Flinching at the screams of the men who’d been sprayed with Eli’s bullets, I peeked up at their agonized expressions.Two of the guys closest to me yelled out with pain, clutching their shoulders and thighs as they fell to their knees, while another was thrown backward by the force of the gunfire.
“What about you, Hawkins?”Eli straightened, apparently unperturbed that the remaining three assholes also had guns focused in our vicinity.“Do you want some?”
“Somebody shut him up.”Hawkins’ tone was predictably dry.It spoke of a man who’d always had impunity and didn’t believe anyone could hurt him.“But don’t kill him.I want them alive.”
A curt silence protracted as I processed what that meant.He’d given the order to injure Eli—to maybe harm us both—and the entire sorry outcome was unraveling right in front of my eyes.Rising to my knees, I screeched as the farthest gun from me opened fire, a line of shots cascading between me and Eli and forcing me flat against the hard floor.Angry shouts were drowned out by another volley, but that time, I heard Eli’s anguished cry as at least one bullet hit its mark.
“Eli!”
I shrieked his name from the ground, my heart threatening to leap into my throat as I rose to my knees and crawled to the opposite wall.Advancing on his slumped form, awareness of everything else was muted.“Are you okay?”
“I’m all right.”He winced, holding up a bloodied hand from my shoulder to halt my progress.“It’s just a flesh wound.Don’t worry about me.Look after yourself.”
Me?
He was right.I was armed and could do something about our aggressors, but the gun lodged in my hand felt like lead as one shaky hand rose to elevate it.
“About time you hit the target.”Hawkins let out an exaggerated sigh, but no one seemed to comment on my rising weapon.“No, don’t shoot her.Just round them up and get them moving.”
“Do it.”
Eli mouthed the words, his brows knitting, though I couldn’t decide if the expression was born of his guilt about the situation we found ourselves in or the pain he was experiencing.
Acting in what felt like a microsecond, I spun, holding the gun at face level and squeezing the trigger as I went.A thousand arguments wrestled in my mind as the thing fired, assertions about why I had to fire to save us both and how I sensed I’d never be able to live with the choice, but in the heat of that moment, the knowledge we needed to stay alive overruled each of them.
I heard the shout of one of Hawkins’ henchmen as a bullet pierced his arm, my insides cramping at the certainty that I had put it there as another goon charged toward me.
“I said, don’t hurt her!”
Hawkins’ furious tone radiated over the noise of my pounding heart as the approaching wall of muscle shoved me backward and knocked the gun from my hand.I hit the ground with a painful thud, and by the time I’d acknowledged the weapon’s departure, it was already skimming along the hallway behind my head.
“You’re coming with me, darling.”Pinning me to the floor, the toothless assailant offered me a sickening grin.I considered snapping my knee north to connect with his balls, but the weight on my legs made that all but impossible.For the time being, the fucker had me, and his snarling position meant I couldn’t move to see if Eli was faring any better.“The boss wants your attention.”
Staring up at the ugly fiend, my senses strained to hear what was going on behind him.Turning my head, I thought I caught sight of Eli’s mop of dark hair as he pulled himself to his feet.
“Just let me up!”Shifting my left arm to push at his enormous shoulder, I tried to see past the idiot’s scowling face, but I was knocked abruptly to my back, my head bouncing off the hard floor as the two connected.
Winded by the huge palm that had smacked me in the chest, I blinked at the ceiling as his warning reverberated over me.
“Stay.”
I wanted to tell him to go and fuck himself, but as I opened my eyes, I saw stars, three or four versions of the nasty monster looming over me.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to focus on something, on anything other than the foul-smelling and bad-tempered thug pressing himself against me.How was Eli doing?Had it been him I saw staggering to his feet?
He’s been shot!
I wanted to cry at the reality, but a fleeting memory of the time we’d spent together held the emotion back.Eli had been shot before and survived.If he was right about the flesh wound, he could endure the latest onslaught.
Time slowed as a barrage of ear-splintering volleys punctuated the scene behind my antagonist, and, opening my eyes, I strained to see what was happening.It was useless, though.The dizziness in my head wouldn’t cooperate, and my limbs were still pinioned to the ground courtesy of Hawkins’ hideous brute.
“No fucking way!”Shifting over me, the moron could see what had happened, though, and falling to his knees at my side, he fumbled for his stowed gun.
“No!”
My voice sounded hoarse and distant as I reacted to his response, but whatever he was going to do, he’d left it too late, and even I flinched as the barrel of a weapon was thrust hard against his temple.
“Yes fucking way.”
