Page 28 of Atonement

“I have men on the ground, covering you, Ace. Unless you want me to tell them to back off?”

“Put them on Magnolia. Anything happens to her; I’m coming after you next.”

“Is that a threat.”

“It’s a fucking promise.” I end the call and shove the phone back in my pocket. Giving our little friend Timmy a slight push with the barrel of my gun, I grin as he anxiously makes his way towards the back door.

“Wha…what about me?” He stammers. “Who covers me?”

“You, Tim?” I laugh. “No one’s covering you. Fuck, didn’t you know? You’re the pawn, Timmy.” I hiss into his ear as he slowly opens the back door. “Disposable. Expendable. A puppet, whose strings have been pulled for the very last time.”

He stumbles over the doorstep as I hold him like a human shield with my gun held to his spine. The warehouse is pitch black, the only light shining in from small windows located all around the buildings 30-foot ceilings. It’s quiet. Too quiet. An eerie nightmare come to life as I take advantage of the silence when I hear a slight noise to my left and swing Timmy around to face it.

The low whistle of the silencer registers seconds before Timmy’s body goes rigid in my arms. His death happens so fast he doesn’t even have time to scream. A first maybe for our little rat friend, and I feel only a tiny bit guilty for his death as I release him and watch him drop to the floor.

The whistle of the silencer lightly pierces through the darkness again, as I barely have time to jump behind a nearby crate for cover. Timmy said there was two of them, maybe three, and my heart rate spikes as I look up, before glancing to both sides and making sure I’m not under an attack.

A light flicks on overhead and I still. I stop fucking breathing. Waiting. Mentally preparing for the worst and praying for the best.

A low laugh fills the room a second later. A woman’s laugh and my heart stops. Clapping rings through the large space, bouncing off the concrete walls and echoing through to the pit of my stomach. What the hell? I cock my gun, hold it high and take aim as I push off the crate and turn to face my fate.

The sound of the silencer weaves through the air and I duck, barely missing the bullet. Looking up, I take aim and land my shot right in the center of his skull. One down. One, possibly two more to go. I weave through more crates and catch a glimpse of my next opponent. Picking up my pace, I round the corner and don’t hesitate, landing a shot right at the base of his neck.

Timidly, I glance around me and walk slowly through the rest of the maze. The woman’s low laugh echoes once again off the walls around me and making me realize where we went wrong. We were never looking for the man from the weak surveillance videos. But a girl. A woman. And as I recognize the sound of her voice my blood turns ice cold because this little one played games with the wrong fucking people.

Sandra Winslow.

Or should I say Goldilocks.

Timmy was fucking with us from the start. Suddenly, I feel a whole lot less guilty over his death as I stare Goldilocks in the eyes and take a slow, calculated step froward.

“Very good,” her accent is thick as she smiles, her hands raise and her claps of sheer enjoyment ring through the space around us.

“You’re Russian,” I state the obvious, my breathing labored as I take another step forward. “Sandra…”

“Victoria,” she states with authority as her smile turns to stone. Her eyes glaze over, and she studies me as I take another step forward. “Sokolov. Maybe it’s you that can’t handle me, 0013.”

My eyebrows raise as I question just how she knows about my double identity.

“Oh, don’t be so shocked, Ace,” she laughs. “It was easy. We’d known Kira was looking into hiring the FBI’s most deadly weapon to spy on our military intelligence. How best to stop him, but to take away what he loves most? A loss that would drop him to his knees and make him weak. Defenseless and useless. Blinded by vengeance and incapable of seeing a rat, even when it was right under his nose.”

Motion catches my eyes to the right and I raise my gun, taking aim quickly, only to drop it back to my side a moment later as the world stops spinning.

Mathew. Emma.

I take off towards them. It’s been seven years, but I’ve seen pictures of them over time. I knew they were still alive. A fact I never told Magnolia for fear I’d fail her again.

Victoria holds up her hand and I stop, but only because the sick fuck who’s brought them back out into the light after all this time has a gun pointed straight at my daughter’s head. The prick behind him no doubt has another pointed at my son’s back from the panic reflected in his eyes.

“Deception is easiest played on the most powerful,” Victoria insists as my eyes stay locked on my children’s. “You believe in your strength so much; you never take the time to truly see what makes you weak.”

My daughter’s tears fall over as her lip quivers in horror. I look to my son and see him visibly trembling, his fear causing him to cry out, saying the name I never thought I’d hear again for the rest of my damned life. “Daddy.” I plead with them to hold on. This will all be over soon. I won’t fail them this time.

Glancing back at Victoria, a faint glimmer behind her catches my eye as I release a deep breath, filled with years of built up vengeance, glare at her and say, “The strongest man is the one who embraces his weakness.”

Her gasp is loud as the knife raises to her throat and I watch as Magnolia’s hand quickly pulls it across her skin. I don’t watch a second longer, I know all too well what’s spilled at the hands of my wife. Sweet revenge we’ve waited seven damn years for.

Glancing back to my right, I take aim and shoot the bastard that has his gun pressed to my daughter’s temple. He stumbles back, taking her with him and they both fall to the floor. I rush forward and hear a shot ring out a moment later.

My heart stills. My feet stop. The nightmare that I’ve been running from for seven years rushes back as real as the first day I felt it and I realize my mistake. I failed to protect my son.

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