‘Let them go,’ Ryker said.
‘Excuse me?’ Aziz responded, his face turning sour in a flash. Then his eyes rested on Ryker’s hand. The knife stuck into Vaz’s side.
‘Renal artery?’ Layla asked, no emotion in her voice.
‘I see you’re a man of action, James Ryker,’ Aziz said. ‘But are you willing to execute my friend to make your point?’
Ryker didn’t answer.
‘That would make you no better than me.’
‘I never said I was a good person.’
Aziz laughed. ‘What a tough guy. I have to admit though, I am still confused why you’re here at all.’ He turned to the bound Monique, next to the similarly tied-up Bruno and Anna. ‘What you’re doing working with this woman.’
One of the two men by the doorway twitched and Ryker twisted that way a little. Vaz groaned as the knife dug a little deeper. The move was enough to halt whatever attack the man had thought about. For now. Apparently, he cared more for Vaz than the boss did.
‘You see, the reason for me being here is simple,’ Aziz said.
Ryker waited for the explanation he expected to come but Aziz went silent.
‘Layla, please untie that one,’ Aziz said, pointing to Anna.
Layla moved over and worked on the ropes behind Anna, who moaned as she stared at Ryker. Or perhaps she tried to say something, but couldn’t with the gag in her mouth.
Layla pulled Anna to her feet.
‘Give her something useful.’
Layla nodded and moved to the pristine, gleaming, dark-wood dining table. Shimmery metallic objects lay on the wood, but not the expensive silverware usually expected on the plush furniture. Layla picked up a meat cleaver and walked back to Anna who stood resolutely. Would she try to fight back? Surely there was an opportunity here. Anna was no slouch. But something about the supreme confidence of Aziz…
‘Take it,’ Aziz said to her.
‘Don’t do this again,’ Ryker said.
‘Do what?’ Aziz replied, still looking at Anna and Layla. Then he turned to Ryker. ‘This is what I have to do.’
‘Revenge,’ Ryker said, trying to buy time. For what? Aziz raised an eyebrow. ‘The simple reason you’re here is revenge.’
Aziz didn’t respond.
‘I understand now. Monique had your people killed. Didier Lenglet. Ramiz Touba.’
‘She also organized that raid at my offices which not only saw people I employ killed but me put behind bars.’ Aziz spoke with genuine bitterness. ‘And you left me there, in that parking garage. Which is why I’m coming for you and your boy too. So thank you for helping me in that regard. But Ms Thibaud should have realized… She might have had the power to get me arrested, but she doesn’t run Lyon. I do. This will be her one and only lesson.’
Aziz turned to look at Anna.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked her. Layla took the gag out of her mouth.
‘Anna.’
‘And your friend there?’
‘Bruno.’
Aziz laughed, though didn’t explain to anyone why.
‘Take that cleaver. Hit Bruno. Again. And again. Keep going. Until I tell you to stop.’
Bruno squirmed and moaned. Monique shook on her chair, squeezed her eyes shut.
Anna didn’t move. Layla took out a handgun and pushed the barrel to Anna’s temple.
Ryker, in the same position, would attack from there. Why didn’t Anna?
She took the cleaver in her shaking hand.
‘Don’t,’ Ryker said.
Anna caught his eye. Then she shook her head.
‘Wait!’ Ryker shouted. Vaz writhed at the interruption and Ryker twisted the knife a little. The two men by the doorway both flinched, ready to pounce… But stayed put. He had everyone’s attention. But what next? ‘I didn’t tell you why I’m here.’
Aziz groaned and looked back at Ryker, exasperated. Ryker didn’t have much time.
‘I’m here because I was looking for Sophie Thibaud. I wanted to find her and I wanted to find out who murdered her family.’ He looked at Monique. ‘She did. Monique Thibaud organized the killings of her own family members. Lenglet and Touba pulled the triggers that night, but she pulled the strings. That’s why I’m here. To find out why. To find her niece. And to have her punished.’ Aziz nodded, as if in agreement. ‘But the right way. You want Monique Thibaud to suffer? Let’s see her in prison for the rest of her life. Her family name forever tarnished. Her wealth gone to waste.’
Monique moaned, her imploring eyes staring at Ryker. Aziz’s face screwed up, like he had a mouthful of razor blades. He turned away from Ryker.
