Tainted - Chapter 11

Alexander narrowed his eyes to the man in front of them who held the gun out. It was only a moment before either of them decided to shoot and he thought that it’d be better if the girl wasn’t present in the same room.

“Theia…” he slowly stepped back, forcing her to move with him, “My office. Now.” He growled lowly and gave her a push before he slammed the door shut and evaded the shots fired at him.

“Get the girl! Now!” The foreign man shouted, allowing Alexander to slide across the floor, leaning his body flat and kicking the man off his feet. The two larger men fell backwards, toppling over and now in a heated battle to get back up and out of one other’s grip.

Alexander twisted his legs around the man’s arm and lifted his gun to fire at the men trying to get past them before he found himself thrown off and received a hard kick in the gut, enough to make him gasp for breath when his back hit the wall. “Ha... Fuck..”

Using the wall as a prop for support, Alexander shoved himself back to his feet, forcing himself towards the larger men with more force than before, reaching for the nearest firearm in sight and gaining the right angle to shoot at their knees. With a last glance around the room, he ripped the door open, running straight for his study downstairs where he had hoped Theia was. Fisting the door, Alexander called out to her a few times and tried the knob. No answer.

“Theia, it’s me, open up” He spoke, rattling the knob once more when a sharp pain shocked him through his system, the sound of gunshots echoed, and then came the revolting pain through his arm. One bullet in his shoulder was not enough to slow him down. Turning to find one of the men shooting from up top, Alexander cursed and shot his gun up ahead. Slipping himself behind the corner in the hallway, he ignored the pain in his arm and unstrapped the chain of bullets on his inner thigh so that he could refill the gun.

The place went silent and the firing stilled, however, his focus was elsewhere. Right now he didn’t give a shit if those bastards were doing a rain check, more importantly, where the hell did Theia go? Ripping his shirt to tie his arm, he peeked out, immediately regretting it as he pressed his back flat against the wall once the bullet grazed near his face, thankfully the wall had shielded him and took in a deep breath to will his muscles to move before he rolled out of cover and sniped the man right in the head.

“Hah…fuck…hah..” a string of curses left him breathlessly, trying to control his breathing, the pain had begun to numb at this point as he ripped the door to the office open and found it empty. Alexander’s eyes scanned the room, searching the couches, behind his desk, anywhere he thought she could be curled up hiding. Unfortunately, there was no sight of her.

The man searched the office in a frenzy, finding nothing and no one had only earned an immediately visible vein of frustration upon his forehead. When he gets his hands on those bastards he was going to kill them painfully. Shortly into his search, he was joined by the remaining men in his security team who had been on guard outside at the sudden break-in. His main informant had given him the details of what took place outside. As much as fifteen men had already been taken care of but there were more, and whoever had strategized this whole attack knew exactly what they were in for.

“Sir! We’ve taken the intruders down, there are only a few left.”

“Where’s Theia?” He was digging through his drawers for the extra weapons he had lying about before he paused in thought. Did she get cornered?

“She should still be here. The cameras haven’t picked up anyone leaving”

“Find. Her.” Alexander wasted no time bolting out of the office and up the stairs, he ripped through every room on the top floor, yet he had no luck finding her. His mind was going crazy, he had to find her as soon as possible, searching the last room once more, all his luck ran dry and he was about to leave when he heard a soft thud. The man paused in his steps, stilling himself while slowly refilling his bullets as he attempted to move as soundlessly as he could.

The man tried his best to keep his movements light and unnoticed, he stood to the side of the closet door before ripping the door open only to step aside just in time to avoid the shots firing out. Pointing his gun at the man, he had been ready to shoot, all of which came to a halt the minute his eyes fell over the scene before him. Theia had been caught in a chokehold in the attacker’s arm, a gun to her forehead, and with what looked like a bruised lip and a few bleeding scratches over her arm.

“Let her go.” He demanded curtly, ignoring the way his blood was on fire at the sight of her being held hostage.

“I’ll shoot her. Step back.”

“You wouldn’t fucking dare” Alexander narrowed his eyes, pure anger lacing his voice as he kept his hand up and aimed at the intruder with the gun to her head. From where he stood he could see the girl trembling, shaken up, and full of fear. There was a gun to her head and a madman threatening to kill her. Alexander could’ve easily shot him, right between the brow, yet he remained unmoving and still.

“Let’s make a deal.” The man suggested after a moment of glaring at each other.

Alexander, hand still on the gun and shifted his eyes to meet hers, clenched his jaw, “The deal is to hand her over safely before you’re dead.”

