Page 51 of Remote Access

Quincy popped his fist into Fallon’s now-broken nose, blood splattering the walls. Fallon howled and kicked him, sending Quincy flying back into one of the shelves. Vases clattered to the floor and shattered.

Quincy scrambled to his feet and faced off with Rasputin, who grinned and held up his fists. He swung and Quincy dodged the blow, coming back with a fist to Rasputin’s gut. The guy grunted and swung again, but went wide and missed. Quincy hit him with an uppercut to the chin, more blood splattering the wall from his broken nose.

Next to them, Letsen grabbed Shelli by the hair. She screamed, kicking and punching, but he laughed and tightened his fist. He punched her so hard her eyes rolled back into her head.

With him distracted, Rasputin managed to get a blow into Quincy’s nose and he saw stars. Roaring, he lunged at the guy, slamming him into the wall again. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Lane grabbing something off a table just as Shelli screamed.

There was a crack and a grunt, then Letsen was falling, crashing into a table and knocking it over. A vase toppled to the floor and shattered.

And everyone went still.

Quincy had time only to see Lane’s face go ashen as he stared at a bloody, silver walking stick before Rasputin had a hold of Lane by the neck, his gun trained on Quincy.

“Don’t move or I’ll shoot the kid,” he growled. “What the hell did you do?”

Breathing hard, Quincy took in the slack face of Hayrick Letsen, who lay sprawled, his head at an unnatural angle against the corner of a fallen table. Blood pooled beneath him.

“I…I…” Lane dropped the walking stick, his entire body shaking.

“You stupid fucker,” Fallon raged just as Shelli came swinging with a baseball bat. He turned the gun toward her and Quincy jumped forward and knocked his arm up and away from the girl. He grabbed Lane’s arm and yanked him away just as another shot sounded.

Rasputin went down, his expression a macabre mask of shock.

The third man who’d run into the room took off up the stairs and Helix, who had obviously just taken out Rasputin, jumped over the dead man and ran after him. There was a shot and Helix hit the wall but brought up his gun and shot up the stairs.

The sound of a slumping body came right after.

Quincy held Lane tight to him, running his hands over his back, looking for wounds.

“I’m fine.” Lane’s voice was muffled against his chest.

He still didn’t let go.

Shelli rushed to Helix, who had his hand over his shoulder, blood seeping between his fingers. She tore off her T-shirt and bunched the cloth against his wound. “We have to get you to a hospital.”

“No, no hospitals. You want to explain a gunshot wound? I got a guy I can get to come here. Vet with a lovely incinerator—one who will be thrilled with this turn of events.” Helix gave her a pained smile as he sunk to sit on the floor against the wall. “Holy shit, Lane.”

“I thought he was going to kill Shelli so I just hit him to get him to stop. I didn’t know that thing would pack such a punch.”

“It’s solid silver, but it wasn’t you that killed him.” Quincy pointed the corner of the table, which was covered in blood and bits of hair. “The table did most of the work. Looks like it cracked open his skull.”

Lane’s already pale face went ashen and he turned and rushed to the corner where he heaved.

Poor kid.

He went to Lane, who stood, swaying on his feet as he wiped his mouth with the bottom of his T-shirt. He surveyed the room. “This isn’t how I pictured any of this going down.” He hugged his arms about his body. “What the hell do we do now?”

Helix looked at Quincy. “I don’t suppose I could talk you into letting me take care of this and you not calling in the cops.”

Quincy was still too stunned over the turn of events to answer right away. He stared at Lane, then Shelli, knowing that if he did what he should do, they along with Helix would end up in prison for life. But it went against everything that he was to do anything different.

Lane watched him quietly and he knew the right thing to do in this case was not on the side of the law.

“No,” he said softly, smiling at Lane. “I’m not calling in the cops.” He turned to Helix, knowing he would have to defer to the younger man’s knowledge and experience here. “But we need to get you medical help and you’re from this area, so you tell us what to do now.”

Chapter Eighteen

Five hours later they sat in the kitchen, staring at the computer Shelli had set up on the table. Lane still couldn’t believe that Quincy had gone along with everything Helix directed. There were still bodies in the basement and he shuddered at the thought of what they would have to do with them.

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