“I have four additional heat sources coming from inside the room,” Sin heard through her earpiece. “Two hugging the wall to the left of the door and two hugging the right.”
“Ten-four,” Sin said. “What about the first you mentioned?”
“Still in front of the door. It hasn’t moved.”
One door down from the room in question, Sin reached down to reload but her gunbelt was empty. She reached down, pulled up the pantleg of her jeans and slid her 9mm out of the ankle holster strapped to her boot. She pointed to Fletcher and Baxter waved them to the right side of the door. She and Fletch would take the left. On her mark, they fired into the walls on either side of the door.
“Four lights extinguished,” Danny said. “I still see the one lying on the ground inside the door and the one hiding in the far corner.”
Sin took a deep breath and yelled, “Onyx, all your men are dead. I’m coming in. I just want my mother. You can have the money, just let me have my mother.”
She heard laughter from inside the room. “You must think I’m stupid. You and I both know how this ends, Angel. Only one of us walks away.”
“So, how do you want to play it? Personally, I think guns are a bit impersonal.”
“I’ll put mine down if you do.”
“I’m picking the lock,” Sin yelled. Using the barrel of her handgun, she reached out and scraped the hardware of the door making sure to stay low and behind the wall. As soon as she started making scratching noises, automatic fire ripped through the door. She and her men flattened themselves to the cement slab and covered their heads. Drywall, dust, and bullets flew overhead.
“He’s out of ammo, I repeat, he’s out of ammo,” Danny said.
Sin stood and gently pushed the door in. Fletch and Baxter flanked her as she made her way into the room. She glanced down at Carmelita, who stared up at her, eyes wide and unblinking.
She and Fletcher stepped over Carmelita, guns aimed at the couch that barricaded Onyx. “Get her out of here,” she said to Fletcher. “You and Johnson get her to Deb. Baxter, you lead the way out just in case there is any trash left to take out.”
“But, Sin—”
“No buts, Fletch. This is how it has to end.”
Fletcher dipped his chin in acknowledgement. She watched as he and Johnson pulled Carmelita from the room.
61
Sin scanned the room. Nothing was left but the couch in the far corner. Everything else had been removed to make the barricade on the stairs. “Are you gonna hide behind that couch like a pussy or are you gonna come out and play?” she snarled.
Onyx rose up from behind the couch. His hands out, showing a lack of weapons. “I don’t hide from anyone, how about you, Angel.”
She used her free hand to unbuckle her gunbelt and let it drop to the floor. Using her foot, she slid it into the hall. With the thumb of her gun hand, she depressed a small button on the grip of her semiautomatic and released the magazine, kicking it into the hall as it hit the floor. She then flipped her 9mm around using the trigger guard until it was dangling from her fingertip. Her eyes always on Onyx. As he stepped around the couch and into the middle of the room, she stepped forward and tossed her semiautomatic into the hall. She and Onyx stood about fifteen feet apart. “Now it’s just you and me,” she hissed.
Onyx cracked his knuckles and closed the distance between the two. “I hope you’re better at fighting than you are at Dominoes.”
“Only one way to find out. Come and get me, you ugly bastard.”
She knew his ego would get the best of him, and she was right. He snarled and attacked. Between her old leg and rib injuries as well as the bullet she took in her side, she wasn’t as mobile as she expected. Onyx barreled into her, shoulder first, knocking the wind out of her as she went down.
She slipped his grasp at the last second before hitting the cement and rolled to her right. She snapped a front kick in the process connecting with Onyx’s face. Through her earpiece, she could hear Danny give a blow-by-blow description. As she pulled herself into a standing position, she pulled the piece from her ear and tossed it on the ground. She watched Onyx rise to his feet and wipe blood from his cut lip. With one hand protecting her side, she waved him forward with the other. “Come on,” she said through stunted breaths. “This what you’ve always wanted. Fuck that Obeah bullshit.”
His face crimsoned, his eyes squinting to a slit. With a guttural yell, he charged. This time she was ready and threw a roundhouse kick at him causing him to faceplant. She heard his head crack against the cement.
“Now”, she heard him bellow.
Twisting, she saw the closet door fly open, a lone gunman taking aim at her. He went down before he had a chance to pull the trigger, blood splattered the wall behind him. She heard the sound of the bullet after he hit the floor.
“That’s the beauty of a supersonic round,” she snarled, “you never hear it coming.”
Onyx pulled himself off the ground, his face swollen where his facial bones were broken. He pulled an eight-inch blade from his belt. “I’m going to enjoy carving you into little pieces,” he mumbled, slicing the knife through the air as he approached.
She twisted her body to the left, avoiding the blade, but he plowed into her, knocking her to the ground. The back of her head smacked off the cement. She was dazed but her Fu Que instincts told her to roll away from his knife-hand. She heard the blade strike the concrete just to the left of her body. She kicked left, hoping to jar
