Page 48 of Tristian (The Doherty Mafia)
Nobody else had come this close to finding Aldo either, so I was rewarded for the work I’d done. Besides, I had a personal interest in this mission. My girl was in there and I needed to bring her out safely.
Nolan drummed his fingers on his knees and I sensed he was nervous. This wasn’t his first shootout, but it was a big one. We all knew what we had riding on it.
I picked up my phone and called Killian. Two rings and I ended it. That was the signal. Within seconds, all the men from the Doherty family and our backup would be crawling up through the cornfields and into the premises of the farmhouse.
We’d find Aldo Baron and his men inside. We were going to find Elsie in there too. There was going to be blood. A lot of it. Too many guns would be fired. Knives would be drawn and arteries would be cut.
Things were going to balance off the edge of victory. It would become difficult to decipher who won. Some lives would be lost on both sides. Some of my brothers would come close to losing theirs.
It wouldn’t be until the last moments of the shootout that we would find out Aldo had made his escape. Aldo had gotten away. Once again.
We would come so close to getting him this time, but it wasn’t time yet.
Aldo would still have some time to run free, but we would get him eventually.
Nobody was going to knock us down.
Shots were fired everywhere, and despite the darkness, everything lit up because of our guns. It was too loud to hear anything.
We’d breached the exterior of the farmhouse, despite the scores of men Aldo posted just within the walls. From the outside, there wasn’t any sign that the place was so heavily guarded. But they saw us coming up through the cornfields and rained fire on us.
But we were equally prepared. We were heavily numbered too and it was a close fight until the last moments.
Killian was shot, so was Brendan. Some asshole pulled a knife on Colin but all my brothers fought back.
By the time I broke through the building, charging down the narrow halls with guns blazing, I was covered in blood splatter.
I hadn’t kept track of how many people were injured or died because of the bullets I fired. I would’ve burned this whole place down if I had to.
I made my way through the halls, checking each room, eliminating every man who stood in my way. I came close to death more times than I could count. I wasn’t even sure how I made it out alive. But by the time I found the door to the basement, there weren’t any more guns being cocked at me. It was almost over.
I distinctly heard my brothers’ voices outside the building, shouting orders, rejoicing. But I still hadn’t found Elsie.
My hand shook as I turned the handle on the basement door.
“Elsie?” I shouted in the dark, rushing down the steps. There was a muffled sound and I knew it was her.
I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. I didn’t have the time to look for a light switch.
Elsie was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, with nothing else around her. Her wrists and ankles were all tied up. She was tied to the chair with thick chords that wrapped all around her body. Her mouth was gagged with a filthy looking rag.
I pulled that off first and she gasped for air, her shoulders heaving.
“Tristian. Tristian!” she cried out my name as I pulled a knife out to cut all the chords.
“I’ve got you,” I groaned as I snapped them. She continued saying my name over and over again like she’d repeated it for hours. When I finally got all the rope off, I pulled her up but I felt her lack of energy in her muscles and bones.
Hadn’t they even fed her? Was she thirsty?
“Elsie, hey, look at me, I’ve got you,” I said, pulling her into my arms and she collapsed right then. Within moments, she was dead weight in my arms.
Fuck.
I checked her pulse. She was still alive but her pulse was weak. I knew I had to get her out of there before things became seriously worse.
I lifted her up and threw her over my shoulder, carrying her up the stairs. I was so close to getting her out of this alive, I wasn’t about to give up on her yet.
Twenty-Seven
Elsie
The last thing I remembered was the sound of guns being shot outside the building. Despite the lack of windows in the room, and the walls were probably very thick—the sound I’d heard was unmistakable.
It was ironic because up until a few months ago, I’d never heard a gun being fired in real life. And then, just like that, I knew exactly what guns sounded like.
