"WHAT THE FUCK, LISA!" From her little presentation earlier I knew she wasn't out for anything good, but what the fuck?

She has killed enough people in the hallways, there was no goddamn need shooting my wife. It would've been so much smarter if she held the gun to Sierra's head and threatened to kill her unless I gave her some money. Even Nico would have been smart enough to come up with that. She should have known it would've gotten a hell ton out of me. I would be willing to give someone why whole ass bank account if that left Sierra unscratched.

"YOU'RE A CRAZY FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Nico kneels down to me and Sierra.

Sierra is coughing up blood, slipping in and out of consciousness. She smiles at me, as much as she can. Her eyelids grow heavy, it's obvious. "I—"

"No, don't talk, sweetheart." I take her hand in mine. What am I supposed to do? I can't possibly watch my wife die, but I can't leave to get help either. God knows, Lisa would shoot everything and everyone else the second I get back on my feet.

What I can do, however, is take off my shirt, crumble it up and press it to the wound to try and get it to stop bleeding. Not that it's going to any time soon.

"Do you want me to just shoot her in the head and—"

"Do you want to finish that sentence?" I snap. "Because if you do, I'll take that gun from you and shoot you in the head." Actually, I might do that anyway.

"Atlas, I didn't mean to shoot her," she tries to defend herself, but I really don't give a shit right now.

"But you did!"

Sierra moves slightly, continuing to cough.

"I swear, Atlas. I never planned to kill either of you."

I roll my eyes, taking a deep breath. Though, that's almost to impossible when your lungs won't breathe because your wife is way too close to death.

"Here's what's going to happen," I say, turning to Nico, not bothering to comment on Lisa's words. "You're going to walk out there, tell whoever you come across first to call an ambulance, and then you come back here and help me—" kill Lisa. "You'll wait here until the police gets here and you'll tell them exactly what happened."

He nods. "She didn't shoot your assistant." Aw well, good to know Athena is alright. "I saw her hide before I walked in here."

"So fucking get her!" I hand him the keys to my office. He needs them so he can lock the door and stop Lisa from leaving. Not that there's a chance she'll make it out of the building, but I'd rather not risk more of my employees dying.

I would call an ambulance all by myself, but Lisa took my phone and decided to throw it out of the window.

As he reaches the door, I speak through gritted teeth, "I swear, Nico, if Sierra dies..."

He looks at me, his eyes meeting mine. I'm sure I look more than mad right now, though somewhere behind all the madness is pure fear. Nico, however, he looks almost in pain as well. It's not just guilt that overcomes him, he is scared for me. "Don't worry, I've a criminal record. Well, I would if—not important. It won't hurt me to add murder to the list."

I can't lose her. If Sierra dies...then what? My life just started to make sense, I can't lose the one person that makes me feel alive. Not so soon, not ever.

I can't be alone again. Sure, I've Allie, too. But it's not the same. Call me an asshole for saying this, but a child isn't a replacement for the person you love.

God, I love my daughter with every piece of my heart...now to the asshole part; we've got possibilities to have another child. They're "replaceable," but I can't have another Sierra. When she's gone, I can't simply put myself out there and find another Sierra because there is none. Sure, losing a child fucking sucks, and it's pretty much one of the hardest things to go through...yet still I think losing the love of your life would be so much worse.

So, if Sierra dies...a damn huge part of me will die with her, if not all of me.

"I'm all done here," Lisa says, laughing. "Took you long enough to start a family."

My eyes snap to hers. She grins, a nasty grin. "Why?"

"I don't know, you tell me." God, why are some people so...stupid.

"Why were you out to kill her, Lisa?"

"Ah, easy." She scratches the side of her face with the gun. "You ruined my life, ergo, I had to ruin yours. You've got everything, ruining your company wouldn't have been enough, so killing your wife was the best I could do."

"You're fucking sick. Do you register what you've done? You're not making it out of here, perhaps you'll be dead in a week. How many people did you kill today? Ten? Fifteen?"

"Athena is running downstairs to let the cops inside," Nico informs me as walks back into the office, locking the door.

He walks up to Lisa like she isn't wearing a gun in her hands. And oddly enough, she simply gives it to him and falls down to her knees, crying. Like I give a shit if she were to jump out of the window right now.

"Atlas, I swear I had nothing to do with all of this." Oddly enough, I know he didn't. God, Nico is an asshole. He's all shades of fucked up for what he's done. But at the same time, I know he can be good. Dammit, he has a family of his own, even if Ava had to go through fucked up shit with him.

All that doesn't matter though—it does, but not right now. Because I know Nico couldn't murder someone. He couldn't plan anything like this.

Doesn't mean he won't have take responsibility for what he's done to Sierra eventually.

"I know you didn't." Sierra's eyes open again, but I'm pretty sure she's not with us. Not to the point where she can comprehend anything really. "Hey, sweetheart."

