Declan could feel his heart pounding in his ears and he tried to focus on his breathing to get his heartbeat down to a more normal pace. Of course, that’d be a lot easier if there wasn’t someone holding a gun at them and keeping them hostage in some office. ‘Easy, easy,’ he thought to himself, trying to focus on his breathing again. And the fact that Tessa was in the room with him, still alive and breathing. Was she at home, safe and sound with the baby? No, but at least she was here in the room with him so he could keep her safe.
The sound of footsteps drew his attention back to the present and Declan watched the masked gunman walking around them, though he made sure to keep his head down while doing so. He had been reckless enough to try to get between the man and Tessa when they were being herded up here and all his actions did was earn him a hard whack with the butt of the man’s gun.
Seeing the look on Hannah’s face and hearing what one of the other hostages was saying spurred Declan into speaking himself. “Everything’s going to be fine. Help will be here soon,” he said in a low voice, not being able to keep himself from trying to help the others somehow. Help had to be on it’s way, right? There was no way a huge room of people could just be snatched up with no one alerting the police.
So many questions were running through Matt’s mind as he sat with his hands tied behind his back, his chest heaving up and down, adrenaline rushing through his veins. He tried to twist his hands, any way to get some slack on the zip ties would be fantastic, but all the plastic was doing was cutting into his skin. His brown eyes flicked from the man in the mask to the other people in the room… Ashley, Tessa, Declan… the others he didn’t recognise but he knew they were distressed. As the leader of one of the gangs, he felt like he needed to do something to protect these people. He could just about hear the muttering between the two kidnappers that this was to do with gangs. Matt wondered where Rosalie was and hoped she was safe. God, he needed her to be okay.
“Let’s start with a little game of introduce yourself,” one of the masked men said, pointing his gun at all of them one by one. He went round in a circle like he was trying to choose who was first to go. Matt glared at him, his hands clenched into fists and his jaw clenched too. God he just wanted to knock these people out. How dare they do this? Who did they think they were?
“Are you Diamonds?” He asked suddenly. “Or are you Hearts?” Matt knew they weren’t Hearts, but he couldn’t give away his position.
One of the men laughed. “It’s not your turn to ask questions.” He stepped forwards towards Matt, punching him in the face. “Although we don’t need to ask you who you are, Matthew Hartwell. Funny that your friend was killed by the Diamonds and then your wife shows up dead too. You must be great to be friends with.” The man turned his attention to Tessa, holding the gun to her. “And you? Who are you?”
“You’re okay, we’re okay.” Tessa spoke softly, softer than she intended as she cast a quick glance in Ashley’s direction. Her head was constantly turning back and forth as she tried to catch any conversation she could, one processor hanging from the aid around her ear - having been knocked off in the chaos - and leaving her right side in complete silence. It was a lovely addition to the throbbing of her cheekbone on that side, the result of having bumped in to something or someone, the details of moments ago a blur. Bright eyes continuously moved around, specifically coming to rest on Declan and leaving her with a pang of guilt each time. They shouldn’t have been here tonight, she should have argued more firmly about them staying home but then Avalon–
Immediately her mind went to their sister and what she could be going through but a fleeting moment later she was doing her best to focus elsewhere, focus on the now. She couldn’t think about Avalon or Olivia, the latter causing her chest to tighten and nausea to wash over her. She had a daughter to get home to, damn determined not to let her grow up without a mother, even if there was little to be done in the moment.
She looked over at Matt’s questioning in time to see the blow and audibly gasped. She opened her mouth to speak up, something in defense of their comments to him, but stammered when the gun was pointed at her. “T-Tessa. I don’t know what you want but–” She left it at that, stopping suddenly when the man stepped back and swung his arm out, the gun sweeping over their group in the process.
“What we want?” He laughed. “We want to know who you all really are, who has decided this city belongs to them and their little friends. Mr. Hartwell there had a great question, just the wrong audience.” He turned towards Hannah and raised the gun, looking down the sights at her and smirking. “Are you Diamonds? Or are you Hearts?” He looked around at the group, unphased at how easily he toyed with a life at the other end of the gun. “It’s confession time, folks. Unless we want it to get real messy in here.”
