We enter into the warehouse, and I can see Vivian smirk my way. That’s not all I see, though. I see Laurel quickly flinch and return her hands behind her back; she had been trying to untie Mary. I try not to smile at the realization that Laurel had untied herself. Good. I glare at Vivian. “What the hell is this about, Vivian?” I snarl, and Vivian just huffs my way.

“You’re finished, Trial,” Donte says to me.

“Fine, but let them go. They didn’t do anything to either one of you,” I say, nodding towards Laurel and Mary.

“You really think I’m going to let them go after everything they’ve seen?” Donte looks towards the two men standing by Vivian. “And good job letting Tyler go, dipshits. He only saw this bitch, but I bet she’d double cross me for a little less jail time in a heartbeat.”

Vivian rolls her eyes. “You know me so well, Donte. We’ll handle Tyler. You know I have connections.”

“What sort of connections do you have, Vivian?” I question.

“Remember that modeling job I got?” she smirks. “I only got it because their original model had a little accident. I had my guy handle it. I think you’ve seen his mug shot, but there are more of them.”

“What the fuck, Vivian? How did you even meet people like that? How the fucking hell do you know a bunch of damn hitmen?” I question.

“They’re cousins of mine,” she says as though it’s nothing. Then Vivian waves her hands towards Donte. “Where do you think Donte found the guy that took at your buddy Gabe?”

“What the fuck, Vivian?” Donte shouts. He puts his gun to the back of my head.

“Please don’t!” I shout. “Why did you kill Gabe? Why were you even after me then?”

“You answer my questions first, and I’ll tell you,” Donte says.

“Fine,” I say, still holding my hands up at my sides. I keep glancing Laurel and Mary’s way. Mary looks terrified, but Laurel –despite her bruised face –looks merely observant. They both have duct tape strapped over their mouths to keep them quiet.

“Other than your buddy Caleb, who else knows about the steroids and the sleeping pills?” Donte asks.

“So you admit that you were using drugs to win?” I question, and he beams me in the back of the head with the gun, sending me to my knees. I shriek and instinctively grab at the back of my head. I can hear Mary crying under her duct tape gag.

“Yes,” Donte says. “Now answer my question, Trial, or I’ll blow the little girls head off her shoulders.”

“No one else knows,” I say.

“He’s full of it,” Vivian says. “Come on, baby, you know I can tell when you’re lying.”

Donte grabs me by my hair and waves his gun about. “Bring the little bitch over here, and I’ll-”

“No, don’t!” I shout. “Leave Mary alone. One other person knows, you’re right. Brandi’s father. He tested the water for me that was in your last opponent’s bottle to see if you were drugging your competition. But he didn’t know what it was. I just asked him to test the water and tell me what was in it. He didn’t know anything about what I was looking into.”

“See? Was that so hard?” Donte laughed.

“Why did you kill Gabe?” I ask. “I know you had been after me. But why hire someone to kill me? What did I ever do to you? I mean, I had lost our match. You had no beef against me then.”

“Dumbass,” he says. “You already know, but you just want me to confirm it. I was fucking Brandi. I’ve been doing her since before you put a ring on that bitch’s finger. When I found out she was pregnant, I knew it was probably mine. But she didn’t give a shit. Said she didn’t care who was really the father –said she loved you and all that shit. I hired a guy to take you out, but it turned out to be this bitch’s damn cousin!” He pointed a finger Vivian’s way.

She rolled her eyes. “My cousin came to me and told me someone had hired him to take you out. I asked him not to, but he needed to buy himself some time. Donte had already paid him for the hit, and he had spent the money. So he took out Gabe instead to make it look like he mixed you two up.”

Donte huffed at her, but then he laughed. “But then you screwed up everything on your own. So I didn’t need the hit. I had gotten what I wanted. Brandi left your ass, and I moved in. She eventually changed her mind, though.”

I glare up at Vivian. “What about you? You really want to kill me Vivian?”

“I didn’t. Not until you turned me down and embarrassed me at the gym,” she snarled her response.

“You were acting crazy! You’re still acting crazy!” I shout, and Donte beams me over the head again. He’s going to give me a damn concussion. I suppose it won’t matter if he decides to shoot me.

“That was just before I caught wind of your snooping and what you had told your manager about me. It wasn’t hard to sweet talk Vivian into helping me find another hitman. She’s got all sorts of creeps in the family tree. Surprised you didn’t know that,” Donte says. “We had him take out Caleb, but I wanted to handle you myself.”

