Chapter Twenty-Three
Diesel
Diesel and Rachel woke early the next morning, both wanting to get home as soon as possible. The ride back was filled with tension. Diesel’s home was important to his and Rachel’s future. With the constant threat against her, she would never go back to the compound. The only way he would be able to keep her is if he had a home for her to feel safe in.
“Marcus, what’s wrong?” Rachel asked.
“Nothing,” he lied.
“Then why are you so quiet?”
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“About how I hope the house is fixed and secured.”
“I’m sure Sledge made sure that everything was done correctly,” Rachel replied. “He knows how much your home means to you.”
“Our.”
“What?”
“Our home,” Diesel corrected. “Not mine, ours. “
“Our home,” Rachel whispered, more to herself than him. “I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those.”
“Now you do,” Diesel responded, reaching over and grabbing her hand.
Pulling up beside the house, Diesel noticed Reaper’s truck parked next to the back porch. Hoping he had news, Diesel hopped out of the truck and made his way to the back door with Rachel a step behind him.
“Reap?” Diesel hollered as he entered the house.
“In the kitchen,” Reaper yelled back.
“What do you have?” Diesel asked as soon as he entered the room.
Reaper glanced over to Rachel and then back to Diesel.
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of her,” Diesel said.
“Okay,” Reaper said, nodding his head. “Sokolov is the son of a former KGB high ranking official. From what we have been able to gather, Ginx was given a mission to retrieve a file from Malik Sokolov, which she did.”
“What file?”
“Banjo is trying to figure that out,” Reaper answered.
“My mother won’t tell you what the file was?” Rachel asked.
“She says she doesn’t know, but Sledge and I don’t believe her.”
“I don’t either. She would have looked, or at least asked what she was staking her life on,” Diesel replied.
“Agreed,” Reaper nodded.
“So they were going to use me as leverage to get the file back? Is that what you’re saying?” Rachel asked.
“We think so.”
“Lovely,” she said sarcastically.
“Where is Andrei?” Diesel asked.
“He is no longer a problem,” Reaper answered.
“How is he not a problem?” Rachel asked.
Diesel laughed as the color drained from Rachel’s face when Reaper delivered the look of the Grim. The man had a way for striking fear into everyone with that look. It promised death.
“Never mind,” Rachel mumbled. “I don’t want to know.”
“No, you don’t,” Reaper agreed.
“So it’s over?” Diesel hated to hear the hopefulness in Rachel’s voice.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that it would probably never be over. Until they knew what was in the file, they had no idea how far or wide this spread.
“For the moment,” Reaper answered.
“But, we live life,” Diesel added.
“Definitely,” Reaper approved. “Don’t let a few dipshits stop you from living life.”
“Okay,” Rachel acknowledged.
For the rest of the day, Diesel and Rachel tried to get back into the normal groove of things. They watched TV, snuggled on the couch, played a few games of strip pool - to which Rachel ended up naked and bent over the table twice, and even went swimming off the pier. It wasn’t until later that night that Diesel woke up knowing something was wrong.
“Rachel!” Diesel coughed. “Wake up!”
“What?” Rachel asked and immediately started coughing, too.
“Smoke. We need to get out of here.”
Diesel climbed out of bed, the room was filled with smoke. His lungs started to burn. There wasn’t any time to get dressed. They needed to get downstairs and out of the house - now!
“Move towards the door,” Diesel instructed.
“Okay.”
As the two of them crawled to the door, the smoke was getting worse. Diesel had never known fear until that moment. If something happened to Rachel, his life would be over. He had to get her safe.
Reaching for the door handle, he quickly pulled back.
“Fuck!” Diesel yelled. “It’s hot.” The knob had burned his palm.
The sound of shattering glass could barely be heard over the roar of the fire outside of the room. They were trapped. Looking over to Rachel, he knew she knew it, too.
“Marcus?” Rachel asked.
“I know,” he said, not wanting to voice what they both already knew.
“Marcus,” Rachel repeated.
“What, baby?” he said, moving closer to her.
“I love you,” she said, pulling him into her arms. “I love you more than life.”
“I love you, too,” he said.
In that moment, Diesel knew that he had to try again. Those three words broke something in him. How could he never hear them fall from her lips again? How could he not continue to fight?
Crawling back over to the bed, Diesel pulled the sheet off of the bed and quickly made his way back to the door. Wadding it up, he placed it over the door handle.
“Get back,” He hollered. “There might be a backdraft. Go to the other side of the bed and get down.”
“Marcus, no!” Rachel screamed. “A backdraft will engulf the room and you!”
“It’s the only way to try to get you out.”
“No! I am not leaving without you!”
“Rachel, please.”
“Goddamn it, Marcus. I fucking said no!”
“Such dirty words out of such a beautiful mouth.”
“Good grief, will you be serious?”
“I was.”
“There has to be another way.”
Diesel watched as Rachel moved away from him. There wasn’t another way. They were on the second floor. There was nowhere to go except out of the door.
The smoke continued to blow in from beneath the door. It was getting extremely thick in the room and visibility was almost gone.
“Rachel,” Diesel yelled. “Where are you?” Diesel tried to yell again, but the smoke caused more pain to encompass his chest.
He couldn’t die without knowing she was either safe or with him. Moving in the direction she had disappeared, Diesel heard the sound of wood creaking. The floor was getting warmer. It wouldn’t be long before it caved in and sent them crashing into the inferno below. Realization hit him. He and Rachel would die here.
“Marcus!” Diesel heard his name. But couldn’t tell where the sound had come from. The smoke was too much.
“Marcus!” The voice came again.
An angel, he thought. Only an angel could have a voice that beautiful.
“Damn it, Marcus!”
He felt himself being yanked. It wasn’t an angel; it was Rachel calling him. He tried to fight the fog taking over his brain. Tried to get it to function. But no matter what he did, the darkness continued to creep in on him. He failed. Because of him, he and Rachel would die. As the darkness took him over completely, Diesel sent a silent prayer up that Rachel would one day forgive him. That the Henchmen would honor him. That maybe, just maybe, someone would remember him.
Panic filled Rachel as she watched Diesel collapse on the floor. She was alone. She was in a burning house, alone.
Pull it together!
She had to get them out of here. Crawling over to the closet, she grabbed the sheets off the shelf and made her way back to the windows. It was the only way out. But how would she get Diesel and herself out safely?
Rachel spent valuable time knotting sheets together, end to end. Then a thought hit her. Tying one end to the king size bed, she grabbed the lamp and smashed it against the window. Watching the glass fall around her, she reached over and tried to pull Diesel towards the window.
“Rachel!”
She thought she heard her name, but that was impossible, she was alone. Using all the strength she could gather, she pulled Diesel as far as she could, but it wasn’t enough. If she couldn’t get him to the window, she wouldn’t be able to tie the sheet around him to get him lowered to the ground.
“Rachel!”
Again, the sound of her name reached her ears. Leaning out the window, she thought she was imagining things. The Devil’s Henchmen were frantically running around. Sledge was screaming her name!
“Sledge!” Rachel coughed.
“Where is Diesel?’ Sledge yelled.
“He’s passed out,” Rachel coughed. “I can’t... I... I can’t... Move him.”
“Fuck!” Sledge yelled. “Reap, Diesel is out. We need to move now!”
Rachel watched as several Henchmen ran towards the window carrying a long ladder. Sirens could be heard from somewhere outside. Reaper slammed the ladder against the side of the house, but as he was about to start climbing, a loud explosion rattled the house, something heavy landed on top of Rachel and everything went black.