AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh my God! Is that...? My neighbor?! His grip around my waist keeps the towel from falling all the way off me which is one good thing I have going for me, I guess. I still don't know what is going on and a part of me instinctually realizes it wasn't my neighbor that made all the noise from before. In his next breath, my neighbor confirms my deepest fears.
"Men have broken into your house." I whimper. "Very dangerous men."
What the crap does he want me to do about it? What can we do about it? I hold still and wait.
"I need your help to get us out of this. Will you help me?"
I nod my head so hard I become dizzy. Uh, yeah! Hell yes, I'll help! Just tell me what to do!
He reaches behind him after he takes his hand from my mouth, first leaving his finger on my lips as a signal to stay quiet. When he brings his hand back around he's holding a gun in his hand. My eyes widen when I see it.
I hiss, "I thought you said you were a doctor or something."
"Medic." I just look at him like he might be trying to fuck with me right now.
"Okay, I thought you said you were a medic."
"In the military." Like that answers why he is walking around with a fucking big ass gun in his pants. He puts his finger to his lips again, telling me to stay silent. There is so much wrong with this scenario I don't even know where to start. But on a happy note, if there can be a happy one, I have my towel back in place. Thank God!
I follow him, staying close behind. I slap my hand over my mouth when we see the first man. And in the blink of an eye, the guy living next door to me turns into fucking John Wick and shoots him, right in the head. He helps ease the guy down to the ground, not that I think it will be a lot of help to the guy since he's dead and all.
The next guy comes up and gets all the way around the corner when he shoots but this guy dodges. Then all hell seems to break loose. The fact the guy dodged the bullet - really a sane thing to do in circumstances such as these - only seems to piss my neighbor off. And it suddenly occurs to me I have no idea what my neighbor's name is. Did he tell me and I forgot? I'm really bad with names.
I'm also pretty sure seeing men fall dead left and right might have fractured my mind. Who the hell thinks about shit like this when there is so much death around them? Boom, he finally got the bullet dodger. But now his friends are here. I shrink back against the wall as the man I've been crushing on for over four weeks now pistol whips some guy dressed all in black. He does it so hard it breaks the helmet thingy the guy is wearing. And then another bullet. The next guy gets kicked through my banister. This time I do come off the wall. That was a really nice banister. Was being the appropriate word. Now it has a big fucking hole in it.
Another man looks up from the bottom where the guy just reenacted the scene from The Omen and takes aim but Kamando Karl here doesn't even hesitate. He just steps back into the darkness like he's daring the guy to come find him. I feel like his name would have to be something cool like that with K's. Karl's too much of a wanker name though. Killion, now that's a name that says...well pretty much what this guy is doing.
He's killing people left and right and I'm standing over here in my hallway struggling with keeping my towel in line. I cannot believe it fell before. The guy from down below comes upstairs and looks at me and for the first time since I got grabbed around the waist by...I should really have asked him his name, damn it. For the first time fear skates up my back and takes hold of my heart. Before the guy can make a move toward me, my neighbor steps out of the shadows and wraps his hands around the guy giving his head a quick jerk.
The guy falls to the floor in a heap with his eyes still open. I know I should be scared of the man who just snapped a human neck right in front of me but...I have so many questions. Is it hard to do that? Is there a certain way to go like from left to right or right to left or does it depend on your dominant hand? And does the tongue always stick out at that grotesque angle when necks are snapped?
And then the silence settles. It's an odd sound after all the fight noises that filled the house not seconds ago. It's truly eerie. Is it always this...eerily silent after death comes visiting or is this a special occasion thing? When I finally look up eyes that convey so much are looking back at me. I want to shiver but still myself. It has nothing to do with the dead littering my house and everything to do with that look. That look...it doesn't just promise death. That look promises me he would quite happily eat me up if given half the chance. That look also tempts me to give him just that...a chance to eat me alive.
7
____________
Ezra
I call Jamison "Jim" Archer. He was the leader of my special forces unit. He was more like a father to most of us than he was a commander. He kept us alive, got everyone back home in one piece...well, mostly in one piece after I was done with them. And always knows what to do in a situation like this.
When our unit was burned, and no longer useful to the people above us, they sent all of us home. Now we're being hunted off, one by one. They killed three of our members before Jim could stop the first wave. They've attempted to kill more and every time we send them back in body bags. First, it was Ace, our pilot, and his lovely bride, Evie. They went after her to get to Ace. That didn't go over well with anyone on our team.
Then they came after Jim himself and almost killed Jim's fiance, Libby - who also helps run the business side of what we now do. Jim started burning people down and for a while, we were left in peace. Then they came after Jim's right-hand man - Jack. Libby's little sister got involved in that and almost died in a crash when one of the idiots cut the brakes on the car she was riding in. Jack had grown very fond of her and didn't take it very well when they tried to kill her. They are not just getting married but will be expecting soon I suspect.
All this time and no one ever came for me. I had retired from the unit months before they took down a sex slavery ring. I had thought that they - whoever the hell they are - wouldn't come for me because I was no longer part of the team. I was wrong.
"They were going to kill her to use her house to surveil you." His words settle like a sour lump in the pit of my stomach. "It's what we would do."
Not everything we did in the past would have made us angels when we die. In fact, there were times it was hard to remember which side of the line we were on. Don't get me wrong, we all have our hard lines that we won't cross, but some are thinner than others.
"I...was supposed to be out...on a date." Carson seems small standing among all the tall men I've looked at as brothers for the better part of my life in nothing but one of my shirts.
Jim looks over at Steve, a long, tall Cajun from Louisiana who Jim snapped up from the Rangers. It's Steve who speaks, "They were going to ambush her when she got home. The bastards." Carson pales at the words and I move even closer to her than I already am. "She would’ve come in, gone in the house, and never came back out alive."
"Oh my God!"
"Why don't we talk about this later? Right now we have to start making plans, don't you think?"
