It was like something from a movie. The way we'd pulled up to a spot not too far from the house but far enough away that we wouldn't be seen. Kitted up with earpieces and more guns than I knew what to do with.
20 of us in total. 13 of the people stood here were my immediate family. All of them staring at me like I was insane for coming along, like I wasn't going to be able to manage it and they were going to have an extra thing to be watching. Isla, Lili, Keira, Libby and Wren did this often. They knew about this kind of thing but they skipped it. There was enough hands and someone needed to keep an eye on the cameras to see what was happening, be on hand for first aid and whatever else they needed. Mum, Lili and Wren were sat in the drivers sides of these cars, ready for whatever they were told to do. Everyone had their own specific jobs.
Mine and Leo's was get Alara and get out of there unharmed, to The Box where we were to stay. The others were set to sort everything else. Zane, Elizabeth, Zara and whoever else was in there. They'd been shown pictures of Zane and his family and knew all too well that the 3 of them were to be alive. Though I knew the boys wanted to rip him limb from limb, I needed to do that myself.
We moved quietly, the CCTV being shut off only on the cameras we needed and only when we needed them. A second earlier and they'd know we were here. I was trying not to think about the fact there was going to be an awful lot of blood as we did this. The earpieces will cut out most of the bangs, Leo had tried to assure me in the drive over but telling me what to expect was making it worse. I was thinking only of Alara right now. Get her, get her out, get her safe. Everything else could wait.
Leo's hold on my hand tightened and I looked up at him, shaking with nerves.
"Ready?" He whispered. I breathed in and nodded. "Remember what I said Rey-"
"Stay close."
"Don't drop my hand."
"If things go bad, get out." I had no intention on leaving this house with them both. Leo laid a soft kiss on my forehead, doing his very best to hide what I knew was his version of anxiety. Jules was in our ears, making sure everyone knew the plan, where they needed to be and that everyone was in place.
The very second she said go, glass shattered and alarms began blaring, Leo dragged me in through the kitchen patio doors he'd smashed. The closest to the cellar we could possibly get. Lights flashed up the stairs and the first few gun shots were fired but so far, we were in the clear. Leo pulled his trigger on the door lock. Something he hadn't done when he came for me, this time around, every second counted. Down the dimly lit stairs, Leo held me against the wall, leaning around the corner to take out the now, wide awake guards as they struggled to arm themselves.
"Okay come on." He pulled me, running down the hall as he checked the pockets of the groaning men for the keys.
"ALARA." I listened carefully. Come on Lar anything. There's 3 fucking rooms. Think Rey. If you were Zane which would you put her in. Which was I in? A whimper had my eyes doubling. The end. I grabbed the keys from Leo, numbered keys, make it a little easier Zane. I turned the keys, pulling the door open as my heart pounded in my chest. "Lar. Babe it's me. Come on."
"Freya?" She turned her head and I moved over, pulling the sleeve of her night gown up from where it had slipped, taking off the blindfold he'd had over her. She sobbed and I wrapped her in a tight hug. "What's going on? Why-"
"Did he hurt you Lar?" I pulled back, squinting as Leo flicked the light on.
"Rey we don't have time babe."
"Alara I need you to stand up babe." I looked over her. Minor bruising across her wrists and a fresh slap mark across her face, the same ring print I'd had bruised into my cheek sat on hers and I knew instantly he'd hit her. "Okay, I need you to be completely honest Lar. Just me and you okay?" She looked at me, tears streaming down her face. "Did he rape you Lar?" She shook her head. Thank. Fucking. God. "Just the slaps?" A nod. "No cuts?"
"N-no."
"Okay. Listen, take my hand and do not let go okay. It's loud but you're okay. Leo's gonna get us out. I've got so much to tell you." Leo groaned, pulling his trigger.
"Stay there Rey." Alara clung to my hand. I had her. We're okay. We're going to be okay. "Okay, come on. Stay close." Leo grabbed the hand holding my gun, pulling us out of the cell and into the corridor littered with empty rooms.
"Leaving so soon?" We turned. How the fuck- The click of a gun and I didn't even need to turn my head to know it was pointed at me. Leo tugged my hand as he turned his head. Caught in 2 lines of fire he 100% could not watch the open door way where people were trying to come down and the gun now pointed at my head by my psychotic ex-boyfriend. "It's a shame Alara, I had a lot planned for you."
"Shut the fuck up Zane."
"Honey, I'm the one pointing a gun at your head, I wouldn't recommend the back chat right now." I pulled my wrist out of Leo's grasp, pointing the preloaded gun back at him.
"Snap."
"What the fuc-" I squeezed Alara's hand. So much to tell her. She was going to lose her mind about me and Leo.
"Where's Vance Freya?"
"Same place you're going to be Zane, put the gun down and I'll be sure to have you both reunited." He wrinkled his nose, an evil snarl, like a wolf warning me to back off from its first meal in weeks. "Though it won't be like a movie scene where you run into each other's arms. He's in and out of consciousness right now. They did stop the bleeding but I can imagine the 2 gun shots in his leg are a little painful for even Vance to handle."
