How About Seven? ✔

24. Ironwing

Kaylan was screaming and Mrs Hood was screaming and I had no idea if I was and - 

"Stop!" Kaylan's father roared. "Stop! I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Just stop hurting my son!"

Jasper lifted the blade, one inch. Kaylan's screams died out into a strangled sound as he gritted his teeth, the veins rising in his neck as his whole body railed against the agony. His thumb was still very much attached - thank the Lord - but there was a deep and ugly gash in it. Anymore from Jasper and you would have been able to see the white of the bone.

Jasper dropped the bloodied scalpel on the table. "Thank you, Mr Hood. Thank you so so much. That is the answer I'm looking for. Well done, you!"

Mr Hood swallowed. "Yes. Yes, I do work for Black and Tan. I'm their criminal lawyer - I get paid well to make sure they don't get prosecuted. Anything they get caught in, I make sure they get off."

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it? If you'd done this earlier we wouldn't have to spill so much blood." Jasper snapped his fingers and a man came forward with a towel, which he used to wipe his fingers. "So, next question. Where is the will?"

This time Mr Hood did look utterly lost. "Will? What will? They didn't make any will."

"Not them, Mr Hood. The Blackcroft will. Where is it?"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

I closed my eyes, my heart sinking in desperation. Liar.

"Liar," Jasper said. He exhaled heavily, turning back to Kaylan. "Well. I guess I have to, once again, administer onto young Mr Hood here - "

"Okay!" Keegan yelled. "Yes! Yes, there was a will! Black and Tan gave it to me to keep! They told me to hold it for awhile. But then one night a thief came in and stole it. That's the last I saw of that bloody thing, I swear! I don't know where it went!"

Jasper paused, as if in deep thought. "Hmm. Well then - "

Several things happened at once. Onscreen, the three stony-faced men guarding Mr and Mrs Hood fell like Jenga towers whose bricks had been extracted incorrectly. There was a small scream from Mrs Hood, while Mr Hood looked offscreen and grunted angrily, "Thank God you're here, it's about damn time - "

The second after that happened, the man holding my left arm received a bullet in the head and Jasper swerved simultaneously to the right. The bullet aimed for him thudded into the wall on my left.

All around me men pulled out guns, even as more shots came whizzing in. Jasper was hollering commands and the wallpaper was being torn up and the room was thundering with the sound of countless rounds being emptied. Men ducked and fired. I was dropped like a sack of potatoes and left to my own devices.

With hands over my head, my head whipped from side to side, my eyes searching, wild. I need a gun. I saw the dead men who seconds ago had been gripping me by the elbow and crawled toward him. His eyes were open and staring, unseeing and blank in death. With trembling fingers I closed them and fumbled around his clothing, before finally pulling out a nice, stable Smith & Wesson.