Second Time Lucky (Club Decadence Book 5) (53 page)

“Sean.” Mara’s voice was muffled where he still held her pressed to his chest. “I can’t breathe.” His hand eased up without letting her up. “What’s going on?”

“There are at least three gunmen inside the courtroom. Keep your head down.” To his teammates, Sean demanded, “She needs out of here. Now.”

A spray of more bullets punctuated his order.

“Shit! The shooters took out the guards and are heading up front,” Jonas warned.

“The rear door leads to the judge’s chambers and an exit out back. Sean, come with me. T, Jonas, cover us.” Cap barked his orders as he moved toward the far end of the box.

More shots rang out.

“Dex and Rick are here,” T called out. “They’re providing cover from the rear. Move out now!”

To Mara, it was like the clinic shooting all over again: bullets flying, fear filled screams, complete chaos. If Sean weren’t by her side this time, she would have lost it. Scared out of her mind for him, for herself, for the rest of the team, she clung to his arm, banded like steel at her waist, moving blindly with him, going wherever he led.

Having cleared the jury box, Cap turned, providing more cover fire as Sean and Mara passed behind him. At the door, Sean cursed. “Fuck!” Pushing Mara behind the nearby witness stand, he had her squat. “Stay low,” he commanded as he returned to the door. He gave it a kick with his size fourteen boot. She wanted to cry when it held strong.

“Shit! It’s steel.” Twisting back, he extended his arm, shouting, “Cap. Gun.”

Cap slapped it into his palm.

Sean fired three times into the latch. A hearty kick once again had it slamming open.

“Mara, let’s go.”

She wanted to, so badly, but she couldn’t. Gladly, she would have rushed to him and escaped down the hall, away from this nightmare. It had her in its grip, however, as did the arm around her throat and the cold metal of the pistol digging into her temple.

A look of horror flashed across Sean’s face, followed quickly by a steely mien of determination. In that split second, his weapon came up and he took aim.

“How kind of you to make our getaway so easy, Master Sergeant. Or do you simply go by Master these days?”

At the sound of Victor’s voice, Mara went rigid. Her chest locked up, the air trapped inside. Except for the involuntary tremor that swept through her, she was paralyzed with fear. Her eyes locked on Sean.

“It’s time I reclaimed what is mine…
mi puta
. Move aside, then me and my little whore can be on our way.”

“No—” Her attempt to speak ended with a choking sound as his fingers curled around her throat. As he squeezed, the pressure against her trachea made breathing impossible. Black spots clouded her vision and Sean’s image skewed. Her hands came up automatically, pulling frantically at the constricting fingers as she struggled and choked for air.

“Her lips are turning blue, goddammit. Let her go. You’re already a dead man, but if you harm her, you’ll suffer. I swear.”

Air rushed in as Victor eased some of the pressure. Coughing and sucking in large gulps, her vision cleared somewhat, but she froze again with his words. “I wouldn’t dream of hurting her. You see, I need her. Since you decimated my business here in Texas, her cunt will be my bread and butter until I rebuild in Mexico.”

Mara whimpered as Sean growled with rage, his finger twitching on the trigger.

“Easy, Sean,” Cap murmured as he came up on his right. “He’s trying to get to you.”

Mara’s gaze flicked to Cap, and to the others standing off to the right, T and Jonas facing the chaotic courtroom prepared to protect them from an attack as this drama played out.

“Let me go, Victor,” she managed to rasp. “You won’t get out of here alive.”

“With my little money maker as a hostage, I will. If you give it to your old man like you did my clients,
puta
, he’ll want to try to keep your sexy body in one piece. As do I.” His hand slid down to her breast and squeezed cruelly.

“Stop it!” Mara screamed as she tried to twist away.

Victor’s arms held firm, ignoring her struggles, except to jab the gun hard against her head as a reminder. His taunts aimed at Sean continued.

“It’d be bad for business, you see. I can sell old cunt, but not fucked up old cunt. Scars and bullet holes drive down the price. As it is, with her age, I won’t be able to charge the two or three grand a night I did when her pussy was young and fresh. We’ll have to make it up in volume. Four or five Johns a night at a few hundred a pop should do it.”

Cruelly, he laughed as tears of shame and rage rolled down her face. She was tired of her past being thrown in her face, and especially in Sean’s face. She never wanted him to know the awful details, but they kept leaching out.

