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he next morning, everything seemed to be all over the place. Angela woke up to an empty bed, but the sounds of people moving around and talking in the living room were enough to make her realize that something important was definitely going on. She was quick to change into the new pair of clothes that were left out for her.
As soon as she stepped out in the hallway, her eyes landed on David. He was surrounded by a large group of people around a conference table on the other side of the living room.
David grabbed everyone's attention when he slammed his fist down on the huge conference table, starting to worry that he was a little too late to get Toby back. He was about to yell at May and Anthony about what was taking so long when he heard May's laptop shutting down with a loud thud. She got up and faced Anthony, who stood by the door. She gave him a look and spoke.
“Do you have everything we need?”
David stood up immediately and looked between them; he was confused. He watched Anthony swing a duffle bag full of firearms over his shoulder; he pressed a button, and the door slid open. As they exited the room, May gestured towards Angela and asked if she wanted to come with her; she was quick to nod her head. She looked at David; he seemed better in the morning. He offered her a kind smile, and she knew he was okay.
They entered the warehouse, David spoke, catching up with May and Anthony.
"I don't get it; where are we going?"
May gave him a look as she walked towards the door leading them outside, and she spoke on the way.
"I traced the plates of the car that took the boy and did a little more digging, and I got a different location. It means the old one was a ruse, and we can still save him."
Angela let a breath of relief out; they waited out front as Anthony pulled up with the car, and as soon as they got inside the car, Angela felt David's hand carefully squeezing into hers.
He turned to May and spoke up.
"We don't have blueprints of this place; there's probably going to be a lot of security there; how are we going to go in and out without bringing too much attention to ourselves?"
He heard her laugh out loud as she spoke.
"Honey, we go in guns blazing, and if we don't come out, that's that."
Angela watched as David rolled his eyes; he had forgotten just how reckless the two of them were as he tried to formulate a plan in his mind. It didn't take long, and soon enough, the car came to a stop. They were parked outside an empty apartment building, and they could hear music blaring from the inside; Angela looked up and raised an eyebrow; this did not look like a place the Mafia they were chasing would settle in. May saw the look on her face and shrugged her shoulders as she spoke, pulling out her phone from her pocket.
"Yeah, I know. I was surprised when I got to the location, too, but this is the place. The satellite signal I tracked says we'll find our guy in apartment number 209. You know what that means?"
Anthony nodded his head; he had been through situations like this one too many times before.
"It means each floor is going to be filled with security from top to bottom. The room is probably on the third floor, and by the time we reach there, we'll have lost a limb each at least unless one of you can, you know, telepathically get us up to the third floor."
David spoke.
"I don't know about telepathy, but I think I know a way we can avoid all the attention, and you know the part of the losing limb."
May pulled up blueprints of the building and spoke.
"Okay, so the only way we can get in without too much confrontation is the kitchen. We go in through. There, we grab a set of uniforms and make our way up."
Angela didn't question the plan too much; she knew that time was running out, and they needed to get to Toby fast. They got out of the car, and as they approached the back doors just before they entered, May stopped David in the doorway and handed him a shotgun; he looked down towards his palm. It had been forever since he had shot at anything or anyone, and as his fingers gripped onto the metal weapon, he stared at her. She gave him a look, a look that he knew a little too well; it meant that she was telling him to just shut up and take the gun.
They entered the building through the back door, and as soon as they did so, they ran into a young waitress who looked to be in her early twenties; she looked at them from top to bottom and spoke.
"Um, the main entrance is not this way, please-"
She was cut off by the barrel of the gun in May's hand; she held the gun to the girl's lower abdomen and spoke in a hushed tone next to her ear.
"I need to get to room 203; what floor is it again?"
Angela hated this; she watched the look of fear flashing across the girl's eyes. Her whole body was shaking as she held back tears and spoke.
“It’s...it’s on th-the third floor-“
She was still shaking; David moved closer to her, trying to calm her down as he spoke to her as gently as he could.
"Hey, we're not going to hurt you; we just want to help someone who's being held hostage here. Do you know where the uniforms are kept for the waiters?"
The girl had started to calm down, but he could still see the fear flashing through her eyes as she directed them towards the closet holding the uniforms for all ten waiters. They grabbed one each and then headed towards the staircase in the building. The music in the halls got louder and louder.
Someone was having some sort of a party on the first floor; as they made their way up the steps, David immediately sensed that something was wrong. This place was not protected enough, it definitely was not clean enough, and as he looked around when he reached the first floor, all he saw were flashing lights and drunken bodies swaying next to each other.
The air was coated with the smell of sweat; he could see people sitting on the floor in the hallways, bags under their eyes, and their heads were placed against the wall looking up at the ceiling. He knew instantly that they were high on some sort of a drug. He felt Anthony pushing up against him, gesturing towards the staircase ahead when David turned around faced Anthony, Angela, and May as he spoke.
