Hornet's Nest Ch. 07

"What?" His eyes widened at her, then briefly moved to Zack and Darren.

"Wesley. Please."

"Are you in danger?"

"They've not targeted us before, but now that they have David, I don't know."

He got to his feet, a little shakily. "Are you gonna call the police?"

Nobody responded to him, but Zack gave Darren a look, and Darren only looked back - "They'll take me in, and then what?"

"Wesley," Amelia started again. "Please. Just take Hanna and go."

I buried my head into my hands as the bickering started. Honestly, I don't think anybody was thinking straight. Nobody had slept. The world outside was steadily lightening with dawn. The birds were singing.

Why hadn't Alex called me yet? Were they suspecting me?

Wesley left with Hanna. The other three just kept talking in circles, as if forgetting I was there. I couldn't keep track of everything. Fatigue was setting in. I was exhausted. Emotionally, physically. I'd had a few bites of food in two or three days. I couldn't remember the last time I drank something.

I got up to head into the kitchen, and nobody reacted. I wanted to go upstairs, climb into David's bed, and wake up in twelve hours. Preferably with his body next to me and the realisation that none of this was real.

Darren's phone rang. Silence descended into the lounge. Energised through two glasses of water and knowing that it was going to be Driscoll, I darted back in.

"Put it on loud speaker," I said. "We need to hear."

Darren was staring at it with apprehension, but finally answered it and did so.

"Mister Sörensen, good morning."

"Good morning." Venom dripped out of his voice, and Driscoll chuckled.

"You've been very patient, thank you. This is the last call you're going to get from me. You'll be seeing Tyler by this afternoon, you simply have to do as you're told."

"Right."

"Now, there's a girl. I think you know her. You'll be meeting with her, and she'll be bringing you in."

Darren stared blankly at me. "Right. And who is she?"

"That's a surprise. But, and this is very important, Darren. Don't hurt her. No matter how much it might shock or anger you, don't you dare hurt her."

"Why would I hurt her? Is she important to you?"

"No, I wouldn't say so. But she's going out of her way to do something very difficult, and I respect that."

I think everyone was holding their breath, even Darren. He took a deep inhale and exhale, to calm nerves.

"You'll get a text with instructions. No deviations. If you turn up with anyone other than your self, you know what's going to happen. Don't force my hand. It's about time we talked, isn't it? It's time to be fucking civilised, Darren."

He hung up. Darren looked at the screen for a few seconds, then slipped it into his pocket. "Well," he declared. "That's settled, then."

"Oh my God," Amelia said. "You can't just play into his hand."

"What other choice is there?"

"He's doing this on purpose," I said. "He wants you to squirm. He's being as big a cunt as possible."

He studied me for a moment with his steely gaze. "Did he tell you what he wants?"

"He just said that he wants to talk to you. But I don't know." I pulled my phone out to check its battery. "I'm gonna get a call any minute now."

Their bickering was on the verge of starting again, but I patiently stared at my phone until it vibrated with an unknown number.

"Shut up," I said. "Fucking shut up."

"Girlie,"Alex's voice said."You're still awake, huh? Good. Where the fuck are you?"

"Where areyou?"

"We're thirty minutes or so outta town. We're comin' to pick you up. You're still there?"

"Yeah, I've just been fuckin' walking the streets trying to stay awake." I thought my disgruntled, tired, and pissy attitude was actually pretty believable.

He chuckled."I'm sorry. Tough night, huh? You're not done yet, boss still got work for you to do."

"I know."

"Give us a street, we'll find you. We're gonna go get somethin' to eat, and a nice big coffee, aight?"

"Okay." I hung up and typed a message to the number, naming a nearby street - the first that came to my head, something I knew was nearby and could quickly reach from the house. I looked up, straight into Zack's eyes. "I have to go."

"No," Darren said. "Wait."

"We've got like ten, fifteen minutes." I frowned at him. "I'm obviously going to be seeing you again quite soon."

"Yes, and by then it's too late."

Zack let out a deep, rumbling sigh, and Darren's gaze shot to him.

"They're not suspecting her." He almost laughed. "Zack, sheisa fucking mole."

So they wanted to cook up some crazy plan in ten minutes. Yeah, this wasn't happening. We'd had all the time in which they'd been bickering, and getting angry, and sighing, and swearing at each other instead.

If anything was going to work, Zack had to trust me. And he had to let me leave. He conveniently stood to block the door, that dark glare fixed on his face.

Darren received his text of instructions. He studied it, fingers tugging on his bottom lip, then glanced between us. "Violet, give him your number."

"What-" Zack started.

"Fucking do it," Darren snapped. Then he flicked through his own phone, and called someone. "Lawrence, good morning... Yes, I know it's early. Yes. It's important, yes... Right... If I can give a situation and a location, what can the police do?" There was a bemused pause from whoever was on the other end. "It's Driscoll, Lawrence. You want to catch a fucking Driscoll? ... All right, yes, well, you have until twelve."

"Oh my God," Amelia said again as he hung up. "Darren? You're doing this?"

"Yes."

"You can't. Darren youcan't."

"He said he wants to talk."

"So you're going to do what Vincent did?! No, please. Don't do this."

"Lia."

"Darren!"

Zack stared at me for a long time while their voices bounced back and forth. He was deciding on something. It was happening behind his eyes. He grabbed the collar of my jacket and tugged me out while Amelia and Darren kept arguing behind us. He shoved me towards the stairs, so I scaled them. He overtook me on the landing, heading for his bedroom, so I followed.

"Do you know how to fire a gun?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Actually know, not just think you know?"

"Yes."

He pulled a box down from on top of a wardrobe, and took out a pistol. He handed it to me. Then a magazine, separately, as if I was supposed to demonstrate that I knew what to do. So I slid it into the grip, pushed down the safety, cocked the slide, and put the safety back on.

There was another pause where we just looked at each other.

"How many bullets?" I asked.

"Eight."

I turned it in my hands, looking for information on the model. "This thing will still fire?"

"I fucking hope so."

I tucked it into an interior pocket of my jacket - it just about fit. I'm sure it wasn't actually designed to conceal handguns.

"Don't fuck this up," Zack said.

I frowned at him. "You make sure Darren doesn't fuck this up."

He smirked. I don't think I managed to smile back. As far as I knew or cared, he would never forgive me for this. I simply wasn't thinking further beyond the fact that the number of people I needed to save had substantially grown.

This was fucking ludicrous.

The air outside was fresh, the sunlight obnoxiously bright. I hurried to make my way to the road where the hitman, who was taking me out for coffee, was supposed to be meeting me.

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