The Gambit (72 page)

“I made it,” I gasped.

“Bravo, Rachel,” Viktor complimented.

“Briana, your ID just saved my ass. She put it under UV light and it still worked.”

“That’s what I’m here for,
amiga
,” she chuckled.

“Grey and Natasha, thank you so much for getting me in here.”

“Don’t thank me,” Natasha said. “It was all Grey.”

“She’s too kind,” he added humbly.

Ding.

The elevator opened. This floor was like I had just taken a time machine back to the nineties. The carpet was a faded coral, and the wallpaper was light yellow. I remembered Lucas’s instructions.

First office on your left
. There were a few women on the right in their cubicles, but they weren’t paying any attention to me.

I gently pushed opened the first door on the left and saw Megan and Natasha sitting across from each other.

“Long time no see,” Natasha said.

“Tell me about it.”

Megan sat there with her perfectly straight, white-blonde hair and remained expressionless. I wondered if she was as nervous as I was. The almost hot metal against my outer thigh was a constant reminder of what I was about to do. I didn’t say a word to her. Her lips were pressed together, and she stared back at me with blue eyes that were searching my own.

She nodded her head and stood up. Natasha revealed a soft smile.

“We’ll see you on the other side,” she said and gave me a nod. “I know how much Viktor wanted to do this himself one day, but it wouldn’t be right if it was anyone other than you.”

My breathing became more pronounced as the time slipped forward. It was hard to grasp that this was even reality…but undoubtedly, it was. The pain I had endured
was
real. Owen and my mother
were
gone, and I couldn’t get them back. The aching feeling in my gut returned, and I harnessed it. I controlled it and didn’t let it control me. I was finished being the victim. The people I loved were ripped out of my life, and there was only one thing left to do—to make them pay the debt for what they took. Blood for blood.

I placed my hand gently on Natasha’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” I said, gently. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

Megan stood beside me and waited until I said my goodbyes to open the door. I noticed her chest rising quicker than normal. She
was
nervous. My heels were silenced by the carpet, and I was thankful. Veronica probably thought she had won, and that she had nothing to worry about. Unfortunately for her, I was just down the hall, and in a few moments she would be face to face with
me
—the woman she stole everything from.

“Viktor,” Natasha’s voice sounded in my earpiece. “It is time to come.”

“I’m on it,” he answered.

Megan turned a corner and I followed her around it. We began down an elongated hall that seemed to stretch out forever, and there was a single, opaque glass door at the end of it.

“Is that it?” I whispered.

“Yes.”

My memories of Owen began to flood my mind. The day at the café when I had the courage to first approach him with my idea, the conversation we had in the pool in Miami, and the night on the beach. There were so many others darting around, all of which were precious to me.

My steps were measured, and as we neared the door my heart began to race. I knew if Owen and my mother were here, things would be different. I wouldn’t crave the revenge so ravenously, and in all my conversations with him, there was one thing I remembered above all else. What I was about to do, this wasn’t for
me
. This was for
everyone
. Every life that was lost in the Confinement, and all the families that were torn apart—this was for
them
. If we didn’t stand up for our freedom, who would? That was what I had realized throughout this journey, from Owen and Viktor, was that this wasn’t an isolated incident. This had been going on for decades, only reaching its pinnacle in the time after the Confinement. All the elites were in on this, and they couldn’t care less. They had the power and influence to keep us subdued forever.
We
were the last hope for this great country, and I would be damned if I sat back and watched our citizens get piled into Camps by the hundreds of thousands.
No
, that would never happen again. Not on my watch.

We were ten feet from the door, and I caught a whiff of Megan’s perfume. Her long, blonde hair flowed side to side with her every step. She was well-built, and we had similar figures. I knew she was a big part of Owen’s life, and on a personal basis, I was jealous. I wanted to say something snide. Last night, I finally had the courage to ask Grey how long she was with him. They were together for five years. I remembered on the drive to Orlando he had mentioned that he only had one girlfriend since he was twenty-one. They were together less than two years ago. It hurt to know they were an item for so long, but I also remembered Owen’s words. He loved me. I felt the same way about him, and part of me wondered if I would ever feel the same way about another man again. I pulled it together as we reached the door, and I swallowed my pride. Megan had agreed to help us, and without her, I wouldn’t have been standing in front of the boardroom door right now. I would still be lying in bed, wallowing in my grief. She loved Owen too, just like I did…and I knew that he was probably half, or all the reason she agreed to help us. I had to show some respect for that.

She stood in front of the palm and iris scanner and turned to face me.

“Thank you,” I broke the silence.

She revealed a smile so gracious it made me feel bad that I wanted to be rude to her just a few moments ago.

“No, thank
you
,” she corrected.

I nodded, and she held her hand six inches away from the scanner. She turned to me again.

“Are you ready?”

I wiped my sweaty palms on the sides of my pea coat and swallowed hard.

“Yes,” I whispered, with my heart beating so fast it distorted my voice.

She scanned her hand and nothing happened. I saw an icon appear on the screen indicating for her to use the iris scanner. She began to lean forward, and I touched her forearm. She halted and turned to me with a quirked brow.

“You’re lucky,” the words slipped out just above a whisper.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you got to spend more time with him than I did.”

She didn’t say a word, but I could see the sadness clearly in her eyes. She knew who I was talking about, and she knew it was the truth. I got that weight off my chest and managed not to say something vulgar. She slowly put her eye to the scanner, and I watched as the light zipped across her eye.

