Who knew that when I’d picked the lock on the balcony door that I’d end up saving the one person that had kept my life so dark all these years? Well, I couldn’t really put that on her. It was more the fact that I couldn’t save her all this time that kept me trapped in a not-so-good place.
And now she was right in front of me.
Only she wasn’t currently aware of anything right now because she’d passed the hell out after she’d seen my face, leaving me to wonder if she somehow recognized me.
I was pretty sure she whispered something, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
I had to get her out of here.
All I wanted to do was scoop her up in my arms and run like hell.
But first, I had to fight my way through three of my target’s bodyguards. I guess to them it didn’t matter that he was dead.
Fuck, this whole thing was a mess.
Guns drawn, they approached ready to strike.
I raised my hand and with one shot, the first one fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I didn’t have to check to know he was dead. I was good at my job and all.
The second one caught me with a punch to the chin and as my head whipped to the side I reached for the hand that held the gun. One quick twist, he screamed as he released his grip on his weapon. I didn’t even watch as it clamored to the ground right next to Jessica’s unconscious body. He might have been disarmed but he was far from going down. We traded punches while the bald one yelled at him to keep me still. That wasn’t going to happen, I didn’t feel like getting shot today.
With a roar, he gave up trying to get a shot off and ran like a bull charging. A second later, my body slammed into the wall, effectively knocking the wind out of me.
Then I had both of them on me. One was almost too much, but two and I was quickly losing this battle. I felt my lip split open as one of their meaty hands met my face. Then a shot to the ribs had me coughing. I tried to cover the most vital parts of my body but it was just no use. I was outmatched and out of fucking luck.
As one last-ditch effort to save myself, I reached for the knife I had hidden strapped to my ankle. Somehow, the movement went unnoticed by both of them. I didn’t hesitate to slam the blade into the closest ear I could get to. And as a howl rang out, I knew I’d slowed him down. I saw an opportunity to escape and I took it. It was hard as hell to get to my feet but I did.
Where the hell was my gun?
I didn’t dare take my eyes off of them to search for it.
A shot rang out.
My body jolted back as a sharp pain ripped through my shoulder. Before I had a chance to regain my bearings, Baldie was charging at me again. At the last second, I dropped to the ground. His body hit the wall and he was momentarily stunned. If this were a cartoon, I imagined he’d have those cute, little stars circling his head.
I jumped to my feet and rammed my good shoulder into ear-bleeder, surprised he was still standing. He went down easily but that might have had something to do with the fact that I went down too. As soon as he hit the floor, I rolled off him, pulling the knife out of his ear at the same time. Of course, he screamed again. While he was all too worried about holding onto the side of his head, I rammed the knife into his throat. His eyes went wide and I rotated the knife for good measure before jerking it free. He and I both knew that it didn’t matter how tight he held onto the gaping wound in his neck, he wasn’t making it out alive.
By this time, Baldie had made it to his feet and somehow managed to find a gun.
The shot rang out and there was no way to dodge the bullet.
Lucky for me, it just grazed my side. It hurt like fuck, but it wouldn’t stop me.
I couldn’t give him the chance to get another shot off. I picked up the closest object— which happened to be a chair— and tossed it at him. He sidestepped it but it gave me an opening to attack him. One good punch to his temple and he was trying to shake the dizziness off. Grabbing his arm, I brought my leg up. The sickening snap let me know that I’d broken that bone good. But somehow he still had plenty of fight left in him. Two blows to my head and I was thinking about taking a nap. I had to end this soon.
One minute I was standing there, and the next we both were crashing through the French doors that led to the balcony. Glass shattered. Furniture scraped along the concrete. The metal guardrail rattled as my back slammed against it, hard.
He came at me once again and I knew this was the end.
At least I found her. I got to lay eyes on her and see that she was still alive. And I could go knowing that I’d saved her from that monster.
I went low as he rushed at me. I caught him just right and was able to— not so smoothly— lift him up and over the railing. Unfortunately for me, he had a good hold on my shirt. I couldn’t stop my body as I flew over with him. Thirty stories up was pretty fucking far. Neither of us would make it.
Like my body wasn’t ready to free fall to its death, my hand reached out to grab anything to stop it. I clung to the railing with all my might. Baldie didn’t have a good enough grip, thank fuck, and he continued on his journey down. I didn’t have to look to know what became of him.
I sucked in a deep breath and slapped my free hand down on the railing to stable myself. I couldn’t lie, it hurt like a son of a gun and the pain in my shoulder nearly brought me to tears. It took everything in me to pull myself up and over. Then I fell to the hard surface of safety with a grunt.
It wasn’t until I rolled over that I noticed the concrete slab above me. Yeah, that wasn’t supposed to be there. My target had the top floor and therefore, he didn’t have a covering over his balcony. I knew I wasn’t wrong on that. I’d studied the outside of this building enough to be sure of it. Plus, that was how I’d gotten down into his place and all. I definitely remembered that hadn’t had that extra obstacle.