“I hate you,” hissed out of her.

“Aw, what is it,
querida
? Hubby doesn’t know that you’re a slut?”

“Shut your vile mouth,” she screeched at the top of her lungs. “I hope he puts a bullet in your fucking skull.”

“Mara, lock it down,” Sean urged.

“Aw, aren’t the love birds sweet? I guess love conquers all, even with an extremely well-used teenaged pussy.”

She didn’t think she could take anymore; she wouldn’t. If it meant dying to put an end to his torment, so be it. “I’m tired of this asshole ruining my life.”

“I know, Mara, but you’re not alone in this. Hold it together, darlin’, and we’ll be all right.”

It was as if Sean hadn’t spoken, hearing only Victor’s contemptuous laughter in her ear. “So sick and fucking tired,” she screamed.

At that moment, something inside her snapped. Mara stomped down hard on his foot, grinding her heel into his instep. At the same time, she twisted in his grasp. The element of surprise on her side, she reached for his gun hand, nails digging into the vulnerable flesh on the underside of his wrist with all her might.

As he cursed in pain and shouted for her to let go, she leaned forward and sank her teeth into the meaty part of his thumb. The gun fired by her ear. Victor jerked in surprise, but she held on, biting until he squealed like a pig and dropped it.

“Mara,” Sean yelled. “Stand down and let us in!”

She had no idea what he was saying, her focus solely on getting to the gun. As one, she and Victor dropped to the floor scrambling to where it lay by their feet.

“For god’s sake, Mara, get out of the way.”

Sean’s shout came too late, her fingers having already touched metal and latched on. She rolled to her back, clocking Victor in the jaw. His enraged face filled her field of vision as she took aim. In her mind, time slowed to half speed as he rose to his knees another gun in his hand.

“Fucking bitch,” he shouted as it swung toward her.

Instinctively, she squeezed the trigger as a barrage of gunshots, doubly loud at close range, exploded at once. Blood sprayed across her legs as his body jerked. As if nailed to the floor, Mara sat unmoving while Victor, blood streaming from the holes in his chest and one between his eyes, fell forward.

It was simply too much for Mara’s terror riddled brain to process. Thankfully, instinct kicked in. She flipped to her front and scrambled away, her hands and feet slipping on the slick tile. Hands in her armpits hauled her upright. Without thinking, she turned on this newest threat, clawing and kicking as she tried to get away.

“Nightingale. Stop!” Sean’s command cracked like a whip, cutting through her panic. She stilled, collapsed was more like it, as she fell weakly against him. “Shh, I have you. You’re safe, baby.”

In spite of his reassuring words, she could feel tension vibrating through him. Jonas moved up on Sean’s other side, staring at the courtroom behind her.

“Carnage,” he murmured.

The eerie quiet behind her had Mara twisting in Sean’s arms. Jonas was right. She’d seen multiple traumas in the ER, but nothing like this. A team of paramedics worked on one victim, but there were several others. People walked around dazed, in shock. As she took in the grisly scene, her gaze fell on Victor’s lifeless body.

“Oh my god, I killed him. I really did it this time.”

Sean quickly turned her away.

“No, Mara,” Cap corrected. “One of the guys got him first.”

“I shot him in the head,” Mara insisted, unconvinced.

“I took him out, babe,” T asserted, “a direct hit to the left of the sternum.”

“I had the kill shot to the chest, Mara,” Jonas declared next. “This is not on you.”

She shook her head, three of four holes accounted for. Shakily, she repeated, “No. It was me. I had the gun aimed at his head.”

The three men looked at each other, then at Sean, before glancing away.

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do guys, but she drops her hands before she fires. Every time.”

With Victor dead by her hand, Mara had no idea why that mattered now. She trained troubled eyes on him.

“I don’t— ”

“It was me, baby. I planted the bullet in the motherfucker’s brain. Call it self-defense or justifiable homicide, either way I have no remorse.” His hand came up to her face. “This is one scar that Victor fucking Mendoza can’t make you carry.”

Mystified, she shook her head. “Then where did my bullet go?”

“About three feet too low.”

“His gut?”

“Nope, further south than that. If you’re gonna shoot, Mara-mine, I’ve gotta get you back to the range.”

