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Raul’s eyes narrowed and I could see him fighting for control over his temper. “I don’t show mercy to my enemies,” he barked at us and stepped closer. “Or for those who work for them.” He stopped in front of Paolo. “I don’t even give quarter to their whores,” he told me with a hard look.
He looked so serious and he was already beginning his bad guy monologue. I couldn’t help it, I laughed.
Every man in the room stared at me in shock.
“Sorry,” I told him and let my lips form into a pout. “Was I supposed to have hurt feelings because you called me a whore?” I grinned as the surprise turned to fury on his face. “Or maybe I’m supposed to be terrified of you?” I let my eyes wander down his body. When my gaze met his again I let him read how unimpressive I found him.
“You’re not scared to die?” he asked me.
“No, I’m not,” I answered truthfully. My own death wasn’t what worried me. I was more afraid of losing those I’d gotten close to in the last month. I could slip into death’s embrace and go happily, but to lose something I never should have found again? That, I couldn’t live with.
Raul came to stand in front of me and pulled a pistol out, leveling it at my face. He was about five steps away from me—too far. I stared down the barrel of the gun and felt nothing. My eyes met his and I gave a bored arch of my brows. “Impressive.”
He bared his teeth at me. I knew I was egging him on, but maybe if I could make him lose control, we’d have a shot at getting out of here alive. There were too many guns pointed at us to do much right now.
“Paolo?” I called to my friend. He side eyed me and I could see by the look on his face he wasn’t sure what I was up to. “How many cartel members does it take to kill a woman and a weasel?”
“I prefer informant,” he told me loftily, taking up the game with me.
Raul was looking back and forth between us in bewilderment. “You’re both insane,” he snarled and waved the gun in front of us.
Pot meet kettle.
“I’m holding you at gunpoint,” he continued.
I cringed dramatically, playing it up for his benefit. “Paolo?”
“Yeah?”
“Is there anything more embarrassing than having to remind your hostages more than once that you’re going to kill them?”
Paolo snickered, but didn’t answer.
Raul rushed forward to jam the gun into me, so he could make his point.
I used the opening and stepped into him, grabbed the gun with both hands and twisted it out of his grip, so that it spun to the side Paolo wasn’t standing on.
Raul’s finger squeezed the trigger before he was forced to let go or suffer a broken wrist. I’d done the move fast enough that the bullet flew past me and buried itself in the wall behind me. It’d been years since I practiced that particular tactic, but it was one they taught us in the academy in case we ever needed to disarm a suspect and it’d stuck with me.
I ducked, using Raul’s body as cover and shot the guard closest to me. While I was disarming Raul, Paolo had bent and quickly picked up his rifle. From a kneeling position, he took out the guard to the right.
The men with the guns were the biggest threat that needed to be neutralized, so I’d shot at them first. That left Raul open to grab me. His hand went to my wrist holding the pistol, and shoved it down. The gun bucked in my hands as it unloaded into the floor. His other hand shoved me backward until I was rammed into the wall.
We were fighting over the gun, and I had the added difficulty of trying to breathe as he slammed his fist into my stomach. I heard a few more gunshots, but I was doubled over from the hit. I dropped the gun and wheezed in a breath. Raul bent to pick it up and I slammed my knee into his face. Scooting along the wall, I tried to put distance between us. I was using it for balance because now my knee was throbbing fiercely.
The door slammed open, just missing me. I felt the wind of it blow loose strands of hair into my face. Nico quickly took stock of the situation and in a smooth rhythm put three rounds into the man across the room. His gun swung around and landed on Raul just as he raised his.
Nico grabbed me and shoved me behind his body. The men were in a standoff, eyeing each other as they considered their options.
“If you kill me, your brother dies,” Raul taunted Nico.
I looked around, trying to find my discarded rifle and gasped when I saw Paolo lying nearby. He groaned and pulled himself up into a sitting position against the nearby wall.
I rushed over and crouched down next to him. “Oh my God, are you okay?” I searched his body, trying to find where the blood was coming from.
“Yeah, I’m good. Got me in the shoulder,” he hissed out. I felt relief threaten to capsize me. I couldn’t let it, though. We weren’t out of this mess yet. Putting pressure on Paolo’s wound I tried to staunch the flow of blood and looked over my shoulder.
“Where’s my brother?” Nico growled.
