The chef, still racked with pain, charged at Nicky, still slumped to the ground with inarticulate screams. Nicky had waited for him, and when he got close enough, kicked him hard in the knee, dislocating him. The chef rolled his eyes in pain, but was unable to scream because of his throat. Nicky got to his feet without delay and started punching the chief in the head with his fists, then ran to pick up his weapon, which he had been unable to keep in the fight, before turning to his half-unconscious opponent and shooting him in the head.
It was all over. The bad guys were killed and the hostages saved.
Nicky tried to catch his breath, tucked his gun away in his belt, then ran to the box containing the telephones, looked for his, found it, then dialed a number while hurrying to join his brother. Leonie was still holding him in her arms.
"Karl."
"Don't worry," Karl reassured him, comforting his own brother. "Look after your brother!"
Nicky knelt down beside him.
The person he called picked up.
"Nicky?"
"Hi Richard. I need some help, please." He pointed to his location and gave a brief summary of the situation.
"So, you killed all the criminals?"
"Yes, but one of them shot my brother in the stomach, so please get that ambulance here as fast as you can."
"It's already on its way."
"I'll check his wound."
He lifted Ronald's clothes to better study the wound. The latter winced in pain and clutched his brother's arm.
"Nicky...!"
"Shh! Let me see!"
The wound wasn't pretty.
He had to turn his brother around to see if the bullet had come out.
"Shit, it's not." swore Nick as he put his brother back on his back.
"Well?" asked the man called Richard from his phone.
"The bullet's still inside. I'll try to slow the bleeding! Where the hell is the ambulance!" he shouted, running a nervous hand through his ebony hair.
"It's on its way! Probably with me. I'm going all out!"
"They'd better get here in time!"
"Nicky!" called his twin, scared to death.
"Don't worry, I'm here!"
"Are you really Nicky?" inquired Leonie, almost sobbing, her face stained with tears.
He looked up at her for a moment and nodded.
"Yes."
"And you could save him!"
"He's not going to die."
Nicky tried to stop the bleeding by applying the top of his suit to the gaping wound.
Just then, the door opened with a bang and policemen and paramedics rushed into the room.
Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"Nicky!" called Richard, a tall, dark-haired man with faded grey eyes who happened to be a police lieutenant.
"I'm here!" said his friend. The paramedics ran over to them, and tended to Ronnie.
"I'll go with him," Leonie told them, looking at the twins in turn.
Nicky nodded wordlessly.
Before Ronnie was taken away by the paramedics, Nicky stared at him, leaned over and placed a kiss on his forehead.
"Who are you?" inquired his brother, his pain already eased by the care of the rescuers.
But Nicky only replied with a smile before letting him be taken away by those who were going to treat him, followed closely by his fiancée. The latter paused for a moment and turned back to the real Nicky.
"His only words were to encourage her to leave with them. To go with her brother.
Leonie nodded and followed the paramedics as they hurried off with their wounded man.
They all left the hotel.
The others were also taken away by ambulance drivers. Karl was the only one to give a statement; the others were not asked to do so. At one point, Nicky had stopped in a corridor and leaned against the wall, as if he no longer had the strength to stand, as if he could finally let go.
Crystal stopped too, with Nathan wrapping a comforting arm around her.
Richard put his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"But you're trembling!" exclaimed the inspector, visibly astonished at his condition. He must never have shown him such weakness.
"That surprises you, doesn't it!"
He laughed, then shook his head, visibly ravaged by emotion.
"One mistake, and I'd condemn my brother and Karl."
What Crystal took away from these few words was the fact that she and Leonie, but especially she, weren't among the people he'd worried about, even though they too had been convicted.
Again, he let out groans of mingled sorrow and relief.
"Can you imagine, if I'd failed today, then..."
"But you didn't. And that's what matters."
"I know. But I don't think I'd ever be able to keep the two cases separate. Not when it comes to those rare people for whom I still feel something."
Inspector Richard stared back at him, then nodded and took his friend in his arms.
"I've missed you."
"We saw each other last week!" laughed Nicky, doubtful.
"I know."
It was then that Nicky turned to Crystal standing next to the new man in her life, and who hadn't yet decided to come out.
They stared at each other for a long time. And the young woman had the impression that Nicky's indifference was different from her twin's; it seemed to possess a completely different meaning, and in a way, hurt even more.
Nicky wanted to speak, but Crystal wouldn't let him. She had experienced one of the most appalling and incredible moments of her life during that memorable evening, and although it was her fault for standing there waiting and listening to her former lover's complaints, she wasn't ready to hear what this person had to say to her, she wouldn't stand for it, no matter how good or bad it was, so she said the only words that would be able to stop her in her tracks. She was unfair, frighteningly unfair and wrong, but she couldn't stop her words, she couldn't stop herself. She didn't want him to speak. She didn't want him to talk to her, she cried. And above all, she wanted to hurt him.
"You're nothing but a murderer."
His expression after she'd said that, and after the shock had worn off, was intolerable. Even more intolerable than the violence she'd witnessed a few moments earlier, even more so than the killing of those damned bandits. She was right, she was as bad as them, if not worse.
She didn't wait for him to reply, if he had ever intended to. She turned on her heel and left, followed by her fiancé, who was also stunned by what she had just said to her former lover.
"Crystal." called Nathan, but the latter only shook her head.
"Please, not now. Please."
***
That night, when they finally arrived at their apartment as if they'd left it a century ago, for the first time, the couple remained in silence, Crystal not wishing to speak at all, but only to shower, go to bed and sleep, and Nathan, simply afraid to break the silence his fiancée imposed on him. She refused to take a shower with him. She stayed there for a long time, first with her dress on, then without, as if to cleanse herself of any defilement, then she dried her hair, and finally went to bed. When Nathan joined her, she was not yet asleep, and made no attempt to fall asleep.
She just lay there on her side, eyes wide open. Nathan did the same. The young woman must have fallen asleep at some point, for she was soon plunged into a dream, one she had expected and which was nightmarish, at least from the dreamer's point of view. She found herself the prisoner of a gang of criminals who wanted her body and her money. She struggled to escape, screaming and crying to get away. She was in a bad way. But at no time did she feel fear, despite the gravity of the danger she was in, she knew he would come. He would come to save her. Maybe he'd do it by killing all those men and leaving their corpses to rot in the open air, but he'd do it. And he'd do it with that expression of frightful coldness on his handsome face, betraying no doubt or hesitation in executing a living being like himself and thus putting an end to their life once and for all.