“They’ve stopped,” Barnaby said over the comms. “Looks like they’re deciding something.”
“They’re arguing,” Corey chimed in. “I see them. Receptionist from the bank... and that has to be Jimmy. He's trying to run from her. I’ve got a visual. Confirmed.”
“I see them too,” Lucy said, narrowing her eyes from a distance. “He’s tugging her arm, she’s trying to convince him to go a different way. Idiot.”
Lucy stepped forward boldly, heart pounding in her chest, her eyes zeroed in like a predator. “I think you have something for me, JIMMY,” she called, her voice cold and steady.
Jimmy flinched, stepping back. “It doesn’t belong to you! It never did!” he screamed, sweat pouring from his face.
“Why are you doing all of this?” Lucy shouted.
Jimmy spat on the floor. “I don't answer to you.” “It’s a shame you stayed hidden, the night I ordered your family to be killed, such a same.” he started laughing.
Rage exploded in Lucy’s chest. Without another thought, she ran. Hard. Fast. Her muscles screamed as her boots pounded against the pavement, tunnel vision blinding her to everything except the man in her crosshairs.
Jimmy raised a hand, a gun glinting in his grip. A deafening crack exploded as the trigger pulled—
Lucy ducked just in time, skimming the air like a phantom and driving her fist into Jimmy’s face with everything she had.
CRACK.
Jimmy’s head snapped back, and he crumpled to the ground.
Lucy grinned, breath heaving, adrenaline spiking like fireworks in her veins. “That’s what you fucking get,” she whispered. She turned, ready to gloat to Byron, her partner, her—
“Byron?”
Her stomach sank.
He wasn’t there.
Her eyes darted.
Then she saw him. Lying on the ground. Blood blooming across his chest like a poisoned flower.
Time stopped.
Her smile vanished as her breath caught in her throat.
“No... No, no, no...”
She stumbled backward, toward him. “Byron?”
His eyes were half-lidded, his lips stained with crimson. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came.
“NO!” she screamed. The sound tore from her throat like an animal. She fell to her knees beside him, her hands fumbling uselessly over his chest, trying to stop the bleeding, trying to hold him together.
“COREY! HELP ME!”
Corey sprinted over, barking orders to the Doves. “Secure Jimmy. Secure that stupid bitch too.”
Barnaby’s voice came through the comms, shaken. “Ambulance inbound. I’ve pinged our location.”
Corey knelt beside Lucy, already applying pressure with practiced, desperate hands. “We’ve got you, mate. Stay with us.”
“He’s losing too much blood,” Lucy sobbed. Her hands trembled as she cradled Byron’s face. “You can’t leave me, not now... Not now when I finally found someone to love.”
Byron’s gaze fluttered toward her, his hand twitching to reach hers.