Chapter 24

~Justin

Standing outside Gabe"s apartment building, I stare up as if I can see the penthouse from here. That place shouldn"t mean anything to me and Gabe shouldn"t either. He"s just a job and I"m just someone he pays to use.

A strong gust of wind blows and I think how I wanted to disappear, turn to nothing, feel nothing. I"m not going back to Gabe. I don"t want to ever see him again. But when I take a step away from the building, Martin grabs my arm again.

I shake him off angrily, but Martin steps in my way as he says, "I"m sorry, honey. You"re hurting so much. Gabriel can be so heartless." Martin is eying me searchingly so I make sure I don"t show anything I feel, not that he"s fooled. He still looks at me with pity.

"Thanks for letting me know Gabe"s plans," I tell Martin coolly.

"Sure thing. I hate how Gabriel is leaving you high and dry," he says.

"He doesn"t owe me anything," I say.

"Oh, come on. Don"t take it lying down. What are you going to do, just scurry off with your tail between your legs?" Martin says. "You should stand up to him, confront him. Tell him off to his face."

I do want to tell Gabe how much I hate him. Now Martin puts his arm through mine and leads me inside the building. I let him. I don"t care what I do, where I go. I have no will, no goals or plans. Why shouldn"t I let Martin drag me around?

Inside the penthouse, everything is like always. The same dark, minimalist décor making the big space more intimidating. I never belonged here.

Martin walks all through the penthouse and confirms what I can already tell, Gabe isn"t here. "Oh, well. He"ll be back. I"ll get us some drinks while we wait. Might as well, right."

While he does that, I go out on the terrace. I stand at the railing, thinking how Gabe doesn"t care about me and it hurts to breathe, like someone is standing on my chest trying to crush the life out of me. It"s not Gabe. He isn"t trying to hurt me. He thinks so little of me. What would he think if I was just a bloody smear on the ground? I look down.

It"s tempting but I take a step back from the railing and then turn away. Martin comes out and sets down two drinks just as my phone chimes with a call.

It"s Gabe. I"m not answering but I keep staring at my phone. Then a text comes in. It"s from Gabe too. I want to ignore it but I see the beginning of the message.

"Is it Gabriel? What does it say?" Martin asks.

It says, "Don"t do anything. Wait..."

Now I have to read the rest of the text. I unlock my phone and the next thing I know, Martin snatches the phone from me. "Thank you," he says, and suddenly I"m staring at Martin holding my phone in one hand and a gun in the other.

"What the hell?" I gasp.

"I"ll just be a minute," Martin says as he starts doing something on my phone.

"What is this? What are you doing?" I ask him while he backs away.

"You were ready to die a second ago, weren"t you? What do you care?" Martin says. How does he know that? Martin is smirking at me then he"s taunting me. "How close did you get? Come on, give it another try. Maybe you"ll find out you can fly."

I don"t understand this. Nothing about this makes sense. Then I see Royce step out on the terrace.

"What was the rush?" he asks Martin. Royce seems to know him and he isn"t surprised that Martin has a gun pointed at me.

I"m even more confused now. "Why are you here?" I ask Royce.

Royce grins and says, "I like to watch." He takes the phone from Martin and nods at whatever he sees there. "You want to hear the message you just sent Gabe?" Royce asks me.

That"s what Martin was doing, sending Gabe a message as if it was from me? Royce reads the text in a flat voice. "You think you can get rid of me? Think again. I"m going to make you pay."

The text sounds threatening and I"m staring at that gun. "What are you going to do?" I ask them.

"Arrange for a little murder-suicide," Royce says.

"So tragic. We rushed out here, but we were too late to stop you," Martin says with mocking sadness in his voice.

I just blink at them, then ask, "Why?"

Royce shrugs. "It"s not convenient for me to let Gabe keep on living. See, I arranged Derrick"s kidnapping. I thought Gabe would pay anything to get his little bro back, brotherly love and all, but Gabe wanted to be hard nosed about it. He hired a bunch of ex military types. Got his little brother killed and left me with nothing to show for my troubles."

"You"re the one Gabe is looking for, the one who helped that Thompson guy," I say, stunned.

"That Thompson guy!" Martin snaps angrily.

