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I peered over the banister and saw one of the black guys from last night run in. Shit! I dropped the tray in fright and bolted into my bedroom, shouting, “Ash!”
Luckily, he had already managed to get himself up and was standing beside the bed when I darted into the room.
“The black guys are here, or one of them is,” I said while running to the side of my bed.
Thanks to Derrick, I’d started keeping a large Maglite torch there for safety purposes. As he explained, it was helpful if the power went out, or if I needed to break a window to get out if there was a housefire. He also said,’No, your honour, it was not intended to be used as a weapon when the man broke into my house, but I panicked and hit him over the head in self-defence!’which told me the real reason he wanted me to put it there.
When he said these things as if he were talking to a Sheriff in court, it always made me snigger. Unlike in the USA, we regular folks in the UK couldn’t legally carry any kind of weapon, so if the need arose where we needed a weapon, we had to make do with whatever was nearby.
Derrick was an advocate for self-defence training for all women and gay men, and he ran several courses. I’d taken part in his beginners one and was signed up for the advanced. Thank goodness I had a friend like Derrick.
I grabbed the torch just as the big guy came rushing into the room. He had a large machete in his hand. Oh shit! I didn’t have time to react, but luckily, Ash had already positioned himself behind the door. As the guy ran towards me, Ash jumped on his back, taking him down.
“Ooof!” they both said as the air whooshed out of them, and the machete flew from the black guy’s hand as they hit the floor.
I winced at the sound, imagining how much that must have hurt Ash with his broken ribs.
I rushed over to help. I was about to wallop the guy on the head when his friend ran in, distracting me, and I missed. Luckily, Ash had managed to grab the guy’s head and banged it on the ground several times.
I left them struggling and set my sights on the smaller dude with the sovereign-type rings who’d just arrived. He was brandishing a smaller knife in his hand and charged at me. I dodged him, stepping to the side the way Derrick had shown me, and grabbed his arm. In a slight variation to the move, I used the Maglite to batter his hand, loosening his grip on the knife, which fell to the floor.
He wasn’t expecting that and looked as surprised as I was that I’d done it. We stared at each other for a few seconds in shock before he drew a gun from the back of his waistband. Oh, hell no, was all I could think as I watched him bring it up towards me!
CHAPTER 16
ASH
STILL SATURDAY MORNING - SAVING LITTLE MISS HOT MESS
Istruggled hard with the big guy. He kept trying to get up, but I held him down, pinning his arms with mine, not wanting him to be able to turn around or get a chance to use that bloody machete.
It wasn’t an easy task. The guy was huge. I wasn’t small myself, but he was bigger, and I was weak after the beating I’d had.
I wondered where that double-crossing bastard, Mohammad, was. As if conjured up by my thoughts, he appeared in the doorway. After taking in the scene, he charged straight for Gracie.
Shit. He had a knife. She didn’t have a baseball bat now, and I doubted her torch was going to prove helpful against his knife.
I pounded the big guy’s head on the ground. I needed to get to her, but the big fucker just wouldn’t pass out. My ribs screamed in agony and sweat ran down my face as I continued to try to pound his head into the floor, but I was losing the battle. If I didn’t get to Gracie soon, she might be injured or worse, and I couldn’t let that happen.
Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Gracie side-step Mohammad. I watched in awe when, in a smooth action, she grabbed his arm and then brought her large torch down on his hand, making him drop the knife. Wow! Badass! And so hot! I wasn’t expecting that. He obviously wasn’t either because he stopped his attack and stared in shock. It didn’t last, though. A second later, he pulled a gun from his waistband. Oh, hell no!
As soon as I saw him raise that gun towards Gracie, I saw red. My fury at Mohammad and concern for Gracie gave me the extra strength I needed. I cracked the big guy’s skull hard, and he went limp in my arms. I immediately sprang to my feet, all thoughts of pain and tiredness gone.
“Gracie!” I shouted in warning.
I ran towards them and threw myself at the bastard who dared to threaten her, tackling him side-on. “Oof!” the air whooshed out of me with the force of the impact as I brought him to the ground.
Fuck, that hurt. My ribs screamed in pain again. If they hadn’t already been broken, they sure as hell were now. Mohammad was going to pay for this. He was a dead man. If he hadn’t been already for kidnapping and beating me, then he certainly was now for threatening my Little Miss Hot Mess.
As we struggled, the gun went off, barely missing her and lodging in the wall. That was close. Too close.
Gracie moved behind us and out of the line of fire as Mohammad and I grappled for control of the weapon. I kept myself pressed close to his body, with one hand tightly around his wrist and the other holding him to me so that he couldn’t bring that gun up again.
We struggled like that for a few seconds. Mohammad was smaller than me and much smaller than the other guy, but I was too weak to get the better of him in this position. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t get him to drop the gun. My strength was waning again. I didn’t know how long I could keep this up. So, I did the only thing I could in the position we were in and head-butted the little fuck.
That was something I learned from a friend up in Glasgow. It’s called a “Glasgow kiss” there. They’ve got a sick sense of humour that way, I guess.
It didn’t knock him out, but it dazed him enough for me to grab the gun and pull the trigger. He hit the floor hard. Under normal circumstances, I’d have been annoyed at killing him so easily after what he’d done. But these weren’t normal circumstances, and I was too damn exhausted and worried about Gracie to care.
