ZANE

 

With my hands braced against the bathroom vanity, I stare at myself in the mirror. Though I'm clean now from my shower, I can still see years and years of pain and sin written all over my face. There's something about looking at your own reflection in the mirror that just brings up memories, both the good and the bad.

Seeing myself in the mirror makes me consider all of the choices I've ever made. Of all the things running through my mind, the one thing I can't shake is the one thing that's got me and Anna into this mess today.

Seth Grimm.

Looking back I still don't understand it. I still don't understand exactly who he was or why he had so much power. I don't know why I let Zach sweep me up into that mess. Being his older brother, even by only seventeen minutes, I should have protected him. I should have dragged him as far away from that situation as humanly possible. We work for a security firm. More importantly, Ford Security is a private security firm.

Our job isn't to save the world. It is to save one person at a time, and only by their request. We are not heroes in the strictest definition of the word. Or at least we’re not supposed to be. But Zach, he's always reaching for something more, and he inserted himself into something that was over his head. And he did it all because he wanted to do something good in this world. But we are not equipped to deal with terrorists.

And that's just what Seth Grimm is.

Or was, considering he’s dead. Even though his legacy lives on apparently. I twist the knobs on the vanity, and wet my face using my palms. The splash of the warm water against my skin is more than welcome. It wakes me up. And when my eyes shift back to the mirror, I realize what needs to be done.

I reach out and twist the knobs back off so that the water flow cuts off completely. And then I twist on the knobs once more. Twist them off. Twist them on. Twist them off. And that's when it hits me…

If there is a water supply coming into the safe house, then there is a way out of this place. There has to be. It’s very basic math.

I twist on my feet and rip the bathroom door open, I run outside into the living area and come to a dead stop. My eyes search the room, looking for Anna but she's nowhere to be seen. I cock my head to get a better view of the kitchen and she's not there either. I turn to my left and pull open the first of the two bedroom doors.

She's not in the first one, so I rush out of there and head to the second bedroom. I'm trying to be hopeful but my mind is spinning. If she's not in this room, then she has been taken. I don't know how someone could've gotten in here while I was in the bathroom, and how they could have taken her without making a scene.

But when I pull open the second bedroom door and she's not in there either, I realize that the worst case scenario has happened. She is gone and she's probably with them, and there's no way in hell she went willingly. I ball my palm into a fist and launch it against the wall. It cracks in the drywall, and puts a hole right through it.

I drop my head to stare into the hole and noticed that as I suspected just beyond the drywall is a steel wall. Somehow, water has to be able to get into here and I'm thinking that Mitch must have known that. He must have known how to get in here, but I can't make sense of why he didn't do it earlier.

I rush back into the living room and take a good look at the monitors. Mitch and his cronies are no longer sitting in the hall. They've vacated their spots. The realization causes me to punch my fist against the wall again, leaving another hole. This time my knuckles are bloody and beaten, swollen and red.

I drive my palm over my forehead and hold it against my temple as I try to figure out how I'm going to get out of this. My number one priority is getting Anna out of here with her life first and then I'll deal with whatever comes next. I will kill who I have to and I will seek justice for all of the people these people have crossed. After I get Anna out of here, I'm going to have to have a talk with my brother. If this is really at the request of Grimm’s family, then they are not going to stop.

I know that much to be true, and unless we can dismantle the Grimm family for good, we will be forced to flee the country yet again and this time we won't be able to come back. I try to see the good and bad. I try to make myself believe that leaving this country wouldn't be so bad, but I've already sacrificed so much for this country that I love. And while going to the Caribbean is fun for vacation, it would never be home.

Although if Anna would go with me, it would make it a hell of a lot more tolerable. There's no point in ruminating over the things that I can’t change right now, so I jump into action and ready myself. I grab my gun off the counter and check the clip to make sure I have enough to put a bullet in each and every one of these men's heads.

I thrust the cartridge back into the gun and hold it ready at my side. I don't bother putting my shirt back on because it doesn't offer any protection anyways. And it's white, which in these dark hallways could give away my location. I step to the front door and swipe my fingers across the monitor until I come across the security settings.

I say a silent prayer to myself and ready myself for what comes next. I don't allow myself much time, only a few seconds to organize the thoughts in my head. And then my finger is back on the screen turning the security system off until the lights on the monitor reads Security Systems Disabled.

I hear from within the walls, latches clicking into place and gears turning, and when the door pops open, I hold my gun out in front of me, ready for battle.

I walk down the narrow hall with my back hunched over. It takes a while for my eyesight to adjust to my surroundings given that I just came from a well lit apartment. They finally adjust just as I'm about to exit the hallway. I push my hand against the door and it slides out of my way. When I enter out into the conference room, it's still dark but I can see clearly. And my attention is at an all-time high.

