More or Less {A.C.M}

26) It's Gone

Carter’s POV

 

As the shots start to ring out, I push back my hurt at how Piper shoved me away, and focus on the important matters. Piper’s pained hiss causes me to snap my head over to her direction, but from where I stand I can see it’s just a graze, and that she should be fine, and I need to stay focused on getting her out of here with just that graze. Piper begins to fire around the corner, and within minutes, I don’t hear any shots other than ours. I open my mouth to demand a cease fire, but Piper beats me to it.

 

“Hold fire, damnit!” She orders. She stands still for a few seconds, waiting before peeking her head around the corner. All I know is that something must've caught her attention because the next thing I know, she’s bolting around that damn corner like her life depends on it.

 

It only dawns on me as three other guys come barreling after her, aiming straight in her direction. I draw my gun, and fire at one of them, the bullet finding a home right through his side, through the rib cage and he falls back, hidden by another hallway. “Piper, duck!” Yennah screeches from beside me as the other two guys continue on towards her, one of them, firing off a shot. Piper immediately drops to the ground, and my heart falls with her. Only once I see her turn, and look at the guys heading for her, still moving at not bleeding to death, I let out an relieved, but still unsteady breath.

 

Before I can comprehend everything moving so fast, Jay shoves by me, and clocks one of the guys on the side of the head with the butt of his gun, completely taking him by surprise. The guy falls to the ground, and the other guy looks at Jay, completely and utterly shock. He’s practically dumbfounded by the moment’s action.

 

“What the hell, Jay?” Was all he could say before Jay shot him right between the eyes. To say I was shocked would be the understatement of the year. I definitely wasn’t expecting Jay to just pop up out of the blue like that.

 

He turns to me with an indifferent expression. “Better hurry if you want to find your-” Was all he could get out before he gets interrupted by a wail of distress. My head automatically snaps towards the direction it came from which is also the direction Piper disappeared to. “Son.” He adds softly.

 

Without a second to waste, I bolt towards that direction, my heart racing with anxiety and fear. It’s like all the paternal instincts I never had came rushing full fledged to the surface. I’ve never run so fucking fast in my life, and I’ve been chased by cops practically my whole life, but that cry just triggered something completely foreign deep inside me. My head is pounding, my palms are sweating, and the only thing I can manage to think about is My son could be right around this corner…

However, once I get to the wide open door, revealing only my worst nightmare, my thoughts take a dark turn. Before me stands a Piper I’ve never witnessed before. Body trembling, cheeks tear stricken, she stands weakly, the barrel of a gun I don’t have the patience to name pointed directly at her head. I go almost completely numb realizing how close to death she is. And, the worse part is that it’s not just her. If Piper goes, my baby goes with her. I can’t stand the thought of that. Before I can stop them, the words just fall from my lips, my voice shaking with nerves. “Dave-no!”

 

The look on his face depicts so many different emotions- anger, betrayal, confusion- it’s almost mind numbing to see this many emotions on his face. Dave never cared about anything, and yet, he seems like he cares a whole hell of a lot about me. Standing here in this doorway. My gun drawn, and boldly aimed right at him, prepared to take a shot if I need to. It doesn’t take long before his face just contorts with nothing, but rage as he keeps his gun cocked, and aimed at Piper, no doubt confident that hurting her would hurt me, using that as a last resort option at the moment. “I should have known you’d be weak enough to come back to her. It’s hard to believe I actually thought you could actually have the balls to stay away.” Dave scoffs, rolling his eyes, clearly annoyed by my weakness.