Page 3 of Redemption
The droning hum glides closer and closer, seeming to surround me yet remaining invisible. My pulse skyrockets at the ominous intention.
Without taking my eyes off the road, I open the door to the main house and yell for the guys. If I need to defend this place, then I’m going to need some backup. Either one of them is going to have to go and bring Aly back over here or cover my post while I do.
Time ticks by and I’m half a second away from losing my grip on reality as the insufferable sound consumes the courtyard, seeming to be coming from every direction around me all at once. My focus turns left, right, up, and down, scanning everywhere to find the source but still coming up empty. I take a steadying breath and lift my gun, planting my feet on the topstep just in front of the doorway, ready and waiting to take a stand against who or what might be coming at us.
“Guys???” I repeat, poking my head through the doorway and hoping they can hear me from all the way down here.
The whirring grows even louder and then changes into something even more unexpected.
Music.
Soft music in the distance.
I try to figure out where it’s broadcasting from, but it’s too wild, coming from one direction and then changing course to emit from another. The pattern, indistinguishable in its chaotic nature. I chase the sound, my weapon poised and ready as my gaze swings this way and that. Searching. Hunting. The melody crescendos, an old Bob Marley tune blinding me to everything else around me as I urge myself to find the source. It’s as taunting as it is....
Fuck!
This is all a distraction. A means to keep me looking for thatthingwhen I need to have my attention elsewhere. Like getting to Aly.Now.
“Hawk!... Cole!” I repeat urgently through the open doorway at my back. I’m about to say fuck it all and make a run for the restrooms when, finally, I see it. The source of the mechanical buzzing: a drone, flying in a circle around the Palace. It must see me home in on it—my gun raised and following its direction—and quickly descends to eye level, hovering in the middle of the courtyard.
In the military, I was able to witness the potential for drones to function as flying gunships. Capable of being equipped with anything from non-lethal weapons like rubber bullets orsound cannons, to small arms such as rifles or machine guns, and extending all the way to explosive ordnance like missiles and bombs, the extraordinary tech available to modify a drone’s purpose makes them formidable weapons on the battlefield. But this one isn’t equipped with any of that. No rigging under the main frame to indicate a weapons cache, or any additional modifications that would indicate any sort of hostile use. Looking at this one, it’s simply being used as a surveillance and reconnaissance tool. Which means we’re being spied on.
I’m about to shoot the fucker out of the sky when I hear the door behind me open wider, signaling that my brothers have finally decided to show up to work today.
Refusing to take my sights off the threat in front of me, I give them the rundown. “Hey, we got some trouble coming our way, and Aly’s still in the bat—” I start to say the words—start to make a plan to have Cole and Hawk get their asses over to the bathrooms on the other side of the stables and protect our girl—but then a sharp, sudden pain erupts in my upper back. My heart stills in shock as everything narrows to that singular point and the fact that Aly still hasn’t returned yet.
Fuck. No....
I lift my rifle and start to turn around, only to hear the unmistakablethwoopof a gun firing for a second time and then a third, the shots hitting me in my shoulder and neck. I stumble back at the contact, pain shooting through me as the reality of my situation hits me even harder.
We’re scattered. Me, by myself on the front steps. Aly, also alone, somewhere between here and the restrooms on the other side of the property. Then, there’s Cole and Hawk, still upstairs and probably sound asleep, oblivious to the invasion and the danger they’re in.
The earth tilts as I fall sideways, feeling myself growing weaker and weaker, my breaths turning harsher as I try to make sense out of all this. The cool stone is unforgiving as I crumble down to meet it, gravity taking me hostage. I lie there stunned, immobilized in an instant. A bitter end to a fight I didn’t even get a chance to defend myself against. Strength waning, I’m barely able to turn my head in the direction of where the shots came from. When neither Hawk nor Cole fills the space, my world crumbles to ashes before my eyes.
“Good morning!” greets a man I’ve never seen before in my life. A man that was somehow able to sneakintothe Palace and is now walkingoutthe front door as if he owns the place. A man... who is still holding the gun he just shot me with.
“Did you say she’s in the bathroom?” He looks in the direction of the stables as everything around me starts to spin and I’m barely able to hold on. He points to the left, in the very direction Aly went only a few minutes ago. “The ones over there?”
“Fuck you,” I growl, the harsh words heaving themselves out of me but having absolutely no effect on my attacker. He presses his boot against the side of my ribs, pressing me down further against the concrete. My breathing stutters, becoming labored and more difficult to draw in precious air. I try and force myself to maintain eye contact with the man standing over me, refusing to offer any sign of confirmation as to where Aly is, but soon enough, regardless of my stubborn will to remain present and alert, my vision blurs.
The man’s figure, distorting before me in a wavy haze, looks down on me with a knowing smile. “Ah, no matter. We’ll be sure to find her. Don’t you worry your little heart none.” His southern drawl lingers in the air as he looks up into the sky. “Alrighty, Drone, go find her.” The whirring sounds of thedrone’s blades dissipate at the command as he lifts his weighted foot from my side and takes a step off the landing.
Regardless of my overwhelming need to defend and protect those I love, the fight within me slowly ebbs, leaving me numb and helpless. The possibility of keeping my family safe and unharmed—my entire purpose—fades away before my very eyes. And then, with one final drop of his boot to the rocky drive below, my assailant leaves me, abandoned in my withering state right there where I fell.
A pile of bones and discarded flesh.
The world around me darkens as I lose myself to my inevitable fate.
Pathetic.
Useless.
At least Cole and Hawk still have a chance to get to her. To find her before they do. But then again...
Hawk and Cole never came outside...
Never even made it down the stairs...
