Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO STOOD
Caprice hit the catwalk hard.
Diamond stopped breathing.
Then she moved.
"Caprice!"
"I'm okay!"
The bullet had struck the railing.
She had dropped instinctively.
Relief lasted less than a second.
Levi's men breached the building.
Gunfire erupted.
Damian grabbed Evelyn and dragged her toward the rear exit.
Diamond fired at the overhead light.
Darkness swallowed the mill.
Caprice crawled along the catwalk.
Below, Diamond maneuvered toward Evelyn.
Then someone struck his wheelchair from behind.
The chair tipped.
Diamond hit the concrete.
Pain exploded through his shoulder.
His gun slid away.
A man approached.
Diamond rolled onto his back.
The attacker raised his weapon.
Then a metal wrench slammed into the man's arm.
Caprice.
She struck him again.
"Nobody kills my employer before payday."
Diamond stared at her.
"That joke was terrible."
"You're welcome."
She crouched beside him.
Together they heard Evelyn scream.
Damian was escaping.
Diamond looked toward his wheelchair.
The frame was damaged.
"Help me."
Caprice tried lifting him.
"No. Chair."
They dragged it upright.
The controls were dead.
Diamond gripped the frame.
His upper body shook.
Then something happened.
A sensation.
Small.
Almost imaginary.
His right thigh contracted.
Diamond froze.
"Caprice."
"What?"
"My leg."
She looked.
His quadriceps twitched again.
Diamond stared.
Two years of being told complete recovery was impossible.
Two years of refusing therapy.
Two years of assuming every strange sensation was phantom pain.
"Diamond!"
Evelyn screamed again.
There was no time.
Caprice positioned herself beside him.
"Use me."
"What?"
"Get up."
"I can't."
"You don't know that."
"I haven't stood in two years."
"Then today's going to be memorable."
Diamond almost laughed.
He gripped the railing.
Caprice braced herself beneath his arm.
He pulled.
His left leg did nothing.
His right trembled violently.
But it held something.
A fraction.
A whisper.
Enough.
Diamond rose several inches.
Then more.
His arms carried most of the weight.
But he was standing.
Barely.
Pain tore through him.
Caprice stared.
"You're doing it."
"Don't make a big deal."
"You're literally standing."
"Caprice."
"Right. Kidnapping."
He took one brutal assisted step.
Then another.
It was not walking.
It was war.
They reached the damaged wheelchair.
Caprice pushed him into it.
Diamond was breathing hard, but his eyes had changed.
For the first time since the bullet, his body had surprised him with something other than pain.
Outside, Damian dragged Evelyn toward a black SUV.
Levi intercepted him.
Damian fired.
Levi dropped.
Diamond saw it.
"No!"
Caprice pushed the chair faster.
Diamond fired once.
The bullet struck Damian's shoulder.
He collapsed.
Evelyn ran toward Caprice.
Damian's pistol remained within reach.
He grabbed it.
Diamond aimed.
The brothers stared at each other.
"Do it," Damian said.
Diamond's finger rested against the trigger.
For two years, he had dreamed about the man responsible.
Now that man was here.
Bleeding.
Defeated.
Diamond lowered the weapon.
Damian's expression changed.
"Why?"
"Because I'm done letting you decide who I am."
Police sirens approached in the distance—officers already contacted through one of Levi's legitimate security connections.
Damian laughed weakly.
"You think prison changes anything?"
"No."
Diamond looked at Caprice embracing her mother.
"But she did."
Damian followed his gaze.
Understanding filled his face.
Then Levi groaned.
He was alive.
The bullet had struck his vest.
Diamond looked upward.
"Everybody around me is impossible to kill tonight."
Caprice laughed through tears.
Later, outside the mill, paramedics examined Evelyn.
Another medic checked Diamond.
"Did you say you stood?"
"Assisted."
"We need imaging immediately."
Diamond looked toward Caprice.
She was holding her mother's hand.
He had spent two years believing his life ended with a bullet.
Now the possibility of neurological recovery terrified him almost as much as paralysis once had.
Because hope meant he could lose something again.
Caprice noticed him watching.
She came over.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good."
He frowned.
She smiled.
"Means you're finally telling the truth."
Diamond took her hand.
"Come with me."
"Hospital?"
"Where else?"
She squeezed his fingers.
Diamond looked down at their joined hands.
Then up at her.
"Caprice."
"What?"
He pulled her gently closer.
This time, when he kissed her, neither exhaustion nor violence interrupted them.
It was brief.
Careful.
Real.
When they separated, Caprice stared at him.
"That was inappropriate workplace behavior."
May you like
Diamond finally smiled fully.
"Fire me."
