and, from what Alex could tell, didn’t have any windows. He thought that his original thought of this being some old abandoned state building where road equipment had once been held was correct. It occurred to him then, as he came to the building and pressed hard against the side, that Marco was eerily adept at finding out about any location he was in. With a hardened personality and deep pockets, he knew where to go in any city to get good information: who were the dirty cops, where the best abandoned places to carry out dirty deeds were, and so on.
Pressed against the cool concrete wall, Alex could hear people muttering inside. One of the voices was louder than the other and sounded angry. The other was hesitant and concerned. He listened for any signs of distress from Amanda but couldn’t hear anything else.
He could feel his shirt sticking to his stomach as he continued to bleed. He tried to ignore it, but he didn’t know if the cut had gone deep enough to worry about bleeding out. The doctors hadn’t mentioned it, but he still didn’t like the feel of all of that blood leaving his body. He had to get this over with quickly before he started growing lightheaded from the blood loss. With that in mind, he rose both of his guns and slid along the wall, inching closer to the front of the building.
He came to the corner and could see a bit of the clearing due to the car’s headlights. On the ground, he could see the foot of the man that had been shot earlier. As he looked at this man’s shoe, he heard one of the voices again. It was clearer this time, as the door to the building was just on the other side of the corner, no more than ten feet away from Alex.
“I’ll circle the building,” the voice was saying. It was not Marco’s voice, but a higher and more pronounced voice. It was the second shooter, still frazzled from the shoot out earlier.
That’s the one that killed Slim, Alex thought.
“Do it, then,” Marco replied. Hearing his voice sent spikes of rage through Alex. He knew that he had to get it over with right now… if not, his anger was going to make him careless. “Kill that asshole right now or you won’t get a penny.”
“Whatever, man.”
Alex took that moment to crouch down and slowly come out from behind the corner. He leveled both guns up, waiting for the man to come out of the door. Alex saw his shadow coming across the doorway, spilling out due to whatever light source was inside of the building. Alex readied himself, holding the guns without a single waver to his grip.
The man came out of the door and was unfortunate enough to be facing directly towards Alex. The moment of shock was all Alex needed. He placed two shots in the man’s forehead, one of which was a bit messier than Alex had suspected.
He wasted no time in getting to his feet and charging into the door. He held both guns out in front of him, ready to start firing.
He wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but what waited for him inside made his knees lock. He froze after taking three steps inside.
Amanda was sitting in a chair with her arms tied behind her. She was bleeding from her nose and she looked as if she had been through hell. This is not what alarmed Alex the most, though.
What truly made his heart go cold was the fact that Marco was standing behind her. He smiled at Alex as he entered and placed a gun to the side of Amanda’s head.
And then he pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER 10
Alex actually shouted when Marco pulled the trigger, but he still heard the dry little click noise that came from Marco’s gun. Seeing the distressed state on Alex’s face caused Marco to let out a hateful bray of laughter.
Amanda let out a moan that was a desperate sound somewhere between hope and horror.
“Gotcha,” he said.
“You son of bitch,” Alex said.
“You should know better,” Marco said. “Why
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