Chapter 23
"Everybody put your hands in the air!"
The musicians abruptly stopped playing and the crowd of guests gasped as the party crashers made themselves known. Peering over Carl's shoulder, Trish's eyes lit up when she saw them. Of course they came, she never doubted them for even a second.
"Uh, yeah..." Lee awkwardly stood next to Carter, covered in shards of broken glass from their dramatic entrance, "and wave 'em like you just don't care!"
Carter looked around the ballroom and grimaced. "What's with the slave master costumes?" He asked aloud.
Trish could've almost burst out in laughter from how relieved she was. She finally remembered to breathe again, slightly distancing herself from her captor in defiance, though she was still under his grasp.
She swore she could see that Carl was a little destabilized by all the action. For once, it seemed that Trish had the upper hand and that she was ahead of his plans. Sure, this spontaneous rescue was as much as a surprise to her than it was to him, but she finally felt like they were starting to win this insufferable war.
Just as Trish was about to make a sassy remark to Carl, another figure emerged from behind the ex-cop duo, armed with a gun and a glossy leather jacket. Trish made eye-contact with Han and her stomach tightened. If fairytales were true, this would be the moment where her knight in shining armor arrived to save her from the wicked villain.
"Never out of tricks I see," Carl curled his lip, whispering in Trish's ear. "What's the meaning of this?!" He then said aloud.
Suddenly, another loud crash was heard, shaking up the ballroom once more. A chandelier ended up crashing near the middle of the dancefloor, Carl yanking Trish with him as he dodged the flying glass pieces and ornaments. Also coming crashing down were about ten heavily-armed men, all dressed in black. Trish recognized them right away.
"Nobody move!" Maurice shouted, slowly getting up and recomposing himself, raising his weapon. "We're here for- Dim Sum?"
"Maurice?" Han answered from across the ballroom. "What are you doing here?"
His frenemy shook his gun. "Saving y'all! Well, that was the plan..." He looked around at the almost party, most of the people present being Carl's bodyguards, but knowing more of his men were on their way.
"Nah man, you're good," Han reassured him. "We could use the backup."
"Enough!" Carl interrupted their brief catching-up session. " Security!"
With perfect timing, an influx of Carl's goons stomped into the ballroom, all properly armed with army weapons, no doubt from their boss' personal artillery. The guests started screeching and screaming with fear, rushing outside the ballroom to escape the conundrum.
However, this created a sort of stampede and Carl and Trish were caught in the middle of it. Carl recklessly shoved people away from him, shaking Trish up in the process. She tried to run away, but he tightened his grip on her, surely leaving bruises on her arm.
Near them, Maurice and his team made their way towards Carl's backup, opening fire on them in hopes of slowing them down. Some of them fell, but most were keeping up a good pace due to their protective gear.
At the other end of the ballroom, Lee and Carter looked at each other and nodded before nudging Han towards Trish. They were going to cover him in order for him to reach her.
Nodding in comprehension, Han took out his pistol and started running towards Trish and Carl, pushing past the stampede of guests and trying not to get squished by them. Lee and Carter followed closely behind, shooting back at carl's goons and keeping an eye on Han.
Maurice and his gang were starting to take damage as the enemy was starting to overpower them; they pushed tables and chairs in their way, but it wasn't enough. Seeing that they were in distress, Carter jumped on a table for higher ground and started leaping from table to table, strategically shooting at the enemy.
Before he could disappear in the crowd, Lee grabbed Han's shoulder and gave him a hopeful look, signaling that he was going to go help Carter and leave Han to fend for himself. Han placed his hand over Lee's and squeezed it, nodding, before they parted ways.
Seeing that Han was making significantly good progress towards them and that he would have the chance to reach them soon, Carl pulled out a gun from his Edwardian undercoat and aimed it against Trish left temple.
"One more step and I'll blow her pretty head right off!" He threatened with a crazy look in his eyes.
"Han!" Trish cried out, visibly shocked and panicked.
"I must say," Carl laughed maniacally, "very brave of you to show up here. It's just a shame you had to crash my little party this soon, we were in the middle of a waltz. Your lady-friend here's pretty light on her feet."
"Let her go!" Han yelled, pointing his pistol at him. "It's over!"
Carl clicked the safety of his gun off. "Funny, 'cause I was just beginning to have fun."
"We know your plans," Han tried not to shake or look shaken, "we have proof."
