I don’t think twice before sprinting to Bella. The door swings open, and she jolts back with a gasp, crossing her arms over her bare chest. “What—”
Her words die when I clamp my hand over her mouth and drag her back into the bathroom. She kicks her legs out and the start of a scream vibrates against my skin.
“Someone’s here,” I whisper. As I push her down into the corner, she freezes like a deer caught in headlights. “I need you to stay very silent for me, okay?”
Removing my hand, she nods.
“You don’t move from this spot, no matter what you hear.”
Her breath comes out in ragged bursts as she bobs her head up and down.
“There’s a knife hidden in the second drawer.” I nod to the vanity and rush onto the porch, gun ready.
My pulse hammers away, roaring in my ears. This asshole must have a fucking death wish coming around here when Bella is in the house. The cold air stings my bare chest, and the ground is no less vicious on my feet as I stalk to the back of the house.
I snap my head toward every sound I hear, waiting for someone to jump out of the shadows or step into the house while I’m outside.
“You owe us money,” a deep voice growls from behind me.
I whirl around, gun raised. The monstrosity in front of me has his weapon raised, too, except his is one of those flashy gold and marble pistols. He doesn’t look like the usual city gangster, more like the cowboy rendition of one with his hat and a pair of boots.
“No, the fuck I don’t.”
I could. I have no idea. Usually, when someone tries to rig a game, I don’t do as they say. Then they get pissy about it and claim that I owe them money when I never agreed to their terms.
Who is he and what money does he think I owe them? And most importantly, how the fuck does he know where I live, and who else knows?
He turns his safety off. “Don’t play dumb with me, boy.”
This is only going to end with him in the dirt. Bella’s inside, and there’s no way he’s coming out of this alive. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you better get off my property.”
“You lost some friends of mine a great deal of money. I’m here to collect.”
“I don’t owe you or your friend shit,” I spit. “I’m going to give you three more seconds to fuck off.”
“You seem to think you’re the one in power—”
They always seem to doubt my seriousness. Older guys like him always think they’re smarter and better, but the fact that he’s twice my size only makes me more trigger-happy.
“One.”
“If I were you, I’d shut up and listen before your girl—”
The trick is never to get to ‘two.’
A loud bang echoes through the forest, shaking the trees and making my ears ring from the sound—kind of like screaming. I’ve fired before, and it’s never sounded like this.
“Mickey!” I whip toward the sound of Bella’s shrill cry, and I see red.
Another guy—one I didn’t fucking see—has his hands around Bella’s neck and a gun aimed at her head. Tears stream down her ghastly pale cheeks, and her bottom lip quivers violently.
“You stupid motherfucker!” he snarls, throwing Bella to the side and aiming straight at me.
I drop to my haunches and lunge. A shot fires, missing me completely. Half a second later, my shoulder collides with his gut. He brings his knee up at the same time, kneeing me in the stomach, but his lack of balance has us both on the ground, grappling for the upper hand. A-fucking-gain.
First, the fucker who followed my Bella, now him?
The guy’s bigger than me, so he has me under him before I can do shit. My head swings to the side as pain splits through my jaw from the force of his punch. But he made a big mistake. He brought a fist to a knife fight.
I grab the switchblade from my pocket and bury it into his side just as he lands another punch. The bigger ones are always slower to react.
He rears back, grunting in pain, but he doesn’t stop trying to hit me. Removing my knife, I jam it into his side again.
Crimson warmth pools on my stomach, but I don’t get the chance to stab him a third time before he’s whipped to the side. Standing beneath the fading light of the sun is my very own saving grace, holding a spare wooden plank in her hands.
He reaches back to grab her, but she swings again, this time making us both grunt as a splinter lodges itself into my arm. She screams when he attempts to grab her in his disorientated state. Then I’m on him, ignoring the pain in my arm as I sink my blade into him over and over again.