~Chapter Three~
Blood running down from his nose and mouth, Magnus coughed as he sat on his knees, staring into a gun. Heaving shallow breaths into his body, he shook his head at the gunman.
"I told him I was at the bank," the Detective Inspector sputtered. "I didn't get the chance to tell him which bank it was. For all he knows, I'm dead."
"What else did you say to your partner?" Peter growled.
"Nothing! I've told you! She shot my damn phone!" Peter just looked at him. "You know, you really must have quite the stick shoved up your-"the gun came down hard against Magnus' jaw, and the blonde just spat blood on the floor and replaced his gaze. His lip split and mouth bleeding.
"Ass," he finished.
Keeping his gun pointed at Martinsson's head, Peter turned to Axelia, who stood silently by the remaining hostages. "You let him talk to his partner before shooting his phone?" He let out a dark chuckled, and Magnus felt the gun leave his forehead, directing itself to her.
"Two years, and you still try and resist. But you've killed people, Axelia. And for that, you'll still burn in hell." And he went into a shooter's stance and pressed his finger against the trigger; Axelia shut her eyes and waited for freedom.
"No!" Magnus yelled and drove his foot against the side of the gunman's knee just as the shot rang out, sending the shot over Axelia's head and Peter to the floor in pain and rage.
Now leaning back on his elbows, Magnus began to back-peddle away from Peter, who was groaning in pain and trying to stand and direct his gun at the Detective Inspector. The other four gunmen had their guns drawn at the frenzy and advanced towards them, Axelia standing in shock as Magnus back himself against the till, breathing heavy. Taking his eyes off the five armed men, he nodded at Axelia, knowing what he did was the right thing, and that whatever happened next, she shouldn't feel guilty in any way. The girl smiled weakly and nodded back.
"You shoot me; you lose your way out!" He yelled as he turned his attention back to what could very well be the end of his life, his heart beating fast and pumping adrenalin throughout his body. Magnus knew that the only way that he was getting out of this was by giving them more of what they wanted; leverage. "If the cops do show up, they'll be expecting a dead cop, and if you shoot me, you'll get a hail of bullets for it! But if you keep me alive and surprise them, you have a better chance of getting out of here in one piece." The words came out like wildfire, a last attempt to save his life, before gunfire erupted.
Or so he thought.
The guns lowered slightly, and Magnus continued, catching Axelia's gaze for barely a second before looking at the cold grey eyes of Peter, who now had more weight on one foot, wincing slightly.
"Right now, you've got one of Ystad's most valuable cops in your hands, and a cold case victim. They'll likely meet your demands if it means we get out alive. Especially if the ones that come down are from my station, and I can guarantee that my colleague will be out for blood if he sees my corpse and those of the hostages you've slaughtered. You wouldn't be carried out in bags," he spoke in a daring low tone. "You'd be scrubbed off the floor and pass down lines in buckets."
Keeping his blue eyes on the surrounding men taking in his every word, Martinsson supressed a smile as he caught movement in the middle of the room. Axelia got his message, and the blonde continued to buy them more time to get help.
"But," Magnus spoke louder, shifting himself up to sit comfortably against the till. "If you keep Axelia and I alive, he'll be a bit more…compliant." He smiled as the guns were pointed on the floor now.
Peter smirked. "And why should we keep her alive?" The other men chuckled in agreement.
The corner of Martinsson's lip rose. "Leverage."
"We have you. That's all we need. We'll just shoot the little b-"
"No," Martinsson spat. "Axelia has a family, and you bastards murdered her friend to get her. She's been missing for two years, and I not just going to let you get rid of her. My colleagues and I have been searching for her and we never stopped." Magnus gripped the desk and stood up, wiping the still running blood off his face with sleeve and leaned in close to Peter with a deadly stare. "And I swear to God, if you lay a finger on her, you will regret ever taking her."
Gazes locked, the others held their ground away from the two, waiting for one to make a move. Magnus gritted his teeth, sweat scurried down the side of his head, and his face held the same seriousness as his heart did; his hands in fists as he waited for a response.
Peter cracked a smile.
"I guess we have a deal then," his smile grew as he cradled his gun to push the blonde back against the tills and turned around. "Fånge, you should be…"
His words faded as he saw the young girl with the jet black hair staring at him with a gaze he hadn't seen in the two years they held her in their basement as a prisoner. Green eyes seemed to melt into his mind with her soft, tired gaze and shook her head with the strange emotion. It was pity.
"Like he said," she said in a careful tone, looking at Magnus with a weak smile. "You have us. That's all you need. No one else."
Tension was like slow moving tar in the room, time seemed to slow down as Peter stared at Axelia and everyone waited to see what would happen next. Martinsson felt his heart slow down but beat harder than it ever had before as the seconds ticked by in endless hours. No one moved a muscle or said a word, they just watched.
Peter reached into his back pocket and the detective inspector felt his heart jump at the movement. What was he reaching for? Was it a knife? Pistol? Taser? Questions and worry flowed through his body on an electric current, and then he saw them.
Handcuffs.
Magnus didn't know whether he should be thankful or fearful that the Axelia's captor kept handcuffs in his back pocket. But he knew that he tasted bile in the back of his throat when the young girl held out her wrists and came forward obediently without a word being said. Pulling the black sleeves up, it was easy to tell that this practice happened a lot. There were scars on the lily-white arms; deep, dark, painful scars in which the metal cuffs fitted perfectly in.
"Let's go," Peter whispered, putting his hand on the small of her back and pushed her forward towards Magnus and they shared a look of pain together; Axelia with her scars and Magnus with his bloodied face.
Standing side by side together, Martinsson placed a hand on her small shoulder and she instinctively flinched before realizing it was a friendly touch.
"It's alright," he whispered to her, guns digging into their backs and pushing them to the corner where they had taken cover during the start of the takeover. "It's alright, Axelia, I promised you," he told her as Peter pushed them into the supply closet and slammed the door, the lock clicking behind them.
The tall man turned to face the trembling girl and lifted her face to meet his eyes. "I promised you I'd get you out of here," Axelia nodded, pressing her cheek into his soft, caring hand and step into his arms; burying her face into his chest to feel the safety she so desperately needed.
"I'll get you out," Magnus whispered, running his fingers through her black hair. "I promise, I'll get you out and you'll be safe, Axelia. No one's going to hurt you, I won't let them."
~Chapter Three~