ISABEL (Unedited)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

POV: James
Some of my men stayed outside, while I and the rest went inside. There were a lot of rooms inside. My men weren’t many but, they were skilled and I could trust them. We went from room to room and found nothing. We continued to search. I had faith that my Bell was there with me. Aaron couldn’t be wrong. Or maybe Jeremy’s men had warned him of us and he fled. But he couldn’t leave with my Bell, could he? Although, I had noticed two things. One, they weren’t men inside the building. Especially in ours. We were in a four-story building. So far, we were on the third floor but no one was present. Maybe, they had vacated the premises. I wasn’t giving up. I needed to find my Bell even if it meant putting my life on the line. She was worth it. And the second thing was that the silence was too strange.

There were three more rooms for us to search but, we noticed one in peculiar that interested us. We couldn’t all so, I went alone. The door was wide open. I could hear movements. One, two, three steps and I saw Bell laying on the floor, gasping for air and coughing out blood. “Bell,” I breathed. Her eyes had turned red and I noticed the burns on her arms. They were rope burns as I observed.

I carried her in my arms and ran outside to the ambulance. On my way there, people had started shooting at me. Dang! I went behind a wall and laid Bell on the ground as I took out my gun. Two of my men got shot while trying to cover me. We didn’t know who was shooting at us. One of my men managed to get to us. I got his gun as he carried Bell up and ran to the ambulance. I was made sure that we would return back home. If I didn’t make it, Bell would. I had to go back inside the building and fight with my men. “Boss, they are too many. I don’t we’ll make it,” said one of them. At least Bell was getting the medical attention that she needed, although she still had to be taken to the hospital.

I looked back at the ambulance as it started to drive off but, before we knew it, the driver was shot and the bus came to a halt. We all looked at each other in silence. “We can’t stay here,” I said.

“Bomb!” shouted one of my men and we all began to run as fast as our legs could carry us. “I thought we called for back-up. Where is it?!” I asked.
Silence.

I scratched my head in frustration. Bell needed to be taken to the hospital! “Boss, what should we do?”

I didn’t know. My mind was totally blank. All these people’s lives were in my hands. There was so much pressure. “I’m going out. The moment you here three repeated gunshots, run to the cars and go,” I told them.

“We are not leaving without you,” they protested.
“I’m trying to save your lives here. Bell needs medical attention! Just go, I know what I’m doing.”
“We never leave a man behind. We’re practically family.”
“Everyone has his time. You either follow what I tell you or you die.”

“Bomb!”

This time, not all my men managed to get far when the bomb exploded. We were coughing out smoke. Then came guys from the smoke that were shooting at us. We also started shooting. “Run!” I told my men.

They started shooting at the guys and fighting them off. I had managed to go outside where; I had found three gunned men but I shot at them first. I went behind one of the cars, as I tried to find more enemies. Weird how the shooting had stopped. I stood up and from miles away, I spotted a van that was getting away. I shot my gun three times before I the passenger side to our car and took a bazooka.