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She held out her hand like she fully expected me to just hand over my gun. To be fair, had we been somewhere safe and secluded, I might have done just that.
“You know I can’t do that, honey. Not here.”
The guy looked up at me, a pleading look in his eyes. “You gotta help me, man! You can see how crazy she is, right?”
“Don’t know any such thing. But before I do anything else, I need to check something.”
“Check something? Are you crazy? This bitch is gonna kill me!” He was sounding stronger. Likely adrenaline giving him a little boost.
“Not if I do it first. Now my advice is for you to shut the fuck up.”
I took out my sat phone and snapped a picture of the guy, sending it to Suzie before I called her.
“That the guy, Suz?”
“Oh, my God! Yes! Is Dawn OK?” Suzie sounded near tears. Figured. The woman was the most compassionate person I’d ever come across.
I started to answer that, yes, Dawn was fine, but my woman chose that moment to resume kicking Almond. How to answer Suzie?
“She will be. There’s just some pent-up anger she needs to get rid of, but she seems to be doing a pretty good job of that now.”
“Bastard!” As meek as Dawn had seemed these few hours I’d been with her, this was a completely new side to the woman. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t turn me the fuck on. Unfortunately, I couldn’t let her continue like this. We were too exposed to anyone who might walk by to let her continue her… therapy.
“Motherfucker!” She kicked him again, which was followed by another high-pitched whimper from Almond.
The wind was roaring. We were too damned close to the windows. The hotel had reinforced the windows with plywood on the outside, but the glass door had been barricaded from the inside. Almond must have removed that barrier at some point because the glass was bare. And there was debris pummeling it now.
“Dawn!” I looped an arm around her waist, tucking my gun away as I did. Much as I wanted to shoot the guy, I couldn’t. And I damned sure didn’t want Dawn getting ahold of my gun. “We’ve got to get away from the door.”
“I’m not letting this motherfucker live, Ice. He’s evil!”
“I know, honey. We’ll take care of him. Your father and I.” I tried to lighten the mood when I had the same feelings she did about letting the bastard live. “It’ll give us something to bond over so he doesn’t kill me.”
“He’s not going to kill you.” She relaxed against me but didn’t take her eyes off of Almond. “He loves me too much for that. This guy, on the other hand…”
“Yeah, honey. I know.” More and more debris pounded the glass of the door until something with some weight finally cracked it. “We’ll kill him to death, then do it again. But we need to get the fuck away from this door. Now!”
I finally penetrated her rage and Dawn looked up at me, then to the door and gasped. “Yes. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“Come on!” I backed us away from the door, ever mindful of the man I needed to kill but couldn’t. He’d gotten to one knee but hadn’t been able to rise any farther. “Don’t get comfortable, you son of a bitch,” I bit out. “I’ll be comin’ for --”
I was cut off when the door exploded inward. Dawn screamed and I turned so that my back was to the shattered door. Debris came toward us like flying shrapnel. I put my body between her and as much danger as I could despite being hit several times by small objects blown in by the storm. The wind was merciless and brutal in its intensity. We were flung forward to the ground. I landed on top of her but somehow managed to catch most of my weight so I didn’t hurt her. There was no way to get us upright, so I crawled forward with Dawn underneath me until we were at the entrance to the hallway and reasonably safe.
“Ice!”
“I’ve got you! Stay down!” I had to yell to be heard.
Somehow, I managed to get us to the other end of the lobby and behind a wall. The wind still funneled through the building, but we were shielded enough to stand. Surprisingly, I still had the damned sat phone in my grip.
“Stay here.” I gave her a hard kiss before holding her gaze to make sure she did what I told her. When she nodded, I handed her the phone, which was still on the open call to Suzie, then I pulled my gun and moved back toward the lobby. I had to make sure I didn’t lose David Almond.
Emergency lights gave me some visual cues throughout the room, including Almond kneeling by the door where we’d left him. A metal rod protruded from his chest. He looked stunned as he wrapped his fingers around the rod. As I watched, a piece of concrete from the barrier wall isolating the check-in canopy tore through the door and smashed into him, exploding his head on impact.
