The Cartel

Chapter XVI

Carly stayed near the door beside one of the guards, who shut the door behind her. Andrew walked forward to the desk.

Kayla didn't even look up. "You brought your assistant?"

Andrew pursed his lips. "You caught me at an awkward time."

One of Kayla's eyebrows went up at the word 'awkward' and she murmured, "Oh?"

Carly wanted to roll her eyes. Kayla's sense of devilish, inappropriate humor wasn't much different than when they were kids. And yet, Carly's ears burned as Andrew struggled to suppress a smirk.

"You need me," he reminded Kayla.

"Yes," Kayla said, placing her pen down. She wouldn't even look at Andrew's secretary, wouldn't acknowledge her existence. "How would you like to be promoted to chief researcher? You would communicate directly with me. Of course, your assistant would-"

Kayla's eyes had moved to Carly, who kept her head bowed. The criminal's eyes narrowed at her old-and very much alive-friend. Then her eyes moved to Andrew. For a moment, Kayla was speechless and stunned. Andrew held his chin high and refused to look at Kayla, as The Boss had done so similarly to Carly only seconds ago. Carly tensed, every emotion and muscle hardening at a wave of old memories-some good but sad, some evil and miserable, all including Kayla.

Kayla linked her fingers together on her desk. "I suppose you both have guns?"

The guards, suddenly very aware of the situation, reached for their guns, but Andrew and Carly had been prepared to grab their weapons while the guards had not been.

While Carly aimed hers at the guards, Andrew aimed his at Kayla-though not with his dominant hand thanks to his wound, making it slightly awkward-and said, "Put them down-and kick them away from you."

The security guards obeyed. Anger and fear struck their eyes. Andrew knew they were more pissed off at Andrew and Carly and more frightened of Kayla. They clearly expected her to get out of this alive and punish them.

Interesting, but not exactly the plan.

"How do you plan on escaping?" Kayla sneered, thinking they'd die the moment they stepped out of her office.

Andrew knew she'd alerted other security, probably with a button under her desk. Her hands were in her lap now, after all. Too bad she was hours late. Andrew and Carly had alerted their own backup hours before when sending in the stolen information.

"Why in the hell would I tell you the plan?" Andrew scoffed. "Stupid question, really."

"So, what? You're going to kill me?" Kayla challenged.

"Carly?" Andrew called.

"Yes?" she squeaked, not moving a muscle. The guards she had herded against the wall were staring at the ground, but she was afraid that if she took her eyes off them, one or both would be able to make a quick-most likely deadly-move.

"Should we at least give her a chance?" Andrew turned to look at Carly.

Mistake.

Kayla pulled her own gun out from a desk drawer that had been just centimeters from her finger tips. Now she leveled the gun to the back of Drew's head as a warning to Carly to keep quiet. Remaining in her comfortable seat, Kayla moved her aim to Carly.

"Andrew," Kayla said soothingly. "Turn slowly, unless you want Carly's blood on your hands. Carly, put the gun down, dear. I'm not sure you know how to use it properly anymore."

Carly gritted her teeth, but seeing the gun aimed at herself and not Andrew, she didn't budge. Andrew didn't let go of his weapon, though he did hold it away from himself as he turned to face Kayla.

Kayla groaned loudly. "You make this so much more complicated than it has to be-but then you always did. What if I shot Andrew in the head? His arm is already limp-shame-but then again, you killed two of my guards. Two for two?" She cocked her gun.

Carly tried to formulate a plan in her mind, but it was too cloudy and everything just led to Andrew's death. Unable to reason, she stayed with the gun aimed at the guards.

Still holding his own gun out and keeping his finger off the trigger, Andrew said, "Listen, maybe we can talk this out."

"Shut up!" Kayla snapped. "Drop it!"

She changed her aim again, returning to Andrew.

Mistake.

Carly switched her own aim rapidly and fired, going on pure instinct. The shot rang out. Kayla slumped back in her chair. Blood spilled from her lips. There was a dreadful cough, then nothing.

Carly stared at Kayla's limp body, her own hair and her own blood flowing around her. Panting softly, Carly lowered her gun at the sound of a helicopter. She put what energy she had left into focusing on not having a mental breakdown with all the sudden waves of various emotions - relief, confusion, exhilaration, thrill, and even despair. She had killed people before, but never had it been like this. It was all so exhausting - physically, emotionally, morally.

Andrew had spun back around to ward off the guards. "Don't reach for the gun unless you want to die. You hear that sound? The helicopters? That's hell." He added casually to the guards, "Or the Central Intelligence Agency, if you want to get technical."