AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A small part of me felt relief.
I struggled to flip over onto my belly and push up, push him off balance, like Mason had shown me. Now the tile floor, wet from the steam, was working withandagainst me simultaneously. I wasn’t stuck; I wasn’t pinned, but I couldn’t get enough of a grip on anything to get out from under him. I was sliding around and going nowhere.
I grunted as I grabbed his own leg, gripping onto the fabric, using it for leverage as I wriggled out from under him and scrambled up.
I whirled around and trained the gun on him, and I didn’t pull the trigger.
It all happened at once…
He lunged at me.
The sound of breaking glass behind me.
My scream.
I pulled the trigger.
Time slowed down.
My hand violently jerked back, the power, the force utterly shocking.
The motion of my finger pulling the trigger, so minimal, so slight, so easy, for such a deadly consequence.
I fired the gun over and over again until he finally stopped moving. We were so close together that I didn’t miss a single shot. We were so close that I was splattered in the red sticky evidence of what I’d done.
Suddenly, arms came barreling around me from behind, pinning my own arms to my sides, I screamed and kicked as I was thrown a few feet onto the ground again.
I pushed myself up frantically, searching for the gun that was no longer in my hands. The dark figure stood between me and the gun, and I scrambled up, around to the other side of the locker. Panting, I saw my sauna stones, and I grabbed the corners of my towel full of rocks and swung it just as the dark figure rounded the corner and he cried out in pain, stumbling back.
I screamed with terror, a war cry as I hit him again and he stumbled backward to the ground. My body took over, and I climbed on top of him and pounded one of the stones into his head, over and over again. The sounds, the crack of bone, all muted as the world around me went silent.
Finally, my hearing came back a muffled sound over the ringing in my ears and I heard myself screaming. I pushed myself up, realizing he wasn’t going anywhere. Ever. Again.
By now I was covered in more than just blood. My skin itched with the dampness and the stickiness of it all. I felt dizzy as I looked down at my naked body, at the red that dripped and streaked down me, how the vapor in the air bonded with the slick shampoo and blood and created a wet sticky coating, sealing me into it entirely.
I staggered backwards and pushed my wet hair out of my face, feeling the sting of shampoo in my eyes. I had to get out of here. I had to get out of here before the other man figured out how to get out of the steam room, or the sauna, or whichever one was still stuck.
I fought to see through the stinging tears in my eyes, my hands, my body trembled, and I cursed as I pulled my leggings on over my sticky legs. The stretchy fabric protested the entire way as I wrenched against it, trying to pull them up my legs. I cursed as I fought my sports bra. It rolled and snagged against my damp skin, refusing to uncoil so I could get it on properly.
Finally, I pulled it down over my breasts. I grabbed my duffle bag and shoved the gun into it and sprinted out into the gym towards the exit. I caught the eyes of a horrified woman as she jogged mouth agape on a treadmill.
“Don’t go in there.” I said to her as I sprinted by. The sound of my own voice shocked me, so animalistic and hoarse.
Covered in my hard earned war paint, I climbed into the jeep and started the engine.
I was going to end this.
My pulse thundered in my ears. If Mason wanted me dead, he had another thing coming.
I was going to fucking kill him first.
I was going tokillMason Reynolds.
25
MASON
I saton my laptop at the kitchen island and dragged a hand over my face. I’d spent hours going through this damn hard drive and I was going nowhere fast. I needed someone who knew how to navigate what they were looking for.
