Obviously, Stix had taken out Johnny's men.
Unless one or two of them had survived and would come after their boss?
She hoped that was a possibility.
Even without them, Nathan was around somewhere, and FBI agents were on their way. She just had to keep everyone alive in the meantime.
The only good thing about this nightmare was that Stix wanted to savor his moment of revenge, of triumph. He didn't want them to die too fast. He wanted them to understand that he was in charge now, that they would die at his hands.
"Watch the front," Stix told his associate. "Where's Rico?"
"Out back," the man said, letting go of Johnny as left.
She was happy to see him go; it definitely improved her odds, but Stix still had the only gun, and with Hayley hanging on to her for dear life, she couldn't take him down with any sudden moves.
"How did you know about my baby?" she asked, hoping Hayley wasn't paying attention to the conversation, but she seemed too frightened to be taking much in.
"A friend clued me in," Stix said.
"A friend? Does he have a name?" she asked sharply.
"I know who he is. You don't need to know," Stix replied. His gaze hardened on Johnny. "You got nothing to say, Johnny boy? Look who's in charge now?"
Johnny spit on the floor in response.
Anger stiffened Stix's spine, and he seemed to get even taller. "I'll do the talking then. You sent me to prison for what you did. You took away my life, the family I was supposed to have, and now you're going to lose yours."
"Bree is not my family," Johnny said harshly. "I don't give a damn about her anymore."
She believed Johnny, but Stix didn't.
"You don't love Sierra," Stix said. "You're just using her, the way you use everyone. Bree is the only one you cared about, and even if you hate her for what she did to you, you still want her." He paused, giving Bree an evil smile. "I actually admire the guts it took for you to walk away."
"Then let me go. Let Hayley go."
"Unfortunately, there's always collateral damage." He turned back to Johnny. "I know what you care about, and that's blood—family. Well, your blood is right here on this stage. And I'll be doing her a favor by not letting her grow up with you."
Bree sucked in a breath at Stix's twisted words.
Johnny didn't rise to Stix's bait. He just stared back at his one-time friend with burning hatred in his eyes.
No one was backing down. But she needed to find a way to defuse the situation.
"Do whatever you want to me and Johnny," she said, bringing Stix's attention back to her. "Hayley is not part of this. She wasn't even born when you went to prison."
"I don't think so." Stix raised his gun and pointed it at her. "In fact, I think she goes first, and you two will watch."
"You don't want to do that," she argued. "You just told me you were innocent of your crime, and that you tried to save the kid Johnny almost killed. You don't want to hurt this child."
"I've changed. Prison will do that."
He had changed and the gentle giant she had once known was nowhere to be found. He was going to kill them all. She had no doubt about it.
Johnny must have made the same assumption, because he suddenly moved, throwing his body in front of hers as Stix fired his weapon. The bullet ripped through Johnny's chest.
Hayley screamed.
She ducked down, wrapping Hayley up in her arms, praying the next bullet would hit her and not her child.
But before Stix could fire again, a crashing noise above the stage distracted him. He looked up, and then a body came down from the rafters, knocking Stix off his feet.
Nathan!
The gun flew out of Stix's hand, sliding across the stage as Nathan attacked him.
She pushed Hayley to the side and grabbed Stix's gun off the floor.
She was just in time as the man who'd brought Johnny in earlier came rushing toward the stage. She fired, hitting him square in the chest. He fell to the floor. She turned her gun toward Stix, but he and Nathan were so entangled, she couldn't risk hurting Nathan.
Hayley was screaming, and her maternal instincts were firing on all cylinders. She needed to get her daughter off the stage and safely away.
"Give me the gun. Get her out of here," Johnny told her, his face a picture of contorted agony as he sat up, blood coming from his chest and his leg.
She had no time to dither, tossing the gun to Johnny, then grabbing Hayley and running toward the stairs.
As another blast rocked the auditorium, she prayed that Johnny had not shot Nathan.
Not knowing how many men they might have to get through to get out of the school, she decided to go up to the roof. Hopefully, they could find a place to hide until more help arrived.
When they got on the roof, the dark day gave them some shadows, but they still needed to find cover. The roof was patchy in places, and she had to be careful where they stepped, so they didn't fall through.
Large heating ducts rose up like stalwarts along one side of the roof, but they were too thin to hide behind. Then she spied a big heating unit about four feet wide by six feet long and it was next to a raised portion of the roof. They might be out of sight there. She moved quickly across the roof. "Climb in, Hayley," she said, pushing the little girl behind the unit.
"Don't go," Hayley cried, clinging to her hand. "I'm scared."
"I'm not going anywhere," she said, sliding in next to her. As Hayley's fingers tightened around hers, she felt a crazy sense of familiarity. She'd never held her baby's hand until now, but it felt so absolutely right, and the connection between them was powerfully strong.
She would save her daughter, or she would die trying.
*
Nathan had taken out two of Stix's men on his way into the school, but he'd had the element of surprise. Now he was going toe-to-toe with a man who had six inches and forty pounds on him. Not only that, Stix was fighting like a yard dog who'd been chained up too long. There was a starving hunger in him, a powerful need for the revenge he'd been seeking for more than a decade.
Thankfully, Johnny had shot another one of Stix's men, who had come into the room after Bree and Hayley left. He just needed to take Stix down, give Bree time to escape.
His fist connected with Stix's jaw, and as Stix's eyes bugged out, he thought he might have gotten the advantage.
But then Stix seemed to gather superhuman strength from somewhere, throwing his entire body weight at him.
He felt the edge of the stage underneath his foot and then he went flying. He landed hard on his back, his head bouncing off the floor, something sharp cutting his back. He saw stars and felt a rocketing wave of pain rip through him as a curtain of darkness began to descend.
He couldn't let that curtain hit the ground. He couldn't lose consciousness. Bree needed him.
He fought through the haze threatening to take him under and somehow found a way to get back on his feet. But Stix was gone. Two of his associates were dead on the floor, and Johnny was barely moving.
He struggled to get himself up the stairs to the stage. Johnny was barely breathing, gasping in the last few seconds of his life. There was too much damage, too much blood.
"Roof," Johnny bit out, clutching his bloody chest, as he looked at him. "Save Bree," he bit out. "And my daughter." He struggled for breath. "Tell Bree…I finally did one good thing. Hope it's enough." Johnny's eyes closed as he uttered his last breath.
Nathan didn't have time to think about what Johnny's death meant. All he could focus on was getting to Bree. He grabbed the gun that had just fallen from Johnny's hand and ran toward the stairs, hoping Stix had gone in the opposite direction.
*
"The tall man is back," Hayley whispered, her eyes widening again.
Bree's gut tightened as Stix came out on the roof, and a terrible fear for Nathan washed through her. If Stix was up here, then Nathan…
But she couldn't think about that now. She couldn't let Stix get to Hayley. And it wouldn't take long for him to find them. She was going to have to find a way to turn the tables.