Chapter Seven

Seven hours earlier, 10p.m.

Rob sat at the table in the interrogation room, alone. He couldn’t take just sitting here when Jess was fighting for her life at the Sterling Star. For all he knew, the ring leader could have shot her or something worse. Rob slammed his hands down on the table, and stood up. He ran his hand through his hair, blowing out an exasperated sigh.

Suddenly, the door opened. He turned around to see his mother walk in. He didn’t know how she could have gotten here so fast, but he didn’t care. “It’s about damn time,” Rob replied.

“Is that anyway to talk to your mother?” She smiled at him sympathetically, knowing his situation.

“C’mon, mom, I’m working against the clock here,” Rob said, getting a little impatient, “Bail me out, let me get back to the hotel.”

She shook her head at him. “I’m sorry, I don’t think so.”

“What do you mean you don’t think so?!” Rob just about shouted. “Jess’ life is on the line.”

“Which is exactly why you are staying here,” she told him.

Rob stared at her.

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Mostly everyone was quiet, except for the occasional footsteps from the men walking around and for Tasha. She was taking deep, shallow breaths. “What happened?” the terror could be heard in her voice.

“You were shot,” Kara told her.

Tasha let a terrified whine, “How?”

“Those creeps were just using you as an example,” Ruth answered. She stroked Tasha’s hair to try and calm her.

She tried to sit up again, but she fell back onto the couch, screaming as pain shot through her again. “No, no, no,” Kara whispered to her as she and Ruth kept her down, “Lay down, please, don’t move.” She still moaned in pain. “Don’t move or you’ll tear your sutures, okay?” Diego still watched the situation.

Tasha let out another whine. “How bad is it?” she wanted to know.

Kara and Ruth looked at each other. Kara looked back at Tasha. “Well, the bullet hit an artery. If it weren’t for a doctor on the outside, you would have been dead,” Kara explained.

“Douglas?” Tasha questioned, “Is he here? Where is he?”

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Jesse stood up from the step he was sitting, and walked over to Jake. “Call again,” he instructed the district attorney.

“They’re not picking up,” Jake informed him.

“Then, keep calling until they do,” Jesse demanded.

Jake looked at him. “Okay, I get that you’re concerned, but these things take time.” He began to walk away, but Jesse put his hand out and stopped him.

“Look, time is the one thing those hostages don’t have,” Jesse replied.

Jake continued to walk away.

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Suze gripped the knife in her hand. She turned to Adam sitting next to her. “It’s the knife they used on Tasha...Take it.” She turned her head forward to make sure Diego didn’t see her.

“I can’t,” Adam told her.

Suze turned to look at him again. “You can’t? I thought you wanted to get CeeCee out of here.” She glared at him, once again turning to see if Diego saw her or not.

Adam shook his head, “Not like this.”

She was getting impatient with him. “This way you might actually help her. Take. The. Knife. And use it.” Suze stared at him hard.

He stared back at her. “Give it to me.”

“What are you two muttering about?” Diego asked walked up to them, standing next to Suze. They both turned to face forward. They didn’t say anything. He moved to stand in front of Suze. “You care to tell me what’s going on?” She looked up at him.

Suze gripped the knife tighter. “You’re going to have to move me, because I can’t sit next to this freak anymore,” she replied, glancing at Adam apologetically.

Diego knelt down to her eye level. “And why is that?” He looked at Adam. “Was there something you said?”

Adam looked at him for a brief second, then looked back down. He shook his head.

“Interesting,” Diego nodded as he stood back up. He looked down at Suze. “So, you never said anything to her to make her want to move? Mmmm.” Diego moved behind her and knelt back down. He began stroking her hair. Suze flinched, and gritted her teeth.

Nicholas spoke up. “Would you mind if I checked on Tasha?”

Diego continued to touch Suze. “You can trade places with Ruth,” he instructed him, “She gets restless if she stays in one place for too long.” The men came over to bring Nicholas to Tasha and Ruth to Paul.

Tasha watched him as he found the place on her neck and took her pulse. “Hey, you gave us quite a scare. How are you feeling?” Nicholas asked her, soothingly.

“Well,...tight like my stomach is being pulled,” Tasha answered.

“That’s probably just the duct tape,” Kara suggested. “We had to use it to hold the stitches together.”

Tasha nodded, swallowing. “Did you get the bullet out?”

Kara shook her head. “No, but we did repair the artery.”

“With a lot of help from Jess,” Nicholas added.

Tasha laughed at little bit. “Jess?”

Nicholas and Kara smiled with her and nodded. “We couldn’t have done it without her, or Jesse.”

“He’s the real reason you’re still alive,” Kara put in.

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Jesse walked back up to Jake, who was talking with another officer. “Make him a deal.” The officer walked away. Jake turned to face the hotel with a sigh. Jesse kept pushing, “Offer the ring leader a suspended sentence in exchange for the hostages.”

