Rivals

CHAPTER 54:

Killian

This was it.

As Reese drove Xander and I to Central Park in the darkness of the night, I knew, deep down, this was it.

Haywood did have a unit of men following us, ready to extract us all at any moment, but something was unsettling in my stomach about this meeting.

"This is where it ends once and for all Xander," Reese stated proudly to Xander, only he didn't acknowledge Reese's statement. "Xander?" Reese questioned.

"Hm? What did you say?" He asked loosely, like he was lost in his thoughts and trying to recall what Reese had just said to him.

"I said this is where we end this, once and for all," he stated confidently.

"Right, just keep driving," Xander stated flatly and turned his head away.

Reese was being too optimistic for the situation at hand. He's naive if he thinks everything is just going to go by smoothly tonight.

It's a do or die situation.

Any one of us could come out of here dead tonight, and I don't know how far Lachlan is willing to go, but we just have to be willing to go further.

"We're here," I stated flatly as Reese stopped the vehicle.

Xander then sighed and grabbed the door handle.

"Let's go," he stated with little confidence in his voice.

We all hopped out of the vehicle. Xander led the way and Reese and I posted up on the right and left of him as we walked into the park.

I could feel the men Haywood sent swarming around the park, hidden in the trees around us.

I could also feel Lachlan's presence as well.

Two armed men emerged from sixty meters away in the trees, Lachlan and Leon following suit behind them.

"No way, the son died in Russia," I breathed out, my body becoming stiff.

"Clearly he didn't," Reese scoffed as we kept walking.

With every step, I could see Xander's legs slowing.

And with Lachlan's every step, another armed man emerged from the darkness.

I stopped counting after twenty. It didn't matter at that point.

Lachlan wore rugged clothes, unlike Dante who always wore a suit. He had on a pair of ripped, skinny dark wash jeans and beat up brown boots. His black jacket was unzipped, revealing a gray shirt that had loose strings showing.

His blonde hair matched Xanders and was kept in a hair tie at the nape of his neck. Xander's eyes matched Lachlan's green ones perfectly and his bone structure was too similar to his as well.

The only different was Lachlan was thin and Xander had a much more meaty stature.

It probably felt like Xander was looking in a mirror, except, Xander still had his humanity in him.

Despite his appearance though, his demeanor captured nothing but arrogance and confidence. He didn't need to look the part of a wealthy gang leader to portray someone far more sinister. His unpolished and grunge look just proved the point that he's willing to get down and dirty into his jobs.

I looked passed Lachlan for a moment to Leon, whose brown eyes were locked on me. He smirked and shot me a wink and that only pushed me further into an angrier state.

He looked exactly as he had in Russia and it made my blood boil that he made it out of that building alive.

He should have died for the pain he inflicted that night.

"My boy," Lachlan exclaimed loudly, smiling at Xander crookedly. "Are you finally ready to come home?" He asked in a loud whisper.

Haywood

I drove to the spot where Lachlan's facility was at its most brittle, making it possible for me to break in.

That place just so happened to be the front door.

I turned my body around and backed the car up so I was a good distance away.

Before I did anything, I took a deep breath and placed the car in park.

"Let's do this," I announced as I hopped out of the car and opened the trunk where I kept my weaponry.

Before I loaded myself with weapons, I loaded up a backpack and placed it on my shoulders. Then I pulled out an RPG and loaded it, aiming at the doors.

"Time for some fun," I spoke aloud before firing the weapon.

The rocket flew in the direction on the doors with a loud whistle, bursting them open with the contact it made.

Flames emerged from the area as I placed on a mask to breathe through.

I took two automatic rifles from my vehicle and ran to the opening.

Shots were being fired from the inside from Lachlan's men, so I threw in a grenade and hid behind a wall.

"Grenade!" One yelled right before a large boom echoed in the small hallway, rubble and dust flying beside me.

I waited a moment before reentering the hallway and shooting at any sight of movement.

When the first floor was clear, I threw my backpack from my shoulders and unzipped in, revealing all the charges I threw in there.

I placed one on each wall and kept my guns on me just in case I was ambushed by any more men.

Two lefts, one right, down the stairs and Rebecca is at the end of the hall.

I took the two lefts and there was a metal door in my way so I set up an explosive to knock it down.

I ran down the hall and slid behind a metal filing cabinet.

"Contact," I yelled as the door blew from its hinges.

I threw a grenade down the hallway and let it explode before throwing a smoke and running through.

I took the right and went straight to the stairs.

"Rebecca?" I called out while taking off my mask. "Rebecca it's Haywood, Killian sent me here to get you," I shouted down the hallway.

"Haywood?" She called out to my surprise.

"Yes, I'm here to get you," I retorted as I jogged down the hall.

When I reached her cell I saw her grasping the metal bars.

She looked tired. Her blue eyes were hazy and she had purple and red hues beneath them. Her skin was pale and she looked weak. She had needle marks on both her arms and there was an empty IV bag dangling from a post behind her.

There was also a bed and a full plate of food behind her, so at least he was feeding her.

"I need you to get as far away from the bars as you can. I'm blowing the door in," I told her as I placed small charges on each bar.

She nodded and scrunched herself in the very back corner of the cell.

"That's good," I said while backing up. "I'm going to count down from five and it's going to blow so take cover," I declared. "Five, four, three, two," I shouted as I pressed a detonator.

The bars were blown from their hinges and I jumped through the smoke into the cell after her.

"I've got you," I told her as I gently hoisted her small body on my back. "Hold on tight," I instructed as she wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist.

I ran out the same way I came in, making sure all the charges I placed were activated.

When we reached the outside, I set her down in the backseat of my vehicle.

"Are you alright?" I asked her as she nodded. "You're going to be okay," I reassured her as I hopped in the driver's seat. "Kaboom," I said before I pressed a button that exploded the entire facility, the dirt from the ground smoking into the air as high as hotels.

I put the vehicle in drive and squealed away from the flying debris.