Charity's Passion (27 page)

"
Fuck
! I was afraid of this," Justin growls. "Has he said anything?"

"He's asking Franco if he fucked with him. It doesn't sound good. Something's tipping him off I think," Garrett tells us.

"Stay on him," Justin says. "I think he's about to move. Lena, can you get out by them on foot?"

"Yeah, I think so," she answers.

"Malcolm, stay with John."

"Affirmative," he replies swiftly.

"What happened?" I ask, following Justin out of the room into the hall in a huge hurry.

"The dead guy back at the theater," Justin says over his shoulder, "he's supposed to be checking in with Marker right now and it isn't happening."

Shit!

"Garrett, status?" Justin barks as we get in an elevator.

"Franco's scared, but he's holding to the script. Marker's isn't buying it. We've got seconds maybe."

"Lena?" Justin asks.

"Almost there."

"Garrett, put the wire back on the headset! I need ears in there."

The floors were zipping by nicely, but we've just stopped on the second floor and some old couple smiles at us as they step in with us.
Really?

Garrett gets the wire against his earpiece.

"—haven't done a thing!" Franco is pleading.

"Then where is my guy?" Marker growls. "He hasn't missed a single check in until now."

"He's got a gun on Franco's head," Lena announces, obviously she's gotten close enough to see them.

We're about to lose Franco. We all know it, and my heart is breaking all over for Emma.

The elevator opens and we practically knock the old couple over getting around them.

"Ten more seconds, Franco, then I'm putting a hole in you if you don't tell me what the fuck you did!"

Justin and I make it to the front of the hotel. I see the car as Franco sees me through the windows.

It's heartbreaking, but I see Franco smile in relief. He knows, just by seeing me, he knows that his daughter is safe, and that's all that matters to him.

Marker sees him smile too.

There's a silencer
pop
. We hear it over our earpieces only.

"Franco's down!" Lena shouts.

Marker shot him in the head right in the street.

"MOVE IN!" Justin shouts.

Marker can sense the trap. Without seeing us he still knows we are here. He jumps out of Franco's car and leaves him carelessly slumped against the door.

Justin and I are the closest, but we can't take a shot through the hotel windows; this is messy enough now as it is. We leave him and head for the doors.

That makes Lena the first to react. She rushes at him, prepared to kill him quietly with her bare hands apparently, not removing her weapon on the busy street. For a moment she has an advantage when Marker puts his back to her to get away from the hotel, but as soon she gets closer he glances behind himself, checking the blind spot.

He knows exactly who she is when he sees her. Just as we are emerging out onto the street, Marker raises his gun and fires at Lena.

Thankfully, she was already ducking toward the street. Marker's bullet
THUNKS
into the side of a taxi. The silencer on his gun is almost pointless now; people see him with his arm raised and begin running away screaming, most of them don't even know why—they just run.

He tries to use the moving crowd to his advantage, inseminating himself in with them, but he's running straight toward Garrett without knowing it.

"I got him," Garrett says.

We reach Lena as she climbs out from between the cars and the three of us are running together. Ahead of us, as the crowds thins, we can see Marker's back. It's the closest Justin has been to him since Marker shot him in the neck and I can feel the bloodlust radiating from beside me.

Garrett has done a better job blending in. Marker is just steps away and hasn't seen him yet.

He cocks his fist back, his whole body is into it like the trained fighter he is.

Just as he unloads, Marker finally notices the one person not moving. He raises his gun, but not to shoot—it's too late for that—he simply blocking his face from certain destruction.

Garrett's blow grazes off Marker's forearm. Even with its force reduced, it connects with Marker's lower face.

Teeth burst from his mangled lips and his whole body changes direction midair.

It's not the first time Marker has been hit, though, and he manages to catch his balance the second his feet touch the earth.

"DOWN!" Justin screams, seeing Marker's gun beginning to move.

He can't risk a shot into the people still trying to flee for their lives, so Justin dumps one straight up into the sky.

The thunderous
BOOM
gets everyone's attention, giving Garrett time to makes an evasive move, pulling his own weapon as he dives to the side of the building.

Both Garrett and Marker take close range shots at each other as we close in. Garrett gets hit in the face and rolls away with his hand on his wound.

My stomach drops!

Lena opens fire, no longer caring about the crowd, and Marker has to dive between cars this time.

No one gets hit. I don't know if that is luck or Lena's skill.

Marker pops right back up and unloads some cover fire at us. Justin pushes Lena and I down and falls on top of us.

When the soft popping stops, we get up carefully. We see Marker running on the other side of the street and—thank fucking Christ—Garrett trying to stand. We run to him almost blindly.

"I'm okay," he shouts angrily, pissed that Marker is managing to slip away. "Fucking get him!” He yells.

"Lena, track him!" Justin orders. There's no hesitation; Lena leaves us.

"Move your hand!" I tell Garrett. There's blood seeping through his fingers from his face.

He removes his hand. "It's just cement shrapnel off the building. The bullet hit the bricks right by my head."

His face has several tiny holes in the cheek and some scrapes that look more like burns, that's it. The bleeding isn't even as bad as we thought, it's just smeared. He flips the bottom of his shirt inside out and stretches it to his face, wiping the blood and ignoring the pain I know it causes.

"Lena, Garret's fine. Where are you?" Justin asks into the headset, not wasting another second.

