Secrets (A Standalone Novel) (A Suspense Romance) (20 page)

When we reached the bottom
floor,
no one was asleep anymore. I saw Gunner’s body near the door
and it looked like he had a gunshot to his head. I looked away quickly. There
was no time to be sad about his death; that would have to come later.

“Line them up,” Gino said to the man who stood next to
Chris.

Everyone lined up quicker than I had hoped and within
a moment they were ready for Gino. Chris still held onto me as Gino moved
toward the line of people.

“This is over, I’m going to kill the girl if you don’t
step forward,” Gino said as he looked at the group of people.

I saw the guy from the bed and breakfast and he looked
at me and then at Chris. I didn’t know who the third guy was that Chris said
was undercover. I also didn’t know how on earth I would be able to stall this
situation at all. Chris and the other guy who Gino seemed to
trust
brought me up to the line of people and
stood me next to Gino.

Gino held onto me and Chris and the other guy let go
and stepped back. I felt more unsafe than I ever had. Gino clearly had no
concern for my life at all; he didn’t care about me or anyone else in the room.
He just didn’t want the
mole
to continue
to feed information to the police.

He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me down to the
first person in the line.

“Do you know him?” Gino asked.

I shook my head no. We stepped next in line.

“Do you know him?” he asked again.

I again shook my head no. I felt relieved though, if
this
was
how it was going to go, we would
easily take twenty minutes and the raid would be here by the time we got to the
end of the line. But I wasn’t that lucky. After about ten
people,
Gino got frustrated and threw me onto
the ground.

“Just tell me which one of these guys you know,” Gino
yelled.

Chris and the other man came and picked me up from the
floor.

“I know her,” the man from the bed and breakfast
stepped forward from the other end of the line. I looked at him with urgency; I
couldn’t understand why he had stepped forward. Why would he put himself at
risk if he knew the raid was coming?

I broke free from Chris and the other man holding me
and tried to cause a commotion, but Gino was there quickly and grabbed me by
the hair and pulled me toward him. His face was only a few inches away from
mine and I could smell his breath.

“You’ll be dead in a few minutes sweetheart, no
running away now.”
 
His eyes were cold
and void of any emotion. I felt the fear as it took over my body and I couldn’t
move. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t stand the thought of him killing the
guy that worked with Chris. I closed my eyes and felt Chris and the other man
grab onto me again.

This was it; it was all going to be over in just a
minute. That man was going to get shot and
then I
would die too. Gino made his way toward the man with his gun drawn, he passed
in front of Chris and I and then the other man who held onto me. I closed my
eyes for a moment as I thought Gino was going to shoot the man and I didn’t
want to see it happen.

Then suddenly the second man holding onto me let go
and wrapped his arm around Gino’s neck. Chris grabbed the gun out of his hands
and the man from the bed and breakfast took the gun and held it
toward
the long line of people. I could see the
shock on everyone’s faces. Not only was their boss being held in a
headlock
, but the two men that were closest to
him were the ones doing it. The two men that he had not expected at all were
the ones who had turned against him.

Luckily none of them had their weapons anymore since
Gino had suspected them all of being possible
moles
he must have had their weapons taken from them. A few of the people looked like
they might try to rescue their leader from Chris and the other man who held
him. But there wasn’t enough time.

Within
seconds,
there was a swarm of swat team people that broke down the door and screamed as
they entered the room. I stood still as the men forced their way into the crowd
and moved right past me. Each man grabbed one or two people and pressed them to
the floor as I heard them shout.

“Put your hands up,” they yelled. “Everyone on your
knees with your hands in the air.”

I looked at Chris and the other man that had been
holding me. They had control over Gino and were moving him to the ground. It
all had happened so quickly. I just stood there and took a step back as I
watched the whole
scene
unfold. It was
chaos as each person was held to the ground and searched for weapons. There was
screaming
and plenty
of swearing as
Gino’s men put up a valiant fight against the police force that was arresting
them.

I continued to move back farther and
farther from the scene until I ran into the wall on the other side of the room.
Then I slid down against the wall and started to shake as I realized the whole
thing was finally over.
I pulled my knees up to my chest and
covered my face as I was overcome with emotion by the whole situation.

Then suddenly I was swept up off the ground. I looked
up and saw Chris. He had me in his arms and walked with me out of the
warehouse. I expected he would set me down in the parking lot outside, but
instead he just kept walking.

“Where are you taking me?” I choked out, and he
continued to walk farther and farther away from the warehouse.

“Somewhere beautiful,” he said. He adjusted his grip
and continued to carry me. It reminded me of the night we first made love and
how he had carried me from the forest where I had been taking pictures all the
way back to my house. I let my head rest on his shoulder as the determination
in his steps brought us farther and farther away from the horror of the
warehouse. The sound of the police sirens began to get drown out as we moved
closer to the city and farther from the crime scene.

The sun was rising as Chris finally sat me down on a
bench overlooking the shipping yard. I could see the whole city of Chicago
behind me and the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen right in front of me.

“I wish I had my camera,” I whispered as I looked out
over the water.

Chris leaned down and kissed me. The gentle loving
kiss of a man who had finally finished the hardest job of his life.

“Some moments don’t need a camera to be remembered,”
Chris said.

He grabbed my hand and we both looked off into the
distance and watched the start of the new day and our new life together.

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This
book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual
events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2015 Claire Adams