"Guys, something is wrong; I can sense it. I don't feel good, I'm telling you."
He didn’t get the chance to say anything else as May gestured towards the room they presumed Toby was held in. She looked over at all of them and spoke.
"Guys, we don't have a choice."
Angela felt the anxiety rising in her chest, but she pushed it down; she knew the most important thing in the moment was to save the boy. She turned towards the rest of them before she spoke.
"Let's go."
David was the first to push the door open. As soon as he did so, they came face-to-face with what looked to be a posh and renovated apartment that was styled in the form of a conference room. All of them were confused. There was a bar in the corner of the area and an open kitchen on the other side.
Angela turned to them as she spoke.
"Guys, this doesn't exactly look like...."
Before she had the chance to go on, David jumped from his place and grabbed onto Angela, taking her down with him. She screamed as her body hit the ground and he fell on top of her.
He yelled out at the same time, "Guys, get down!"
Anthony and May were quick to do the same thing.
Angela couldn't breathe; she tried to push him off; she was about to ask him what the hell was going on with him and if he had lost his mind, but just then, she heard the crashing of windows. She started to scream again, but David was quick to cover her mouth with his palm. She could tell that bullets were flying into the bar, and the windows were shattering one by one. David's whole body weight was on top of her; he had a hand over her mouth as he leaned in and spoke in her ear.
"Angela, I need you to trust me; it's the only way we can get out of here alive."
Angela immediately nodded her head as he wiped a tear that found its way rolling down her cheek. He nodded his head. He spoke again, slowly removing his hand from over her mouth, but this time she didn't yell; she stayed quiet as she listened to him.
"Okay, so the bullets can't reach the ground; they don't have the clearing for that. I need you to do exactly as I say. Stay down and start to crawl your way towards the back of the bar. I'll cover for you. I won't let anything happen to you."
He was speaking to the rest of them, too, but she knew the last few phrases were meant just for her.
At the moment, she had never wanted to disappear more in her life, but it was his eyes that kept her afloat. He promised that he wouldn't let anything happen to her, and as crazy as what was happening was, she believed him. Even in all the chaos, she believed the words that left his mouth. She gathered all the courage she had in her as David covered her, crawled his way in front of her, and she started to move towards the end of the bar. She noticed that David had pulled a gun out of his pocket, and her breath hitched as she started to feel afraid. She stopped as she stared at him as he took a shot, and her heart skipped a beat. He turned back and looked her in the eyes and told her to keep going. He spoke with his eyes still focused on the area outside the window towards the men who were shooting inside.
"Angela, you can't stop; keep going, come on!"
Her eyes landed on Anthony and May; they were both shooting towards the opposite side of the window where the bullets were coming from.
Angela nodded her head as she kept crawling towards the edge of the bar. Just as she reached the final stool, she looked back over the bar, and suddenly she began to cry. Her hands reached up to her mouth as she tried to control herself. Finally, she made it to the edge of the bar, and David was right behind her while the others moved towards the left side and took cover; she was about to turn towards the back where the kitchen was, and that's when she heard him scream.
She turned around to see his shirt had been ripped up at the forearm, and blood was visible on his arm. She screamed too as he approached her; he pulled her with him into the kitchen; he grabbed her hand and told her to run with him. She didn't ask any questions as she followed behind, trying to keep up the pace.
They reached the back of the bar, and just as David was about to push the door open, Angela's eyes landed on a man outside. He had a shotgun in his hand, and she immediately pushed him back, pointing to what she had seen. She could tell that now he was starting to panic a little, but that's when something else occurred to him. He grabbed her by the hand and asked her to follow him. She didn't know where they were going. There were men out front and back, and it was like they were all trapped in the tiny bar.
Anthony and May were quick to join the two of them. Anthony asked if David was okay, and David brushed the question off; turning towards Angela, he gestured to the rest of them, too.
They followed him towards the end of the kitchen where the sinks were placed. Finally, he let go of her hand and bent down; she noticed how the blood on his arm had started to escalate; it was dripping down his arm, and he couldn't care less as he pulled a latch just under the sink. It took him a minute, but it finally opened. Underneath, she could see a stairway; she stopped right there as she pointed to the stairway and spoke.
"What's in there, David?"
He got up and placed his hands on either side of her cheeks as he held onto her and spoke.
"You trust me, right?"
She nodded her head. He spoke again.
‘Then follow me.”
Before he moved, he placed a kiss on her lips, and then they started running down the wooden staircase; Anthony and May were close behind them as the path led them into some sort of a basement. Angela followed David down into the dark basement. It was like he knew the place like the backs of his hands. She followed behind him, and after what felt like forever running down narrow hallways, they finally reached a tiny door.
