Chapter 19
Linda exchanged looks with her husband, settling into a seat alongside him, noting Ted and Cody's odd behavior. "Nothing is going to attack you here." She said, almost as if making a joke, but the expressions on their faces told her they weren't joking.
Inhaling deeply, Randy launched into the entire story, refusing to let go of Martina's hand, watching as Vince's eyes narrowed while Linda's widened, both of them going paler and paler.
Martina couldn't even speak, the tears coursing down her cheeks being evidence enough that what Randy spoke was the truth. She had the scars, literally, to prove it not to mention the emotion turmoil. She squeezed Randy's hand back, while Linda handed her a tissue, silently thanking her and wiped them away. She couldn't speak, no matter how hard she tried and took the cup of water Linda handed her next, not believing how understanding and kind she was.
This was their last resort; her last ray of hope, though none of them realized it.
When Randy had finally finished, Vince leaned back in his chair, absorbing all of that. His beady eyes moved onto Martina, studying her thoughtfully, before examining Cody and Ted, both men nodding at him and inhaled deeply. "Well...I think we need to schedule a press conference."
"On what grounds?"
"One of our top Superstars was shot and is unable to perform; that will be the opener.
And the press will ask why and the story can be told then." Linda nodded, thinking along the same lines as her husband.
Ted was rubbing Martina's shoulders, knowing this was going to be extremely hard for her to do, but it was the only way to get Roger Malcolm out of her life.
"Thank you, thank you both very much." Martina whispered, not moving her eyes from her lap, knowing this was all her fault. "I want to apologize for...what happened to Randy. Because of what's happening to me..." She ignored Randy's squeeze, head rising, wiping her tears away. "You don't know how much this means to-"
"Mr. McMahon, we're on lockdown!" A security guard rushed in, gun drawn, causing all six individuals to tense.
"What's happening?"
"There is a group of men headed this way with weapons in hand, sir. What are your orders?"
"If they come in the building, shoot to kill."
"Roger…"
"Has balls of steel."
"Immensely." Vince was now LIVID. These men were approaching HIS building with GUNS? "Linda, call the police and let them know we have a situation and to bring an ambulance. How large is the group?"
"A dozen."
With backup on the way, Roger had called in some favors.
This man was INSANE!
Martina was trembling in her chair now and rushed over to the window, tears streaming down her cheeks as she saw Roger sitting on top of the limo, the driver dead on the ground bleeding, horror constricting her face. "Oh my god..." She slowly backed away from the window, stumbling right into Randy, shaking her head frantically as the tears rushed fell faster. "H-H-He killed the driver..."
"WHAT?"
Cody rushed over to the window past Ted, eyes widening, jaw dropping and watched as Roger lit the limo on fire. Insane wasn't the word...this guy was...Cody didn't even have the word for it and hoped Vince had backup. Vince had a small army of his own; this Roger Malcolm had no idea who he was dealing with.
Roger had officially lost it, especially after doing some surfing on his laptop while waiting on whatever the hell it was Martina was doing in that fortress, and discovered who Vince McMahon was exactly. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on and...well, he really didn't have anything left to lose. He KNEW she was watching him from one of those many windows, blowing a kiss up at the building, approaching slowly.
Where the HELL were the police? Martina was sitting on Randy's lap, arms wrapped tightly around her, rocking her back and forth, trying to soothe her the best way he could.
Vince was watching this cold hearted bastard as he approached his building, HIS corporate headquarters, snarling.
This man was out of his mind to actually have this building, which was known all over the globe, attacked. Ted and Cody were surrounding Randy and Martina, ready to fight if they had too; knowing Randy still wasn't healed, while Linda barked out orders, already having their emergency weapons on hand.
Two nine millimeters.
"You weren't lying when you said he wouldn't stop, were you?"
Martina shook her head.
"He has to make it past security and then up here, that's a lot of ground to cover." Vince said coldly, glancing back at them.
This woman had better be a heiress or something because, from what he could see, there wasn't anything special about her to warrant this kind of obsession. Perhaps cruel to think, but...it was the truth. She was beautiful in a damaged sort of way, but not mind boggling so.
Linda shook her head with a sigh. "The police will be here in three minutes."