If we lose Marker now, he gets the advantage back.

"Fifty Sixth and dropping," she answers.

"Don't lose him! We're right behind you," Garrett orders, proving that he's lost nothing in this fight.

Garrett leaves his car behind and runs on foot with us. In the city, you can't chase anyone on foot with a car.

"Fifty Fifth!" Lena says.

We're only two blocks away, but we're not gaining.

Sometime soon, Marker will have to make a change. He can't just run forever knowing we will not stop chasing. At some point he's going to make a last stand.

We all will.

"We turned East on Fifty Fourth," Lena says. We can hear her breathing heavy from the pace Marker is keeping. I'm sure she can hear us as well.

Marker has to be getting tired.

"He went inside," Lena says.

"Inside what?" Justin barks. "Which building?"

"The parking garage."

There's going to be a lot of places to hide in there, cars, dark corners. It's a good place to catch your breath. It's also a good place to steal a car.

For some reason Justin is smiling. "Stay at the door. Wait for us," he demands.

Moments later we catch up to Lena. We're breathing much harder than she is, but she's had a minute to rest.

"He went in here," she says. "Nothing's come out."

Justin is still smiling and my curiosity is growing. "Clear the doorway and let’s get inside."

Garrett and Lena test the entrance and everything is clear so we walk inside.

Instantly, Justin turns into JP. He marches strait to the guard booth and taps on the window. The man inside looks up annoyed, but quickly turns white.

"Sorry Mr. Collins. I didn't know you were here."

Are you fucking kidding me?

"Lock it down!" Justin orders. "Tell the attendants no one in or out until I say."

The heavy garage door begins to roll toward the ground behind us and a set of tire spikes flips up about ten feet inside the doorway.

This was a big mistake for Marker, and that's why Justin was smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

Panther owns this parking garage.

Our last stand will be here. At least one person is not walking out of this place alive.

"A man ran in here before us," Justin says. "What floor did he go to, did you see?"

"Last camera I saw him in was on two," the guard tells him.

"Lena—take the monitors please." Justin looks at the guard. "How many attendants are here?"

"Just one on this shift; most traffic is exiting," he answers nervously, crumbling under the fear of JP.

"Send him to the ramp between two and three. Tell him to radio you the second he sees anything move, and if he does, you tell her." Justin points at Lena as she climbs into the booth with the guard so she can see the security monitors.

At the ramp up to the second floor, Justin orders Garrett to take position. We have Marker boxed in. The only way to get out of here is through someone.

"Stay right by my side," Justin demands.

"Justin, it's faster if we each take a side of the room. It doesn't make sense—"

"You're right," he says, interrupting me, "but I don't care! We haven't separated once for this, and I'm not letting it happen now. I want you safe above anything else."

As soon as we move, Marker takes a shot at us. It pings off a wall uselessly.

Justin looks to see where it came from, but he sees the same thing I do—nothing! He looks at me and I shake my head.

"You'll forgive me later," I say to him suddenly, making a move none of them expect.

He turns white as I leap out into the parking area and dive to the cars on the right.

Two bullets whip by uselessly, but by then I am hidden again.

"What the fuck!" Justin is growling angrily. "I told you to stay with me!"

"Something you need to understand now, Justin; you're going to be my husband for the rest of my life, but you're never going to be my master."

There's a chuckle over the earpiece. "That's why I fucking love you," Lena says.

"On three, I'm going to stand up and give us some suppressive fire. You can stay right there, or you can move up with me," I tell him. "One. Two. Three!"

I stood on three as promised and fire randomly in the direction I was shot at from. I move about six cars up before ducking behind a white Corolla. When I look back, Justin is not where I left him. I'm not sure where he is, but I know he's with me.

"Ready again?" I ask.

"Yes, do it," Justin says.

I'm up and firing. Marker takes a careful shot, not wanting to give up his position. He knows that the closer I get, somewhere on the other side Justin is moving too. I empty my Sig and drop down about five cars further up to reload.

"Guys, we had movement seven spaces up. The red Toyota," Lena says.

"I see it," I tell them. "You ready yet?"

"Ready," Justin says.

I pop off a few more rounds until I'm am only one car away from the Toyota. As I drop to one knee I see Marker stand and aim at my face. Thankfully I'm below the car before the bullet whizzes by a few inches above my head.

"Fucking bitch!" I hear him snap.

I look under the car and see his feet behind the Toyota, and take two shots at them. I miss with both of them but it danced him out into the open space behind the cars.

Marker fires back in frustration over my head, then I hear another shot, this one with no silencer. The
CRACK
bounces around the jagged, hard-walled space viciously as Marker curses in pain.

I stand up and find Justin behind Marker, emerging from between a row of cars.

Marker is switching his aim towards Justin. I see his hand as if it's in slow motion.

I aim my Sig and pull the trigger. The back of Brian Marker's elbow explodes and his gun flies out if his useless hand. It hits the cement floor and skids along its side away from him.

Marker falls to his knees.

Justin and I can see each other now. The months of worry and stress rush up for revenge.

We've hoped for this moment.

Both of us step out around the cars and begin firing. His body wiggles and twists as holes open up on both sides of him. He falls to one side, but we keep firing as we release all that we've been holding on to, all that torturous apprehension that we might lose each other.