Jake held a hand out to him. “Jesse, this guy doesn’t want to make a deal. If he did, we would have been able to negotiate with him hours ago,” Jake argued.

“Ok, so you’re just going to stand here,” Jesse commented, “You’re just going to stand here and let him dictate whether Susannah lives or dies!—“

“There are a dozen other hostages in there! I have to think about their welfare as well!” Jake yelled back at him. Jesse stared, taken aback. “We cannot make a move until he does.” He walked away after that, leaving Jesse standing there.

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“Let the police handle this,” Mary replied walking up to her son.

“You don’t understand,” Rob argued, “Jess is trapped in that hotel, and she’s pregnant.”

His mother’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?”

“Yeah,” Rob nodded, “so now you know why I have to get her out of there. So, forget it, mom, I’m not going to just sit here. Get out there and pay my bail. Otherwise I have to waste my time busting out of this place.”

Mary sighed. “Okay, I’ll get you released.”

“Good,” Rob went over and hugged his mother, “Thank you.”

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(A/N: I don’t want to confuse anybody more, but I’m taking CeeCee out of the vault and putting in Lena, the desk clerk. There’s something I need CeeCee for. Sorry for any confusion.)

Diego continued playing with Suze’s hair. “Some can’t resist the lure of a beautiful woman,” he spoke to Adam, “Are you sure you’re not tempted?”

Adam didn’t turn to look at him. “No,” he was watching CeeCee, “I’m too busy worrying about someone else.”

Diego went back to speaking to Suze. “I’m afraid I’m going to have deny your request to change partners. I think you might be able to benefit from the young man’s wisdom.” He stood back up, and then, suddenly, kicked Adam in the shoulder.

He walked away, over to Paul and Ruth. “You, on your feet,” Diego pointed his gun at Paul. “Time to pitch in for the cause.”

“Whose cause would that be?” Paul asked, standing up.

“Oh, you’ll have to wait and see,” Diego smiled at him. He took Paul’s arm and began to push him forward when Ruth stood up.

“Leave him alone,” she said. Paul tried to get her to stop, but it was no luck. “Why don’t you forget about the repeats before someone kills you like you deserve.”

Diego pointed his gun, “Will you sit down and shut up before I put a bullet through that pretty little head of yours.” Ruth reluctantly did what he said. “Thank you, good girl.” Diego took Paul’s arm again and began leading him away, “C’mon.”

Tasha was taking shallow, frantic breaths. Kara looked at the other men. “Can we please get Tasha something for the pain?” she asked them, “I don’t how much more of this she can take.”

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Diego pushed Paul down the hall. “Where are you taking me?” Paul questioned.

“Lightning girl’s brother is having some difficulty with his injury,” Diego explained, letting go of Paul’s arm, “I thought you could take his mind off of it. Maybe you tell him what’s going on between you and Miss Susannah. Does de Silva know what you’re doing with his little girlfriend? Well, maybe she takes turns with the two of you, one in daytime and one in—“ He didn’t get to finish, because Paul grabbed him by the collar and pushed him up against the wall.

“Don’t even say her name, you understand?” Paul warned him, just as Two came up and pointed her gun at Paul.

“I would take a step back if I were you,” Diego replied confidently. Paul slowly took his hands away as both guns were pointed at him. “This is your last warning. Keep that temper under control. There won’t be anything left for Nicholas to stitch back together. Get in.” Diego took Paul’s arm and pushed him to the room.

Paul opened the door, and Diego pulled it closed behind him. Paul looked down at Douglas lying on the couch. “Doug.”

“How’s Tasha?” was the first thing out of Douglas’ mouth.

“Uh, Nicholas was able to repair the artery and stop the bleeding,” Paul told him.

Douglas stared at him. “With what?”

“Just some items that we collected around the hotel,” Paul said. “Jesse de Silva talked him through the operation, Nicholas is with her now.”

“Will you do me a favor?” Douglas asked him.

“Yeah, of course,” Paul agreed.

“Will you tell my wife that I love her?”

“You can tell her yourself,” Paul replied, “when we all get out of here.”

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“Tasha, hey, look at me,” Kara spoke soothingly to her. Tasha was trying but failing to ignore the pain. She cried and whimpered. Nicholas pressed a damp towel to her forehead to cool her off. Tasha glanced at Kara. “I know it hurts, but you really need to ly still.”

Tasha shook her head. “I can’t,” she cried.

“Yes, you can,” Kara prompted her.

“Just keep breathing,” Nicholas added, “light, even breaths.”

“I-I c-ca--Ahhhhh!” Tasha screamed.

One of the men came over to them. “Shut her up,” he ordered them.