Hannah’s head was killing her and she would’ve gladly closed her eyes to catch some much needed sleep. However, the nightmare playing before her eyes was too much to turn a blind eye towards especially when there were more lives at stake other than just hers. She could see a distraught Ashely mumbling to himself but, what consolation could she offer him when she was going through the same struggle. The memories of that day threatened to come to the fore even as Hannah consciously tried to push them back. The last thing she needed was a panic attack. She was tearing up even as her breathing became more ragged as time passed but, she didn’t let the tears spill. She will not give these men the pleasure of seeing her cry. Not today. “It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay,” she chanted to herself, not believing a word but, it still kept her distracted enough to focus on her surroundings. Even if she wasn’t as observant as she tended to be usually.
Declan’s words made her nod almost imperceptibly, even as she tried to express her gratitude and reciprocate the sentiment but, failed miserably for just then Matthew spoke up earning himself a punch. Tessa gasped but, Hannah just cringed, a punch was so much better than a knife wound or a shot. ‘Do not think about knives or arrows, god damnit!’ She chastised herself.
However, when the gun turned towards Tessa, Hannah stiffened. “No, no, no,” she breathed in fear. She struggled against her bonds, watching the exchange with wide eyes and a gasp choking her up. The woman had a new born daughter, barely a month old. Tessa shouldn’t even be there, least of all with a gun trained to her head. She exhaled the breath that she didn’t even know that she’d been holding when the gun moved away from Tessa’s head even though it swept around the room rather carelessly.
The man’s words sent a chill up her spine. There was no way that she’d be giving up her real affiliation. As luck would have it, she was the next one to be staring down the end of the barrel of the gun. Her heartbeat was off the charts, sweat forming upon her forehead mingled with the blood that was still trickling down very slowly. “N-n-neither,” she lied with conviction in her eyes even though her words faltered. “I’m just a photographer. You c-can ask anyone here,” she added firmly, the thought that she had three alibis here, giving her strength enough to defy these bastards.
Guns, punches and the not so subtle promise of death if the rules weren’t complied with, it took everything the Englishman had not to voice his disapproval of the anonymous individuals he was sure he knew well. He had almost succeeded in biting his tongue. Almost.
Instinctively, Noah jerked to move when the gun fell upon Tessa, a woman he considered a friend and someone who was innocent in all of this. His action was halted by the ties holding his wrists behind his back. Of those held captive in his surroundings, there were only two people he could say for sure had gang affiliations, and if he remembered reading Rue’s extensive files right they weren’t even responsible for any sort of bloodshed. This sort of brutish, ill thought action was a bastardised twist of what he and Rue had set out to do and the angry look in his eyes nearly gave that away.
“Oi, prick, if you’re going to give it the big one pointing your gun how about you aim it over here, yeah? Not at a couple of girls.” He interrupted, his London accent thick. He anticipated some violence in return, expecting to be made an example of. He imagined his fellow captives would think it a consequence of an out of line addition, but he knew the real reason that lurked beneath.
While the Kings were made up predominantly of people who intended to rid the streets of those who flooded it with crime and violence, there were grumblings of ineffectualness crawling through the lower levels like a plague. Noah had noticed the whispers, the interactions that froze when he entered the room. He never thought impatience would mutate into mutiny, but this was an act of war waged within his very ranks while masking as a quick fire way to tear apart their enemies. No matter the results gained that night from the game at hand, Rue wouldn’t stand for it, and he would stand with her as she doled out the sort of justice such disrespect called for.
“You heard the girl, she’s a photographer. The cops are probably already on their way. You’ve got all of this all wrong, let us go, end this now before it goes too far because no matter the outcome there’s no way it can end well for you.” Noah’s words were offered on the surface as a civilian’s unsolicited advice, but the cool undertone to it would be recognisable to anyone under those masks who he and Kai had personally trained. Not a threat, not a prophecy, but a promise.