"I swear to god-"
"Gun. Down." I repeated but he didn't move. "I told you you're fucking with the wrong girl now Zane." He moved the gun from me, to Alara. "I don't think you're going to make that mistake." One shot behind me and I snapped my head back to Leo, his hand gripping my hip tighter than he ever had. Oh no. Oh no no no no no. "Leo?" I spun my gun around, pulling the trigger and fighting the shockwave as I sent a bullet straight through the man skull. Please tell me he saw that. Leo had to have seen that. Another bang and I turned back to Zane, smile on his face, my arm being pulled to the ground.
"You underestimate me Freya." I let my eyes track down to Alara, blood soaking her pastel blue nightgown. So much blood. A hell of a lot darker than I ever thought blood was. I crumbled. Knees giving way as I dropped my gun beside me, weakly trying to remember what Leo had said about how to stop a bleed to the chest. I looked back up, feeling sick as Zane turned, walking down a corner I didn't even know existed.
"Alara. No no no no no. I just got you. I just got you back." I sucked in a deep breath.
"Rey-"
"L-leo. I- Help. Please. Help. HELP HER." He pulled himself up beside me. I turned to look at him as he tightened a make shift tourniquet around his thigh. "I'm so sorry."
"Shh. I'm okay baby. Talk to her."
"I- I need to stop-"
"Rey. Look at me-" He grabbed my face. "She doesn't have long. Talk to her." I turned to Alara who was ghostly white. I quickly wiped my tears, turning to her with a smile.
"Freya, it hurts."
"I know Lar. I'm so sorry. I'm going to make him pay. I swear. I'll make him hurt so fucking bad for this." She laughed weakly, holding her tremoring hand up to see it coated in blood.
"You know when Juliette gets shot? And Warner helps her? Shame powers aren't real isn't it?"
"You're fucking hilarious." I grabbed her hands. "You're fucking dying on the floor and all you're thinking about is fucking books."
"She ruined the book."
"Shut up Leo." Only Alara could be giving him an attitude right now. "So apparently I'm dying but you have a lot to tell me."
"Okay spark notes-" I sniffed, pulling to get as much of her touching me as possible. "Turns out my family is a fucking mafia, My dad and Zane have a whole thing I don't understand. Pip has been watching Leo since my Mimi taught him in school. Me and Leo had sex. Twice. In the past 20 hours. I've got Vance tied to a chair with 2 stab wounds and a shattered shin from when I shot him twice. And when you- when you go I'm going to hunt Zane down and make him feel the most pain a man has ever felt."
"You're going to make him give birth?"
"He wishes." She smiled weakly. "I love you Lar. You know that right? You're my whole world."
"Ugh, you're so fucking cheesy."
"You're fucking dying in my arms I get to be cheesy." How the hell was she not even terrified right now?
"You know what? I had a good run? I read so many good books, I got my tattoo, I had wild sex, I got wasted, I got kidnapped by a mafia boss, I got shot. Pretty good for a bookish girl huh?"
"You cannot be serious right now?" Her voice was cracking, my tears slipping onto her night gown.
"Plus, I get to haunt this house forever now too. I hope whoever owns it next has a library and I hope I can open books-"
"Lar-"
"Do me a favour bitch, Stop being so stuck in yourself. Go out and do everything. Literally everything. Because so help me god when you get down to hell and I'm sat there in the corner I will be demanding your stories and if you're not at least 104 I, myself, will be sure to torture you forever."
"I don't doubt that for a fucking second. I'll read all the books and replay them for you too."
"Good." She tried to nod but it didn't happen. I could feel her slipping away and my heart was destroyed. Like it was me myself that was beaten and bruised. "I'm glad it was with you Freya. That you were here and I was with you when I died. You tried to get me. I knew you would. And you, knobhead."
"Me?"
"Yes. You hurt her and I swear to wherever I'm being sent-" Her voice was almost completely gone as I sobbed silently. "I will haunt you forever. When you're having sex, I'll make sure to scare the shit out of you no matter where you are." She looked back at me and I wiped a stupid tear from her face, laying a kiss on her forehead. Leo grunted as he grabbed for my gun, footsteps coming down the stairs. "Stop crying Freya. It is what it is. It's not your fault. You're going to be okay. You're going to beat the shit out of that man like a bad ass bitch and avenge me." She croaked. "God my last words can't be that. That was shit. You kept me alive Freya. When everything got so dark last year. You kept me here. You saved my life every day through that shit. I love you. So much." She was barely breathing now and I was starting to get mad that this was it. All of this, for nothing. She was dying, for nothing. And he was getting away.
As Alara took her final breathes in my arms, Leo did his best to console me but I was past sad. If I'd been angry at him last week, this was something else. Leo nodded at me, taking his hands away from her neck. She was gone. Everything I was holding myself together for, was gone.