I feel a numbing shiver run down my spine as I rush towards Nicole before she collapses to the ground.

"Oh, my god!" I gasp, catching her in my arms while I slump down to the floor with her. I pant heavily as I watch the red spot growing darker over her chest. Fuck no! My throat begins to constrict, with panic flooding through my entire body as my eyes catch the bullet wound on the right side of her chest just below her collarbone. All I could feel at this moment is sheer dread, like my head is going to fucking explode any second. Jesus! How the hell this happened?

I try hard to keep my composure in check, but my hands literally shake as I wrap them around her shoulder and rest her head over my lap. No...This is just a terrible nightmare. This can't be fucking real. I try to convince my mind by saying that. But when Nicole winces in pain, my eyes turn red in fury, realizing that this is indeed reality. I clench my jaw, feeling hot anger fabricating in every cell of my body, taking in the current state of Nicole.

My eyes immediately snap back to the direction from where the bullet came, and I grasp the scene occurring in front of me. Richard is fighting with Peter in a corner. Josh and Michael seem to be taking care of his other men on the other side of the hall and across from them stands Max, pointing a gun at us. I know his target was me, but Nicole took it on her to save me. Why the fuck she had to do that? I notice that he is limping from being shot by Richard earlier, but his face seems to be stern, carrying no trace of remorse. My jaw ticks in rage as I take out the gun Colby gave me and shoot him without having a fucking second thought. It hits his upper shoulder, and I watch him fall to the ground with a loud thud.

When I turn to look back at Nicole, Mark rushes towards us. He looks too shocked to say anything.

"Nicole..." He breathes after a moment, taking out his handkerchief. I watch him as he presses it against her wound to halt the bleeding. Fuck! What am I supposed to do now? Dread happens to consume me more now as I watch Nicole's face turning pale. I swallow hard, quickly glancing around, and when my eyes land on the entrance, I mentally begin to calculate the time it would take for me to make a run for it with Nicole.

I watch more men marching down from the stairs and that makes me realize it would be nearly impossible for me to make it through with everything going around. Apart from that, I can't forget that Millie and Martha are still here somewhere upstairs. So I do the only thing that seems to be appropriate at this moment. I pick her up and carry her to the back of a large pillar to my side so she could be away from everyone's view.

The noise of bullets, cracking of glasses, groaning, and screaming of men is still quite prominent in the background, but none of these seem to be important to me right now. I fucking don't care if the world is burning to ashes behind me. At this very second, all I fucking care about is to save Nicole.

I keep my arms secured around her as Mark kneels beside me. I feel like I can't bring myself to trust anyone at this moment, not even her father. I am panicking so much that I don't know what to do next. I run my fingers over her face in complete distraught as I look at her. Nicole doesn't shift her gaze to look at her father as she keeps staring at me.

"If the backup reaches here in a bit, we can get her to the hospital in time." Mark manages to say, and I look at him. I know he is pretty jolted up from inside, but he is trying to keep himself calm for the sake of Nicole.

"What do you mean?" I ask him in confusion.

He purses his lips and looks at Nicole before turning back to me. "I had informed the headquarters before arriving. They should be here any moment." He sighs in frustration and then says. "Maybe the location of this place is making them take too long."

I know I should be letting out a breath of relief knowing that at least he came with a plan, but I don't know why I still get this unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watch Nicole. Fuck! I know I can't take this. I can't let her suffer in front of my eyes. I can't be just dependent on the police to come and not think of other ways.

"Do you have your phone?" I snap my eyes at Mark and ask desperately. "Call the fucking ambulance."

He looks at me worriedly and then shakes his head in denial. What the hell? I curse, feeling frustrated with the situation. "Fuck!"

He purses his lips, and I turn back to check Nicole. "Wait...I don't have it, but I might know where it could be." Mark says, making me frown. Before I can look at him to ask what he means, he crouches down and rushes towards the entrance. I look at his back and wonder what he is trying to do as I watch him fight the guys interrupting him on his way.

