Page 319 of All For You Duet

My eyes. My sights. They track his movement. Tracking their fight while I search for my target and where that gunshot landed.

Redix grabs Derek’s wrist. The one holding the gun that just fired. He’s got inches and pounds of muscle on him, and he uses it, slamming his arm against the white marble floor. It knocks the gun from Derek’s grasp.

Punches are thrown. Redix hooks Derek’s jaw while he jabs at Redix’s nose. They brawl. They’re sprawled on the floor while my training takes over.

I rush for the gun. Avoiding their struggle, I grab it from the floor. Derek’s not armed now. That risk is eliminated while I secure the hostages next. Redix can handle this fight, but I don’t know if Derek’s working alone.

Gun aimed down the hall, I approach the bedroom door. It’s unlocked. I kick it open and scan the room.

Renie. Nicolas. Redix’s mama, Elise. They’re on the floor. Hands, feet, and mouths taped. On my right? Feet are sprawled on the ground. My back to the wall, my gun raised, I clear the room. I find Keith, their night guard, passed out on the floor. No trauma.

“It’s okay.” I grab the knife from my pocket. We can hear the fight, the struggle of Redix and Derek trashing the living room while I keep my gun up, covering the door with one hand and slicing through the tape over their ankles with the other. “It’s okay,” I tell them. Their eyes are wide. Terrified. “We gotta get you out of here.”

I free their hands next. Then Renie and her mama rip the tape off their mouths.

“Grab him,” I tell Renie, who scoops Nicolas in her arms. “Let’s go.”

I keep them covered while they run toward the sliding glass door in the bedroom to the patio outside. Blue lights are flashing across the dark rainy night.

I turn my radio back on when a loud crash, a lamp breaks in the living room, and all my fear for Redix ices my veins, but this is the priority.

Get his family safe.

“This is Bryant,” I call into my radio. “I’m exiting out of the back with three hostages secure. Suspect still inside. No longer armed. Homeowner is in active altercation with the suspect. Stand down.”

Renie holds a scared Nicolas in her arms while she steps into the rain outside. Deputies are there, waiting for them. Redix’s mama follows, and they’ll be okay.

I turn back toward the fight.

“Hey!” Penny charges in through the open door. Two deputies follow her. “I told you to wait for backup.”

“Uh-huh.” She knows better. I don’t follow rules because all I’m following is my instinct to protect Redix next.

Running entry formation back down the hallway, I have three deputies behind me, all with our guns held at ready.

What will I find? I don’t know if I can face it.

I have to trust. In Redix’s strength. In his fight. He can defend himself.

We turn the corner, and the room is trashed. I scan it fast, my eyes landing on Redix.

The left side of his white T-shirt is drenched in blood, and he’s got his back to me. His hands are around Derek’s neck. He’s lifted him so high that Derek’s feet dangle in the air as Redix’s grasp chokes him against the window to the storm outside.

“Are you fucking laughing now?” It seethes through Redix’s voice. He doesn’t even know we’re here. “Huh? Motherfucker? Wanna laugh now?”

Derek’s evil face is red with rage, and the breath Redix is taking from him.

I give the signal to the deputies to lower their weapons. Penny doesn’t want to. She gives me a look, and I answer, “This is his fight. Let him have it.”

“Fuck you,” Derek coughs. “I took everything you loved, pretty boy. You had too much.”

Why Derek’s so fixated on Redix is obvious. Tragic and disgusting. It’s Redix’s curse. His beauty puts most in a state of euphoria, but for a few, it makes them evil with demented jealousy.

Derek’s everything ugly on the inside. Violent. Insecure. Entitled and wanting to take everything he doesn’t have. It doesn’t matter his exterior.

So once he went after Redix and couldn’t have him because my dad stopped him, he went after his sister next. And I saw the suitcase in the bedroom. He was going to take Nicolas. Not that he loved the boy. It just would’ve destroyed the last piece of Redix if he did.

Even through the sweat and blood pouring from him now, all Redix has ever been is beautiful. The best son, the best brother, the best uncle, and the best friend protecting us all, and few see the burden that’s been for him.