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"You have to know that you're not going to get out of here alive Real. Neither Jake nor Frank will allow you to live after what you've done."
Quito looked at Frankie with a smirk. "This is only round three, Mrs. Jake The Dog. I got nine more rounds after this one."
Frankie chuckled. "You think so? Just remember that Ali knocked out an opponent right after the bell rang. He never had to make it to round two - what makes you think you'll make it past round three?"
"Oh I will. You see, Jake The Dog is a law-abiding man. He can't kill me unless I draw down on him. I don't plan on getting that far. Frankie," Quito smiled eerily as he stepped closer. "I plan on making him suffer. He took everything from me, my business, my people, my wife Keeshia. Most of all, he betrayed me when I treated him like my brother. I let him in, I killed the one man who was trying to protect me and had seen through Jake's lies. I killed him because Jake's lies had blinded me." Quito's voice grew deathly silent. "Now, I'm going to take it all away from him."
Frankie's gray eyes stormed as she watched him hovering an inch above her face. He meant to kill them all. She could see that now. Her daughter held tight to her, Frankie kissed the top of her black hair and closed her eyes. At least LJ and Ariel were safe outside now. Surely Frank and Cody had gotten the puzzle and solved it by now. Surely by now they realized that it was Quito in here. For the first time since this began, she felt hopeless.
Quito watched her. He felt some measure of sympathy towards the woman and child. It wasn't their fault. They were suffering because of Jake Shaw. He shook his head and moved towards the window in the front of the house to watch the buzzing of activity on the street. "Well, well, looks like a family reunion. I see Alex Cross is here, and Frank Donovan too. Weeeellllll Jake The Dog is here too. Yeah, chump, I got your wife here, baby girl too. C'mon and get some…"
The three men with Quito looked at one another. They were hired to kidnap the woman at first, then to run her car off the highway. They weren't getting paid enough to stay here and get arrested on a Federal charge of kidnapping - or worse, killed in the gunfire. The first one looked at the other two before stepping up.
"Quito, man, this is nuts. We didn't sign on for this."
Quito turned around slowly. "I hired you to do what I told you."
"QUITO REAL!" came the amplified voice from outside. Inside the house, Frankie's head snapped up and Quito turned back to the window. "Quito Real, I know you're in there. I'm here to discuss your terms for surrender."
Quito chuckled. "There will be no surrender," he whispered softly as he turned back around to the three men.
Outside, everyone was waiting for some sign of an answer. Frank tried again to get Quito's attention while Cody was trying to send Katie home.
"Forget it Caleb! I'm not leaving!" She stomped her foot adamantly and fixed Cody with such a glare that Alex and Shay had to laugh. She'd been hanging around Alex, Shay and Frankie FAR too long for Cody's well being. "I know there is something I can do to help."
"You can help by going home Katherine." Cody growled. "It's about to get messy here if Frank can't talk Quito out of there. Frankie is friends with over half of the people here on the Chicago Police and if they get their hands on him, it's going to get brutal. Go home!"
Katie sighed as Cody turned and walked away. "Shay, how the hell do you do it?"
"Easy, I'm not a civilian. Cody can't tell me to go home." She chuckled softly, hissing at the small trill of pain that shot through her ribs. "Stay close to me and you'll be fine."
Back inside, Quito had his back to the window and glared down at the three men in front of him. "You want to do what?"
"We're getting out of here. Man, look out there!! They got SWAT, the FBI negotiating team, almost all of the police force too! This is insane man, I'm getting my ass out of here. I didn't sign on to get shot!" He turned and started to walk towards the door.
"Don't do it."
"Fuck you man. I'd rather go to jail than to watch you kill a woman and baby for your twisted idea of revenge." He grabbed the door and opened it.
Frank stood up as he saw the door open. Quito was coming out, just like that? Cody, Alex and Jake all drew closer to Frank as they watched the first man step out onto the porch. However, the pregnant silence was shattered by the POW-POW-POW of gunshots. Frank ducked down behind the car, Jake covered Shay and the kids, Cody grabbed Katie and pinned her down under him to shield her and Alex flattened out onto the ground as all of the other law enforcement personnel either hit the ground or returned fire.
Frankie screamed and ducked down, covering Jessie with her own body when she heard the first shot from Quito's gun. She stayed curled up around Jessie's body when she heard the return fire from outside. 'Oh God! Mary, Mother of God, please let Jake be all right!' she thought as she heard Frank screaming over the bullhorn for a cease-fire.
Quito half-laughed and looked at the other two men as they lay on the floor nearby. "Either one of you want to leave?"
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