Authors: Lisa Ladew
Tags: #General Fiction
"What?"
"Justin's a mimic. He's one of those people who can unconsciously mirror those around him to put them at ease. He doesn't even know he's doing it most of the time. But when he's with you, he acts like a strong, confident, manly-man, because that's what you are."
"It would put me more at ease if he acted gay," Knox grumped.
"What exactly is acting gay?" Mica asked, laughter in her eyes.
"I don't know. Loud. With a funny voice. Flamboyant."
"Knox Rosesson, you live in San Francisco and you don't know one gay man, do you?" Mica scolded.
"Not true," Knox muttered. "I do, but most of them are like I just said."
Mica shook her head and gave him a sidelong glance like she didn't believe him.
Knox's wishes were answered on the night of the awards ceremony. He, Mica, Ruth, and Justin all planned to share the same limousine. As they arrived at Justin's apartment to pick him up, he and his date were waiting on the sidewalk, wearing matching black tuxedoes with lipstick-pink cummerbunds. After they got in and said hi to everyone, they sat across from Mica and Knox and held hands and kissed once. Knox watched their display of affection, thinking at least that part of the night was going right.
He tapped his fingers on his legs and his toes inside his expensive shoes, gazing out the window. Ruth and Mica talked endlessly next to him allowing him to worry in private. He watched the streets slide by, playing the floor plan of the building they were heading to over in his mind. He and Mica had visited the day before so he could scout the exits and talk to their security. The security had seemed mostly tight, with a few exceptions. He'd tried to talk them out of the VIP entrance, and the red carpet entrance, but the manager had sniffed and said it wasn't possible. Neither of these entrances would send the people entering through metal detectors, which Knox knew was incredibly dangerous. He had been happy to see the pictures of Bailey he had sent over taped up at the security gate, but he was scared it wouldn't mean much. Bailey was sneaky, and had already proved he could be a chameleon.
Their limo stopped in front of the stately downtown building, directly in front of the red carpet. Ruth exited first, waving to the small crowd and stopping to have her picture taken. Knox's eyes crawled over the face of every person he saw, his nerves on high alert. Daxton, Bronx, and Rock should already be inside, as paid guests, and should already be scanning the crowds, but he would be closest to Mica and have the most burden to keep her safe from immediate threats.
As they exited the limo, they too were stopped for pictures. Ruth waited for them, then they all went in the building together and sat in the very front row on the left side of the stage. The first half of the ceremony would be a short runway show, a video of some of Ruth's past shows, and then a montage of her life and career.
The seats filled quickly with people laughing and chatting like they didn't have a threat in the world. Knox got up several times and stalked to the end of the row, then back again, his eyes checking everywhere at once. His jacket felt too small, his lungs compressed, his chest heavy. The feeling that Bailey was there, close, watching them crushed him like a physical weight.
Knox sat down and considered telling Mica they had to leave, but he couldn't do it. Instead, he leaned close to her and whispered in her ear. "I'm feeling nervous, like Bailey is here. I don't know for sure, but don't leave my side."
Mica looked at him and nodded solemnly. She knew how antsy he had felt all week, but she'd had no such feeling. She took his hand and squeezed it before her attention was drawn away by Ruth again.
The show passed without incident. Knox tried to relax, but couldn't help feeling crosshairs on the back of his head the entire night. He texted with his brothers and Rock, and they all confirmed they saw nothing so far. They had micro radios, but wouldn't use them unless there was an incident. Which Knox prayed there wouldn't be.
After an hour and fifteen minutes, the lights came on and intermission was announced.
"I have to pee," Mica whispered, grabbing his elbow.
Knox stood up and looked around, finally feeling a bit better. Maybe he'd been nervous about nothing. They walked to the back of the large theatre-like room, towards the restrooms, men and women in expensive outfits talking and laughing all around them.
