Secrets and Lies (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 39: Safety

Gabby jerked awake.

Her head felt foggy. She blinked her eyes open and shut.

She was in a dark room that she didn’t recognize. There was a door cracked open leading out to another room.

It opened wider and Laurent came rushing in and turned on the light. He looked like he’d been sleeping.

“It’s okii.” He rubbed her arm. “You just have bad dream.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You scream.”

“I did?” The awful memory of everything came crashing back.

Her nightmare was simply a replay of it, except in the dream version Larry never got up off the floor.

Gabby gripped Laurent’s hand anxiously. “Where’s Larry?”

“I’m right here.”

Larry came in looking irritable and draped himself across the foot of the bed with his arm over his eyes and the other flung across the comforter. Her scream had woken him up, too.

Laurent told Gabby how she’d fainted. After she came to the detectives on the case brought them to this hotel suite and the doctor sedated her to help her sleep.

“They say it’s not safe for us to go home until they catch Sasha. The police outside the door.”

Larry chimed in his two cents. “Oui. The stupid cops don’t let us leave.”

Gabby reached over and poked Larry. Her dream had been so frightfully real she needed to feel him to make sure he was truly there.

Laurent left the room and came back with a pill and cup of water.

“Here. Take this. It make you go back to sleep.”

Gabby shook her head. “I don’t wanna sleep.” If she closed her eyes the nightmare might return.

“You have to. The doctor say you need rest. We all do.”

Larry popped up when he heard that. “Lau, you should stay with Gabby. I go back in the other room.”

“No!” Laurent and Gabby said it at the same time for different reasons.

Gabby knew she would rest easier with Larry closer. Laurent knew if took his eyes off Larry for a second his hardheaded twin would find a way to sneak out and try to go after Sasha on his own.

There seemed to be only one logical solution.

Larry took one look at his brother’s face and gave up. “Fine, whatever. Give me a pillow.”

Gabby reluctantly swallowed the pill. Then they all piled into the bed and turned off the light.

Laurent only meant to close his eyes for a second, but he nodded off and when he woke up Larry was gone.

“Larry!” he got up and went into the other room calling in a loud whisper careful not to wake Gabby.

The room was empty. He opened the door to the suite. The two police officers were still posted up on guard outside.

“Where my brother? Did you see him?”

“Oui. He left a few minutes ago.” They answered in English with heavy French accents.

“Why you let him leave?!”

“He is not under arrest. We could not hold him.”

Laurent headed for the elevator then changed his mind and decided the steps would be faster. He took the three flights to the lobby and ran out onto the street.

He saw Larry down the block getting into a car and yelled his name.

Larry heard him and stopped for a second, then jumped into the passenger seat. But before he closed the door he felt guilty and got out again.

Laurent jogged up to him.

“Lau, why you follow me?!”

Laurent bent over winded from running and gave Larry a look like ‘how dare you ask me such a dumb ass question?’.

“It’s not what you think. The cops gonna use me to lure Sasha. I don’t tell you because I know you try to stop me.”

“Are you crazy? One time almost shot not enough for you?”

Larry folded his arms stubbornly. “I wanna do this.”

Laurent thought it was too dangerous, but he wasn’t letting Larry go alone. “Well, I go, too.” He dived in the backseat before Larry could protest.

The police wired both of them up and fitted them with bulletproof vests under their clothes. An unmarked car dropped them off in front of Larry’s apartment confident that Sasha was probably in the area casing the building.

They lounged around the living room trying to act natural. After only about ten minutes Laurent got impatient.

“This silly. She not coming.”

“Be quiet! It’s only been few minutes.”

They heard a whimpering sound and Larry remembered he needed to feed Aswan. “Aswan! Come here boy.”

He followed the noise to the balcony. The glass door was open just enough for the puppy to squeeze through.

“Aswan, how you get out—,”. He stopped short.

Sasha was sitting on the rail clenching Aswan tightly around the neck. She had broken into the apartment hours ago and been hiding out there in the dark the whole time holding the dog hostage waiting for Larry to come home.

“Put him down, Sasha!” Larry leapt forward but Laurent came up behind him and held him around the chest.

She smiled an evil, deranged smile and dangled the puppy over the balcony. “Don’t come any closer!”

Aswan squirmed and whimpered louder.

“I know the police are here, Larry. DO YOU THINK I’M THAT DUMB? But I’m not going to jail. Uh-uh, baby. I’m jumping and I’m taking your precious little dog with me. I just wanted you to be here to see it.”

The S.W.A.T. team rushed in with guns drawn. They stopped when they saw Sasha was unarmed and threatening to go over the balcony. Someone radioed for a suicide negotiator to come up.

In the meantime Laurent held Larry back and tried to reason with her. “Sasha, come down, please. Nobody has to get hurt.”

He really didn’t care if she did, but he knew how much his brother loved that puppy.

Larry’s eyes clouded up more and more the louder Aswan squealed.

Sasha was merciless. “Now you’ll get to see what it feels like to lose something you love!”

She climbed barefoot onto the flat part of the stone rail clutching Aswan to her chest and teetering precariously back and forth.

She almost slipped and held one arm out to steady herself. Larry whistled and Aswan chomped down on the other arm. Shocked, she shrieked in pain and let go of him. Then she lost her balance and plunged backwards shouting Larry’s name on the way down.

Aswan scurried to safety and Larry scooped him up.

Laurent ran to the balcony rail and looked over the side. Sasha was spread eagle on the street below.

She was dead.