I was trapped, but the way through the debris was narrow, so they were trapped too.
Another one came into the gap with a handgun and shot at me.
I felt my entire body shift backward when the bullet hit my vest, the momentum as powerful as a shove from a man twice my size. But I kept my balance with my foot planted behind me like my father had taught me, and I hit him right in the chest.
He dropped like the first.
I didn’t have time to reload, so I grabbed the AK-47 next and sprayed the two men who rushed me afterward.
They’d probably underestimated just how much ammunition I had in here.
“They’re on their way,” a man shouted from the other side. “Get the bitch and let’s go.”
So they were here for me.
I gripped the rifle hard with both hands. “Good fucking luck with that.”
“She’s packing in there,” another said.
It was quiet, and then there were more thuds. Some had crawled forward and were moving the furniture aside to clear the doorway so others could get inside. I sprayed both of the dressers until they stopped moving, but then my magazine was empty.
I quickly reached for the desk behind me to grab another clip, but a guy rushed through with a gun pointed at my head. “She’s out.” He put his gun in the back of his jeans as he came for me.
My hand trembled, and I missed the slot to shove in the magazine.
He was twice my size, and he snatched the gun from my hands and then hit me in the face with the butt of theweapon, making me fly back to the floor. “We’re gonna make you pay for that, bitch.”
I reached for the knife on my thigh and then stabbed it right into his calf, making him roar like a wounded bear before he dropped to the floor, unable to stand because I’d cut him exactly where Wolfe said the tendon was.
I crawled over him and grabbed the handgun from the back of his jeans, just when another guy swarmed me.
I popped a couple right into his face, and he collapsed, blood spraying all over me.
There was another guy already there to replace him, and I squeezed the trigger, but all I heard were clicks because it was empty.
The guy gave me a terrifying sneer before he punched me in the face and made blood explode from my nose.
My knife was still in reach, so I grabbed it and slipped it between his ribs, twisting it exactly like Wolfe had told me to. I shoved the guy off me and then slammed the butt of the gun into his face, breaking his fucking nose.
Then I heard the most terrifying and reassuring scream. It sounded like it came from an animal more than a man, a promise of fiery wrath, of torture, of merciless executions to everyone who was stupid enough to come here.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Tears pooled in my eyes. “Wolfe…”
“Francesca!”
It was him. “He’s coming.” I gripped my knife and got to my feet.
“I’m coming for you!”
I was covered in blood, but most of it wasn’t my own. My dress was soaked red from the spray of my bullets. My hands were coated from the slashes and stabs I’d made with my knife. I could feel it all over my cheeks. I started to cry, not out of fear or adrenaline, but fucking relief.
Another man had come into the room to take me, but he stopped when he heard what I said.
“He’s coming,” I said as I stayed against the desk on the floor. “And he’s going to cut your fucking head off.”
The guy decided to save his own ass instead of finishing the mission. He ran back into the hallway and disappeared, probably trying to find a way out before Wolfe got there. A couple seconds later, I heard a man scream, not in ferocity, but in unmistakable death.