My blood boils in my veins. My blood runs hot through my body. There's an internal rage stewing and there's no way I can calm myself down. I plan to shoot on sight without taking into consideration anything other than revenge. One way or the other, I'm going to get Anna back. And I'm going to get her back safe and sound.

Still stewing with rage, I throw my arm against the first chair that I pass. It launches backwards and slams against the hard floor. Walking in a furious pace I make my way to the front door and rip it open so that I'm standing back in the hallway of the 27th floor. I'm not running and I'm not walking. I'm caught somewhere between the two as I make my way down the hallway with my eyes open wide and laser focused on the path ahead. I careen around one corner and just up ahead is the elevator. I draw my gun and aim it squarely at the elevator in case somebody wants to try and be cute.

Just as I'm about to approach the elevator, the doors sling open and there he is. It’s Mitch standing right in my line of fire. He steps forward but doesn't step out of the elevator. He's alone without any of his goons to back him up or save him. A malevolent grin pitches across his fat lips and as much as I want to bust him in the face, I know I can't.

He gestures both of his hands outwards as if he's trying to greet me in a friendly manner. He takes one more step forward but he’s still in the elevator. My finger dances along the trigger, ready to end his life at any second.

"It's so nice to see you again, Zane.” His grin widens even more, exposing his nasty insubordinate teeth. He should really get those checked. "I was starting to think you were never going to show.”

“The party’s over.”

I tap the trigger.

A bullet pierces right through his front temple. And it takes him a few seconds to realize what’s happened. He stumbles around like a zombie, like the walking dead. He stumbles forward and then fumbles back until he finally lands facedown against the floor. The elevator doors try to close on him but the sensors won't let it. The sirens start to wail so I move forward and drag his warm dead body out of the elevator. I look down at that sorry son of a bitch one last time before stepping into the elevator, clicking the button for the 70th floor and then waiting for the elevator to close.

As the elevator begins to ascend the shaft, one floor at a time, I take these moments to steady myself for what's about to come. All I can think about is Anna. She's all I can see. At this point I don't even care about my own life. Everything I do from now on is about her, for her.

My feet tap impatiently against the elevator floor. My eyes are focused dead ahead while my gun hangs at my side. Mitch is not the first person I've ever killed, that much should be obvious. In the course of my life, I have taken at least a hundred lives and to save Anna, I will take a thousand more.

I momentarily debate the fact that I have just killed Mitch. On some level, I realize that I could have maybe used him as leverage. I no longer have that choice due to my cold-blooded rage. At this point, I'm like an apex predator and I need to learn to calm myself down. And I need to learn that before it's too late.

I like to pride myself on being a reasonable individual, however when faced with bloodlust, it's hard for me to see straight. Some might say I'm being overprotective. And to those people I would say, You're an idiot.

When it comes to the people you love, there is no such thing as being overprotective. And I do love Anna. She's been in my life for two years and I'm hoping she'll be in my life for as long as I live. Maybe I'm not in love with her, but I know that I could be. And maybe I am. But that's a decision that I'm going to have to figure out once we both escape this tower alive.

My eyes peel to the screen beside the numbered buttons in the elevator. The red digital numbers continue to climb one floor at a time.

47

48

49

50

Another twenty floors to go. I bring my eyes to a close and let out a heavy sigh. I comb my hand over the top of my buzzed head. Against the shiny steel elevator doors, I can see my own reflection. It is different than my reflection from earlier in the bathroom. My face is a blood shade of red and the veins in my neck are pulsing almost like they have a life of their own. Not many people in this life have ever seen me like this. It takes a lot for me to get to this point. Not many people have seen me when I'm this angry and that's for good measure. It's not a pretty sight.

A random thought passes through my mind and it's an unsettling one. I've spent this entire day working in overdrive to protect both Anna and myself, but I'm beginning to wonder if the lady, Kaitlin I believe is her name, who stole Dominic's car earlier in the day has something to do with this. After all, it was only when I went to clean up Zach’s mass and get the car back that this all began.

What are the odds that Mitch and his men just happened to be in the same neighborhood at the same exact time? I'd wager that the odds are not good.

This was a planned and coordinated attack.

And now I can't help but to wonder if Zach is OK. For all I know, he could have been taken as well. For all I know he could be in the tower with me, or he could be dead. So help me God if these people lay a hand on my brother.

My eyes shift back to the monitor.

61

62

63

With each floor I ascend, it's almost like I am climbing to my final destination. Or an even darker thought; I'm ascending to my final grave. If after twenty years on the job, this is how it all ends, I won't lie and say that I lived my life right.

Because the truth is to live this life right, I would have had to have loved someone. And I've never done that. Not for longer than a night or two at a time. But something tells me that I could with Anna and that gives me all the strength and all the motivation I need to continue on.

I reaffirm my grip on the gun.

My eyes trace back to the digital monitor one more time. And on the monitor, I see that I am now on the 67th floor.

68

69

70

The elevator stops and the doors part.