Children of Ambition (Children of Vice 2)
BANG!
I glanced over at the man, the ringing in my ears dissipating enough for me to hear him as he yelled, “Get on your knees!”
I stared at him for a long time as if I didn’t hear him. Then simply said, “No.”
“On your knees!” he hollered and put the gun to her temple.
She raised her eyebrow as she looked at me and for some reason I felt like I could hear her asking me, “Well?”
And I so shrugged. “Thought this was your city.”
Her head crocked to the side and her jaw set.
Did she hear me? No, not possible but it was amusing to think.
“I’m not going to tell you again—”
She gave two short whistles, and just like that the man beside her went down. Before anyone could move, a storm of bullets rained down on top of them. A few of them still in their cars pulled out, those that tried to escape with them only ended up shot in the back.
“You were thinking something along the lines of ‘Don’t you run Chicago?’ earlier, weren’t you?” she asked, reaching down and taking off her one of a kind, brand new, now utterly useless, broken heels and stepping over the man who’d held her before coming to me. “Is my answer sufficient?”
I glanced back over at the scene of the worst action movie in history; bodies in the mud, blood on the grass, cars on fire…and realized it wasn’t an action movie, but a mafia one.
“Very much so, yes,” I snickered, bitterly.
“Ma’am!” I heard whom I could only assume were the men who’d fired on her command. “Are you alright?”
Ignoring them, ignoring the pain, I rushed back to the twin cars now glued at the burning engine. I pulled at the door and Sebastian’s body fell right towards me.
“You better not be dead after losing this fight,” I said to him, reaching up to feel his pulse. Thankfully, it was still there. Dragging his body further way from the cars, I lay him down and turned to go back for the driver but before I could, the whole car exploded, engulfing him and everything else inside. All I could do was watch it burn.
“Retaliation for the bank?” she asked from beside me.
“I wish.” I did wish it were that simple. “This is retaliation for living.”
“Ma’am, your car is here.”
“Thank you. Before you do anything else, take care of Mr. Sebastian here,” she said to them. I wanted to thank her but I didn’t have the energy for any words. “Gabriel, let’s go.”
She didn’t say anything more and didn’t wait for me to speak instead, taking my hand and leading me to the white Jeep. Once we were inside, she ripped the side of her dress and cleaned the drying blood from my ear. As her driver took us away, I confessed.
“I lied,” I said, unable to look from the window. “This is just as much about revenge as it is my birth right.”
“That’s hardly a lie,” she replied and pulling my eyes from the fire, I looked at her and she smiled genuinely for the first time since the first day I’d met her. “You never told me it wasn’t about revenge, so how could it be a lie?”
Shifting to face her better, I took in her whole expression. “I understand that being from a family like yours, this might be accepted as a normal experience. However, do you not think you are being much more…congenial than no
rmal? You almost seem at peace with this current turn of events?”
“In a way I am,” she admitted, sitting back in her seat.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sure you’re upset. And most likely annoyed you lost people, though from the looks of it, not that many were loyal to begin with.” She frowned and pulled her broken heel up again. “I’m very annoyed about my shoes and hair being ruined after the amount of time I took to get ready this morning. But other than that, I’m pleased with these events.”
“May I ask why?”
“No one wastes a grenade launcher on someone who isn’t worth it,” she said as if it were the most rational thing in the world. “They came for you in broad daylight, in middle of the highway, with a fucking grenade launcher, and even then, they weren’t sure so they flipped your guards… Your death was worth all that trouble. No one has even used a grenade launcher on Ethan.”