Axel

XIV

XIV

The Lesson

T R I N I T Y

"You know he's not going to give up that easily," I stated, looking at Sharp and then glancing at the retreating figure of Axel De Bastardo.

Sharp sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"I know," he replied, "this isn't just about you or the drugs anymore. This is personal for him. He wants revenge for Caroline."

Yeah, that part I could understand. I wanted some fucking revenge myself. After all that they did to me -- all the time they took from me -- I deserved to have my revenge.

"Come on, let's figure this shit out," Sharp said before marching back into the computer room with me in tow. Vaux hadn't moved an inch since we left, his eyes still trained on the screens before him. Even without knowing too much, I knew he had a passion for things like this. The level of focus and determination shone through him like a beacon, shedding light on any confusion amidst the darkness.

We were all studying the feed in front of our eyes, analyzing anything we could from it and how we could have it work in our favour. So far, the only thing we were sure of was that they were all hunting us down, whether it be together like my former organization and these Italian bastards, or apart like the Colombian assholes of the De Donté cartel. Either way, we had to come up with some form of plan before this all got too far.

"So this is all happening right now, right?" I asked, my eyes taking in all the burning buildings and the men still shooting at each other.

Vaux nodded.

"Where are all the emergency services then?" I questioned, "if there's this big of a commotion, there must be someone reporting it, right?"

"Two cops were on scene before the explosion and I hadn't seen them since the building exploded. I'm pretty sure they're either injured or dead considering their cop car which should still be..." Vaux trailed off as his eyes scanned the feed, "Ah, here. So they must still be there. Not sure why backup is taking this long, but then again they're cops so," he ended with a shrug.

"Speak of the devils," Sharp muttered as he watched officials surge the property. Cops, the fire departments, and medics flooded the screen and we watched as they made their stance and slowly but surely took over the scene. If they weren't dead, they were in handcuffs. The medics took care of the men on the ground and the flames slowly died down under the hands of the firefighters.

"I'd say... less than five hours before they clear the scene and the police do their little investigation of the crime scene," Sharp speculated.

I nodded in agreement.

"Sounds fair, and when everything cools down we should go and scope things out - take a look at the damage done," I suggested. Sharp rubbed his chin as he looked at the screen thoughtfully.

"We do need to, but definitely not now. Things need to die down before we go back down south, and we're definitely not going -- me and you. You need to rest up and take care of that injury --"

"What? No! I'm not being grounded simply because of that asshole!" I screamed.

Sharp snapped back. "Oh yes, you are. Trin, you're not ready to face anybody in combat. You can't even move your arm without wincing and don't be stupid enough to think that I don't know that. If we choose to go, you'll be staying here."

I glared at him harshly before marching out of the room. No less than three seconds later, I heard him bellowing my name behind me. I felt him grab my forearm as he closed in on me and spun me around to look at him.