When I catch the glimpse of dead bodies of guards lying outside the house, I remember something. My goods were taken away by the guards before I was brought here, and if I am not wrong, the same would have happened with Mark. Then the realization hits me that when Richard came in, he shot some of them in his way. So if luck is on our side, then we could retrieve our phones from their dead bodies. I don't know how many of their men are still out there, but I hope Mark would be able to fetch them.

I sigh in relief when he comes back soon. "I suppose these are yours." He hands me my phone and gun, and I watch him slide Nicole's phone into his back pocket.

"I've called the ambulance..." I look at him hopefully as he continues. "But I am not sure how much time it'll take to get here." He says in a low tone and it disappoints me.

I nod, hiding the ache in my heart, and look again at Nicole. Her breathing quickens as she gazes at me with half-lidded eyes. My eyes dart towards the blood oozing out and I curse again. "Fuck! Fuck! This is bad..." I look back into her eyes and shake her gently when she begins to close her eyes. "No, Nicole, stay with me. You are going to be alright."

Suddenly I hear footsteps approaching us, and my body tenses. I glance at Mark anxiously. I know this is not a safe place to stay for a long time. He stares at me, carrying a look of confidence over his face. "I'll take care of this. You stay with her." He says before disappearing on the other side of the pillar.

"Chris..." I move my head down at Nicole when she calls my name.

Her voice appears strained, and I wince. "Shhhh...don't speak, okay?" It's going to be fine." I clutch her tightly in my arms, feeling my eyes burn with hot tears. No, I can't lose her. I fucking can't!

"Chris, I am fine..." My cheeks dampen as I watch her blood smearing all over my shirt now.

"No, you are not," I say in disbelief with my lips quivering.

"You need to find Millie and Martha..." She places her palm over my chest and tries to speak when I look at her.

"Are you fucking serious? I am not leaving you..." I protest.

She clutches my shoulder tightly and grunts in pain. "You worked so hard to keep her safe...don't let her go now..." I close my eyes, tears streaming down them, and I shake my head in disapproval.

"I love you..." Her fingers caress my cheek as she whispers.

I snap my eyes down at her and speak, clenching my jaw. "No, you fucking do not say that. You are going to get more opportunities to profess your love...So don't make me feel like this is the fucking last time, okay?" I know I would have sounded rude, but right now I am not in a state to keep my emotions in check. Fuck! I've never felt so helpless in my life. And it feels like my mind doesn't really know how to tackle this situation.

Her soft blue eyes meet mine, and I frown when I see her lips curve up into a smile. "You know I am not going to die.." I stare at her in disbelief. I don't know where the hell that confidence came from in her voice, but it just gave me the strength that I fucking needed the most at this minute. Yes. she isn't going to die. I am not letting her go. She has to live. She has to live for the sake of our love. She has to live to let me watch her be the mother of our children.

I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and half-smile at her. "Yes, I fucking know." I pull her body close to me and look into her eyes. At that very second, time seems to stop and everything around us seems to fade away. All I could see before me are her beautiful blue eyes. I caress her cheek, not leaving her gaze.

"You can't fucking die and lead your way to heaven," I tell her angrily, and then pull her palm to place it over my heart. I grip her hand tightly. "Because you are meant to burn with me here in my hell."

She looks at me and nods. And I see a hint of a sparkle flashing in her eyes. Her gaze then slowly moves to the place where I kept her hand before getting back to look into my eyes. "Now hurry and get Martha and Millie. Go before I change my mind." She smiles weakly and at the same time, Mark gets back to us.

"Take care of her. I'll be back." I kiss Nicole's forehead and place her in Mark's lap.

"Where are you going?" He asks, looking up at me as I stand.

"Have something to take care of," I say before speeding towards the stairs.

There are splashes of blood on the floor and bodies everywhere as I make my way through them. I duck down, trying to protect my head from being blown out as I sprint in the direction of stairs. My eyes widen when I register Colby fighting with Peter and two other men. I am no one to question his ability. I know he can easily take them down. He is a trained fighter, and he has been doing this for such a long time.

