Page 73 of Extraction
“We’re only human,” I heard her say through the screams. “Why don’t I hold the baby for a sec, and you can take a minute to breathe.” Selena shifted my son to her other hip and seemed to be considering the idea.
“Hold,” Cole ordered. “See if she’ll make the transfer.”
Nicole took a step closer. “We mothers need to stick together. Let me help you.” My boy, though still screaming, seemed to have turned his gaze to Nicole. “Hey, there, sweetheart.” She waved at him and gave him a big smile, and we could hear him hiccup through his wails. She reached for him, but Selena jumped back.
“Get back!” She reached into her bag and pulled out a gun and pointed it at my son’s head. John’s hand clamped down on my shoulder to hold me in place. “I hate this kid! I hate this place!”
“Hey,” Nicole stepped closer, and my vision blurred for a moment, “point the gun at me, not at the baby. If you want to kill someone, you kill me.”
“Just leave me alone!”
“Selena.” Nicole used her real name, and the woman’s eyes went wide. She swung the gun toward Nicole. “That’s right, keep the gun on me, drive that bullet into my head. If you’re going to be a murderer, do it right.”
“John…” I could barely speak, barely breathe.
“I know.” He kept his hand in place. “She’s got this.”
“If Selena hurts her…” I couldn’t finish the sentence because I couldn’t believe I said it.
Selena shuffled to the side of the boat, the gun still on Nicole. “Who are you?”
“I’m a friend, just trying to help.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Nicole reached for her phone, holding it up for her to see. “Rafael sent me.”
“Smart play,” John grunted.
“I was just talking to him, but he never mentioned you.”
“I was late,” Nicole looked around the boat then back to her, “but I’m here now. Just give me the boy, and you can be done here.”
Selena started to panic, and I knew something was about to happen. She shook my son, and he screamed even louder, then she hauled back and smacked him across his face with the back of the hand with the gun in it. Nicole jumped in horror and covered her face while John kept an iron grip on me to stop me from leaping onto the boat. “That gun’ll go off, Paul,” he hissed, and I could feel his terror.
“He needs to die the way his mama did!” Selena screamed and awkwardly dangled my son over the edge of the boat. Everything went still inside me. John let me go, and I jumped to my feet. Nicole’s eyes flew to mine, and she seemed to read my mind. I raised the gun and drilled a bullet through her temple, and as Selena’s arms gave out, Nicole caught my son, mid-fall. Selena fell over the side, and Nicole wrapped her arms around his tiny body and pressed him to her.
I leapt aboard the boat before I heard Cole’s command to move. John was right next to me as the rest of the guys ran toward us. I grabbed Nicole by the elbows as she clung to my son and made sure she was all right.
“I’m okay.” Her eyes were glossy, and she was shaking, but she was fine. “It’s okay, sweetie, you’re okay now. It’s okay.” She worked to console him, but he was too far gone.
“Damn.” I huffed and stepped back from them, at a total loss. John squeezed my shoulder and handed me my bag. He understood my need for something to do, and I started to plant some evidence that would make it look like Bruno and his soldiers had been there. They had a style when it came to ransacking a place, and I added one more thing for good measure.
“Is that a York candy wrapper?” Nicole asked.
I didn’t answer her. We didn’t have time.
“Let’s go.” Keith stepped onto the side of the boat and plucked two out of the three little cameras we’d planted. We wanted to see if they took the bait on Bruno. “I don’t trust we haven’t been seen.”
Nicole grabbed the bag Selena had dropped and stuffed in a few diapers along with some salted crackers she had brought.
“Let’s go.” I steered them off the boat and down the shoreline where we carefully made our way back toward the boat we arrived on. It wasn’t easy with my son still wailing, but who could blame him?
I hopped into the boat first and reached for my son, but he had a fistful of her dress and his head was buried into her chest as he cried. I knew from working at Shadows that our ‘guests’ needed to be handled very carefully, and if they found comfort in one of us, we didn’t intervene. Besides, now wasn’t the time. Instead, I reached out and practically lifted them both into the boat and down to the seat.
Within seconds, we were idling away from the shore and into the open water. My head spun with how everything went down, and I found myself getting upset with Nicole and how she put herself in danger. At the same time, she’d saved my son from likely drowning.
The guys were on high alert, and I checked to make sure I had a bullet in the chamber. We were far from being safe.