She smiles, or tries to. A hand of hers reaches up, the tips of her fingers gazing my jawline. "You—" she coughs, again a bit of blood coming up "—take care of..."

"Allie," I finish for her. Sierra's hand moves further up my face, a finger wiping underneath my eye.

"If I..." She inhales a shaky breath. "Die—"

"You won't." Nico and I say in unison. Why does he seem genuinely concerned for her? He has absolutely no fucking right to be.

"If, you have to..."

"I'm not even thinking about you dying, Sierra."

"Atlas," she speaks, her voice nothing above a whisper, shaking. "I love you."

My heart pinches, pains. You'd think I'm scared she dies, I wonder how she must feel. What she must be thinking.

"I love you." I take her hand in my free one, holding it.

Just when Sierra's eyes seem to be falling shut again, there's banging on the office doors. My eyes snap to Nico's, nodding for him to open the door.

I catch a glimpse of Lisa, she's still kneeling on the floor, and I'm pretty sure she's crying. Whatever she's got to cry about.

The door opens, instantly two paramedics come rushing in, followed by approximately ten cops. But I don't pay too much attention to them, my fullest attention is on my wife and the paramedics, who check her eyes and breathing before doing further investigation.

"Ayo! I didn't even do anything!" I hear Nico fight with a cop.

I may not be able to help Sierra right now, but I can save Nico from getting arrested for now. He has it coming with all the raping, but definitely not for what Lisa has done.

"He's not involved in any of what happened here," I tell the cop that's gripping onto Nico's collar. I point towards in blood covered Lisa, who's being ignored by every single cop in here. "She's done all of it." Like it isn't obvious by all the blood on her goddamn clothes.

"You sure?"

"Lisa Schmidt shot my goddamn wife and killed god knows how many people on the other floors. I am pretty damn sure."

Two of the policemen grab Lisa, forcing her on her feet. She doesn't try to fight it, which is too bad. I was hoping one of those guys might shoot her. As they escort her out, I notice the paramedics carrying Sierra out.

Nico and I follow them down. I'm too busy throwing questions at the paramedics and offering money to make sure Sierra survives, to care about him following us.

"Atlas, paying a million dollars won't save her if it's not possible." I know he's right...

I haven't been outside of the office since I heard the first shot. I could only assume Lisa has killed a few people as she marched in covered in blood. Walking passt the pile of dead bodies almost has me vomit right here on the spot. That's gonna be a lot more than just one funeral I'll pay for.

We make our way down, passing another couple of dead bodies. I can't keep my eyes off of Sierra. The paramedics have exchanged my shirt for anything medical, but even that is already drenched in her blood by now.

"Your daughter is with your assistant," Nico tells me.

Allie. I figured she would be somewhere safe, so I wasn't all too worried about that, but hell...Allie. What the hell am I supposed to do?

Walking out of the building feels a lot like being a full-on celebrity. Tons of reporters are around, even though most of the policemen keep them away from the leaving people. Tons of paramedics are around to check on everyone, quite a few running inside, most definitely to check on people that are still there.

I spot Cody, holding both Athena and my daughter in his arms. She's crying, though why shouldn't she? Then he looks up, his eyes meeting mine.

After years and years of friendship, you start to understand what the other person tries to tell you without even having to use words. So when his head tilts just the slightest, I know he's asking me about Sierra. Where is she?

For the first time in probably fifteen years, almost sixteen, I bring my hand to my own face and wipe tears away. She got shot.

Cody jumps off the concrete floor, rushing over to me, just as the paramedics carry Sierra out of the building. His eyes widen, instantly filling with tears. His face pales, draining of every single bit of colour. A hand of his finds to his mouth, Athena does the very same thing.

"Is she...?"

I shake my head, nod at the same time. I have absolutely no idea what she is. She's alive, but half dead. She's dead, but a quarter alive.

Allie coo's in Cody's arms, smiling as much as a baby can smile when she looks at me.

I take her from his arms, needing to hold her in my own.

"Mr. Storm," one of the paramedics says. "Are you coming to the hospital with us?" I nod immediately. "We're leaving in a minute or so. Your wife is unstable, so we'll have to stabilise her first, otherwise she might die during the drive to the hospital."

I nod, cause it's all I can do. My eyes drift towards my car, seeing Taco's head peaking out of the window.

Alright, so I've to take care of that. Patting up Sierra's pants pockets, I take out the car keys and hand them over to Nico. "Get Taco from my car and take him to mum, please." He simply nods.

"I go with her," says Cody. To hell will he. "I'm her brother."

"I'm her husband," I remind him. As her husband, and the father of the child we have together, I believe I have more rights to catch a ride with the ambulance.

"Sierra is dying because of you!" Cody grips both of his hands into his hair, pulling on it. "Because you had to bring the crazy bitch named Lisa back into your life!"

The paramedics have hooked Sierra to an EKG, the same that's currently beeping continuously. One shrill sound that says her heart stopped beating.