I stare at him and Royce asks, "You wondering what his story is? Marty here is just a hopeless romantic." Royce chuckles but Martin gives me a hateful look.

"Gabriel had him killed. I could have been happy if it wasn"t for him," Martin says, seething.

It sounds like Martin was involved with Thompson. Now I"m wondering, "Did you help him kidnap Gabe"s brother?"

Martin as much as confirms it. "Gabe owed us. We would have been rolling in money if it wasn"t for him."

I don"t know what Martin is talking about but there"s something else I want to know. "All that stuff you told me about Gabe dumping me...?"

Martin laughs. "That was fun," he says.

"We were trying to arrange an angry confrontation in a public place. We tried but Gabe wouldn"t cooperate. This is plan B," Royce says with a shrug and puts on surgical gloves. "See, I knew Gabe was getting too close to finding out I arranged for Derrick to be kidnapped. I needed to get things... moving. And if you"re wondering if I arranged that warehouse incident I saved you from, I did. That guy I shot in the leg got a nice bonus."

I hadn"t even thought of that. Now I"m staring past Royce as I see Gabe standing in the doorway of the terrace. Why couldn"t he stay away? In the same instant, Royce turns to him while pulling a gun from under his jacket. "Did you hear enough of that or you need me to fill you in?" Royce asks sneering at Gabe. Gabe is stone-faced, not saying a word. "Get over there." Using the gun, Royce motions Gabe away from the door.

"Was it only about the money?" Gabe asks through gritted teeth.

"You know it wasn"t," Royce says. "Remember how it was before you got Derrick killed? Back then, you didn"t want to work with me, didn"t want to know me. You said you didn"t need my kind of help. So I tried to befriend your brother, and that little punk got mouthy with me, fucking spoiled brat. That"s when I happen to hear that someone else had it in for you. Thompson, him and his boyfriend."

Royce glances at Martin and now Gabe looks at him too. He doesn"t bother asking anything, Martin just tells him on his own. "We were in love."

"Did you know what he was doing, that he was having Derrick kidnapped?"

Martin shrugs. "You should have paid up instead of trying to get your brother rescued."

Gabe doesn"t disagree, just asks, "Why did you need to involve Justin? This has nothing to do with him."

"He was supposed to distract you. I thought he was just the right type to keep you off balance, keep you from digging around," Royce says sounding annoyed that I failed him. "I was counting on you being stepbrothers and his resemblance to Derrick to mess with your head."

Martin tilts his head to the side as he eyes me meanly. "You didn"t do your part, Justin. You"re not enough like Derrick, but you"re going to die just like him."

Coming over to me, Martin points his gun under my chin. Royce puts his gun in my hand and forces me to point it at Gabe. Royce is about to make me press the trigger while Martin restrains my other wrist with his free hand.

I was so close to giving up my life so many times, what"s one more time? This time it"s for Gabe. Thinking only of him, I hook my leg around Martin"s and lean into him. I have him off balance and his gun goes off. It jerked to one side, and I don"t know if I"ve been shot.

I"m afraid the other gun will fire. It"s still pointing at Gabe. But instead of getting himself out of the path of a bullet, Gabe rushes forward shouting my name.

That"s when Royce"s gun in my hand goes off. I"m screaming Gabe"s name and I see him stagger as his shirt starts soaking up blood. He"s been hit.

Despite that, Gabe doesn"t stop. He keeps coming at Royce and tackles him to the ground. I fall tangled with Martin and grab his gun hand. Even while Martin punches me, I manage to keep his hand and the gun pressed to the ground.

Behind me, the gun goes off again. I can"t help looking back and Martin kicks me off him. I see Gabe getting to his feet with Royce"s gun in his hand.

Before Martin gets a chance to aim his gun, Gabe fires a warning shot at Martin. Martin seethes but drops his gun quickly as the look in Gabe"s eyes tells him he wouldn"t hesitate to kill him. Gabe is holding his side, his hand is covered with blood. I rush over to him and support him while he holds a gun on Martin.

I look over at the pool of blood where Royce is lying on the ground. He"s dead.

"Gabe. Gabe, tell me you"re OK," I say to him.

"Fine," he claims in a gravelly voice but I can feel how heavily he"s leaning on me. If I wasn"t here, he would collapse.

"Hang on," I beg him. "Hang on."