But Marcus didn't swing at me.
In one explosive, terrifyingly fast motion, Marcus pivoted on his heel, driving his massive fist straight into Rocco’s face.
The sound of breaking bone echoed like a gunshot. Rocco’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled to the floor, instantly unconscious.
Silas gasped, wildly swinging the pistol away from me and toward Marcus. "You son of a—"
Before Silas could pull the trigger, I lunged forward. I slapped the barrel of the gun upward with my left hand, stepping deeply inside Silas’s guard. The suppressed pistol fired into the ceiling, showering us with drywall dust. I grabbed Silas’s wrist, twisted my hips, and threw my entire body weight into a judo hip toss.
Silas flew over my hip and crashed violently into his own glass desk, shattering it into a thousand pieces. The gun skittered across the floor.
Bane roared in anger, raising his bat and charging at Marcus. Marcus didn't even flinch. He absorbed a glancing blow to his shoulder, stepped inside the swing, and lifted Bane off his feet, driving him through the drywall into the adjacent hallway.
Silas was groaning among the broken glass, desperately reaching for the pistol a few feet away.
I dove across the floor, kicking the gun under a filing cabinet. Silas scrambled to his knees, throwing a desperate, wild punch at my face. I caught his wrist, wrapped my leg over his shoulder, and dropped backward, trapping his arm in a brutal, inescapable Kimura lock. I applied agonizing pressure to his shoulder joint, forcing him flat onto his stomach.
"Don't move," I screamed, pulling the lock tighter until Silas shrieked in pain. "Don't you move a muscle!"
Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs. Jax appeared in the doorway, seeing Silas pinned and Rocco out cold. He hesitated, gripping his bat.
A massive hand clamped down on Jax’s shoulder from behind. Marcus pulled Jax backward out of the doorway and tossed him down the metal stairs like a discarded toy.
The gym went totally silent, save for Silas whimpering in pain beneath me.
Marcus walked slowly back into the ruined office, brushing drywall dust off his hoodie. He looked down at Silas, then over to me.
"I told you," Marcus breathed heavily, a small, grim smile forming on his face. "I didn't come here to hurt you."
"You could have given me a little more warning," I panted, keeping the pressure on Silas’s shoulder.
"He had to confess on camera," Marcus pointed out, gesturing to the red blinking light of the security camera in the corner. "Otherwise, it's just his word against ours."