‘Anna, do what I told you to. Now.’
Anna found Ryker’s gaze once more. She looked at him pleadingly…
What could he do?
Boom.
The gunshot echoed. Time slowed for Ryker. He watched Anna’s body crumple as the spatter of blood and brain and skull erupted out of the side of her head. Wispy smoke rose up from the barrel of Layla’s gun.
Nothing else for it. Ryker yanked the knife out of Vaz’s side then sank it straight back into him. Once. Twice. A quick end. He turned as one of the men by the door opened fire. The bullets hit Vaz in the chest. Ryker ducked down and propelled the dead man away from him, right into the other two, then leaped forward as Layla opened fire.
The bullets raked the wall by him. He reached out and grabbed the head of the first man he got to and smashed his skull against the stone wall. The impact was horrific, and as he let go a smear of blood and hair streaked down the paintwork.
Ryker spun and lunged, took out the next man below the knees, and as his gun came free his body somersaulted and he landed on his head with a crack. Broken spine? If not, he was certainly out of action for this fight.
Ryker, crouched low still, reached for the gun in front of him.
‘Uh-uh,’ Layla said.
She stood two yards away. Her gun pointed at Ryker’s head. He slowly brought his hand away from the weapon on the floor.
‘You are really fucking annoying, do you know that?’ Aziz spat, still seated in his chair as though the death and chaos around him was nothing but an irritating inconvenience.
Layla circled Ryker. She kicked the gun from his reach.
‘On your feet,’ Aziz said.
Ryker slowly rose up.
‘Now move to the table.’
Ryker did so. Well, why wouldn’t he? That’s where the array of weapons lay.
‘Take the cleaver.’
The cleaver which lay on the floor just beyond Anna’s lifeless hand.
Ryker bent down and took the weapon, though winced as he did so. The pain in his injured shoulder was worsening, not to mention his head wound. He’d tried to ignore it, tried to not let the weakness show, but as he straightened up again he saw the look in both Layla’s and Aziz’s eyes.
Layla moved behind Ryker. He glanced over his shoulder to see her lift a carving knife from the table.
‘Do it,’ Aziz said to Ryker. ‘Do to Bruno what Anna couldn’t.’
‘No,’ Ryker said. He didn’t even have to think about it.
‘There won’t be a bullet to your head, my friend.’
‘You think you scare me?’
‘Have you any idea what I can do to a man?’
‘Not much, I think. You get your minions to do your dirty work for you.’
Aziz jumped up from his seat, his face reddening, as though about ready to launch himself forward.
Did he have it in him?
Movement behind Ryker. He spun. Too late. Layla drove the knife into Ryker’s already injured shoulder. He shouted in pain, creased over. Dropped the cleaver. Layla darted back out of range, her movements lightning quick and light-footed, like an Olympic fencer.
‘I could show you,’ Aziz said. ‘If I really wanted to. But you know what? I prefer to watch. Now do what I asked.’
‘No,’ Ryker said.
Layla came at him again. Ryker tried his best to defend but she was too quick. The blade glanced across Ryker’s bicep. Not a bad blow, but yet another that took a little bit of his strength and resolve and focus.
‘She’ll do this to you all night long,’ Aziz said.
‘She’ll have to.’
Layla moved again. Ryker was ready this time… But then… The attack never came. She feinted and ducked away, back out of reach as she stared at her master.
Aziz turned to the doorway. Ryker hadn’t heard anything out there. But they both had. Earpieces?
Sure enough, moments later, footsteps. Ryker tensed. He looked over at the tools on the table. Could he get one?
A woman strode into the room, assault rifle held in both hands. Where the hell had she come from? Ryker tried to show no reaction to the next people he saw.
Henrik, his shoulders sunken, his eye swollen nearly shut, and he was limping badly. With him, the girl from the bar. Ella, he thought Henrik had said she was called. Sophie Thibaud came next, and a young man Ryker didn’t recognize – Michel Lemerre? The two young women cuddled and cowered. The young man kept his head bowed. Blood streamed down his head and neck from a wound somewhere in his hairline.
Behind them, another of Aziz’s crew came into view. A shotgun in his hands. He remained standing in the doorway.
Aziz burst out laughing.
‘This night just gets better and better. Who do you people think you are?’
