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When Cornia and Dallan came running down the stairs, Bobby opened fire with the pump and blew a hole in Cornia stomach and he went tumbling down the stairs. As he ran down the stairs, Dallan fired at Rain, but he missed her. Rain raised her weapon and fired; Dallan took cover and shot back. But when he stood up to fire, Rain fired twice, hitting him with one to the chest and one to the head.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the office, Barnes and Hawkins had finished gathering up as much dope and money as they could carry because they knew that they had lost the place to The Family and now it was time to get out of there.
They had installed a hydraulic lift in one of the utility closets on the second level that led to a tunnel that connected to the next building. Barnes and Hawkins had the lift loaded and were ready to leave when Barnes remember that he had a supply of molly and ecstasy in his safe that he didn’t want to leave.
“Go ahead down with that and send it back up for me,” Barnes said and the rushed off to his office.
“Fuck that shit, nigga,” Hawkins said and pressed the button. “You can go back for that shit if you wanna. I’m outta here,” he said and made the decision right then and there that he was not going to send the lift back up. When he reached the tunnel, Hawkins very quickly assembled the collapsible wire container, loaded it up with the drugs and money and rolled it as fast as he could through the tunnel.
Black and Carter ran up the steps. Once they made it to the second level, they split up and moved through the floor. Once Barnes got what he came for, he came out of the office and that was when he saw Black. He very quickly hid in a doorway and then slipped quietly back into his office and closed the door.
“Fuck,” he said quietly.
He listened closely to the footsteps coming toward him and readied his weapon as Black passed the door. Barnes opened the door, came up behind Black and began shooting. Black dove on the floor as Barnes kept firing. He returned fire while lying on the floor; crawling to get to cover as Barnes fired and screamed.
“Mutha fucka!”
Once Black was able to make it to cover and got to his feet, he exchanged fire with Barnes as he ran toward the utility closet. He was sure that if he could make it to that door, get in and lock it that he would be safe since the door was bulletproof. But Black shot him in the back before he could get there.
Black stood over Barnes body and fired twice more as Rain and Bobby joined him. “Barnes is dead.”
“Good,” Bobby said and shot him again.
“Mike,” Carter said. “You gotta see this.”
Black, Bobby and Rain walked over to Carter and he opened the utility closet door. “Check this out,” he said and opened the door. Black and Rain leaned forward and looked. “Careful,” Carter said.
“Where do you think it leads?” Bobby asked as he took a look.
“It leads out of here,” Black said and looked down the hall at Barnes’s body. “And I think Hawkins used it to get away.”
“Then it ain’t over,” Bobby said.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Detective Dawkins poured just a little bit of French Vanilla cream in her coffee, then she picked up both cups and went back to her desk.
“Thank you,” Kirk said.
“You’re welcome,” Dawkins said and sat down.
“This is hazelnut, right? Not French Vanilla, right?”
“Right.”
Kirk took a sip. “Perfect.”
“Now, where were we?”
“Chester Brightman, he was the first. He was murdered in a drive-by coming out of a bar.”
“Drive-by … with a woman … who miraculously survived the shooting without a scratch,” Dawkins said sarcastically because she believed the woman set him up to be murdered. “Tech boys recovered forty-two 5.56-millimeter rounds and one 7.62-millimeter round that killed Chet Bright. … Forty-two rounds, not a scratch. Oh, yeah, me and her are gonna have a conversation.”
“Jerry Demet was a little different,” Kirk began. “When they forced him out the back door of the store, Demet gets shot with a .338 Lapua Magnum round as soon as he stepped out, but his people were killed with 5.56-millimeter rounds.”
“Gene Hazelton and Irving Spencer’s gambling spot got hit and set the place on fire,” Dawkins said.
“In separate incidents,” Kirk added.