Bulletproof (#1) ✔

38. Tyler

"Assurance," Carl says.

"For what?" I frown as Carl moves around and suddenly there's a bat in his hand. I see him raise it before it swings out of sight and a spasm of pain shoots up my arm. I can't help the strangled yell that comes out as I fall to the floor, my head at Carl's feet.

"Assurance that you'll be cooperative."

I groan and roll over, away from him. I press my cheek to the floor of the boxing ring and suck in a large breath.

"Come on, Tyler," he says tauntingly. "There's much more that's going to happen tonight. I need you to be awake for it!"

I hear the swoosh of the bat again and my entire body tenses up noticeably. Carl lets out a manic cackle and the bat drops to the floor as he claps his hands together.

"I'm sorry, Ty," he says softly. "Did the bat scare you?"

I turn my head and press my palms against the floor to lift myself up. "What are you gonna do?"

Carl smiles as he crouches down. "There's no fun if there are no surprises."

He stands up, eyes searching the tense crowd of people. He kicks the bat and it goes skidding towards the ropes surrounding the ring.

"I know," Carl says. "How about we all play a game. For every grand I've lost, one of you loses your life."

My eyes widen and I shove myself up onto my side, hand keeping my upper body up. "Carl, stop."

"Which one should go first?" Carl hums as he brings a gun from his jacket pocket.

It's then I see the men standing at the two sets of doors that lead out of the room, holding everything out and everyone in. I hear the safety click of Carl's gun and my eyes snap over to Franny.

'Look at me', I mouth to her over and over again.

Her eyes stay stuck on mine and I see her knuckles turn white from where they're gripping the bottom of her shirt. I see Carl circle around beside me and I know Franny can see him too, circling and circling. Then there's a gunshot.

It's the sound of a body falling to the floor that I hear the most though. I don't look over to see who it is, but I know it's someone I was friendly with, someone who would have stuck with me. Carl will never kill his loyalists without a good enough reason.

"One thousand," Carl mutters.

Another gunshot.

"Two thousand."

Another body.

"Three thousand."

Franny's body shakes and her eye twitches, becoming moist, but she just grips her shirt tighter and sucks in a breath.

Four thousand. Five thousand.

"Six thousand." Carl smiles and slides his gun away.

Six dead bodies. My eyes flicker away from Franny's and I look at the crumpled bodies on the floor, trying not to throw up. Carl's shoes come up towards me before his body shifts down, crouching in front of me.

"You should never fuck with things you don't understand," he hisses quietly and then suddenly smiles. "Come on, get up."

He roughly helps me get up from the floor, arm gripping the part of my arm where he hit me. I scrunch up my face to stop myself from crying out in pain.

"That's better," Carl says. "Now, how about one last fight, for old time's sake?"

I begin to shake my head, but Carl grips my arm tighter until I nod.