“How? She needs morphine,” Nicholas snapped at the man.

“Does this look like a pharmacy to you?” the man replied.

Kara stood up slowly. “Uh, in th-the hotel, th-there’s a, um, gift shop with medication. Can I please go get some?” she asked.

“Aspirin, and a few antacids are not going to help her out,” the man declined, “Sit down.” Kara slowly did as she was told.

However, Ruth wasn’t taking it. “No, no, but alcohol will,” she said jumping a little when the man turned to look at her. She pointed to a drink cart. “There’s a bottle right over there. If you want her to be quiet, you need to get her drunk. Trust me, it will take the edge off.”

“Fine, make it quick,” the man relented.

Ruth went over and got the alcohol from the cart. She brought it over, and handed it to Kara. “She’s lost a lot of blood, alcohol’s going to dehydrate her,” Nicholas warned as Kara began opening it.

“I’m being held together by duct tape. I think I should just take my chances,” Tasha replied. Nicholas held her head up a little bit so that Kara could help Tasha take a sip of the drink.

Kara took the bottle away. “Okay?”

“How’s the pain?” Nicholas asked.

“Um,...I pretty much loss all feeling, so either the vodka is working or my body is shutting down,” Tasha replied. Nicholas and Kara didn’t say anything. Tasha continued, “Listen, if I don’t make it out of here, I want—“

“Don’t–don’t talk like that,” Kara interrupted her, “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“I’m not a doctor, but I know that I lost a lot of blood and that can’t be good,” Tasha said.

“We are not going to let you die,” Nicholas insisted.

“I don’t want you to blame yourselves,” Tasha admitted. “You pulled off a miracle.”

“Yeah, and miracles don’t come around that often,” Nicholas replied, “So don’t waste the time you have thinking about how this all going to end.”

“You’re right,” Tasha whispered, “I should be thinking of more important things. Like my husband.”

“These men are armed with guns,” Adam whispered to Suze, “What do you think you’re going to do with that knife?”

“I don’t know,” Suze whispered bitterly, “but I’m not going to sit around and wait for them to kill us.”

“We don’t even know which one of them has the detonator,” Adam reminded her, “If you attack the wrong one, the others are going to explode the lobby.”

Suze hesitated for a minute. “Well, you know, no one’s ever saved themselves by giving in to fear...you survive by fighting back.” She took a deep breath. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

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Paul pulled a blanket up on Douglas so that he was more comfortable. “Does that help?” he asked him, still messing with the blanket.

“What would help is seeing my wife. Seeing for myself that she’s actually going to be okay,” Doug answered.

“You’ll see her soon,” Paul replied, “When we all get out of here.”

“You don’t understand. I need to be with her,” Doug argued, “She’s probably scared and upset. I need to be there to hold her and tell her that everything is going to be okay.”

Paul sat down on the arm of the couch. “You think I don’t want to be out there right now. But we can’t do anything crazy. We have to wait until the police get a handle on this or, I guess, until... the vault opens,” he said.

Doug stared at him coldly. “What if we’re all dead by then?”

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Jess and Dr Krantz jumped as they heard the doorknob turning on the other side. Cyrus quickly put his arms behind his back to pretend that he was still handcuffed. They both looked at the door as a one the men came in wielding a gun. “Let’s go,” the man briefly said.

“Where?” Jess questioned him.

“For a walk,” the man briefly said again.

Jess looked back at Cyrus, and then got up to go with the man. “My wrist,” Cyrus mock-complained.

The man stalked more into the room. He made his way past Jess over to check out Cyrus. The man pointed his gun at Jess, “Don’t move.” He turned to look at Dr Krantz again.

Jess took a step forward, then pretended to fall. “Ow!” she faked.

“What’s wrong?” the man looked at her.

Cyrus took his chance. He got up from the couch, and grabbed the man’s arm to take the gun. They struggled. Jess came up from behind, punching him in the back. The man fell to the floor. They stared at the fallen man for a second. Cyrus leaned on the couch, wincing in pain from his ribs. “Give me the gun,” he told Jess as he tried to get past the pain.

Jess moved over slowly to get it, and handed it to him. Cyrus kept the gun trained on the man as he backed to the door. He got to the door, going slow to make sure no one was coming. After checking the hallway, he came back in to plan their next move.

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Jake was looking through his binoculars at the building. Just as he was lowering them, a SWAT member came over to him. “We spotted movement off the south side of the service entrance,” the officer announced.

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Rob snuck behind the building quickly until he got to the service entrance. He pressed his back to wall so that no officers patrolling the grounds could see him. He looked at his watch. Thirty seconds until the locks reset and he can get inside.

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“I have a team in place,” the officer continued, “We are ready to move in and intercept them at any time.”

“Stand down,” Jake declined.

“But, sir, we—“ the officer tried to argue.