“Well, fuck me,” T exclaimed. “Will you look at that? A perfect shot to the nads. Good for you, Mara. You blew the motherfuckers ball’s clean off. A fitting end, I’d say.”

“Ohmigod! I was aiming for his head.”

“Baby, you dropped your hands.”

Despite the grave situation, she heard repressed laughter from the guys. Unable to stop herself, Mara’s head turned Victor’s way, but Sean’s hand cupped her jaw firmly.

“No, baby,” he murmured. “You don’t need to see that.”

“It’s over,” she whispered as she pressed closer into his chest. “You know, even if I wasn’t aiming there, someone upstairs was and made sure he got exactly what he deserved.”

“Damn straight,” someone muttered. “Live by the sword; die by the sword.”

Beginning to shake as the horror of the gruesome scene set in, her head dropped back. She met Sean’s concerned gaze, then did a sweep through the group. All of them were watching as if expecting hysterics. Despite the circumstances, her chest filled with warmth, her heart rate slowing slightly and her panic ratcheting down a notch. They had all, every one of them been ready to take the blame, to spare her that guilt if her aim had been true. She pressed against Sean, her hands clutching his shirt as she buried her face in his chest.

“Fuck the range. I can live out my life without seeing another gun or hearing another gunshot.” Feeling his arms tighten around her, she took the first deep breath in what felt like an eternity.

He didn’t answer, but she felt his body shake. The chuckles around her told her these tough men, who had dealt with this type of situation—the intense adrenaline rush, the emotion, the drama, the guns and the gore—for most of their adult lives, found her amusing. She didn’t care. Let them be the badasses. Nursing suited her just fine. She’d patch up the holes any day rather than make them.

“A word,
por favor
.”

Sean’s body, gone rigid at the first syllable in heavily accented Spanish, shoved Mara behind him. Cap and Jonas pressed close to form a protective wall, but not before she saw the speaker. Horatio Mendoza, noticeably rattled, stood about thirty feet away. “This ends here. I’ve lost nearly all of my family and too many men, friends who served us loyally for years, some their entire lives.
No mas
. This is Victor’s nightmare, not mine. With him gone, the Mendoza drug cartel is no more.”

“What about your uncle?” Sean pressed. “Does he agree it’s
no mas
?”

Peeking between broad shoulders, Mara followed Horatio’s gaze to where paramedics worked on the old man. “
Tio Esteban
was shot in the stomach in this ridiculous mess. If he survives, I can guarantee it’s the end for him too.” His message delivered, he went back to his uncle who was being wheeled out by EMS. He didn’t look back. There was no purpose.

“Hell,” Lil T said into the near deafening silence that followed. “Does this mean this case is finally over?”

Cap grunted. “It appears so, and none too soon. I’m tired of this shit.”

“Lucky?”

“Yes, baby?”

She pushed through the muscled wall to face him. “I hate to burst your bubble, but isn’t there one other loose end?”

He stared down at her, as did the other men.

“What about Richard Stapleton?”

“Hell,” grumbled Lil T. “In our excitement to be done with this crap, we forgot about Dick.”

Cap sighed. “Meeting at eight tomorrow and we’ll get on it.”

His announcement was met with groans.

“All right, make it nine. Civilian life has made you guys soft.” No one argued, knowing it was far from true. “After we bring in Stapleton,” Cap went on, “maybe we can take on some easy, mundane cases and be normal security professionals for a change. My wife would like that.”

“As would mine,” agreed Rick as he walked up.

“And mine,” added Dex who was with him.

“And his,” contributed Mara, as she hugged Sean’s waist.

Cap smiled.

“Mundane,” Jonas quipped. “I see that lasting about a day.”

“Two at the most,” T muttered.

“Is anyone hurt?” Dex glanced at Victor behind them, then swept through the group. “Other than the obvious.”

“Never better,” Jonas replied.

“What else do we have here?” Cap asked.

“Three dead, four counting Mendoza there, five injured inside, plus several victims in the hall,” Dex supplied.

“Gunshot wounds?” Sean tensed on instant alert.

Rick shook his head. “I saw mostly cuts and bruises out in the hall. My guess is they were sustained in the panic when the lead started flying.”

“How does this happen inside a federal courthouse?” Mara demanded.

Jonas, who had smuggled in loaded guns, shrugged. “It’s not hard to beat their security if you know what you’re doing.”