Questions for Answers

Chapter Twenty Three

She looked him up and down, "Wait, why are you dressed like that? You don't look like security."

"That's beside the point, you shouldn't be here. How old are you? You look young", he said panicked.

She rubbed her arm, "I'm eighteen. And how is that beside the point? Who are you? Why are you dressed like you're SWAT or something? Is everything okay?"

He looked around and then back at her, "Look, I'm begging you to get out of here, alright? I will answer all your questions later, but you shouldn't be here right now. Is this your job or something? I can get you a new one but-"

"No, I can't leave. I came here with my dad", she interrupted.

"Who's your dad? I can keep you and him safe, but you have trust me", he said desperately.

"His name's Elijah", she said unknowingly.

This caused Richard to stumble back, "W-what?"

She then pointed to herself, "And my name's Vivian. He's supposed to be presenting an item and then we were gonna leave after that. Can't it just wait until that happens?"

His heart sank as soon as she said her father's name because he knew that was who he needed to kill. But he never wanted to do any of this in the first place. He wasn't cut out for this kind of life. And now this innocent girl was about to lose her father because of him. He couldn't bear the thought. Even if her father wasn't innocent and just as corrupt as his own, he couldn't go through with it. It was like a switch flipped inside of him and made his mission change. All he wanted to do was save this girl.

Vivian snapped him out of his thoughts, "Uh, I think someone's been trying to talk to you."

"What?" He asked confused.

She pointed to his walkie-talkie that had been hanging on the side of his pants and he finally acknowledged it. Richard didn't realize this, but for the majority of his conversation with Vivian, his father, and some others in their crew were trying to let him know that Elijah was on stage and to detonate the explosives before it was too late. All he heard yelled at him through the device was, "Do it!" There were no more code words, he had a job to do.

As he heard this, he looked back up at Vivian. He held out his hand, "Come on, I gotta get you to a safe pl-"

Loud gunshots from the auditorium interrupted his speech and he knew that it was his fault. She hesitantly grabbed his hand and he helped her through the window he'd entered in from. He followed quickly after and led her to where their trucks were. He helped her get inside the back and got out to close the doors. Before he did, he looked her in the eyes, "Vivian, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. Just stay here and please don't contact the police."

She looked terrified but she nodded her head in agreement. He closed the truck doors on her and sighed in disappointment at himself. He knew that he needed to be a part of this as much as he didn't want to. He thought to himself that if he survived this, he knew he would never hear the end of it from his father. Maybe he could convince him that he ended up getting caught and that's why he couldn't detonate the explosives. But his father wasn't dumb, he knew his son too well.

As he entered through the back doors, he made his way to the auditorium where there was an all-out war between both crews. He looked at the stage and noticed that Elijah was already dead. He sighed and pressed the button to detonate the explosives anyway because at least they wouldn't be able to get away in their cars and if they were hiding in one of the rooms he placed the explosives in, they'd be obliterated.

Elijah's men had prepared for an ambush because they were all in gear as well and were lighting Michael's crew up. Richard positioned himself behind some chairs and engaged in the shooting. As he focused on shooting at Elijah's men, he didn't check his surroundings, so he didn't see one of the men aiming their guns at him. By the time he noticed, he was too late to react. Thankfully, Michael shot the guy, saving Richard's life.