AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Subtle, but it was enough to prickle all her nerves and set alarm bells shrilling. There was someone there; there was motion; she had to get away. Go! Move!
She jumped aside just as the rusty ax came down with enough force to embed itself in the wooden pole. Before she could get close enough, it was ripped out again.
Whirling around, Cora faced her attacker.
She couldn't see his face. He was wearing a mask, a white mask, that looked like the type a Paris mime artist might wear. It had dark eyeholes and a smiling mouth that she knew belied the person behind it.
He was tall, muscular, and strong. He was wearing a dark, tight-fitting top that hugged broad shoulders. There was an air of madness about him. She sensed it in the crazed, purposeful way he'd attacked, and now he was raising the ax again.
Nowhere to go. The pole was behind her. Only one way to avoid this, and that was to move forward into the attack.
Cora didn't hesitate. She lunged at him, ducking under the swing of the ax and lashing out with a punch to his midriff. He stumbled back, and she surged forward, looking to claw back the advantage, looking to disarm him, but he was too fast and too lethally strong. He regained his footing, cat-quick, and now, the ax was whirling through the air again.
She sprawled to the side, desperate to avoid that rusty blade with all the brute strength of madness behind it. With the brown work jacket on, she couldn't easily get to her gun. It wasn't readily available because she needed it to stay out of sight. But she had to get to that gun. And fast.
First, though, she needed to get the ax away from him. This attack couldn't have happened at a worse time, and she knew that this delay was going to make all the difference between life and death for Gabe. She didn't know if she'd loosened the wire enough. She hadn't heard Gabe fall because the ax man had ambushed her. She had no idea if he was alive or about to die.
Now, already, the masked man was attacking again. She lunged toward him, under the blow, grabbing hold of his arm and wrenching it wide so that the ax clanged into the stone. Now she had him, she had that ax hand, and he was fighting like a madman; punches were raining down on her. She did her best to avoid them, ducking and twisting, but one hit her head and snapped it sideways and she saw stars. She tried to stamp on his feet, tried to kick at his knees, and all the while, she kept a desperate grip on that ax hand. He couldn't use his weapon, and he was fighting with all his strength to get free.
She couldn't keep this up for long.In a battle of strength, he was going to win. She had both hands on his ax hand and couldn't use her arms to defend herself. He was screaming in frustration.
And then, he suddenly laughed a low chuckle that sent a chill through her.
He dropped the ax. He wrenched his hand free from her grasp.
And then, before she could react, with astonishing speed, he shoved her back up against the balcony. The railing crushed against her spine, and then, he was pushing her further, shoving her out into the darkness, over the edge. Over the dark abyss. She teetered on her back on the stone rail.
Cora fought with all her strength. She flailed her hands, tried to grab hold of him, but all she could clutch was a handful of that top.
She was going over regardless, but she was going over fighting.
She hung onto that top. Locked her fingers into it.
But she was over the edge now, her balance had pivoted, the darkness below was yawning, and all her weight was now suspended from that flimsy piece of fabric.
And then, with a tearing noise, it ripped away and she fell.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Cora had a fleeting moment for regrets as her flimsy grasp ripped free, and the darkness rushed to meet her. Just a moment, to wish she'd done so much differently, that she'd had more time, that she'd appreciated her life more.
Because if it didn't end when she hit the ground, it would end when he came down to find her. If she somehow survived the fall, she would be in no condition to fight. She would probably be knocked out. At least that would mean she might not know about it when he came rushing down with that ax.
The darkness whooshed past, and she did the only thing she could. Twisted, trying her best to get herself sideways rather than to slam into that unyielding stone with her skull.
She waited for the impact, wondering if she'd know about it or if it would be lights out.
It never came.
Instead, a pair of strong arms slammed into her from below, grabbing her as she smashed down to the ground, breaking her fall, allowing her to do no more than stumble heavily down onto the cold stone floor.
"Gabe?" The word blurted from her, and she felt an instant of surprise and delight and massive relief. The feeling was incandescently strong. A thousand times more powerful than the highest high she'd ever had from drugs. More uplifting than anything she'd ever explored on the dark side.
He couldn't speak. He was coughing and wheezing. But he was alive. The wire had unraveled in time. He was alive, on his feet, and he had raced over to save her.
But where was the killer?
After what he'd put them through, there was no way that Cora was allowing this man to get away.