“Identity confirmed—Megan Jeanine Walling,” the robotic female voice said.

I heard a lock click, and the door popped ajar. I glanced at Megan, and she nodded towards the room, telling me to
go
. She walked away and back down the hall.

My pulse was in my throat, and I could see the murky blobs behind the opaque glass crowded together. I took out the gun and made sure the safety was off. I held it with my left hand and used my right hand to pull open the door. I silently took a step in and was immersed in bright, white fluorescent light. This room was carpet too, and my heels were silent. The men on the long side of the rectangular table looked up at me with wide eyes. I had the gun outstretched with both hands clasped around it and a finger on the trigger.

I saw sandy-brown hair at the end of the table, facing me. Suddenly, she looked up.

Veronica Hall
.

Her ice-blue eyes turned to slits as she saw me, and her nostrils flared.

“None of you move a fucking inch,” I growled.

The men sat frozen, and I made sure to wave the gun around in everyone’s direction just enough. Veronica was one of two females at the table. I counted eight people total. I had six rounds.

“Well, well, well,” Veronica’s sickeningly-smooth voice began, and she stood up. I straightened my arms as I neared the table. I was maybe ten feet from her.

“I recognize a pretty face when I see one,” she chortled and stared at me vehemently. “Rachel Flores.”

“I
said
sit down,” I warned her. My upper lip curled in my utter disgust for her.

“You don’t call the shots, sweetheart. I do.”

She pressed her hands against the mahogany table and stood to her full height. She was a few inches taller than me in her heels, and my finger was so close to pulling down on the trigger.

“Why are you even here?” she mocked. “We won,” she slit her eyes and stared at me as if I were a hard-to-kill pest. “There is nothing you can do to stop us.”

“Rachel,” I heard Viktor in my ear. “You’re good to go. The fax is going through to Ian as we speak.”

My breathing was shuddered, and a ruthless smile began to slide across my face.

“Would you bet your own life?” I snorted.

She huffed and slowly walked around the corner of the table. She crossed her arms, resting them against her blue business suit.

“Do you think I am
scared
of you?” she sneered, inching closer. “I bet my life that even if you pull that trigger, we will
still
win. It’s too late—”

I pulled the trigger, and the sound was so loud I went deaf. Veronica clutched her chest with wide eyes, looking down at her wound and then back up at me.

“That was for killing Owen,” I spat and waved my gun at the men who tried to stand up. I fired a shot in the ceiling above them, and crumbled drywall fell atop the table. I pointed the gun back at Veronica who began to sink down to her knees. Her thick, maroon-tinted blood dripped to the carpet. When I reached her, I pushed her back. She folded over against the floor and stared up at me with the most vileness I had ever seen in a human being. Even in her death she wouldn’t let go of the notion that
they
couldn’t be stopped. I held the gun a few inches above her head, and I thought about how painless it would be for her that way. No, she deserved worse than that. That was too easy. I knelt down above her as she clutched her chest. I tossed my hair over a shoulder and leaned in to where my mouth was a few inches away.

I saw someone in my peripheral move, and I jolted back up. The man was trying to come behind me. I shot him straight in his kneecap, and he collapsed. I stood up.

“Back up!” I screamed. “If you want to live, back up! Now!”

He crawled backward across the floor as he winced with the blood dripping across the carpet. The other men looked at me with their hands up as I pointed the gun at them. They remained seated. I leaned back down to Veronica. The color was fading from her face, and she had a glazed look over her eyes. I made sure I was close enough that only she would hear me.

“You lost your bet,” I whispered.

“
Fuck…you…
” She snarled. Anger surged throughout my body, and I shook my head at her stubbornness. I jammed the gun against her gut and held it there.

“And
this
is for killing my mother,” I said as I pulled the trigger. She gritted her teeth and gasped as it went through her, and I could feel the blood running past my knees. I knelt back down, and to my disbelief her mouth opened once more.

“You’ll
never
win,” she forced out. “Even with me gone.”

I stared into her empty, ice-blue eyes as the life began to fade out of them, and leaned in one final time.

“Viktor Ivankov is across the hall, and he just faxed the New York Times all the documents you have kept hidden since Black Monday. Your
monstrous
lie unravels today. It’s over.”

Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth was agape. Veronica was seconds from death. I stood up and shot another bullet into the ceiling above the table. The men slid out their chairs to avoid debris.

The door swung open, and Viktor walked towards me with the most determination I had ever seen since meeting him. His chest heaved up and down. He glanced down at Veronica behind me and revealed a sinister grin. One that only bloodlust could produce.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Get out of here. I’ll go out the back.”

“Viktor, they might arrest—”

“Rachel. Let me have this moment. Move aside.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. He walked around me and I turned to see Veronica’s skin was now a deathly shade of gray. She was still conscious, barely, but the pure, undiluted fear I saw in her eyes when she stared at Viktor caused a chill to race up my spine.

“Remember me?” he growled.

She gasped for air, choking on her own blood, and I turned away from them. My heels squished in the blood beside her body, and I walked out of the room. I began down the hall without a worry in the world. I felt
good
for the first time in a week. I didn’t care what happened next, because I relieved the world of yet another psychopathic plutocrat. This one, was the one hell-bent on destroying what was left of this country. I still had my gun in hand, and I continued strolling down the hallway as if I had just come back from lunch break. I glanced down at my blouse and pants to see blood splattered on them.