The Night of Seven by Nadia Siddiqui (each kindness read aloud .TXT) 📗

sorry, but I have no choice.” The man holding the gun to the dancer’s head seems to be upset; it’s very obvious that he doesn’t want to be standing here. Another kid who looks to be no older than twenty-one is pointing his own weapon at the man. While he seems fully terrified, it’s clear that he will shoot if he feels that he needs to.

“Then put down the gun and let her go, or I will have no choice but to shoot you!” Stefan stammers.

“She’s gotta die. Sorry, kid. She pissed off the wrong man,” the man wearing the poorly constructed suit says. He doesn’t even look like he is able to afford that brand new gun in his hand. He’s not even holding it right.

“Women are not objects! She doesn’t belong to anybody. Now you - you just leave her alone, and go tell your little boss that!”

“Watch your tone, kid,” the man warns, smirking at the kid like he knows something that Stefan doesn’t, and cocks his gun. The girl screams in terror.

Then Stefan shoots.

Just a single bullet, and the man in the suit never has a chance to blink. He doesn’t see it coming. He doesn’t have more than a single moment to blink at the kid in surprise like he was expecting to call the kid’s bluff somehow and then the kid won. Olivia moves to her feet so quickly, it’s impossible to follow her movement as she flings herself behind Stefan, acting very much like he’s her savior. He really is.

The man in the suit drops heavy to his knees, and his fingertips touch to the spot on his breast just over his heart where the bullet punctured his body, and a silent tear rolls down his face before the blood trickles from him...and the man in the suit falls over dead.

Apparently, Nathan isn’t even needed here.

The head of security, Cruz, comes crashing into the door behind Nathan at the sound of the gunshot and nearly knocks Nathan over in the process. Cruz has his own gun in hand, and he starts to take in the situation, but he never once aims the gun at Stefan.

“FBI! Freeze!” Cruz commands.

Out of everything that Nathan might have expected to come out of that man’s mouth...it’s not that. Cruz seems to put the pieces of the situation together very quickly as he puts his own gun away, already determining that Stefan is not a threat. He’s clearly shaken, crying, and still very terrified. Killing somebody isn’t something that he is going to walk away from easily. While it needs to be done, it’s not something that anybody can do lightly. Nathan knows how that feels as he’s killed countless people over the course of his career with the company.

“Stefan, drop the gun.” Cruz’s voice is softer than anybody in the room has ever heard it be before.

Stefan obeys, and the gun drops heavy from his hands, and Olivia throws her arms around him and starts to sob her gratitude; the two sink to the ground in an effort to embrace and comfort one another.

Cruz pulls a phone from his pocket and dials a number that Nathan can’t see, and says something that he can’t hear, but it feels like moments later, police sirens are heard approaching the casino.

This might be the first case that Nathan has ever been on that he really doesn’t even have to do anything at all. This will be very interesting to report to the company.

The police come and put Stefan in handcuffs because they have to. They are going to have a lot of paperwork to do, and they pull Olivia out to have the EMT’s process her for possible, well actually very likely, shock as well as the rest of the traumatized dancers hiding in the back of the room. Nathan is about to slip unnoticed out of the back whenever Cruz’s strong hand clamps down on his shoulder.

“Whoa, whoa, now, I think you need to answer some questions.”

“Me?” Nathan starts, amused, “What about you? FBI? I should have known.”

“You show up less than a week ago out of nowhere, and happen to be in the room with a homicide; you care to explain that?”

“Well, I clearly don’t work for the casino.”

“You are running out of time before I arrest you.” Cruz has a very no-nonsense look on his face, and Nathan almost chuckles.

“That wouldn’t work very well for you.” His attitude might be pushing things just a little too far, he knows.

“And why not?” Cruz asks.

“Because my employer will be very annoyed with the process of breaking me out of there.”

“And who is your employer? Did you have something to do with this? You look like the type.”

“Yes and no.” Nathan decides to take a chance, given the branch that Cruz works for. “The company would much prefer that I just be on my way. Leave all the rest of this to you fine gentlemen...or just you really. The less that I’m involved from here on out, the better.”

“The company? I’ve heard of you.”

“Really? You probably shouldn’t have.”

“Well. Then I guess I better let you be on your way then.”

“Probably,” Nathan agrees. His focus shifts from Cruz’s hand as it removes itself from Nathan’s shoulder to the kid in handcuffs still silently crying. “You’re going to take care of him, right?”

Cruz actually smiles and nods. “He’s a good kid. He did a good thing. I will do everything that I can for him. Apparently, Olivia’s new boyfriend is a hell of a lawyer named Madden and has already promised to represent the kid for free. So I would say she’s really straightened her life out in the dating department.”

Sure enough, there’s a tall, handsome man sitting behind Olivia in the ambulance, holding her tightly in his arms.

“I’ve