AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cowered, unsure of what to do. This was never supposed to be me. This kind of chaos wasn't supposed to be real.
For a long horrifying moment, I sat there frozen, terrified as James lay bleeding in the stairwell and God only knew what the fuck had happened to Ryan. If I stayed where I was, I was going to die.
It wasn't for me to try and analyze who these men were or what they wanted right now. It was time for survival. I reached for my hair, gathered my corkscrew curls with the elastic I wore around my wrist, piling them on top of my head. I was a lot of things, and maybe a coward was one of them, but there was no way in hell I'd let somebody else die for me.
With my hair secured, I reached my hands out and said, "Okay now, gentlemen, I'm pretty sure you have orders not to kill me. You've been very persistent. I'm also pretty sure maybeyou got in trouble for the whole stunt with my flat, because that could have killed me."
Silence.
I placed my arms around the corner first then slowly poked my head around when I didn't hear shots. Three of them stood in a triangle pattern, and Ryan was down. Fuck. All three had their guns raised. One of them was down, so they’d added a fourth. Where had he come from?
"Okay, you've been told to bring me in. Can you at least tell me who you're working for?"
When they saw that I was alone, all three of them did the one thing that was going to be their demise. They put their guns away.
Typical.
But never ever underestimate a pissed off woman.
All those years of martial arts and self-defense classes. All those years of my mother teaching me what to do in case of an emergency. Those years where I didn't get to be a normal little girl. Instead, I was learning everything from Tai Chi, to Krav Maga, to Shudokan karate. A little Kenpo, a little Aikido. If this had been a movie, it was where they would have shown my fucking training montage.
"Gentlemen, let's not do this. You talk to me nicely, and I’ll talk nicely back. If you don't talk nicely, someone is going to walk away crying. And I promise you, it's not going to be me."
All three of them laughed as one approached. "Come with us."
"First of all, you didn't say please, which we all know is the magic word. Second of all, you don't just reach for me. You don’t get to touch me. You say please and thank you, and then we discuss our options. Did no one teach you proper respect and how to treat a lady? Boys, boys, boys,” I tsked.
His eyes raked over me, making it very clear that he didn't think I was any kind of lady. He was within three feet now. Two. One. I snapped my leg out so fast, putting my whole body into it, leaning back with it and catching him directly in the groin. Then I launched myself at him. I looped my arm around his neck and turned us both so he was my human shield.
He was big. Heavy. But I leaned our weights back, forcing him to shuffle hard even as he was holding his groin and moaning. "Stay on your feet, mate. You don't want everyone laughing at you, do you?"
His friends paused now, too worried about shooting this guy, and I already had my hand at the small of his back, taking out his gun. Great news, they didn’t see any of this with his body in the way. I reached around his large body, shot one of them, and as quick as the flick of my wrist, I shot the other.
My aim was shit. Mum and I hadn't really done much target practice. But I knew I’d at least I hit one of them because I heard a curse. And then they were the ones ducking for cover.
As the adrenaline poured through me, I adjusted my hold on the man in front of me, putting better leverage on his neck, bringing my hand up so it clutched his shoulder, and then bringing my left arm up to really brace my right one close to his face.
He started clawing at my arm. His fingers were meaty and big, but they were no match for my simple grip strength.
As a child, I loved to climb. Mum was always complaining that wherever we went I always found some place to climb. Whether it was trees, or boulders, it was the only thing I really liked to do outdoors. I'd developed my grip strength early on, and it was doing me good here because even though he was bigger, he was going to go to sleep in three, two, one. His body slumped as I double-checked to make sure he was still breathing. Because while they may bekillers, I was not.
And then I grinned at the other two. “Aw, now, don’t run. It’s unbecoming of the stronger sex.”
The one I hadn't shot approached, but he underestimated me again and didn't even pull out his gun.
He rushed me, and I held a fight stance. One foot back, hands up in Krav Maga position. Krav was my favorite as it was a much deadlier fighting style. When he was within a foot of me, trying to bum rush and grab me, I shifted my position a half inch to the left, snapped my foot up, and got him on the knee.
He howled in pain but managed to clip my ankle, taking me to the ground with him. I rolled and tussled in the worst position ever. He rolled with me, trying to grab me around the waist, but I fought like hell, throwing elbow after elbow, drawing my whole arm back across my face and delivering the blows up under his arm, just digging, digging, digging.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Using my legs and knees I finally had the leverage to get on top for some good old ground and pound. I heard one of the doors open behind me, and with a slight turn of my head, I could see someone else coming out of one of the flats. Holy shit. Had they taken over someone's flat? There was still a whole floor between me and Gemma.
