Page 37 of The Thief

The vile words the gunman said to me, the implications of what they meant, coupled with the painful, fearful, gut-wrenching churn in my stomach, made it feel like my whole world was shattering. I knew what they wanted to do to me—what they were going to do—was something I wouldn’t be able to come back from. Not with these men.

I think Tyler knew that too.

That’s why he didn’t think. He just threw himself across me,begging them, and Tyler didn’t beg anyone.

I knew he’d give his life for me.

I didn’t want him to, but it was all out of my control. Everything had changed in such a short space of time. The sand in our timer was rapidly falling away now.

Time was up.

No more second chances.

Tyler knew that by defending me, and putting the attention on him, he was only buying us time. And when that man dragged Tyler into the middle of the room and made him kneel, I prayed to every God there was that something would happen to stop it. But it seems only the devil was listening to my prayers today.

I could barely look, and yet I couldn’t look away as he pushed his gun against Tyler’s forehead, talking about bloodbaths and asking him if he had any last words.

How had it come to this?

The ringing in my ears intensified, and my body shook as the fear made me feel sick, helpless, like it was a bad movie that I didn’t want to be a part of, and yet, I couldn’t stop it. Even when I closed my eyes, the sounds penetrated my ears, haunting me. Dragging me further into the hell these men had created. An eternal hell. There was no way out.

I clung to Ava as she cried, but I cried too.

I cried loudly, unashamedly.

My heart was breaking as I begged them to leave him alone.

But my cries and pleas went unheard.

It was all for nothing.

There was panic and confusion as I heard shouting coming from every direction. Words were hollered that I couldn’t comprehend through the fog of my terrorised state of mind.

And then...

The world stopped turning.

Everything slowed to nothing as a shot was fired. I wailed as the sound of that bullet pierced the air and my heart. The bullet I’d prayed would never be released, but it was.

Through the distortion of my tears, I saw them both go down.

Tyler fell to the side, hitting the ground.

But it was Number Two who fell harder, his body jolting as he was thrown backwards from the force of a bullet that hit him right between the eyes.

I gasped, jerking my head to the side, my brain struggling to catch up with the events as they played out in front of me. And there, lying on the floor, clutching the gun he’d just fired in his outstretched arm, was Number One.

When he saw the shot through Two’s head, he let his arm go limp and closed his eyes with what looked like regret. Whether that was regret for having to kill one of his own or for what’d happened to Tyler, to all of us, was a mystery. The three men who’d stood with Two, that’d threatened Tyler only moments ago, fell back, edging towards One and the back office. They knew they’d made a mistake. And when we heard voices bellowing from outside in the street and police dogs barking, we knew time was running out for these men. The police were ready to take them out.

“We need to go. NOW!” Number One shouted to the others, standing on shaky legs. Blood poured down his face as he stumbled into the office to grab the last of the money.

I watched Tyler shuffle slowly across the floor where he lay, turning himself to face me. His eyes bored into mine withsomething like hope, and he mouthed, “Are you okay?”

I nodded through the tears that refused to stop falling.

This man had almost taken a bullet for us, and he was asking if I was okay.

He was something else.