Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
I tried to control my jolt. He’d fired the three shots in quick succession.
I heard shouts break out from below.
“Smith is down!”
“Garcia and Sanders are dead.”
“Find that fucker,” another voice bellowed.
Now I heard the thunder of boots. They were coming.
Cole moved to the doorway, silent as a ghost. He pressed his back to the wall beside it and waited. He looked cool and controlled.
How the man could have this sort of patience when I felt like I was going to leap out of my skin, I didn’t know.
A man in camouflage gear came through the door.
Cole attacked, a knife in big hand. He stabbed the attacker in the neck. Once. Twice. Three times.
The man sagged, and Cole shoved him out the doorway and down the stairs.
I heard thuds, a grunt, and several curses.
Suddenly, gunfire ripped through the walls. Cole dived toward me, rolled, and came out running.
He grabbed my arm and tugged me up. We raced across the room and through another doorway, then down another set of stairs.
He pulled me into another room.
“There.” He jabbed a finger at a desk. With one hand, he flipped the desk over like it weighed nothing.
I ducked down behind it. “How many left?”
“Eight. Could be more that I didn’t see on the cameras.”
Nausea rolled inside me. So many. I curled into a ball, pressing my knees to my chest.
Cole checked out the window, lifted his handgun, aimed, and took a shot. When he muttered a curse, I assumed he’d missed. Then he moved back to the doorway.
A man slunk in, his gaze focusing on my hiding place. Cole reared up behind him, and I saw the glint of a thin wire in his hands.
He jerked it over the man’s head. The attacker burst into action, twisting hard, trying to free himself.
Cole held on, but then the men lost balance. They hit the floor and rolled, both of them grunting.
Cole pinned the man down, and pulled the wire tight. The man tried to swing out with his fist, trying to punch Cole.
The wire cut into the man’s neck, but I didn’t look away. Cole was fighting for me. For my life. So I’d watch everything he had to do for me.
The attacker gurgled, his feet hitting the floor several times, then he went silent.
Cole heaved the body away and rose. “Come.”
