The House Guest by Mark Edwards(76)

Eden had her arm around Gabriel’s neck, pushing him down so he was bent over. She held the muzzle of the gun against his head. Callum was slightly to the side of our group, holding what I thought was an AK-47. Facing us, between our group and the huddled mass to their rear, stood Brittany, Nick and Mona. Nick had his rifle in his hands, aimed at Callum, who pointed his own gun back at the other man. Brittany held a handgun – presumably the Glock that Emilio had dropped – and had it trained on Eden.

‘Come on!’ Callum shouted, and Eden retreated backwards towards the door, dragging Gabriel with her. We followed. Callum kept his gun aimed at Nick.

Mona stood between Brittany and Nick, weaponless. She took a step towards us. ‘Let him go,’ she said.

Eden retreated another half-step and tightened her grip on Gabriel’s neck. ‘Don’t come any closer.’

‘Let Gabriel go,’ Mona said, ‘and we’ll let you all walk out of here.’

‘Liar.’

Slightly behind Mona, I watched Nick adjust his stance. He still had his rifle aimed at Callum and he looked jacked, his eyes wild, finger on the trigger.

‘Kill them,’ Mona said.

‘But, Gabriel . . .’ said Brittany.

‘Just do it.’

Brittany still hesitated, but Nick didn’t. Callum must have realised at the same time as me, and he squeezed the trigger.

He missed. The shot went wild, not striking anyone.

Nick shot Callum in the chest. The impact sent him crashing against the wall.

Eden cried out. She took her gun away from Gabriel’s head and shot Nick. He went down. Then Eden turned the gun towards Mona – but Gabriel, now the gun was no longer against his temple, shoved Eden so she lurched to the left, and the bullet she fired missed Mona. There was a quick, desperate struggle, but somehow she managed to keep hold of Gabriel and put the gun against his head again.

‘Shoot her!’ Mona screamed at Brittany, but Brittany hesitated. There was no way she could get a shot off at Eden without there being a high chance she would kill Gabriel.

‘Give it to me.’ Mona snatched the gun off Brittany and pointed it at Eden and Gabriel.

I tried to catch Ruth’s eye. We were six feet from the door. Mona had already demonstrated that she didn’t care if she killed Gabriel. But she must have known that if her first shot hit Gabriel, not Eden, then Eden would surely shoot her. To win this, she would need to hit Eden in the head with her first shot. And if she managed that, Ruth and I would be her next targets.

There was the rifle lying on the floor beneath Nick’s body. Brittany kept looking at it, then flicking her eyes towards Eden, measuring her chances of getting to it. Surely, any second now, she would decide to try it – because Eden couldn’t risk removing the gun from Gabriel’s head.

And then Gabriel said, ‘Kill her, Mona’, and that made up my mind.

I grabbed hold of Ruth and pulled her through the open door, slamming it shut behind us.

She pushed me away. ‘What the hell are you doing? I need to help Eden.’

‘No. We need to go. We’ll call the police.’ I tugged at her arm, pulling her to the lift and punching the button.

She struggled to free herself. ‘Dammit, Adam, I can’t just leave her.’

‘What? Ruth, please, come on.’ I stabbed at the button again. The ‘Up’ arrow was lit but there was no sign of the lift. ‘Where the hell is it?’

‘But I promised her,’ Ruth said.

‘What?’

‘This evening. She came to see me. She told me what was going to happen, except she said Gabriel was going to brand me.’ She shuddered. ‘She said she was going to get me out, but I had to promise to help her afterwards.’

I stared at her. ‘Help her? How?’ The lift still wasn’t coming. ‘We’re going to have to go down the stairs. There must be an exit here—’

A gunshot came from within the room.

At the same time, the lift doors pinged and slid open. Inside were half a dozen men, dressed head to toe in black, carrying guns.

Police.

‘Oh, thank God, thank God,’ I said.

Every gun in sight was pointed at us. More officers appeared from the end of the corridor; I guessed they had come up the stairs. They levelled their weapons at us as well.

‘Get on the floor and—’

The door to the communal room burst open. It was Eden, still holding on to Gabriel. Blood was pouring from a wound on her shoulder. Mona must have taken her shot but only managed to wound her.

The cops had turned as one, and were all now aiming their guns at her.

Eden dropped the weapon she was holding and let go of Gabriel at the same time. Gabriel fell on to his hands and knees, next to the Glock, while Eden stood there with her hands in the air.

‘Don’t move!’ one of the cops screamed at Gabriel.

He looked at the cop, then at the gun. Eden stood beside him, her hands still in the air.

‘Move and I’ll shoot,’ yelled the cop.

Gabriel seemed to think about it. I still wonder, sometimes, what went through his head in that moment. If he thought about everything he’d built. If he remembered where he’d come from, the boy he’d once been: the boy who liked the theatre and computers, who’d been bullied and humiliated. I wonder if he contemplated what life would be like for him in jail, all his power and wealth and influence taken away. Nobody to protect him anymore.