Martina wasn't an heiress or anything of the sort, had absolutely no power. Roger thought of her as a possession and he had lost what belonged to him. He treated her like a doormat and thought he had the right to do so. Sniffling, Martina felt Randy's fingers run through her hair, hearing the gunshots outside, and hoped Roger was stopped before this became completely out of hand.
Cody didn't care what Vince thought, eyes narrowed, knowing it wasn't her fault. Roger Malcolm was insane, to put it mildly, and was about to be brought down by the authorities. In a few minutes, it would all be over, screw the press conference.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." Martina kept whispering to herself, the sobs tearing through her.
"Hush, it's almost over." Randy soothed, knowing Roger would be lucky to make it inside without losing a lung, wincing at the gunfire that reached them even though they were so high up, almost mocking them.
Ted let out a sigh of relief when he heard sirens, the sound was faint but it was there, knowing the Calvary was approaching.
"Oh dear Jesus," Linda was staring out the window. "VINCE!"
Vince peered out the window, watching with wide eyes as another car pulled up, the man who he assumed was Roger backing up to greet it, blonde hair appearing from the door, a gun pressed to her temple. Slowly, he looked back at Cody. Frowning, Cody joined them.
"BETH!"
Martina's eyes widened to the size of saucers, both her and Randy standing up and rushing over to the window, tears streaming down her cheeks. Ted was holding Cody back from rushing out the door; Martina swallowed hard, seeing Roger was staring up at her, knowing what he wanted.
Martina in exchange for Beth.
"Randy..." She felt his arm wrap around her shoulders, glancing back at Vince and Linda, knowing this was all because of her. All of this could be avoided if she went back to Roger and let him take her life once and for all. 'What am I supposed to do?' She thought, feeling Randy pull her away from the window.
"BETH! HE HAS BETH!" Cody was going ballistic, fighting against Ted so ferociously that Ted was actually having a very hard time restraining him.
"Sorry, bro." Ted whispered regretfully, letting go with one hand to apply a pressure point to his friend's neck, watching Cody drop to the floor, knowing it was for the best. He raked a hand through his hair, automatically looking to Randy.
Randy had no idea what to do at this point besides restrain Martina.
"I have to go down there! This is my fault!" Martina struggled against Randy and immediately stopped when Ted came toward her, tear-filled jade eyes pleading with them to let her save Beth.
"Good girl, don't do something stupid."
"But Beth..." She turned in Randy's arms, burying her face in his chest, knowing he probably hated her for everything that was transpiring around them.
"Oh thank goodness, the police here!" Linda cried with relief, eyes narrowing slightly at Roger, who was whispering something in Beth's ear, making her cry harder.
Roger turned so his back was to the car, hunching down to protect himself and took Beth with him. Now there was no clear head or chest shot. Everything major was protected and Beth served as a human shield, holding her at bay with the gun to her temple, safety off and finger on the trigger.
"Guess what, girlie, today is NOT your lucky day."
Randy buried his face in Martina's hair.
Beth was TERRIFIED by this point, tears streaming down her face, golden locks tousled from fighting the entire way here, wondering who this lunatic was. "Please..." She whispered pleadingly, crying out when he just pressed the gun harder to her temple. "Please don't!"
'I promised I wouldn't run, I promised I wouldn't run.' Martina kept reminding herself, feeling Randy wrap his arms around her even tighter, not caring about his injury at the moment. "We have to do something before he kills her!" She cried out, not able to stay silent, sobbing uncontrollably.
"EVERYONE DROP YOUR WEAPONS NOW!" The police ordered, having their guns trained on the perpetrator, who apparently had kidnapped this woman, eyes narrowed. There were at LEAST twenty police cars there, along with a helicopter, though there was still no clear shot.
"As soon as you get a shot, take it!" Another one stated in the walkie-talkie, the SWAT team showing up moments later.
This was absolutely surreal.
Roger was laughing like a madman, knowing they wouldn't get a clear shot of him, unless Beth somehow managed to get away from him and she wasn't doing that. Not breathing anyway. "Back off or I'll smear her brains all over the pavement!"
"The press has arrived." Linda said weakly, the irony not missed at all.
"Too late."
"Come on, don't do anything stupid! Put the gun down and step away from the girl!"