When he catches me looking at him, he smirks, throwing his fist in the air to break the nose of the guy in front of him. I nod at him in appreciation before turning to look for Richard, but he doesn't seem to get in my view anywhere.

While I am wondering where Richard is, I catch a glimpse of Max, who is now standing a few feet away from me. Our eyes lock for a minute, and then he clenches his jaw. He appears to be in a pretty bad shape, with blood flowing down both from his shoulder and leg. I wonder how he still manages to stand with that leg. Max looks at me and I frown when he begins to make his way towards me, but before he could reach me, someone catches hold of his arm. I peek over his shoulder and find it to be Richard. He spins Max around, hitting him, and I take that opportunity to climb up the stairs.

A guy comes running down the steps and I smash my fist against his jaw, making him fall off the railing. I quickly reach up to the top, being aware of more men making their way towards me through the hallway. I take the support of the wall adjacent to the right of the hallway. Bullets fly to my side as I lean against the wall, catching my breath. I close my eyes, trying to calm myself. It wouldn't be a lie if I say my body is physically present trying to fight against this, but my heart is still there, down with Nicole. I hope we could get her to the hospital in time.

Picturing Nicole to be fine in my mind, I take out the gun, stepping out on the hallway, and shoot, hitting five men back to back in a row. I lead down the hallway when a man launches at me with a knife out of nowhere. Before I can process anything, his blade comes to my face. However, I grab his hand in mid-air before he can attack me. He is bulkier than me as I struggle with him, watching his dagger extending to my throat. But it takes me not more than a few minutes to twist his knife and shoot him in the abdomen. He clutches his stomach and falls back. I don't waste any time and quickly go around, opening the rooms on either side of the hallway to find Millie and Martha.

I frown when the doorknob of a corner door doesn't twist. It makes me suspicious. I try a couple of times before finally kicking it open. I scan the room after getting in it and sigh in relief when I find Millie and Martha sitting in a corner. I see that the taps and ropes are still on them as I walk towards them. A scowl appears on my face when they shake their heads vigorously, looking at me, and that's when a man dives from the side, hitting me. I get it now what they were trying to signal. Stumbling a bit, I try to regain my stability and see that it's Tony. It wouldn't be a surprise for me to find him to be on Max's side. Because he never really liked my rules, and me in particular.

"Finally, I get to deal with you the way I always wanted to." He says, pointing his gun at me. I look back to Millie behind him and then fix my eyes over him. I clench my jaw in anger as I remember Nicole telling me that he was the guy who hit her on the very first day when she was brought to me. It feels like yesterday when almost more than a year has passed since that incident. I guess I made a mistake by not ending him then and there.

He looks at me and smirks as if he is going to walk out alive from this room. How pitiful it is to know that he thinks he is smart. But I know he was never one and he could never be one. I shake my head before catching him off guard by kicking his gun off. He looks at me in disbelief as his gun falls in a far-away corner. His face grows angrier as he eyes me before hitting me on my face. Fuck! I should have been more careful.

I grab his fist before he could go for another and throw a punch on his face. He doesn't seem to back off, and we soon get into a nasty fight, beating the shit out of each other. My knuckles are bleeding by now and I could feel a sting in my cheek as I look at Tony's broken nose. Finally, I smash a hard punch at his face, this time making him fall to the ground. I jump on him and begin throwing punches back to back until he isn't fighting back.

Once I am done, I look back at Millie and Martha. They seem to be pretty horrified with the show I put on before them. But they still try to smile when I reach and remove their tapes. I get Martha first out of the ropes. She reaches to stand beside me as I untie Millie. As I am halfway through it, Millie's unexpected scream startles me. Before I realize why she did that, I find a metal wire go around my neck.

It begins to choke me, and I widen my eyes, noticing Tony behind me. He tries to strangle me by clasping the wire more and I fight back, attempting to free it with my fingers. I gasp for air as I feel the grip become tighter. My hands fall to the side shortly and my eyes begin to grow blurry, unable to resist it. When I feel like I am almost about to lose it, I hear a loud thud.

