Page 51 of The Assistant
Even though Harperhas made it clear she wants her space, I can’t help but feel like she’s warming up to me again. At the very least, she’s eating. That’s progress.
I give her as much space as I can, knowing she needs it right now. I’m not going to be aggressive or force her to act a certain way. I don’t have that authority right now, anyway. Before, she thought she was under this contract to get her art school tuition paid for, and now she knows that’s bullshit.
I’m sitting in the living room watching the news on mute so I can listen carefully to anything happening in the house. The odds of Malik finding the safe house are slim, but it doesn’t hurt to be paranoid right now. My phone rings, and I pull it out of my pocket, hoping it’s Xander or Quinton with some kind of information about where Malik might be.
As much as I want to be out hunting for him alongside them, Harper needs someone with her. I trust that Quinton and Xander will get the job done, though. This is what they do.
As it turns out, it’s my dad. I have half a mind to ignore the call and pretend like he doesn’t exist. I’m furious with him. He’s the one who orchestrated this entire ordeal, and he has no idea what Harper has gone through. He doesn’t even care. But at the same time, a part of me thinks that he might know about where I can find Malik, so answering seems important.
I slide the answer button to the right, and I have to blink a few times to make sense of what I’m seeing. It’s dark, and I have to squint my eyes to try to make out the shapes in the center of the screen. When I realize my father is in the center, tied to a chair, I know this is exactly who I’m looking for.
“I’ve heard about what you did at my estate,” Malik says as he turns the camera around to show him in the frame in front of my dad and Diana, who I’m now realizing is there too. “All of this for one whore? You have no idea what you’ve just started.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing. If I had to, I’d do it all over again,” I say, standing up and clenching my fist at my side while I watch him walk around my father and Diana.
“We can end this right now. Bring Harper here to me, without Xander at your side, and I’ll free the rest of your family,” Malik says.
I almost want to laugh. Malik must think I would do anything to spare them. I don’t want to see them hurt, but risking Harper to protect either of them is foolish. But at the same time, I know this isn’t going to end until Malik is gone. If he’s about to give me his location, I have to go through with this.
“Send me the location,” I say through gritted teeth as if I’m reluctantly going along. Malik smirks before hanging up the phone and texting over an address.
I immediately search for it on Google Maps and see it’s an old, abandoned warehouse seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It’ll be about an hour from where we are now.
The only reason I accepted his offer is because I won’t be going alone. If he doesn’t want Xander to come with me, Xander won’t. But he didn’t say anything about Quinton. Quinton is the next best thing. Xander raised him to be a near replica of himself, and if what happened Friday night is any indication of his abilities, I know we’re going to be able to make Malik regret ever messing with us.
I call Quinton and update him on everything that’s happening. He promptly agrees to meet me at the safe house so we can head to the warehouse together.
The hard part is explaining all of this to Harper. She’s already been through so much, and the idea of putting her back in Malik’s crosshairs is gut-wrenching, but I don’t have a choice. She wants him dead as much as I do. This is our opportunity to make that happen.
She reluctantly agrees and gets ready to go as Quinton arrives, and we go over the plan. I’m going to bring Harper in like a bargaining chip to save Diana and my dad. Before she’s handed over to Malik, Quinton and a few of his men are going to creep around the back of the warehouse and get the drop on him. We took out a lot of Malik’s army, so we won’t have many guards to contend with. But we’re positive there are going to be more of them.
When all of us are filled in on the plan, we make the drive to the warehouse in silence. I sit in the backseat with Harper to make sure she has company, but she keeps her eyes glued to the window while she nervously taps her foot on the ground.
As the warehouse comes into view, we park, and Harper and I get out of the car. Quinton and his men immediately begin swarming the warehouse as I approach with Harper in hand. When I slide open the doors to the warehouse, I see Malik standing in the center with his hostages, no other guards in sight.
Malik doesn’t say anything, nor does my dad. But as soon as Diana sees both of us, she starts shrieking and crying, almost unintelligible at first. I see everyone in the room looking at her with disgust on their faces, as they should.
“She’s here now! You can let us go,” Diana shouts at Malik. He looks down at her—tied to the chair—with frustration etched on his face. I can’t blame him; I’m furious with her myself. “None of this would even be happening if that whore had kept her legs closed!”
I look at Harper and see the pained look on her face as her mother lashes out at her. I wish there was a way I could shield her from these insults, but something tells me she’s used to it. She’s just not used to her mother selling her out to criminals.
“Shut the hell up,” I shout across the warehouse, my voice echoing through the empty space. Diana looks at my dad like he’s going to reprimand me for talking to her that way, but he just sits still in the chair, watching the exchange.
I can only imagine how angry he is with me for going against his plan. He probably thinks it’s all my fault we’re here. I doubt he has the ability to take any accountability for what happened. It was his greed and desire for Malik’s men that started this whole ordeal. Everything has been fine how it’s been—none of this needed to happen.
“I have to say I’m surprised you actually brought her,” Malik says with a grin as he approaches. “The bruises are healing nicely. I’m sure I can fetch a pretty penny for you when you are back at the brothel.”
He reaches out to touch Harper, and she recoils, backing away. I stand in front of him to let him know that’s not happening right now. “Untie them, and then you’ll get her.”
Malik watches me, trying to determine whether I’m trying to pull something. I am, but I don’t let it show. Xander isn’t here beside me, so he thinks that I obeyed his command. Little does he know, Quinton and five of his best men are all swarming the warehouse with guns in hand. If there are any guards walking around, they’re dead by now.
A gunshot sounds, and I know that’s my cue. Malik whips his head around to see what’s going on, reaching for the gun at his waist just as I duck to the ground with Harper in my arms. Malik looks down at us, ready to point his gun at me, but before he has a chance, the doors to the warehouse bust open all at once, and he doesn’t know where to look.
He points the gun in one direction and shoots recklessly. The bullet ricochets along one of the metal walls and backfires. He ducks out of the way and tries to scurry along the ground to keep Quinton and his men from spotting him. Bullets fly in his direction as Harper and I both move away. Quinton’s men keep a close eye on us to make sure we’re not caught by stray bullets.
Diana is once again shrieking in the seat as she shakes against the ropes, accidentally knocking herself over and falling to the ground. One of the guys cuts both of them free and helps Diana up to lead her toward a safe space at the end of the warehouse.
It’s chaos in the warehouse as Malik fires at Quinton and his men aimlessly. Smoke and gunpowder fill the dusty room so much that Harper and I are coughing as we take shelter against a wall. After a few minutes, the gunfire dies down and the smoke clears.
