Text (Take It Off) (22 page)

I felt his body jerk
, and I yelled his name.

The operator on the line was saying
, “Miss! Miss!” but I couldn’t reply, not yet. When no other shots were fired, Nathan pulled back and I saw the dozens of little cuts from his shoulders all the way to his wrists, and I wanted to scream.

“C’mon,” he said, not even acknowledging the injuries as he pulled me up and once again shielded me as we ran from the room. In the living room
, I assured the operator that we were alive and asked her to hurry.

“The police are on their way
, ma’am,” she said. “Stay on the line.”

Like I had time to talk. I s
et the phone down on the coffee table, leaving the line open, and then placed Lucy on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. I grabbed my purse and dumped everything out, reaching for the gun and flipping off the safety.

T
he sound of more glass shattering had my muscles stiffening. This time it wasn’t coming from the kitchen; it was coming from downstairs, in my office. The sliding glass doors.

He was coming inside.

Nathan rushed over to where his jacket hung on the railing and pulled a pistol out of his pocket and a knife out of his boot.

Then he tossed me the keys to his Jeep. “Take Lucy and get outside. Get into the Jeep and start it up.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you
,” he said, a determined look on his face.

He was going to face Lex. He wanted me to go outside while he went and risked his life.

Not gonna happen.

“Nathan,” I said, trying to reason with him. The sound of crunching glass broke off my words
, and I knew Lex was in the house. I could hear him knocking things over downstairs in my office as he ripped apart my home.

“
Now,”
Nathan ordered and grabbed me.

Lucy pawed at my ankle
, and I picked her up, cradling her close. I rushed toward the stairs with Nathan leading the way and hobbled down the steps, feeling the sticky ooze of blood all the way down to my ankle.

Just as we reached the landing
, a shadow appeared on the wall at the bottom of the lower level of the stairs and Nathan reacted instantly, catapulting over the railing and launching himself down the stairwell at our attacker.

“Go!” he roared as I heard the men grunt as their bodies tangled and slid down the stairs.

I wrapped my hand around the handle of the front door. The sound of fists hitting flesh had me spinning around to watch Nathan go at it with Lex, who was dressed in dark clothing with a black cap on his head.

They were so close together, banging into walls, rolling over the ground
, that I could barely make out who was who.

And then a gun went off.

Nathan

I felt the bullet plow into my skin. I felt the first fiery pain cut into my
flesh. And then I shut it down.

No bullet was going to stop me handing this bastard his ass.

I stumbled backward when he plowed into my middle, jamming his fingers in the bullet hole. I bit back a cry and knocked away his hands as I slammed into the wall. He took off through the office door and I pushed up and went after him.

I heard Honor calling my name
, but I kept running.

I wanted this guy out of our lives.

Seeing blood rush out of her leg like that almost sent me over the edge. Like a time machine, it transported me back… back to that night when men I loved died. When I was forced to shoot and kill to protect myself. I tried to protect Prior that night.

I failed.

I wasn’t going to fail again.

I rushed over the glass, feeling it cut into the bare soles of my feet
, but I kept running. It was dark out in the yard, but my eyes adjusted quickly and I saw Lex leaping over the fence, and I leveled my gun at him and shot off a couple rounds.

Weapons were my job. I didn’t miss my target.

He let out a stark cry and toppled off the fence and hit the ground with a hard thud. With my weapon still drawn, I made my way over to his side, where he was squirming around like a damned pansy.

I kicked him.

I never said I was a nice guy.

He coughed and wheezed
; blood spurted out of his mouth and spotted his chin.

There was something about that chin that didn’t seem right…

I kicked the gun out of his hands, and he reached for it, but I stepped on his fingers and bent down. He was still writhing. My bullet hit him in the chest, and I could tell from the sound of his breathing that his lungs were filling with blood.

I should have felt some remorse.

I didn’t.

I would likely be haunted with more nightmares, more sleepless nights
, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I didn’t feel a thing. The bullet in my side didn’t register. The glass in my feet didn’t hurt. I didn’t think about the cuts on my arms as I reached down and yanked away the hat pulled low over his face.

It wasn’t Lex.
It was someone I’d never seen before.

I stared down at the man, who began to laugh.

“Sucker,” he wheezed.

I slammed the butt of the pistol into his temple and
cut off his laugh. My heart hammered as I spun around, fear and worry for Honor filling my veins with ice.

I listened through the darkness for the sound of the Jeep’s engine. For proof that she listened and made it to the car.

There was no sound of a rumbling engine.

There was no sound at all.

The night was unnaturally quiet.

“Honor!” I roared, increasing my speed and pressing a hand to the wound in my side. Fuck, bullet wounds hurt.

From somewhere in the house, I heard the sound of Lucy’s bark.

And then a gun went off.

Honor

Nathan was shot.

I saw the blood gushing out of his side and running down his bare skin to pool at the waistband of his jeans.

Where the hell
were the cops?

“Nathan!” I shouted when he pushed off the wall a
nd ran after Lex. He was an idiot! He was shot!

If he died
, I was going to make the paramedics revive him so I could kill him all over again. Forgetting all about my orders from Nathan, I rushed back up the stairs and shut Lucy in the bathroom. She whined as I moved back down the hall, but I didn’t know what else to do with her. At least in there she would be safe.

I gripped the gun as I rush-limped down the stairs. I wasn’t about to let Nathan fight my battles for me. He already took some glass to his arm and back and a bullet. But this was my battle. That man out there was my kidnapper. I wasn’t going to let him control me. I wasn’t going to let him make me cower in fear.

When my foot hit the very last step, a dark figure stepped around the corner. I gasped.

It was Lex.