Aziz moved toward the four, looking over them in turn. Henrik caught Ryker’s eye. He looked… defeated. What had happened?
‘I know you,’ Aziz said, standing in front of Henrik. ‘So, as with your dad, this saves me the trouble of hunting you down later.’ He moved on, past the other three. ‘But I don’t know any of you.’
‘They’re all kids,’ Ryker said.
Monique’s moaning returned and Aziz looked at her and then back at Sophie.
‘Ah, yes. I see the resemblance. She’s a Thibaud. But these two?’ He looked at Ella and Michel. ‘Just kill them so we can keep this moving.’
The man with the shotgun stepped up behind Ella.
Ryker spun and stooped and grabbed the cleaver from the floor and flung it at Layla. The blade rotated at speed as it headed for her. Ryker didn’t wait to see where it hit. Instead, he darted the other way.
He grabbed the woman with the assault rifle. Henrik turned and lunged for the man with the shotgun. He fired. No hit. Ryker twisted the woman’s arm and threw her to the floor and kept on twisting until her arm snapped and she screamed and released her grip on the weapon.
Ryker took hold of the rifle but then he cried in pain when Layla dove at him and sank the knife into his side. Aiming for the renal artery, like he had with Vaz? She missed the sweet spot, but she did enough to cause Ryker to drop the rifle.
Layla darted off to apparent safety, but the shotgun went off again. Whether a deliberate aim or not, a series of holes opened up along Layla’s back and she collapsed to the floor. An unexpected end to an accomplished fighter.
Bruno moaned at the same time – had he been hit by a wayward shot from the blast?
Ryker looked back at Henrik who wrestled with the shotgun man still. So too, did Sophie and Ella, clawing at his back. Michel was on the ground. Not dead, but certainly groggy from something.
Aziz…
Going straight for Ryker.
Ryker sank down, balled his fist, and sprung up like a jack-in-the-box. He caught Aziz under the chin with a sweet uppercut. Aziz flew back and landed in a heap.
Ryker looked to his left. Sophie had a gun in her hands.
Bang.
Chest shot. The man with the shotgun collapsed to the ground.
A strange silence took over in the room.
Subdued. Relieved. Horrified.
Henrik hugged Ella. Sophie kept hold of the handgun as she reached out and helped Michel to his feet.
Across the other side of the room, Aziz stood up, propping himself by the fireplace. All alone now. Unarmed too.
Layla was unmoving but Ryker moved over to check on her. He’d take no chances with someone like her. He moved her onto her back. Alive. But only just. A punctured lung, perhaps two. Ryker could tell by the horrible wheeze with each pained breath.
Monique Thibaud stared on, her wide eyes like snooker balls. Bruno’s head was bowed but he was breathing still.
Ryker heaved a sigh then moved over to the chairs.
‘Make sure he goes nowhere,’ he said to the youngsters, indicating the groggy Aziz.
Ryker kneeled down and untied Bruno first. He remained in his seat. He was badly injured, but he’d survive if they got him to a doctor quickly enough. Did he deserve that?
Monique Thibaud, somehow, remained unscathed.
Ryker moved to her, was about to loosen her ties, when Henrik spoke.
‘Leave her.’
Ryker looked up.
‘She killed my family,’ Sophie said, looking on the verge of tears.
Ryker looked from Henrik to Sophie to Michel to Ella.
Aziz laughed. Ryker straightened up.
‘Interesting,’ he said.
‘What is?’ Michel said as he stepped closer to the table. Henrik and Ella huddled together. ‘She’s a killer.’
‘Really? Only, I heard you were responsible,’ Ryker said to Michel.
The young man scoffed.
‘After all, it was you who knew Didier Lenglet, wasn’t it?’
Monique moaned on the chair. Ryker got on with loosening her ties.
‘Don’t,’ Michel said.
Ryker ignored him.
‘You can’t let her go!’ Sophie shouted. ‘Please!’
Monique’s hands were loose, but Ryker left the gag in her mouth and put his hand on her shoulder to keep her seated.
‘Well, this is exciting,’ Aziz said. Ryker wished he’d kept his mouth shut. ‘I thought you already said Monique Thibaud was a killer? That she wanted her niece dead. That you wanted her to pay.’
‘I said what I had to say to delay you,’ Ryker said.
‘Will somebody please explain what’s going on!’ Henrik shouted, drawing everyone’s attention.
