple of teeth out. “She was all too happy to give us the code to kill your sister.” TJ steps forward, but I stop him.

“Don’t give him what he wants.” Bubbles breaks through the silence. “Help us look.” Luka laughs as we tear everything apart. I drag TJ out to the hallway.

“Joker, did you hear what Luka said?” I try to get her attention. I don’t know if she’s still on the phone with Shrink or not.

“Yeah. What do we do? She won’t give us the code now. I still have Shrink on the phone. Michelle has been silent the whole time. She’s just glaring.” Joker’s relaying messages from Shrink.

“Tell Shrink that Luka is in the vault with a bomb strapped to him with her sister. We need the override code. Tommy put them in there.”

“Smart.” TJ says nodding. I just hope it works.

I just hope Luka wasn’t lying to us about Michelle loving him.

Chapter Forty-Two

Medusa

I knew I should’ve cut Tommy’s right side first. He cut off my shirt exposing my black lace bra. He grabs my breasts hard squeezing them. My hands are his right hand but my left arm is weak from the bullet wound. The loss of blood is also making me feel lightheaded so my movements are slow. “Did you know that when I fucked your mom on the bed she shared with your dad, I would think of you? I wanted to take your tight virgin pussy. Your mother was trying to convince me to sell you. I could’ve gotten a lot of money for you, but she couldn’t stay clean long enough to watch the rest of those two kids.” He shakes his head.He takes the knife and begins slashing the top of my breasts and stomach. They’re just cuts, nothing major, but I hate the pain. I try looking around for something, anything to get my free. Tommy licks the blood from my stomach and I shiver at the grossness of him being so close to me. I hope they’re trying to get my free. “You are going to be my beautiful bride when we get out of here. Since you killed my heirs, you’ll be making me new ones.”

“Over my dead fucking body.” I spit in his face.

“I’m not giving you a choice. I’ll take what is mine and you, Miss Baxter, are mine.” He leans down to kiss me and I see my opportunity. I headbutt him right in the nose. I hear the crack of his nose, knowing I busted it. The blood flows from his nose and he cups it with his right hand, since I cut his left side, making him incapable of moving it. I punch him in the throat and buck my hips, throwing him off since he was straddling me. The knife drops onto the floor. Tommy’s screams were cut off with the gagging he was doing from the throat punch. I remember the self-defense Smitty taught me six months after my dad died.

I move quickly off the bed. I lean against the desk trying to get the room to stop spinning. I blink a few times as I scan the room for my gun or the knife. I know I heard the knife crash onto the floor. I check on the bed to see Tommy blinking rapidly and I can only assume he’s trying to get his vision back, so I need to act quickly. I pick up the knife and see Tommy coming to me.Does he know I have the knife?I swallow hard looking for my gun. I didn’t notice where it went when he knocked it from my hands.

“You’re dead. I’ll find someone else to give me heirs.” Tommy sneers at me.

“I’m not the one who will be dead. You will be.” I don’t do anything but stand there. It’s like two boxers in a ring, waiting to see who will strike first.Who is going to give up their strategy?He moves with a gun he had in the back of his pants pointing atme and I smile. As Tommy’s outstretched arm comes toward me, I take my knife and repeat what I did to his left arms to his other side. I made him completely useless. The gun drops to the floor. He falls to his knees.

“What is happening to me?” Tommy stutters.

“I cut your tendons, arteries and muscles making your arms completely dead. I’m not sure what the technical term would be.” I shrug. “You’re going to die. Do you have any last words for me?”

“Get fucked! This isn’t over yet.” I laugh in his face.

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