Twisted Saga ReGenesis (Book 3 of 3)

Chapter 7 - Chaos

After giving their statements and cleared by the police, Josh and Owen return to the hotel. Released from the cruiser's back seat, the two of them rush inside behind the officers to see the carnage still laid out over the banquet floor.

"Gwen! James! Aaron! Where are you?" Josh" shouts, looking at the blood spilled on the ground.

"We're over here!" Audrey calls out as he sees Gwen wave to him.

"Go find Lucas and make sure he's alright!" He says to Owen as a look of fear shows in his eyes.

"Right, I pray that everyone is okay," Owen replies, taking off to search around the room.

Josh makes his way over as Audrey attends to someone, and it takes an immediate toll on his psyche.

"Josh...Josh!" Gwen yells to break his concentration from Nikki on the ground, bleeding from her stomach.

Gwen grabs him by the jaw to break from the state of shock.

"Josh, snap out of it; where are the girls? Where is Justin?" She wonders, locking eyes with him.

"He's probably at the hospital, a car hit him, and the kidnappers got away. I'm sorry, I failed." Josh whispers, overwhelmed with grief and anger.

"It's fine. We'll get them back; just breathe and relax. We'll figure out something. I've never known you to fail." Gwen reassures him as she pulls him in for an embrace with fear in her gut.

Sara's tore up, taking in the view of the room. She is one of the lucky ones who wasn't hit. Her husband wasn't so lucky getting shot in the shoulder.

"My God, how, how could this happen?" She mumbles at the sight of paramedics and police officers rushing to save lives throughout the room.

"Miss, are you sure you're not injured?" An EMT asks her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just can't figure out how this happened..." She musters to say as tears fall from her eyes.

"It'll be okay. We have the best of the best here." He tries to ease her worries as an EMT tends to Bryan's wound.

"Sir, come with me, and we'll get you squared away." They depart, Sara sits on the edge of the platform where the wedding party was gathered.

Audrey leaves with Nikki as Josh, Owen, Aaron, Kyle, and Gwen stand there watching as she's carted out to an ambulance.

"Hey ole boy, we need to gather up what we can and figure out who took our girls and why. They have a one-way ticket to Hell waiting for them." Owen mentions tightening his fists.

"Right, Kyle, you're with us! We'll need your clearance for resources and weapons." Josh implies after he snaps back to reality.

"I got you, Pop. We need to move now before James strips my access. He fired me a little bit ago." Kyle reveals, causing Josh and Owen to get curious.

"What? Why?" Owen asks, confused.

"Because I know more than I should. He plans on taking every patent he owns to leave for another startup company."

"This has everything I've collected from my secret contact who's kept an eye on him."

Livid beyond control at that moment, Josh looks around and doesn't see James.

"Fuck, he's not here. He must be on his way there to keep us from getting inside."

Sara stumbles her way over to them.

"I can get you inside and get you where you need to go." She divulges, feeling the fury of responsibility that all this happened.

"Let's head out, Owen. I'll have to ride with you or with you, Kyle. The Mustang got totaled." Josh says and waves to get a move on things.