“No. My life is worth nothing.” The man jabbed the edge of the gun into her temple harshly and tried to drag Theia out of the closet with him.

“Don’t fucking move!” Alexander was pissed. So fucking pissed right now but he was hearing Cael’s words in his head to be calm. If anything, this guy looked like an informant.

“We want the girl. But if you give us something valuable in exchange, we’re willing to step back.”

“What do you want?” Alexander’s gaze was fixated on Theia whose eyes were filled with tears when the man pushed the gun harder into her head, enough to cause something inside of him to go off. “Answer. Me.”

“Thian Zelgar. You know what we want.” He sneered at Alexander with a look twisted in pure evil.

“You think I have intel on him?”

“No more questions!” The attacker heaved a jagged breath and shifted the end of the gun to underneath Theia’s throat, he had been backing his way against the window, an attempt to hoist both of them out once Alexander dropped his guard down. Unfortunately for them, Alexander rarely let that happen and tonight wasn’t the night he planned on starting. Without a second thought, the bullet shot fast, leaving nothing but a dark lodged hole in between the man’s brows before he could even think about his next moves. Alexander ripped him apart from Theia the very next second and gently pulled her into him.

“Fuck the deal.” He muttered to himself as he brushed his bloody fingers through her hair, “Theia…” he spoke her name, trying to keep the ripping sensation off his mind from the ache he got every time he moved and brought her to his chest while checking her for any other visible injuries.

“Can you stand?” he asked, pushing them up to their feet, her body leaning heavily on his while she stumbled over, if not for Alexander’s larger arm providing support, she would’ve toppled over. More men were waiting for them to come in line for the attack, he wasn’t sure how much longer it would be before backup would get here, for now, he knew that they had intentionally separated them from the others.

Theia had been rooted to the top of the stairs once Alexander placed her down, disappearing for a short second to the room at their side, placing the revolver in her hand and whispering something about shooting anybody threatening to attack her. The words weren’t exactly making sense in her head, she was shaking so much that she didn’t even trust her legs to walk her in a straight line, much less shoot someone. One minute she was in her room getting ready for bed and the other she had a gun to her temples with a man that reeked of blood, threatening to kill the only man capable of protecting her. Was this what Thian was so fearful of? These attackers came after her for a reason, just killing her wouldn’t have made the job easier but their job gave specific orders to keep her alive.

Another painful shock lanced through her right shoulder, up her arm, and straight to her neck. She hadn’t noticed when it had gotten bruised, but the ache it sent through her was a clear reminder that it was anything but a simple bruise. Gripping the revolver with whatever strength she had in her, she heard the sound of Alexander’s curses up ahead before the man reappeared and moved straight towards her, pulling her with him to the opposite end of the hallway. The mansion was large enough to house several rooms, most of which were converted into God knows what. Alexander pushed her into the very last room, ripping a decorative mirror from the wall with his bare hands and setting it aside.

Against the empty wall was a vague but visible latch that the man had slipped one slender key that looked far too old to be usable, rust covering the head and length of it as he pushed the door open to a dark winding staircase that screamed danger. If Theia wasn’t already regretting her decisions in life, right now would have been the perfect time to start.

“Let’s go. It’s not going to be an easy escape” was the only thing Alexander said to her, taking her hand in his to guide her down the narrow stairs, shining only the light of his phone for them to see as the sound of gunshots boomed behind them. It had been too powerful and loud to be a single gun, her guess was a type of machine gun, shot in hopes of getting either of them injured while blindly attacking from outside.

Alexander’s security was not lacking in any way, there was almost no way for them to slip by unnoticed without any alarms being triggered. There had to be something else. A mole? Possible. Very possible. However, once again, it was questionable since the black-haired man would never let anyone get in without a proper and detailed background check. He didn’t seem like the kind to keep people with weaknesses near him either.

“Put this on, you’ll thank me later,” He said, grabbing her hand and placing a pair of leather gloves in her palms. She stared at it in confusion, it was several times bigger than her hand, but what followed after had caused an uncomfortable knot to twist in her stomach.

“You don’t expect me to use that do you?” she said, holding the larger gun tentatively as Alexander opened the trunk and grabbed whatever he could to bring into the front seat, setting the black toolbox on the floor and staring at her.

“The minute we leave those gates, we are fucked. I need you to watch our back while I shake them off” He said, not waiting for her to reply, holding her waist and lifting her into the seat, shutting the door and getting in as well before starting the Jeep and driving off.

“God! A little warning would be nice” she cursed.

“Of course, where did I put my manners. Please kill those cunts, will you pixie?” he said dryly, wasting no time in crashing the front where they were greeted by a sight she’d least expected to see.