I’d know that handsome yet sadistic face anywhere.

I glanced behind him into my destroyed office and looked for Nathan. Where was he? Did he pass out? Was he dead?

“He’s not too bright, is he?” Lex said. Just the sound of his voice made my insides curdle like spoiled milk.

“What did you do to him!” I demanded.

Lex smiled. “Not a thing. I’m saving all my punishment for you.”

I looked at my kidnapper again. He wasn’t wearing all black like the man Nathan was fighting. Lex was dressed in jeans, running shoes
, and a black NorthFace jacket. He wasn’t wearing a hat at all.

He looked like he came from the grocery store or something.

My eyes widened when I realized what happened. He tricked us.

“How did you find someone sick enough to help you?” I asked, glancing behind him once more. Where was Nathan?

“I’m offended you think I’m sick,” he mocked.

“Even if you kill me
, you won’t get away with this. The police have Mary’s locket. They already know what you did to me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Yes. I saw the news. Not to worry,” he said, taking a step forward as I took one back. “By the time the cops get here
, you’ll be dead and I’ll be long gone.”

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” I said, remembering the gun clutched in my hand.

“Who says I need a reason? Maybe I just do it because I like it.”

For some reason
, I glanced down. His crotch was hard. Talk about a guy with sick fantasies. I swung up the gun and aimed it at his head. He lashed out, smacking the glass in my leg and making me cry out and stumble.

Lex took advantage of my momentary rush of pain and
slapped my wrist and yanked the gun out of my hand. I kicked him and then scrambled up the steps away from him.

(Yes, I am aware I now joined the ranks of stupid idiots who run UP the stairs when a killer is after them.)

He grabbed my ankle and my chin slammed into the step. I felt my lip split open, and the pungent taste of blood flooded my mouth. I groaned, rolling onto my back and kicking with my free leg. My foot connected with his face. He let go, and I scrambled across the landing and up the second set of stairs.

Lex was hot on my heels as I raced into the living room, desperately looking for something I could use to defend myself.

The contents of my purse were still spilled everywhere, and the cell phone was still lit up and open on the table. “Help me!” I screamed in the direction of the phone. “He has a gun!”

Lex jumped me from behind
, and I fell under him, onto my stomach and crying out as the glass in my thigh was shoved even deeper into my leg. Pain screamed through my body and tears filled my eyes.

I couldn’t seem to think past the pain.

Lex flipped me over and straddled me. I forgot about the pain as my hand closed over something lying on the floor and I brought it up and jammed it down into the top of his thigh.

Lex shouted as the pen buried itself into his leg.
Then I picked up a pack of Tic Tacs and threw it at his head. (What? I had to use what was available.)

He knocked the mints away and then reached for the pen sticking out of his leg. I twisted beneath him and he fell sideways. We went rolling across the floor as I reached up and gouged my thumb into his eye socket.

He jerked away and I followed him, ripping
my
gun out of his hand.

“Please stop!” I cried
. I knew he wouldn’t, but I admit, I yelled it for the benefit of the operator on the other end of the phone line.

I wanted absolutely no doubt that what I was about to do was self
-defense.

Lex grabbed onto my ankle and grinned up at me
. I kicked him in the face and blood bloomed around his teeth. He looked like some funhouse clown that had gone mad.

With a single jerk
, he sent me falling backward, landing on my back.

Inside the bathroom
, Lucy barked and I could hear her clawing at the door, trying to get out.

“After you
’re dead,” Lex said, crawling up my body. “I’m gonna screw your body before it turns cold.”

I shot him.

The bullet slammed into his shoulder and he recoiled. I scrambled out from under him and stood.

“Honor!” Nathan screamed from downstairs
, and my knees went weak with relief.

“I’m up here!” I yelled, my voice sounding more like a squeak.

Feet pounded on the stairs, and I moved to rush toward him. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted to see that he was okay.

A hand closed around my ankle and jerked me back.

I screamed.

Lex laughed.

Twisting quickly, without hesitation, I shot him in the head.

Nathan skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs
, his wide eyes going between Lex and me. I could only imagine what he saw. Me covered in blood with a busted lip and a heaving chest, holding a gun, while standing over a man with a bullet in his head.

Reality crashed over me.

The gun fell from my hand and bounced off the carpet.

I shot someone.

I killed him.

My kidnapper was dead.

“Honor,” Nathan said breathlessly and rushed across the room to wrap me in his arms. My body shook violently, so hard that my teeth chattered and my skin felt icy.

“I killed him,” I said, shoving my face into his bare, blood
-smeared chest.

“You protected yourself, baby
,” he murmured. “You did real good.”

Police sirens drew closer and soon
, the flashing blue-and-red lights filled the windows and the driveway.

I felt lightheaded and I knew I lost a lot of blood. I pulled back from Nathan and looked at his side where the bullet entered his body.

“It’s not so bad,” he murmured, tipping my chin up so I couldn’t look.

“He was crazy
,” I said, my voice hollow.

“Hell yes
, he was.” Nathan agreed, swiping the pad of his thumb across my chin. My lower lip was swollen again.

The cops burst in the front door with weapons drawn. I weaved a little on my feet
. Standing up was growing harder and harder.

Nathan scooped me up in his arms and turned toward the cops. “I need a medic!” he roared.

Then he glanced down into my face. “Just hang on, Honor.” He got this pinched look in his eyes. “Don’t you die on me.”

I smiled. “I
wouldn’t dream of dying. I have way too much to live for.”

As my house filled with emergency workers and medical personnel
, Nathan and I held each other’s gaze.

“
Me too,” he murmured, pressing his lips to my forehead. “Me too.”