‘Despite what more than one person has told me, your aunt didn’t have your family killed,’ Ryker said to Sophie. ‘But, I’m pretty sure you know that already.’
‘Yes, she did!’ Sophie shrieked, looking rattled. ‘All she’s ever wanted was my family’s money! She would have killed me too! It’s why I had to run.’
‘You’re partly right. All she’s ever wanted is power, money, an unblemished reputation, and she’ll go to lengths for all of those. But she didn’t have your family killed. She didn’t need to.’
‘She hated my mom,’ Sophie said. ‘She had to kill her—’
‘Because of the dam project? No. You see, your mom’s protest was already dealt with. Maybe you didn’t realize that. That there were other shady characters involved there. They were the real threats to Monique not getting what she wanted.’
‘Ryker,’ Henrik said. ‘What are you—’
‘You two did it,’ Ryker said, looking from Sophie to Michel.
No confirmation, no denial, because the next second Aziz made a move. Desperation or had he spotted an opportunity?
Bang.
He shouldn’t have bothered. Aziz’s body slipped down the marble and to the floor, a hole above his left eye oozing blood.
Sophie whipped the gun from him to Ryker, but Ryker was already moving. Michel grabbed a filleting knife from the table, a snarl on his face as he went for Ryker, but he hadn’t betted on Bruno who stuck a leg out and Michel went stumbling.
Sophie opened fire. Missed Ryker. Henrik and Ella didn’t move – frozen in confusion or fear?
Michel, determination on his face, drove the thin blade into the back of Bruno’s neck. With little effort several inches of metal disappeared and Bruno’s body quivered. He pulled the knife out.
Ryker was almost on him.
‘Don’t move.’
Sophie. She held the gun to her aunt’s head.
Michel laughed. A horribly callous laugh as he wiped the bloody blade clean on Bruno’s shoulder.
‘I don’t understand,’ Ella said, sounding on the verge of tears.
‘That’s because you’re a fool, Ella,’ Sophie crowed, glancing at her friend.
‘I understand,’ Henrik said. ‘Michel was the second killer. With Didier Lenglet. I knew it. But…’
‘But you didn’t exactly take a lot of persuading otherwise,’ Michel said with a laugh.
‘For the money?’ Ella asked. ‘Is that all it was, Sophie? Your parents’ money?’
‘No,’ Ryker said. ‘I don’t think so. I think it’s because they wanted to.’
‘Actually, I’d say it’s because of love,’ Sophie said, gazing at Michel.
‘Did you have to pretend?’ Henrik asked Sophie, sounding disgusted. ‘The night your family was killed, did you pretend you were scared?’
‘I was scared,’ Sophie said.
‘But we did what we had to do,’ Michel said.
Enough. Ryker didn’t really care for the explanation anymore. He launched himself for Sophie. Would she really blast a hole in her aunt’s head? Maybe. But there was enough doubt with Ryker descending. She tried to aim at Ryker but he slammed into her and took her from her feet and crashed her back into the table. Her lower back folded painfully and the gun clattered free and she slid to the floor – out of the fight for sure.
Ryker turned as Michel lunged with the knife.
‘Henrik, no!’ Ryker shouted. But Henrik didn’t listen. He dove in and swung a fist to the side of Michel’s head. Michel slashed at him and a gash opened up in the belly of Henrik’s coat and he stumbled back. Michel wound up for a killer blow…
Ryker grabbed Michel’s knife hand. His other hand took the young man around the neck. He hauled Michel from his feet. Let go of the knife hand. Took hold of Michel under his armpit and threw him into the wall. His back cracked off the stone and he collapsed to the floor. Ryker crouched down. Twisted Michel’s arm. Not much effort needed before the knife came free. Then he elbowed Michel in the face and his head lolled.
Ryker got back to his feet and looked across the room. Absolute carnage. About the biggest mess he could recall seeing in a single room.
‘You okay?’ Ryker said to Henrik, who was on the floor, panting, being comforted by Ella.
‘I’ve had worse.’
An unfortunate statement for a fifteen-year-old.
‘Any more surprises?’ Henrik asked.
‘I fucking hope not,’ Ella said.
Ryker forgave her the profanity. He fished a phone from Michel’s pocket, used the fallen man’s thumb to unlock it, then called the police.