Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 18063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
“We would have grabbed her instead of the Chan heir, but we knew he had no bodyguards, and between you and Sutter’s people, that wasn’t gonna work.”
I was sure that, between all the uniformed police officers and it being Aaron Sutter’s event, David Chan’s mother hadn’t seen the need for bodyguards. I was betting that going forward he’d have a whole contingent of muscle.
“It was easier to grab Chan than your girl.”
I loved it when the bad guys explained themselves. I didn’t understand why they did that, and I used to think that no one monologued in real life, only in Bruckheimer summer blockbusters, but they did. Or, realistically, guys who weren’t terrorists did. The men I fought when I had first been deployed, and now when I went out on missions, never explained themselves. They didn’t need to. Everyone understood their agenda and what our part was. This was different. These were guys who had decided to kidnap a young man for ransom and hadn’t counted on me and Hannah getting in the way.
The issue was that I couldn’t let them take David out of the parking structure. As soon as we were on the street, they’d put a bullet in me, drop me out on the road, and he’d be alone. If we got to the entrance and I couldn’t convince the attendant to let us out, they’d kill whoever it was and leave the officers who came to help dead on the sidewalk. That couldn’t happen.
Taking a quick breath, I threw an elbow into the throat of the thug on my right, leaving him hissing like a broken radiator. The guy to David’s left was on me in seconds, but I led with my head, catching him under the chin. The momentum sent the back of the thug’s head through the glass of the rear driver’s side window.
The guy in the passenger seat turned, drew his nine-millimeter, and instead of firing, just shooting me, he thought about it for a beat too long. Those were the moments I’d been trained to live in.
I saw him hesitate, which gave me a second, before I saw the muzzle flash, to make the decision to turn into it. I felt the bullet graze the meat of my shoulder, the left one, the bad one that somehow always took the worst of whatever I got into. I came up out of my seat and punched the guy in the face. When he tried to shoot again, I shoved wildly at the man’s arm, spoiling his aim as he fired. The bullet passed through the side of the driver’s head, painting the window like a gruesome Pollock. A marionette with his strings cut, the driver slumped, pulling the wheel to the right and sending the Lexus careening into a row of parked cars.
The sheer force of the impact surprised me even as the back of the Lexus lifted into the air, launching me into the front before the wheels found the pavement again. All my wind left my body at once as I slammed against the console. Thank God David was belted in. He would have gone straight through the windshield otherwise.
The side airbags deployed, stunning the passenger, and I slammed a right hook into the guy’s face before wrenching his gun away and putting two rounds into his chest. Pivoting, I squeezed the trigger twice more, hitting the guy I’d elbowed moments before.
“Fucking fundraisers,” I groaned, opening the rear passenger side door, climbing over the dead guy, and falling out onto the ground.
I heard gunfire then, back where I’d been, and the sound of more squealing tires, cars driving fast to reach me. I really hoped that it was the police this time and not any more thugs, because the gun I had ammo for was no longer with me.
I felt the gray clawing at the periphery of my vision, but no way in hell was I going to pass out, no matter what. I just needed to get my bearings for a moment.
“Oh God,” I heard Hannah wail and lifted my head to scowl at her. She stopped hard, like she’d run headfirst into a wall, and covered her mouth with both hands. There were people running behind her, all in uniform.
“Why would I be dead?” I snapped at her, needing to put my head back down, realizing that I might have gotten more bounced around inside the Lexus than I thought I had. As long as I didn’t have a concussion. I hated those. “Give me a bit more credit than that.”
She was on me then, hands all over me, touching my face, my hair, finally taking hold of my hand.
“Your buddy is safe,” I assured her. “Maybe you should check on him.”
“I know he’s safe because you’re alive,” she assured me.