“Boss, let’s go,” the voice said again. “There are too many of them! The chopper is landing in two minutes. We need to get you out of here!”
Tiara stuck her head up from the side of the bed, and the man with the automatic weapon saw the top of her head. He sent an array of shots her way. One of them caught her in her right arm, and she gasped loudly, falling to the floor. The pain was one that she’d never felt before. It was like a searing burn that was constant. She held her arm with her left hand and scooted away from the spot where she was just at. Feathers from the pillows that the shooter had just shot up floated everywhere in the air, making it hard for him to see exactly where she had gone. But when she peeked around the corner of the bed, she looked just in time to see Vincent pointing at Stevelle, who was moving slightly on the ground.
“Grab him! He goes with us!”
“Noooo!” Tiara screamed and tried to get to her feet to stop them. But she dropped back down when the rapid gunfire rang out again. When she was finally able to get up, they were gone.
Not knowing what else to do, she scooted on the ground to where Keys lay and tried to hold her in her arms. Her arm still felt like it was on fire, but she didn’t care. Holding Keys in her arms reminded her of when she’d held Brandy. It felt like that had been so long ago. She removed the mask from Keys’s face and cringed at the sight of her nose. It was bloody and looked like it was broken.
“Keys, please don’t die on me,” Tiara said and then looked back over her shoulder at Stephanie, who was groaning and holding her head.
“That son of a bitch hit me!”
Tiara breathed a sigh of relief. She was happy that Stephanie was alive. She looked back down at Keys and nudged her. That time she got some movement. Keys moaned and opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she saw was Tiara’s somber face.
“Whoa,” she said. “You don’t look so good.”
“Neither do you, bitch.” Tiara looked at Keys’s broken arm and knew she would need medical attention ASAP. “Can you move?”
Keys nodded her head and winced as she tried to get to her feet. She was light-headed, and the pain in her arm was so powerful that it felt like her whole body had become numb. But she’d take a broken arm over a gunshot wound any day. Keys realized she was covered in blood, but she knew it couldn’t have all been hers. She looked at Tiara, and that’s when she realized Tiara was bleeding profusely from her arm.
“Damn, T,” she said, alarmed. “That nigga got you. I hope you got him back worse. We need to get to the hospital or something. Where’s Stevelle?”
She could tell by the way Tiara was looking at her that something very bad had happened. Her first thought was to pray that he hadn’t gotten killed. But then she hazily remembered Vincent shooting him. She frantically scanned the floor for his body.
“What happened to Stevelle, T?” she asked when she didn’t see him anywhere. “Where the fuck is he?”
“They took him,” Tiara said, biting back her tears.
“He-he’s not dead,” Tiara told her. “They took him. Vincent took him.”
Keys didn’t have the chance to say anything because suddenly the bedroom was swarmed with men with automatic weapons. Tiara recognized some of them from when she was a teenager; others were new faces. Their guns were pointed at everyone in the room, but once one of them recognized Tiara, their guns were dropped instantly.
“Princess,” one of the men called out. It was what all of Blake’s soldiers called her. She felt relieved and knew she was safe. “You probably don’t remember me, but I have known you since you were a little girl. My name is—”
“Frank,” Tiara finished. “I remember you. Vaguely, but I remember your name.”
“Are you OK? What happened?” Frank asked looking at Cat on the ground with half of her face blown off.
“I was shot. Vincent shot me,” Tiara said. “And my friend, she needs medical attention. Cousin Vincent and my mother tried to kill us. So I had to do what I had to do.”
Frank was silent for a second while he studied Tiara’s face, perhaps looking to see if she showed any signs that she was lying. When he saw the tears streaming down her face and the sadness and exhaustion in her eyes, he knew she was telling the truth.
“I knew something wasn’t right about her when she didn’t bring you back home after your incident,” he sighed.
The man looked back at the others and used one finger to point at Cat’s dead body. “Get this bitch’s body out of here. The rightful heir to the empire is home. Make sure Vincent never steps foot on this property again. Get an ambulance here pronto for these girls and line up those young thugs downstairs.”
“Young thugs?” Tiara instantly knew who Frank was talking about. “Are they OK? I mean, are they alive?”
“Are the alive? Those motherfuckers killed half of our people in security! Are they with you?”
“Yes,” Tiara nodded her head. “Please don’t hurt them. They only busted in here like that because they thought something bad had happened to me. Those are my people.”
“This is your show now, Princess,” Frank told her. “You tell me those are your people, I’ll respect that. I wouldn’t do a thing to harm them. Plus, with you back, I can finally retire because you can sign my check! I’m too old for this shit. I’m a good shot, but the only shot I want to take is one that contains whiskey. Those boys did their damn thing tonight. Those soldiers downstairs