Martina broke away from Randy and rushed to the window, pressing her hands against it, seeing Roger was peering at her while hunched over, not seeing a shot at all. What the hell were these cops thinking?! Martina couldn't let Beth die on her behalf; looking over at Vince and Linda, Martina turned around to face Randy and Ted who were blocking her only way out. A scream sounded when bullets flew at them from Roger's gun, causing her to drop to the ground, along with everyone else, the windows shattering after a few bullets unloaded.
"JESUS CHRIST!"
"NOOO!"
Glass was everywhere and Randy was glad Cody was not conscious for this, knowing he would have probably gone off the deep end totally. "Marti!" He called, not daring to get up, spotting Vince shielding his wife, who was now sobbing. He crawled across the glass, using his injured arm, ignoring the crunching underneath him. "Martina!"
Lying face first on the floor, glass spread all over, the outfit Martina wore prevented her from being filleted. She'd covered her face with her hands, though glass still managed to slice her cheeks. She'd jumped and knocked her head on the wooden chair, temporarily knocking her out, a small gash wound on the side of her temple.
"FUCK!" Ted cursed, clearly not amused as he kept on the floor, seeing Randy was crawling toward Martina's prone form, swallowing hard, arms and face cut. "Randy, is she alright man?"
"I think so, just unconscious." Randy said, pulling himself up into a half crouch, shrugging off his jacket and ripped his shirt off, wearing a white t-shirt beneath the undershirt. He pressed the shirt to her forehead, using his other hand to brush glass off of her body.
EMT's were aching to get inside, knowing full well there were injured parties up above, but the police were holding them off. "Alright, alright lower your weapons! For god's sake put them down!" The officer waited until they did, before taking a step forward, having put his gun down, hands up in surrender. "My name is Detective Borash. I just want to talk about what it's going to take to have you release this poor woman. What are your demands?"
"The woman up there named Martina. I want her and safe passage outta here and I'll let this tart go." Roger snarled, having absolutely no intention whatsoever of letting Beth go. She was his ticket out of here.
"Martina?" Detective Borash nodded, knowing there was no way that was going to happen, but they would have to somehow lure the woman out here as bait. "Do you mind if I go up there and talk to her about this?" When Roger nodded, Borash didn't turn his back on this lunatic. "REMAIN CALM!" He ordered his men, who were begging to pull triggers, the woman in the perpetrator's arms sobbing.
"Who the hell is it?!" Vince shouted when a knock sounded at the door, raising an eyebrow at the police officer that walked in. "What the hell are you doing up here?"
He flashed his badge. "I'm looking for a Martina. It appears the only way the hostage will be released is if she takes her place."
"NO! You can't-"
"Of course it's not going to happen, but we need to use her as bait. There isn't much time, this guy is going to pull the trigger soon if we don't do something fast."
"Randy..." Martina whispered out weakly, wincing at her head.
"I'm right here." He soothed, pulling her into his arms, ignoring his now bleeding arm. The stitches ripped as he leaned back against the wall, holding her tightly and shook his head. "Hell no! He'll probably shoot her, then Beth and then himself."
"We have to do something."
"We can't hand Martina over to this lunatic, even as bait."
"What about Beth?"
Vince sighed, looking at Randy, who shook his head.
"Look, I know this is a lot to ask, but if we don't do something now, that woman down there is going to die." The detective stated, tone firm as he stared hardening back at the man who was holding who he could only assume to be Martina in his arms. "Martina, I'm Detective Borash. Roger is asking for you." He was ignoring the man who was holding her, staring back into her eyes, seeing how injured she was. "We won't let him hurt you, but we need to use you in order to save that woman's life. Please."
Tears fell down her face as Martina slowly looked up at Randy, staring into his blue eyes and nodded as she began to stand up, wiping blood from her cheek. "I'll do it." She held her hand up to Randy when he went to stop her. "This is my fault and I won't have Beth's blood on my hands. I have to do this. I have no choice." She was incredibly dizzy, blood slowly sliding down her face from her head wound.
"Nothing will happen to you, Martina."
"She needs a fucking medic." Randy growled, ignoring the fact that he did too.
He wasn't as bad off as she was. He wasn't suffering a head wound. Were these people blind?
"The ambulance is out there but they can't get through, not with the current... situation." Linda said weakly from her place under a shaking Vince.