Goddess

There is no use in lying. She saw all the bodies on the monitor … She has to know that I’m not without casualties.

“Yes. I don’t know how many yet, but they did the job that they were hired to do—hold off as many men as possible so that we could reach safety.”

“That makes my stomach sick,” she confesses. “None of your men would be dead if it weren’t for me.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Blame yourself. You’re not accountable for someone else’s actions. This is Arlo’s fault, and he will pay.”

“I just hope my parents are okay. I will die if anything happens to them. I’m so sick with worry. Here I am safe without while chaos storms around us and the safety of my parents are unknown.”

A flashing yellow light signals above the door in bursts of four. One of my men has managed to send a remote code that activates the light. Goddess follows my gaze.

“Why is that light flashing?” I hand her the ice pack and get up to turn the monitors back on.

“We have three different remote codes that my men can send from their phones. Red means danger still present. Yellow signals that reinforcements have arrived. And green means we are free to come out of the panic room,” I explain. “ The lights are flashed in a pattern so that I know that is my man using the code and not someone who has control over it. It’s an additional fail-safe.”

“So now we just have to wait for the green light,” she states.

“Yes, but we still need to confirm. My men are special forces and can’t be broken to give us up. But still, once we have the green signal, I will verify that we are truly safe to come out.”

“Then what?”

“Then we will likely be moved to another safe house until the threat is neutralized.”

I turn to watch the monitors as the FBI swarms the estates in droves. More gunfire is exchanged, but the assailants are outnumbered. It’s just a matter of time now before this fiasco is over. Two dead bodies upstairs have my name on it— my first two. I’d do it all over again to protect her, but as this all comes to a head, the reality of it all takes hold. The overall outcome was tipped in our favor. I can’t help but think of the difference it would have made had Goddess been in my bed. As awful as it is that she has incurred injuries, she needed to be in her suite for tonight to play out as well as it did.

When the alarms sounded, I would have been quick to get her to safety. The two men who had already made it upstairs wouldn’t have needed to separate. I would not have been able to dodge the gunfire from two guns simultaneously, let alone protect Goddess from taking one of those shots. My focus would have been split. She served as the perfect distraction to conquer them one at a time.

I told her we would likely be moved to another safe house after this to keep her from worrying about yet another thing. Truth is, it will be just her. I don’t know if I could let her go. But real feelings are involved, so to be fair to her, I know that I will have to.