THE TWENTY-SECOND pt5

Taylor’s arm squeezes me protectively, moving me ever so slowly as he tries to position himself in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot several men advancing along the back walls. I try to keep my breathing steady as chills make their way through my body.

“Hello, Richard,” Taylor greets his brother calmly. I can’t believe how even his words are coming out when I can feel his heart thumping rapidly in his chest.

“Well, I see you started the party without me, brother,” Richard responds with a smile though the acid in his tone lets us know that he is far from happy.

“You weren’t invited,” Taylor responds evenly. I can feel the tension literally vibrating his frame but Taylor is giving nothing away.

“You can hardly celebrate when your better half is not here,” Richard says as an evil smile stretches across his face.

“Think what you want, Richard, but you have never been my better half. Now, please leave. You are not welcome here.” Taylor’s voice is polite but his demeanour is firm.

“Oh I don’t think so, brother,” responds Richard with a mirthless laugh.

“Richard, this is your final warning,” Taylor snarls, all pretence of civility vanishing. “Leave now or I’ll have my security directly hand you over to the detective over there who has been tracking you over two continents.” Taylor waves his hand across at Detective Stanton, who is on her feet talking urgently into her phone.

“I don’t think so, brother,” Richard says once again and I wonder whether this is going to be his response to everything. “You see,” Richard continues, “We have unfinished business and that cunt is not going to stop me.”

I gasp at the crudeness of Richard’s use of the c-word. “Richard, just leave,” I say surprised at the firmness in my voice. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Shut up, bitch!” Richard yells at me making me flinch. Richard’s hand disappears into his jacket pocket. A moment later he pulls out something black and I gasp as I realise what I’m looking at. A gun. No scratch that, a fucking terrifyingly black gun that is now pointed directly at Taylor.

Time seems to slow down as my heart pounds in my chest. I glance around the room wildly wondering how the hell we are going to get out of this situation. Black-clad figures start moving the guests back, silently ushering them out the back of the room while Richard’s focus remains on us. I see my mum struggling with someone, refusing to leave, and I try to silently communicate with my eyes that everything is going to be okay. The last thing I want though is for Richard to turn around and realise what’s happening so I remain quiet.

“Richard, what do you want?” Taylor asks quietly trying to keep the situation as calm as possible.

“What do I want? What do I want?” Richard gives a maniacal laugh that seems to echo through the large room now that it is pretty much empty apart from us and the men in black advancing from behind Richard with their own guns drawn. “What I want is what should rightfully be mine. What I want is for you not to have been born. You took everything away from me!” Richard ends his rant with fury burning in his eyes.

“Richard, this is crazy,” Taylor says trying to reason with his brother. “I have never taken anything from you.”

“Liar!” he barks. “You were always the favourite, the one who got everything while I was left to fend for myself.” What. The. Hell? What kind of fantasy world is Richard living in? This is so far from the truth that if it wasn’t for the scary-as-shit gun pointed at us right now I would probably burst out laughing.

“Richard, stop this right now,” Taylor says. “I have no idea what delusions you have convinced yourself of, but I was never the favourite and everything I have achieved in my life has been despite your interference at every turn.” I can see Taylor is really starting to get angry now. “For fuck’s sake, you even got your girlfriend to start a relationship with me to screw with my head!”

This was clearly the wrong thing to say because Richard starts scrubbing his hand over his head, the gun waving around a little in the other hand. “Liar!” he screams. “You took her away from me!”

Taylor holds up his hand in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay, Richard. Whatever you say,” Taylor says smoothly trying to calm down the situation.

By this time we’ve been completely surrounded and I have no idea if these are Henry’s guys or the police. Right now I really don’t care. This amount of guns is making me very nervous; these kinds of situations never end well in the movies. The adrenaline coursing through me is having quite an impact on Bean resulting in her kicking me furiously as if she is trying to say ‘Calm down, Mum’. I let out a gasp and clutch my side after one particularly vicious poke.

“Let Abby go,” Taylor pleads. “Please!”

“I don’t think so,” Richard says. “The whore is as guilty as you. And that baby…that baby should have been mine.”

Okay, the guy really has lost the plot! “Put the gun down, Richard,” comes Henry’s voice from off to the side. “You are surrounded. Let’s not make this harder than it already is, shall we?”

“Never,” Richard barks. “They have to pay. My brother has to pay for ruining my life.”

I listen as Henry tries to reason with him. In the background, I notice Detective Stanton talking urgently to a group of men in bullet-proof vests who have just entered the room and indicating for them to move in. I transfer my attention back to Richard as the words flow over me. I hold onto Taylor’s arm tightly and he squeezes me against him reassuringly.

Beads of sweat have formed on Richard’s forehead and his hand seems less steady on the grip of the gun aimed at us. Voices fill the air as one after another tries to talk Richard down. “Shut up!” he screams becoming more and more unhinged as the minutes tick by.

I try to swallow down the lump of sheer terror now lodged in my throat and my vision narrows in on the gun. I can see Richard’s finger knocking against the trigger. I know nothing about guns but I’ve seen enough movies to realise that a small squeeze is all it’s going to take for the gun to go off. I glance up at Taylor and see that he is concentrating intently on Richard’s face as he talks to him, trying to reason with him as if he is a rational human being. As I glance across the rest of the people gathered they all seem to be focusing on Richard, rather than the gun.

As my gaze sweeps back, I notice a flicker of sudden calm spread across Richard’s face, like he has just made some kind of decision. Everything seems to shift into slow motion and panic sets in as I watch him adjust his grip on the gun. Before I have even registered the thought, I have shoved Taylor away from me with as much force as I can muster. A split-second later a bullet slams into my shoulder and I fly backwards.

The impact surprises me as much as anyone, my mouth forming an ‘o’ as the pain begins to burn through me. The gunshot has me completely disorientated; the only noise I can discern seems to be a rushing in my ears as I wildly try to fix my eyes on something, anything. Everything seems to happen so quickly, one minute I’m standing, the next I am lying on the floor as feet rush past. I don’t hear the second gunshot but the next thing I see is Richard lying on his front beside me, his eyes empty and a trickle of blood seeping out of his mouth.

I look around wildly, trying to find Taylor. I need to know if he is okay. In my head, I am screaming his name but all that’s coming out of my mouth is a whimper. “I’m here, baby. I’m here, Abs,” Taylor reassures me as his face comes into my line of vision. Tears are flowing down his face as grabs my hand. “You are going to be fine, Abs. Just stay with me, okay?”

I nod my head but wince as someone presses down hard on my injured shoulder. Suddenly the worst kind of pain spears my belly and I cry out in response, my back arching off the floor. The pain returns like wildfire and I gasp for breath. At that moment I know something is very wrong.

“What? What’s the matter, Abby?” Taylor cries.

“Bean!” is all I can respond. The pain is all-encompassing and I am just so scared. I grip Taylor’s hand as hard as I can. “Remember your promise, Tay,” I rasp out urgently. “Remember!” It’s the last thing I manage to get out as the world fades out of my vision and everything descends into blackness.