Page 54 of Freeing Denver

“Slide me your guns,” I say to Ranger. “Both of them.”

Ranger looks between Colt and me but must weigh up his concern for Axel and his disdain for us and decide he’s more interested in finding his son. He unholsters both guns, skidding them across the floor. I pick up one, and Taf scoops up the other.

“Elevator. Third floor,” I say.

I try to call Axel again, but this time, he doesn’t pick up. The elevator ride is tense, Taf’s gun trained on Ranger’s skull, and I keep my distance, too, but Ranger doesn’t even try to overpower any of us. He keeps flexing his hands, his focus on the elevator doors.

They open onto a large, empty floor that looks under construction.

The floor is bare cement, sawdust scattered from abandoned power tools, wood balanced against walls. Windows make up the walls, a glittering, snowy city beyond them. The only completed fixture is what looks like a meeting room at the back, a rectangular-shaped space made up of more glass. Chairs are pushed to the edges, and a desk is in a far corner.

And on their knees in that room, bound and gagged, are Axel and Alison.

The walls may as well have collapsed in on me. My legs pull me forward and I’m running, Ranger beside me, both of us reaching the glass wall quickly. He pulls at the door, but it doesn’t budge.

I press my hand to the glass. Axel’s nose is bleeding, the silver tape over his mouth dirtied with red. He’s sweating, shirtless, looking exactly as he did when we left him earlier. Alison is still in his shirt, trembling, her mascara smudged beneath her eyes.

“Back up,” Colt says, and I do. He shoots the door hinges. Metal sparks, but the bullet doesn’t make a dent. When that doesn’t work, he and Taf fire at the glass. Spiders of white mar the walls, but they don’t break.

Bulletproof.

Ranger throws his shoulder into the door.

“We’ll get you out,” I say, unsure if they can even hear me. Axel is breathing fast, tears spilling down his cheeks, and he shakes his head. “We will.”

Alison sobs, her eyes pleading with Colt and Taf. Ranger rages at the door, throwing his full weight into it. Colt bolts to the far side of the room, picking up a sledgehammer and returning, his breathing fast as he swings it into the glass. The thud is loud, but the wall holds firm.

Something flashes across my face and Axel shouts into the tape. I look at my chest, where the glimmer of a red dot shines on my jacket before disappearing. It isn’t for me. Not through this glass. Not?—

“No!” I scream.

Red blasts through Alison’s forehead. Her skull shatters, and she slumps forward.

Colt and Taf bellow out their despair, but it becomes a muffled, distant sound.

The world slows. A tremble starts in me that has me moving without thinking. I give Ranger back his gun. We all fire at the glass, metal thudding into the impenetrable wall. The clear material becomes infected with off-white as it holds steady, but we don’t stop firing.

Axel is staring at Alison’s body, shaking his head. I run out of bullets and almost throw myself against the glass, screaming into it.

“Please don’t!” I cry out. I don’t know who I’m talking to. I don’t know who is doing this or if they can even hear me. “Please!”

Axel locks his eyes on me. Deep brown eyes so much like Ranger’s. He’s a kid again, the one who needed someone so badly but was ignored. The one who just wanted to be noticed, to be loved, to be remembered. A brother to me. A friend. The only Luxe who loved me right.

A tear falls down his cheek.

Red.

So much red.

Colt pulls me away from the glass and into his arms, but it’s too late.

I’ve already seen.

The image is burned into my mind.

Axel dying.

Axel murdered.