Brooks saw Carter first and opened fire. Carter dove for the ground and crawled behind the couch to find cover. He readied his weapon and prepared to fire on them. When Carter rose up to return fire, Martel, Brooks and Busta all opened up on him and he was forced to drop back behind the couch for cover.
Carter crawled to the edge of the couch and took a shot at Brooks, which hit him in the leg. Carter fired again and hit him in the chest before retreating to cover.
Before she could get to the door, Yarissa heard what sounded like gunshots coming from downstairs. Glenda bounced up and Yarissa stopped in her tracks. They both looked at Rain.
“Where are my guns?”
While Yarissa hurried to get Rain her guns from on top of the dresser, Glenda watched in horror as Rain gritted her teeth and started to get out of bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Rain didn’t answer her.
She put her right leg on the floor and then Rain eased the other one out of the bed and gingerly put her weight on it. Rain closed her eyes and tried to focus her mind as the pain seemed to shoot through her entire body.
“You can’t even walk,” Glenda said and held on to Rain’s arm to steady her. Yarissa handed Rain a gun and then she helped Rain get to the door.
Back downstairs, Busta and Martel continued firing rounds at Carter. When Busta’s gun was empty and he stopped to reload, Carter came up from behind the
couch firing. He hit Busta with three shots to the chest and he fell back over a chair and hit the floor.
Martel and Carter exchanged shots and then Martel ran for the steps that led to the third level. He stopped and opened fire at Carter, and he ducked behind a wall for cover. Martel kept firing until he ran out of ammo. Now forced to retreat, he headed up the stairs intending to reload on the way. What he found was Rain standing at the top of the stairs waiting for him. She raised the weapon in her left hand, fired and hit Martel with one shot to his head.
Carter watched the body come tumbling down and he got to the bottom of the stairs in time to see Yarissa helping Rain back to the room. He stepped over Martel’s body and rushed up the stairs to make sure everything was all right.
“Everybody okay?”
“Yeah,” Rain said through painful breaths.
Rain sat down on the bed and Glenda helped her get her settled back in, and then she checked her wounds. Blood had begun to seep through the bandage.
“I need to redress that bandage on her leg,” Glenda said to Carter and went to get her bag.
“You didn’t have to do that, you know. I had him,” Carter said to Rain as he came toward the bed.
“Maybe. But I got him.”
“Excuse me,” Glenda said to Carter with a bit of an attitude and he moved out of her way so she could get to Rain.
When Wanda arrived at the house thirty minutes later, dressed in a Philippe Lace Cold-Shoulder ruffle jumpsuit by Alexis, Carter was gone. He left more to avoid Glenda than anything else, but more men had arrived.
Ten to be exact.
Before he left, Carter had called Billy, the Cleaner, and he had taken care of Sean and Zack’s bodies that were outside in the car. He was getting ready to go to work in the house when Wanda came strolling in. She stopped and looked around at the carnage that surrounded her.
“Hey, Billy.”
“Hey, Wanda,” he replied.
“Looks like I missed all the fun.”
Billy stopped what he was doing and looked at Wanda like she had four heads. “When did this become your type of fun?”
“I’m just kidding, Billy. You know this is not my style,” Wanda said, and she and Billy laughed. “Where is everybody?”
“They’re upstairs,” Billy said and went back to work.
“Good to see you, Billy.”