Page 32 of Fight

“I’ll fucking say,” Malory replies.

“Someone is going to have to carry Daniel out of here; I’m not going to be able to.” Ace adds, wincing, and I really hope his ribs are just bruised and not broken, “Also, he’s just knocked out. He’s not been injected with the poison that Demelza gave us because we forgot to get the injection off of Malory.”

Malory’s eyes widen, “Oh fuck, sorry.”

As she starts to hand it over, Daniel’s eyes suddenly pop open, and he launches himself in the opposite direction heading toward the window. Before any of us can react, a shot echoes through the room, and Daniel falls to the floor, screaming in pain as he grasps his leg.

Malory stalks over to him, getting down to his level; his eyes widen as he recognises her, “That father is for my knee, an eye for an eye and all that.”

She then stabs the injection directly into his wound, making him scream before he passes out, whether that was from the pain or the injection itself.

I grin, “Now that was poetic justice if I ever saw it.”

“Thanks,” she smirks, standing back up, “we should probably bandage that though; we don’t want him bleeding out before we can get him to your contact.”

“I’ve got it,” Rome says as he moves forward, pulling out a bandage from one of the many pockets on his pants, I know that he has antiseptic cream and painkillers in there just in case as well, all of the guys are carrying the same supplies, but he doesn’t bother grabbing any of that, instead, he just wraps the bandage around Daniel’s leg tight enough to stem the bleeding, he doesn’t deserve much more.

“Alright, let’s get him to the van,” Rome says as he hoists him over his shoulder and starts to stride from the room.

I pull out my phone as we leave; there’s no need to check the bodies in here, they’re all obviously dead, and we’ve got a massive cleanup to do once Daniel is where he’s supposed to be.

Seeing a confirmation text from Alaric, I call out after the others, “From my count, there are three of the security members that are unconscious, not dead. My contact said to bring them along with Daniel. There’s also a room full of staff on the first floor that need to be told it’s safe to come out.”

“Alright, Rip, can you carry anyone?” Rome asks.

“Yeah, I should be fine. I just landed funny, that’s all. It’s nothing serious,” he replies, shaking out his leg.

“Great, you grab one. Ace, you go with Jynx since you can't lift anyone and tell the staff what’s going on. Maybe see if they want to take a paid vacation, like the staff at the other houses. Mason, Mal, and Malory, you three find anyone else who has been cable tied, and we’ll get them into the van.”

“Mase and Malory can do that, and I’ll go and grab the van so we don’t have to carry them so far, especially since we don’t have enough of Demelza’s poison to knock the others out as well,” Malachi suggests.

“Good idea, this fucker is heavy, and I don’t want to carry him all the way down to the van, especially since I’ve got to get him over the gate,” Rome replies with a frown as Mase and Malory head in one direction and the rest of us head for the stairs.

I chuckle, and everyone looks at me curiously, and a little bit like I’ve lost it, so I quickly explain why I’m laughing, “I’m sorry, it’s just I got this sudden image of you shot putting Daniel over the gate, as unlike as that would be and it made me chuckle.”

Rome smirks, “Yeah, I can see why that would make you laugh. Fortunately, we can just open the gate now that Daniel has been dealt with; there’s no need to shotput anyone.”

“I love how weird you are,” Rip chuckles.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment even though I could take offense to it,” I smirk, and when Rip’s eyes widen when he realises how easily I could’ve taken offense, my smirk turns into a laugh while I pat his chest, “don’t worry, I’m really not offended, as far as I’m concerned it’s far better to be weird than normal.”

“Agreed,” Rip smiles, grabbing my hand and kissing it as we get to the bottom of the stairs.

Rip and Rome stay by the door with Daniel as Ace, and I head further into the house, and Mason goes down to grab the van, opening the gates before he goes down.

“Are you okay?” I ask Ace; now we’re alone and sounding concerned.

He smiles, at the concern in my expression, “Yeah, it’s just bruised. I’ve had enough broken ribs to know that it isn’t broken.”

“Good.”

“Do you think these staff members are going to be okay with us? Did any of them give you any bad vibes?” He asks as we head down the corridor.

I shake my head, “I only spoke with them for a few minutes, but I don’t think so. I think if they were on Daniel’s side, they would’ve done something when I went in alone. There were plenty of them, and they could’ve easily overpowered me if they wanted to.”

He nods as we push open the door and find the scared staff staring at us in fear, specifically Ace.

Stepping forward, while Ace wisely stays by the door, I say, “It’s safe. Everyone has been taken care of although, as you are most likely aware, there is a clean-up to be done. You are all welcome to either leave permanently if you wish, and if you would still like to be employed here, then you are being sent on paid vacation for at least the next two weeks. We will be in contact with you when you can return.”

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