“I get to blow your girlfriend’s brains out, though,” Vivian says, throwing a thumb over her shoulder towards Laurel.

“Why Mary? And why Tyler?” I question.

“Mary just caught us dragging Laurel into a van,” Vivian says.

“And Tyler?” I ask.

“Well, he’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?” Vivian asks.

“Excuse me?” I hiss. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I’ve been spying on you ever since we broke up,” Vivian says. “I know all about you three-”

“Oh, fuck!” I snap, my mind jumping back to an awkward night spent with Tyler and Laurel. “No! I’m not gay, Vivian!”

Donte laughs. “I told her that. I said there was no way, but she swore there was some weird shit going on with you, Laurel, and Tyler. I didn’t think you swung that way.”

“No!” I shout.

“Glad we could clear that up,” Donte says. “But, geez, man, did you really have a threesome with another dude?”

“Fuck off,” I say. I dare to turn my head to look at him. “You really think Brandi is going to want anything to do with you after this? You’re going to prison, Donte.”

“They can’t prove shit,” he says.

“Other than a text I sent Brandi before coming in here about Vivian,” I say. “And like you said, she’ll squeal.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Donte says. “You’re done, Trial.” He presses the gun to my temple. I hear two bullet shots, but I’m still alive and breathing. “What the fuck?” Donte shouts, and I glance over to see Laurel standing over his thugs with one of their guns in her hands. They’re down for the count. While Donte is distracted, I move. I fling my arm back, knocking the gun down before jumping up with my fists raised. Donte laughs, probably thinking a fist fight is some sort of ironic justice.

He swings at me hard and quick, but without drugging me beforehand, it seems that he is at a disadvantage. He knocks me in the head twice, but I deliver three quick jabs. Then he one-ups me. He punches me right in the throat, and I fall back. He goes for the gun as I am standing up and fires in my direction. I feel the bullet go straight through my damn elbow.

Vivian flees, and sweet little Mary, still tied up, trips her –allowing Laurel to get on top of her and deliver a punch hard enough to knock the woman out. I can’t swing at him, so I kick the shit out of him –landing the base of my foot in the center of his chest and sending him falling flat on his back. The gun slides away, and he gasps for air. I grin –that’s a little something I learned from watching Laurel’s fights.

I stand over him. My right arm is shot, but I deliver a punch with my left arm right in the middle of his face, and I knock him out. Laurel runs up to me and puts her arms around me. “Thank God,” she says tearfully. She pulls away and hurries to Mary to get her untied.

Mary comes running up to me and wraps her little arms around my waist. “Thank you,” she says.

“Are you two all right?” I ask.

“Been better,” Laurel says. “You realize you being a bisexual lover might come up in court, right?”

“Screw you,” I say. My brain jolts awake. “Shit! Marty!”

I run out of the warehouse, and Laurel and Mary follow not too far behind me. I don’t even notice the pain in my arm; I drop down beside him and gently touch his face. “Marty? Marty?” I question, but he does not move.

Mary starts screaming and crying. “What’s wrong? What happened? Why isn’t he moving?”

“He’s been shot,” Laurel says, kneeling down beside us.

I hear sirens in the distance. Thank God. Brandi pulled through there at least. “Marty, come on, man, wake up,” I say.

“He’s breathing,” Laurel says and goes to touch him.

“Easy,” I say and point up at the fire escape, “He fell from up there. He could have a broken neck for all we know.”

The police arrive before the ambulance, and it has me on edge. They assure me that one is on the way, though. I grin slightly to see Donte and Vivian being put in the back of police cruisers. His thugs will be getting a ride to the hospital in a separate cruiser after Laurel had shot them.

The ambulance arrives, and they put Marty on a stretcher. “You need to go too,” Laurel says to me, and I am suddenly reminder that I too had received a bullet wound. And only now that I am able to breathe for a second, I start to feel the pain from it.

I hitch a ride in the ambulance with Marty; I don’t intend to leave his side for too long. I watch in horror as they shove a tube down his throat and start doing a general assessment. “Is he going to be okay?” I question the paramedic, but he does not answer me.

I look out the door to see Laurel and Mary standing together, Laurel’s arm around Mary’s to offer her some comfort. “We’ll see you at the hospital,” Laurel says firmly as they close the back doors of the ambulance.