Page 163 of The Tempted

She screamed out for her sister, her voice unmistakable and sounding a lot closer than where I had left her. My stomach dropped as I spiraled around, 360 degrees, trying to place her body to her voice. I spotted her out of the corner of my eye, crawling across the floor over the shards of broken glass. With one hand on my gun, I reached out with my other and closed it around her ankle. She screamed in terror, a sound that vibrated throughout my whole body.

“I told you to stay put!” I shouted.

She glanced up at me wide-eyed and I dropped her ankle, holding out my hand for her to take.

“Nikki!” she exclaimed.

“Is half way to the middle of nowhere, now come on!” I demanded, pulling her to her feet. I looked her over quickly, making sure she was okay, finally able to breathe again. My eyes zeroed in on the gun she held, the barrel of it pointed towards the ground.

“I took it off a dead guy,” she explained nervously.

I stared at her for a second before nodding. “You know how to use it?”

“Aim and pull the trigger.”

If it was only that simple. It took a special breed to pull the trigger of a gun, a specific mentality. As tough as Adrianna was I didn’t think she had the balls or the mind frame to put a bullet into someone. Not even if they aimed a gun at her.

“If someone points a gun at you and I’m firing off at someone else, you shoot them. You understand? You don’t think you just pull that trigger because they’re not going to hesitate for one second about killing you.”

She swallowed hard as she stared at me blankly.

“Adrianna, do you understand?”

She nodded her reply before speaking.

“Yes,” she whispered.

I leaned forward, pressing my lips to her forehead.

“It’s going to be okay,” I murmured.

“We’re going to get out of here.” I brought her close to my side and glanced around the club trying to figure the best way out of here. However, at every turn there was one of Vic’s guys fighting off two of the other players.

“Anthony!” Vic shouted.

I turned to the right and saw him holding a gun to some guy’s head, holding him in a headlock.

“Get her out of here!” he roared, pulling the trigger on the man he had been holding, his blood splattering onto Vic’s face before he dropped the body like a sack of potatoes. Adrianna screamed behind me witnessing her father commit murder. Vic reached into his suit and pulled out a silk handkerchief, wiping the blood from his face with it.

I grabbed Adrianna’s hand, turned around to escape the mayhem, and came face to face with Rico, Nikki’s boyfriend. His shirt was covered in blood and he had a crazed look in his eye.

“Where’s Nikki?” he asked me.

“She’s gone and you should get the fuck out of here too,” I told him.

He stared at me for a moment before his lips spread into a grin. Motherfucker!

I pushed Adrianna behind me and began to raise my gun but he was quicker, pointing the tip of my gun to the center of my forehead.

“What’re you doing Rico?”

“What’s it look like I’m doing?” he asked. “Surprise! You’re not the only hired killer fucking one of Vic’s daughters.”

“Run Reese’s!” I said over my shoulder.

“No! Not without you,” she said shakily.

“Adrianna get the fuck out of here, now.”

---