A line spilled out the door. Mica stood in back of it, Knox next to her, his eyes roaming over the crowds. An older woman walking towards them drew his attention. She was tall, wearing a fashionable cloak that made her look bulkier than she probably was. Her hair covered most of her face, but that wasn't what drew Knox. Something about the way she moved had him reaching for his radio with one hand and his gun with the other. The last thing he wanted to do was pull his gun in this crowded room, especially on a woman, but he'd always listened to his instincts and he wouldn't stop now. The woman smiled as her eyes tracked his movements. She pulled her cloak back on the right side and Knox got a look at what was under it. Brown, wrapped packages, all lined up in stacked, neat rows, with wires leading out of the top of them, tucked into pockets on a garment that encircled her waist. A homemade suicide vest.
Knox's eyes flew to the woman's face. Bailey in makeup and a wig. Knox's hand settled on the holster of his gun, although his heart knew it was too late. He'd seen Bailey's hand squeezing around the detonator. It was shaped almost like a grenade, and like a grenade it had a safety lever. Knox had no doubt any safety ring on the thing was already pulled and even if he managed to shoot Bailey clean, kill him instantly, as soon as his hand relaxed anyone within twenty feet of him would be caught in the blast. There were at least fifty people in their immediate vicinity.
Knox's heart plummeted as he realized he had lost. Bailey's evil, lipsticked grin said he knew he had won.
Knox squeezed his radio and muttered the last words he ever expected to say to his brothers, hoping it was loud enough for his micro ear mic to pick up with all the ambient noise. "Woman in dark cloak by the bathrooms. Suicide vest. Tell security to get these people out of here. Quietly."
Knox held his hands up at chest level so Bailey could see they were empty. He stepped in front of Mica, then said, "Take me. I'll go with you and you can do whatever you want to me. I swear I won't fight. But please let everyone else go."
Bailey sneered and laughed at him as Mica peeked around him, then squeezed his shoulder in fright. Knox didn't know whether to tell her to run or not. He wanted her safe more than he wanted to draw his next breath, but would Bailey just blow the place up if she took off? Knox thought he might. Could he really save Mica's life by sacrificing all of the pleasant, happy partygoers around him? He couldn't.
"Actually, pretty boy, I think I'll take the woman and do whatever I want to her. That way, you lose double." Bailey held the detonator up and let Knox get a close look at it. Exactly as he thought, it would go off if Bailey even relaxed his hand.
Out of the corner of his eye, Knox saw security moving behind Bailey, three men telling people to head to the exits. A woman screamed and yelled "Gun!" and people began pushing and running every way possible, one man rushing right between Bailey and Knox, his eyes crazed and looking everywhere at once. No one knew where the threat was except the two men with their eyes locked on each other, and Mica, holding on to Knox's tuxedo jacket. Knox could hear her breathing.
"Touch me, hero, and we all go up," Bailey sneered, reaching behind Knox to grab Mica's elbow. Women flowed out of the bathroom all around them, heading for the front exit. Knox opened his mouth, thinking he could stall Bailey long enough that all the people would clear out of the immediate vicinity, then he could tell Mica to run and throw himself on Bailey, grapple for control of the detonator. Maybe he had a chance.
Bailey punched him lightly in the stomach with the detonator, his expression making it obvious he didn't care if he lived or died. He almost seemed to dare Knox to go for it.
"See ya, hero. I hope they were worth it," he said, then pulled Mica towards the closest exit, her eyes wide and terrified. As Knox took three large steps after them, Bailey called over his shoulder, "Don't follow me, or we all go up together. If you let us go, I'll drive away with her and maybe you'll have a chance to rescue her from my evil clutches."
Knox stopped, knowing he couldn't believe Bailey, but knowing he had to. "Wait," Knox called after him. "Anything you want, it's yours. One billion dollars. I can give it to you."
Bailey ignored him and pushed the push bar on the heavy metal door of the exit. Knox knew it lead into a concrete hallway that ran underground in a kind of tunnel to the parking garage. A few people had run that way in the rush to escape the building, but not many. Knox watched Bailey and Mica disappear through the door, then followed, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood as he tried to decide what would put Mica in the least danger.
