It wasn’t time to wait for my opening anymore.
I just flew at him, stabbing the knife right into the bicep of the arm crushing Alara’s face in its hand.
It was all a blur then.
Punching, getting punched, pain from both, blood, sweat.
Then a lucky uppercut had the guy falling back into the coffee table.
I didn’t stop to think.
I went right for Alara.
Who was being pinned to the ground by that sick asshole.
Then there was more of it.
Punching, getting punched.
The taste of blood in my mouth.
I’d just gotten the upper hand when a movement stole my focus.
Alara being dragged up by her hair, a sharp hiss escaping her.
I scrambled forward.
But the guy came over me, grabbing the back of my head.
The last thing I saw before everything went black was a rag pressed to Alara’s face and her body almost immediately going slack.
I woke up with my heart hammering almost as hard as the pain in my head.
There was just a moment of confusion.
Why was I on the floor?
Why was I in pain?
Why did I taste copper?
Then it came back in a wave, crashing over me, pulling me under.
The intruders. The knife. Alara. The fight. Alara again. More fighting. Watching Alara pass out from what had to be that chloroform crap they used in movies. A split second of pain. Then the blackness.
I shot up, ignoring the way my head and vision swam as I looked frantically around.
But Alara and the two guys were gone.
The hall door was closed.
They took her.
They knocked her out and took her.
Pain pulsed through my hands, my shoulder, my ribs, my head.
But I ran back to my room, grabbing my phone and dialing with frustratingly shaky fingers as I ran back out of the room and stopped at the closet.