“I said stand down, captain,” Jake insisted, “That’s an order.”

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Three. Two. One. Rob looked at door when he heard the click. He quickly moved over to the door. This was it. He reached his hand slowly, and pushed the handle down carefully, a little afraid that an alarm will go off.

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The door was opened and Nicholas was pushed inside. He walked over to Doug, Paul was standing behind the door. “How long has he been unconscious?” Nicholas asked.

“Just a few minutes,” Paul answered.

“His pulse is all over the place,” Nicholas observed feeling Doug’s neck. “His concussion has gotten worse.” He looked over his shoulder at the man keeping his gun at them. Nicholas turned back around. “There’s no way they’re going to let us get him out of here.”

Paul walked over to the man. “Listen, this man is getting worse by the minute. If he doesn’t get proper medical care, there’s chance he could die,” he tried to persuade.

“Well, now, makes my job a lot easier now does it,” the man turned down. “One less person I have to watch.” He pushed Paul out of the way. “Now, back off.” The man reached for the door and closed it, leaving them in there.

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One of the men came over and pulled Kara up and away from Tasha. “Let’s go move.”

“No, we have—“ Kara started.

“Shut your mouth and move!” the man shouted at her. He pulled her away from the couch, and then pushed her down onto the floor. The man then pulled CeeCee up from her spot on the floor roughly, dropping her on the bench next to Ruth.

As soon as she was seated, CeeCee doubled over, gripping her stomach. “Oww!” Adam immediately jumped up, but the men pushed him back down with their guns, keeping their guns on him so that he wouldn’t move again.

“CeeCee, are you okay?” Ruth asked her, concerned.

She hesitated for a minute before responding, “I’m having a cramp.”

“Like a labor type cramp?” Ruth questioned.

“I don’t know,” she tried to get past it but couldn’t, “I don’t know, it might just be a Braxton Hicks, but I think I’m dehydrated.”

“Ok, alright, I’m going to go get you some water,” Ruth told her. She got up and made her way over to the drink cart.

Two stopped her. “Sit down!”

“She needs water, okay, since none of us want her to go into labor early, I’m going to get her a drink,” Ruth exclaimed motioning to CeeCee.

“Ruth, please, just come sit down, I’m fine,” CeeCee assured, except that she was still wincing in pain.

Suze stood up, despite Adam grabbing her arm and the guns pointing at her. “No, no, no, it’s not okay. Let Ruth get her water,” she replied as she struggled with men and then they lowered her to the floor. “C’mon, nobody want to worry about babies being born in the middle of all of this! Let go!”

Two looked around. Then her eyes found Ruth. She relented, “Get her the water.”

Ruth walked over to the cart to retrieve the water. She got it and began returning to CeeCee when Diego came back into the room. “Well, what’s this, what’s this? I leave for a few minutes and you get to serve refreshments?” He took Ruth’s arm, stopping her.

“She is dehydrated, she needs a drink,” Ruth argued again.

“Well, no doubt you all are a little—“

“No! She is having cramps, you psycho freak!” Ruth yelled at him, “And I’m trying to prevent her from having a baby.”

Diego looked at CeeCee. “Oh, that’s fascinating. You can stay off labor by drinking a few sips of water, wow.”

“Dehydration causes cramps, and cramps cause labor,” CeeCee explained through gritted teeth.

“She needs the water,” Ruth insisted.

Diego took the water from her. “Give me that, you. You need to be taught a lesson.” He looked at one of his men. “Take her in the back.” The man took a hold of Ruth and dragged her away.

Everybody watched. CeeCee turned to him after watching Ruth being dragged off. “She’s just scared.”

Diego held up the water bottle. “Do you want the water or not?”

“Please,” CeeCee whispered. Diego handed it to her. “Thank you.”

Diego smiled. “It’s the little courtesies that make life more bearable.” He looked around at everyone. “Don’t you think?” CeeCee slowly drank the water.

“How’s this for courtesy?” Suze spoke up, causing everybody to look at her with curiosity. She was on her knees, glaring. “I’m going to personally thank whatever cop blows your miserable head off.”

Diego began walking over to her. “Oh, will you? Attractive and mildly amusing, but you’re rapidly becoming a bunch of trouble.” He stopped in front of her, staring down at her.

Suze smirked, “You think I’m afraid of you?”

“Probably not, but you don’t strike me of being particularly bright either,” Diego replied.

“Ahhh!” CeeCee gripped her stomach again. Diego turned to look at her.

Suze snapped to action. She grabbed Diego’s leg, and, caught by surprise, he fell to the floor. He tried to get away, but Suze was faster. She held onto his head and held the knife to his throat with her other hand. “End this now,” she seethed, “Or you die.”

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Sorry for the long wait, but how’s that for a chapter. Please review.