And with that, the wire loosens around my neck. I pull it away and try to catch a deep breath. I cough and rub my neck, still feeling the sensation of grip on it. When I turn back to see what has happened, I look at Martha holding a rod in her hand and Tony lying on the floor with a pool of blood around his head. She stares at his body with a murderous look on her face. And when she sees me watching her, she drops the rod abruptly, appearing a bit terrified.

"Thank you." I reach for her hand and say, trying to make her feel normal. She doesn't say anything but nods. I then look back at Millie and say. "It's okay. Let's get out of here."

I help Millie out and then walk out of the room. Millie holds my hand, and Martha follows us closely as we get through the hallway. I keep glancing around cautiously as we walk, not wanting to miss if anyone is still out there. Suddenly, I hear some noise and disturbance downstairs. I try to gather all my attention on it, and a wave of relief washes over my body when I realize what it is. It's the sound of sirens that ring in my ears, indicating that the ambulance and backup have arrived.

But as we are about to reach the stairs, I hear a gunshot, followed by another. I stop dead on track and pull Millie behind me. I signal them to stay there and rush to see what's going on. I stand by the railing and look down, and my eyes grow wide in horror when I see Richard's body hitting the floor. Everyone around seems just as stunned as me as they register what just happened. Richard's body lies lifeless on the ground, and I look at Max standing in front of it with his gun in his hand. His face fumes in rage as he glares at his body. And then he suddenly does something that I wasn't expecting him to do at the moment. He quickly averts his gaze in my direction and points his gun up at me.

I take a step back, utterly baffled by the situation. I keep my focus on Max and try to use my gun, but then I realize something. Fuck! What a perfect time it is to run out of bullets. I drop it down and begin to search for Colby's gun, but I don't find it. Where the fuck did it go? I guess I just dropped it somewhere and I don't know exactly where. I gulp harshly, thinking that it's the end. I watch him as he grips the trigger, but before he could pull it, cops march in through the door. In a blink of a second, they get to him and push him to the ground, taking his gun. Everything happens so quickly that I couldn't even get the time to register that it's over.

I watch handcuffs being put on Max and Peter and them being dragged out. Wild chaos seems to erupt downstairs, with all the paramedics and officers rushing in. This place is a crime scene with whatever happened here just now, and it would be sealed for investigation in no time. I sigh and close my eyes, trying to get some time for myself to process everything. After a minute I open my eyes to check whether what I saw was really true and it's confirmed when I still find Richard's body lying there.

I can't believe Richard is dead. I suddenly feel a lump form in my throat thinking that he came here to help me and lost his life. Am I the one responsible for his death? Then I shake my head and remind myself that he didn't come to help me. He came to get me back in his grip and take me again to the hell that I am trying to get rid of. He just wanted me to be alive so he could keep using me like he had been doing for these past years. He had been no less than Max or Peter in his deeds. And I don't have to take the blame for his death on me.

At least I can take peace in knowing that I am free now.

I sprint down the stairs with Millie and Martha when I get back to my senses, and I am immediately reminded about Nicole. I need to get her to the hospital. I reach the place where I left her and gasp in terror when I find her eyes closed and see that Mark isn't anywhere to be found. Fuck no! I immediately kneel down to check her breathing and let out a breath that I didn't even realize I was holding when I find it still there. I look around to find Mark but couldn't make out where he is in between all these people hustling around. So I pull her up and carry her in my arms.

"Oh my god, Nicole..." Millie gasps when she sees her. I look around again, and this time I see Colby. He spots us too and instantly rushes towards us.

"Take them with you. I'll meet you at the hospital." I say to Colby and he nods. I then turn to Martha and Millie. "He has helped us. You can trust him," I say, glancing at Colby and then look back at Millie. "I promise I'll see you later," I assure them and then speed towards the entrance. I push past the crowd, keeping my head low so as to avoid getting noticed. And I feel really lucky when nobody tries to stop or interrupt.