With a roar of absolute terror and frustration, he pushed open the door and rushed through. Bailey was already at the far end of the hallway almost to a T in the tunnel, his hand twisted around Mica's elbow. Knox ran towards them hesitantly, afraid he was signing her death warrant by doing so. As he watched, Mica twisted in Bailey's grip, her face a grimace of hatred. "Blow me up, you fucker!" she screamed. "But I'm not going one step farther with you!" She leaned away from him and kicked backwards with her legs, connecting with him, making him double over and lose his grip.
Go Mica!
Bailey grabbed at Mica and Knox put on a burst of speed, his blood pounding in his ears. Now was the time to tackle him, to...
Before Knox could reach them, a blur of movement of what looked like a large black sheet maneuvered between Mica and Bailey, and Mica went flying the other way as a man shoved her.
"Go, run!" the man shouted at her as he wrestled with the black sheet. It looked heavy as he tried to whip it onto Bailey.
Daxton! With a bomb blanket!
Knox ran faster, reaching Mica and pulling her past him. "Keep running," he urged as the door behind them opened. Knox whipped his head back towards Bailey and Daxton, but the two men were gone. Knox ran to the T in the hallway and looked both ways. Both sides were empty. He prayed his brother would be ok and took off down the left corridor because that was the one they had been closest to.
Cries of Police! and Stop! reached him from behind, but he knew he couldn't stop. That was his brother.
He ran as fast as he had ever run in his life, until a blast ripped the air in front of him, a shockwave shoving him backwards, knocking him to the ground.
"No!" Knox screamed, scrambling to his feet, running towards the blast, even as the smell of fire reached him. Daxton.
He had to find him. Maybe he was injured. He had to still be alive.
The concrete hallway opened up into the full parking garage. Signs on the concrete pillars just inside the garage blazed wildly, as did something big on the ground between the pillars. Knox spotted the bomb blanket a few feet from the blaze and ran to it, just as Daxton crawled out from underneath it.
Relief so great it threatened to knock him down rolled over Knox. He held out a hand to Dax, his eyes scanning the room for Bailey.
Another blast rocketed off the walls, causing them both to crouch and cover their heads. "He's got bombs set up down here. The whole place could blow!" Daxton screamed to be heard over the fire. They turned to run out but police officers filed into the room behind them, their guns out, shouting at the men to put their hands up.
Knox shot his hands into the air but waved behind him. "Bombs!" he shouted. Someone is trying to blow the building up. We have to go back!"
The police officers didn't move a muscle, all of them still had their guns out and pointed at them. Knox was about to try again when several more blasts went off behind him and he felt something whiz past his left ear. The officers pulled back, looking unsure. Knox maneuvered Dax to the left, knowing they were going to die if they stayed here, hoping the cops wouldn't shoot them when they moved.
"Run!" he shouted at the three officers closest to him, and they did, turning around, everyone running as a unit, running for their lives.
They ran four abreast through the hallway, finally pushing into the theatre. Knox didn't see Mica anywhere and he prayed someone had her outside the building. A few people and at least twenty security officers still stood in the room, staring towards the exit door.
"Get out of the building! Bombs are going off!" a cop shouted and Knox thought that was good advice. He ran with them, praying he would find Mica safe and sound when he made it outside.
Knox
Three months later, Seattle
Knox kissed Mica and watched her drive away with Justin on their first shopping adventure since the blast and massive fire at Ruth's award show. Four people injured. Only one person presumed dead. Bailey. What a miracle it had been. Over a hundred people had lost their cars, but all considered themselves lucky they hadn't lost their lives.
Bailey had wired the entire parking garage to blow up and they still didn't know how he had done it without ever being seen on one security camera. The best guess was that he had tampered with the main wire that led back to the security office, somehow showing it a bogus feed of the garage, but since all the cameras and wires had burned up, there was no way to know for sure.