Escape Route (Decode Sequel)

Chapter Fifteen - Daddy Styles.

Lennon. 

"IS ANYONE HERE NOT TRYING TO KILL ME?" I lashed out, thrashing my arms in any direction I could. I wasn't angry, I was infuriated. I couldn't catch a break. When one problem was solved a new one took its place. I was caught in a never ending cycle and if I didn't escape soon was there any point trying anymore? If I was gone then everyone could move on.  

I was far too used to having a gun pressed to my head, a feeling that shouldn't be familiar .. was. My life had stopped flashing before my eyes each time. I didn't have a lot to see, I hadn't exactly been very adventurous. I'd have to painfully watch my mum try and raise me, I'd see myself drop out of uni, I'd watch Nia and Dom die in front of my eyes. Even Syke's death made an appearance in my last seconds. But Harry took up most of my last thoughts. His face, smile, his honest words. I'd remember how his arms felt wrapped around my waist, the way his lips tasted against mine, the way I felt safe with him.  

But now as my life was seconds away from the end with Harry metres away from me, I felt anything but safe and protected. I was vulnerable, weak and way in over my head. I thought rolling out bread dough all day was hard.  

My eyes flashed around the room as I heard the safety trigger being released. Within a second Carlo could pull the trigger and I'd be no more. Paul and Harry were making faces at each other but I couldn't make out what they were trying to say to one another. Carlo's arm tightened around my neck making it inevitably hard to breathe. The stench of fresh blood was toxic. I couldn't look down at the floor, even though I didn't love him, seeing his dead body there was a reminder what I could soon be.  

I wasn't even aware of what was happening when a chair was slammed down on the floor next to Vince. 

"Nobody move or they both get shot." Carlo shouted.

"Aren't you gonna shoot us anyway?" Vince quipped, for a coward he still had a sharp tongue. Carlo growled and hit him round the head with his pistol. I was slammed against the chair and my hands tied behind my back instantly.

"Can't we make some sort of deal? If it's money you want we have plenty." Paul began to reason but Carlo looked disinterested.

"I want to know we won't be getting trouble from you again."

"We can promise that. Make a truce or something?"

"Words are meaningless."

"But their lives aren't."

"I won't leave here until I'm sure my turf is safe and I can't do that until she's dead. How do you know she's not just like her father?"

"Because she's a human," Harry interjected taking a risky step forward. "You just watched her stab her own dad, isn't that proof enough she's not his side?"

"Take out the leader and then who's on top?" Carlo asked rhetorically. "She is."

"For a leader you don't pay a lot of attention." I muttered, only Vince heard me though luckily. "I probably hated him more than anyone else in this room. I wanted nothing more than to see the back of him. I don't care about money, ruling a city or anything of the sort. I just want to live."

"See!" Harry explained angrily. "She had nothing to do with him. She has feelings, she's an innocent girl, she doesn't deserve any of this! If anyone should die it should be for getting her involved in this mess!"

"Harry no!" I yelled when he began walking forwards, concentration written all over her face. “What can I do to let everyone live?” I pleaded towards Carlo. He knelt down beside the chair, the gun in his hand never leaving its resting place on my head.