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He flinched, and then his body jerked backward, taking me with him. We both landed on the ground, in a hard fall of limbs.
A wave of dizziness hit me as his weight knocked the wind out of me, followed by a rush of nausea. Breathing through the pain, I struggled to free myself from Hal’s bleeding form.
“Get off me, you bastard.” I shoved at him, his blood covering my hand, making it hard to move him.
He clutched at his ribs as he tried to lock an arm around my waist. I managed to kick him in the stomach and crouched before he could grab hold of my midsection.
I crawled where I last remembered seeing Stevie. I heard the echo of gunshots booming in my ear. Ducking down, I hid against the back of a sofa and noticed the open service elevator in the far corner of the penthouse kitchen.
It wasn’t open earlier. In fact, it was hidden behind a moving wall.
That was when I saw him.
His gun was drawn, dried blood on the corner of his temple, clothes torn, his face a play of fury, and his body set in a stance that screamed he’d kill anyone who got in his way.
He shouted orders right and left as people moved in to take over the penthouse.
“S-Simon,” I whispered, feeling both a sense of relief and fear.
I’d never seen him like this.
Holy fuck. Was this hot?
His green gaze connected with mine a second before he lifted his revolver in my direction. Closing my eyes, I waited for the bullet to pierce its intended target and the distinct thud of the body hitting the floor to reach my ears before I opened my lids.
Simon knelt before me, worry haunting his eyes.
“Goddess, let me take this.” He touched my hand.
I glanced down, not realizing I still held the carved hilt of the blade. All the adrenaline of the situation had probably pushed me to keep my defenses up.
This was so damn gross. I had Hal guts on me.
“My brothers are going to give me such a hard time about this, especially Tyler.” I flexed my blood-soaked fingers and looked up at Simon, sighing. “I’m supposed to make them bleed out, but not all over me. Those are the rules.”
“Your brothers aren’t normal by any standards. Most sisters don’t get lessons in gutting people.”
I shrugged. “They’re all I know.”
With his thumb and index finger, Simon took the knife from me, and on cue, one of his men stepped up next to him with a cloth, wrapped it tight, and bagged it.
“I’ll have it cleaned and returned, sir.”
Simon inclined his head without taking his attention from me.
“Now we need to get you checked out.” He brushed the hair back from the side of my face, more than likely seeing the bruise forming there from when Hal had pushed my head down onto the table.
He shifted his attention over to where Hal lay on the ground and clenched his jaw. “I left you unprotected. It won’t happen again.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“The hell it wasn’t. This was a setup, and I walked into it.” Simon dropped his forehead to mine. “They used Santos to distract me with a meeting and then ambushed me so this fucker could get to you.”
“Simon, you came. That’s what matters.”
He touched my necklace. “What good did it do?”
“I’m fine.” I covered his fingers on the pendant with mine. “I just need to clean up.”
