AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The other guys came on. I kicked and spun, blocked and whirled, grinning with fierce animal joy at the awesome rush of it. The synergy of joining forces with someone and feeling the power swell, bigger than the sum of the parts.
Ethan took a blow to the face, and hit the wall. His opponent bellowed as I smashed a kick into his thigh. Then the biggest guy locked his meaty arm across Ethan’s throat for terrifying seconds until Ethan fought free, wrenching the guy’s arm down. He whipped his leg up in a vicious front kick to the head of the thug coming at me, knocking him forward. I followed up with an elbow strike to the back of the asshole’s skull, and down he went.
Then the choking sounds made my head whip around. Ethan, in a neck hold again. Same motherfucker.
I scooped up the fallen stun baton. Stabbed it into the neck of the guy holding Ethan.Bzzzzzz.
Ethan wrenched out of his grip as the stunned man staggered, and fell, writhing. He delivered a swift, businesslike blow to the guy’s face for good measure.
Neutralized. All of them. Silence fell in the elevator.
Ethan hunched over, hands on his knees, panting. Then he looked up, and stared straight at me, his dark eyes glowing hot and fierce with fighting energy, as if seeing me for the first time.
There was a gun in his hand. What thehell? A SIG P226. I hadn’t noticed it beneath his expensively tailored suit.
“Holy fuck,” he said, still panting. “That was intense.”
“Yeah,” I said, still gazing at him in wonder. “Agreed.”
“You are hell on wheels.” His voice was admiring. “You blow my mind.”
I looked at the tangle of unconscious, bleeding men on the floor. Bewildered. “Thanks, I guess.” My voice was shaky.
Ethan’s eyes sharpened as the elevator shuddered to life, and started descending again. He looked up at the lights, stabbing at the buttons. They did not respond.
The only button lit up was a sub-basement parking garage.
He hit something on his wrist, hidden beneath his cuff, and barked into it.
“Mick,” he said. “I’m under attack. Heading down to elevator bank number three, second sub-basement, parking garage level. Move. And watch out.” His arm dropped as he looked me over. “Your nose is bleeding,” he said.
I reached up, felt sticky fluid on my lips. Tasted the salty tang. “Yours, too,” I told him. I grabbed my dropped purse and ransacked it for the tissues I kept in there. “Want some?” I plucked out several and handed a wad to him.
He swiped at his bloody face with it, managing a split-lip smile before he tossed it. He kicked one guy away from the wall, shoving him out into the middle of the elevator. “Okay, Kat. We didn’t select the parking garage. Someone’s controlling these elevators externally, and that someone is not our friend. We’re almost there. Get behind me and be ready to do whatever you need to do when the doors open. You ready?”
I got behind him, wobbling as I picked my way over the tangle of fallen fuckheads. I wasn’t ready, of course, but who in life ever was? You just did stuff whenever you had to freaking do it.
I took a deep breath. “All set,” I said to his back.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured.
“Don’t call me girl,” I told him crisply. “Don’t call me yours, either.”
Ethan’s laughter cut off as the doors slid open.
CHAPTER5
Ethan
Four men, heavily armed and dismayed to see me still on my feet.
Fuck them all. I opened fire, straight to center mass. The sound echoed endlessly against the parking garage’s concrete walls and floors. Two of them staggered back but didn’t go down. A third took one in the thigh and hit the ground, cursing.
Body armor. Kat and I didn’t have that advantage.
I felt Kat duck and flinch as return fire pocked the smooth reflective metal of the back wall of the elevator. The goons scrambled for the cover of their van.
I leaned out and aimed for the driver. He fired, and a white starburst appeared in the window. Bulletproof glass.Shit.Ten shots left.