David looked at them, gestured towards the door, and all of them nodded back at him. It was the only way through. With a deep breath, he pulled it open, and soon they were back in another hallway. Blurry lights and loud music rang in her ears as her mind was wrapped with anxiety, following her surroundings to start blending in together. Angela didn't know what was going on, but as soon as she walked into the hall, she felt as if her mind had gone numb.
She had one thing on her mind, one mission that circles around her thoughts, but it became harder and harder to focus; with each second that seemed to pass by, she felt as if her body was growing weak. The feeling of displacement began to hit her as she stood in the hallway.
Before she could do anything, she heard a familiar voice from behind her. It was David. He reached for her hand, and before she knew it, a gun was pressed to her palm. He brought her closer to his body as he spoke to her gently.
"He has to be somewhere around here. I need you to keep this to make sure you're safe, okay?"
She was trying to get a grip over her own emotions as she gave him a nod and pushed herself forward going up the narrow stairway; she tried her best to remain calm, but soon, her foot slipped against the red-colored carpet on the staircase, and she stumbled, losing the ability to grab onto the railing by the staircase.
Her body hit the ground with a thud, and it caused both May and Anthony to stop in their steps as they turned back. May gestured for David to go help her up, their expressions shifted to worry suddenly. They knew that something was not right at the way she had just lost all the energy she had inside her, she watched as her head fell backward and his eyes rolled to the back of her head. She still had the gun in her hand. David ran towards them and helped her up as he spoke.
“Hey, what’s going on with you? Are you okay?
Angela's head was entirely spinning. She didn't know what was going on, but all she knew was that she needed to save Toby; that was the only thought that circled in her mind as she tried to get a grip on her own emotions. Soon enough, she felt as if she was about to fall to the ground. She turned towards a small door to her right and carefully let her back slide down against the wall behind her, and as she looked up, she could have sworn that her vision was blurry as if she had taken every drug on the planet and the high still never came.
Just as she was about to lay her head back, she squeezed her eyes shut for a short moment, and that's when the memories began to flash before her eyes. The first high-profile case she had ever done, the tears in the parents’ eyes as she let them down, and the pictures of the little girl that were spread across every social media platform at once. Shivers went down her spine. The walls started to close in on her, and as she looked to her right, the only place to escape the suffocation she was feeling was a tiny wooden door towards her left.
Angela couldn't describe what was happening, she didn't have the energy to move her body, but at the same time, she managed to push herself to her feet. It happened so fast it was almost like she was caught in some sort of a Black Mirror episode that she just couldn't escape from. With one blink of an eye, the entire scene seemed to change, and she couldn't recall how she got there or what happened in between. All she could see was a face too familiar.
She squeezed her eyes shut, placing the gun where it needed to be as her finger squeezed the trigger and her world started to spin. She just needed the face to go away; the old man who had taken the little girl's life and walked home free. In the first case she had ever lost, the man was staring back at her, and she knew he was telling her he had won.
She opened her eyes as the bullet escaped the barrel of the gun, and suddenly, it wasn't the old man in front of the gun anymore. Angela could have sworn that the walls around her were coming towards her at full speed; as she looked down, the sound of the shot going off bounced off the walls of the hotel room, and her palms began to sweat. As her gaze moved towards the carpeted floor, she could see crimson red layers coming towards the tip of her foot.
She couldn't understand what had happened as the anxiety started to rise in her chest, and she felt as if she was being suffocated by the second. She looked down, and suddenly the ground was no longer empty; blood had formed by her foot, and along with that, her eyes lingered before honey-colored ones.
Angela stepped back, immediately stumbling over her own feet; she began to shake her head as she looked down towards the gun in her hand, and that was when it hit her. There he was; a familiar face looking back at her with shock in his eyes. She watched as Toby's body slowly hit the ground with his mouth falling open, and blood was spilling out from the sides of his lips. Angela's hands began to shake; her lips quivered as she tried to make sense of what had happened.
Before she had the chance to put things together, her breathing began to speed up; she could feel her heart thumping against her chest. She placed her hand over her heart, dropping the gun to the ground. She tried to breathe, but her lungs were caving in, and she began to lose feeling in her legs.
Angela heard a familiar voice in the distance, which was further followed by screaming all around. She could hear David; he was running towards her, but she didn't even have the energy to turn around. The image of Toby on the ground bleeding out, the gun in her hand and the bullet, everything started to come together, and she felt tears sticking to her cheeks. The noises in her surroundings began to blur out.
Before she knew it, she had fallen to the ground on her back, and slowly, her vision began to blur out before she was completely gone as everything fell to black.
This was it...
For Next part of Tempted Series, just click on the link below:
UNTANGLING THE KNOTS: A Mystery Thriller (TEMPTED Book 3)
Once again, thank you for reading the book.
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