This only amused his foe. "And how, pray tell, will you present this supposed proof from your grave?" He cocked his gun, making Trish flinch. "After all, you said it yourself, you know my plans, and that's a big no-no in my book."
Carl then suddenly ducked quickly as a bullet whizzed over his head, almost striking him down.
"Well then," Tania said with an aimed gun at him, "you're gonna have to rewrite that little book of yours."
"Agent Johnson," Carl shook his head in disappointment, "what a shame. You were just starting to get into my good graces."
Tania shrugged, unbothered. "You're under arrest for illegal weapon trafficking and smuggling, money laundering and tax evasion."
"With all due respect, officer," the man smirked, "I don't like the way this conversation is going."
"Then we could continue it when you're behind bars," Tania cocked her gun.
"Well then," Carl looked at Trish, giving her the most bone-chilling, sociopathic smile, "it was nice knowing you, Miss O' Day."
"No!" Han cried, reaching out to her.
But before Carl could pull the trigger, another bullet managed to hit him and scratch his face, leaving a big bloody streak from his chin to his right cheek.
"Ow!" He said, dropping his gun. "Son of a-"
"Not another move, Mr. Raines," Tania told him, "or I'll blow your pretty head right off."
He rolled his eyes, but this moment of distraction gave the time for Trish to finally free herself from him and run towards Han. She came crashing into him, almost crumbling in his arms.
"Trish!" Han hugged her tightly, never wanting to let go. "Are you okay?! Did he hurt you?!"
"I'm fine," she said to calm him down, resting her nose on his, cradling his handsome face, "I'm fine, Han!"
"Trish, I'm so, so sorry," he breathed. "I didn't want to bring you any more pain, I though if I was gone, you could be happy for once. All this shit with the Triad and our fathers wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been there, I just kept messing everything up and-"
His sentence was cut short when Trish's lips came crashing onto his. His mind went blank, it was like the chaos they were in had stopped and that they were the only two people in the room. Together. Kissing each other.
They had kissed before, of course, but they were usually quick, little kisses like when they would greet each other or after one of them did or said something cute. But this kiss was different, it came from the dept of their affection for each other, it was raw, real, passionate.
And they kept kissing. Trish couldn't help herself; after all he had done for her, she knew now more than ever that Han really loved her. All her life, she had to keep her guard up, never completely give herself away. But with Han, she knew it was real.
Trish and Han were so caught up in each other that they barely heard the police sirens and helicopters arriving for Carl's arrestation. It finally seemed that Tania had come to her senses and most likely had been overwhelmed with guilt for her actions and had decided to do the right thing and contact the FBI to turn in all of the material she had. They would take things from here.
As Carl's goons fled the scene to avoid being taken up to jail, Maurice cheered his frenemy on from the sidelines. "Okay! I see you, Dim Sum!"
Finally back to ground level, Carter smiled at himself. "That reminds me of something."
He rushed towards Tania as her colleagues were handcuffing Carl, grabbed the back of her head and guided her lips towards his in a deep French-kiss, almost knocking Tania off her feet.
Being too surprised to do anything about it at first, Tania then quickly regained her senses and pushed him off her. "Carter! What are you-"
He looked her up and down, as he always did. "Look, you might be a crazy-ass, backstabbing, triffling ass, cheatin', lyin'-"
"Get to the point!" She urged him.
"Right," he shook his head. "Point is, you, me, a little house in the Chinese countryside with Lee as our neighbor. What do you think?"
"What?" Tania laughed, initially taking his proposal as a joke. "You're serious? Even after all I've done?"
"It's my fault for being such a jackass to you," Carter admitted, "and not gonna lie, you're the only chick that can beat my ass."
"So like," Tania knitted her eyebrows, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"
"Something like that," Carter shrugged, "if it includes smashing your enemies too."
Tania pondered for a bit, looking around the ballroom. The place had been thoroughly crashed by this 'rescue mission' and the boys had showed pretty sloppy technique as well as some lack of planning. But, despite all of that, they'd somehow manage to free themselves from jail, come back guns a-blazing and teamed up for a good cause. As she watched Trish and Han making out like there was no tomorrow, Maurice showing Lee how to dap him up and Carl getting dragged out in handcuffs, things seemed new. It was like they could do anything.
She turned to Carter, grabbing his shoulders.
"Eh, fuck it," she said before kissing him back.
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