Page 3 of Savage

He wouldn’t be for long.

With a flick of my wrist, I sent it flying, and it hit true, striking his neck and causing several reactions that all happened in a heartbeat.

The man caught in the carotid artery let go, reaching up at his neck as he backed away. The innocent’s legs swayed unsteadily before he dropped, his knees hitting the ground with a thud and his phone falling out of his jacket and skidding across the pavement. The gun thug spun around, aiming the muzzle in my direction, but I was already on him, grabbing the barrel with one hand and landing a hard, fast strike to his wrist.

The gun was in my possession before the rest of the men standing at the back of the van even knew what was happening. They scrambled for their weapons, a couple of them cursing before diving into the van like the pussies they were.

I aimed the gun at the remaining men.

“Now,” I said, words low and slightly muffled behind the mask I wore. “We can do this the easy way…or the hard way.”

2

COOPER

SO THIS WAS what it was like to stare death down and wonder what the hell was going to happen next.

I’d always been curious. I’d even researched it once—not because I was morbid but because my journalism course had led me down the path of UFOs and the afterlife in university for a few months—and now here I was getting firsthand knowledge, and I suddenly realized it was nothing atalllike what I expected.

I’d been told about bright lights, warmth, and feelings of love encompassing your being. Of being greeted by friends and family who were there to welcome you and assure you that everything was all right.

I’d also heard about voids. Blackness. Silence and nothingness.

But none of that was happening right now.

Not even close.

Instead, I found myself staring up at a tall, masked, hooded figure who’d just melted out of the shadows, and as a fan of the movieGhostI was starting to get worried I’d done something really shitty in my life that I couldn’t remember until…

The high-pitched whistling of something flying through the air caught my attention right before the thug who had a deathgrip on me cried out and let me go. My knees gave out and I hit the ground with a hardwhack.

Fuck, definitely not dead, if the pain shooting through my left knee was anything to go by. But that was quickly forgotten as the masked figure bore down on the man who’d just been holding a gun to my head.

Quick as lightning, the hooded man gripped the muzzle of the gun, disarming my wannabe murderer faster than I could blink, which sent the rest of the dealers scrambling to escape. Whoever this was, they clearly had training, the lethal kind—or maybe they were some kind of avenging angel sent here to save me. I wasn’t being dragged off to some underworld. This wasn’t the end of my life as I knew it. I was being saved.

By a masked vigilante.

My eyes locked on to black boots, then traveled up long legs as the hooded man stopped beside me and aimed a gun at the cowards trying to work out how someone had gotten the jump on their dumb asses.

“Now. We can do this the easy way…or the hard way.”

The deep voice sent a shiver skating up my spine, as my savior revealed at least one thing abouthimself.He was a man.

The kickass, take-no-names, fear-nothing kind of man who instantly made people back up a step. Yet here I was, paralyzed at his feet feeling nothing but safe.

Safe, in a cold, dark alley where I’d just had a gun pointed at my head.

What the hell was wrong with me?

“Get up.”

What? Oh, he’s talking to me.

My eyes flicked to my phone, and I swiped it up and shoved it in my pocket as I clambered to my feet. He angled his body in front of mine as he kept the gun trained on the dealers.

A couple of them chose the easy way he’d offered and dropped their weapons, but the others looked riled up and ready for a fight. I briefly wondered whether I’d be able to shoot straight if I managed to get my hands on one of the firearms that had been kicked toward us, but the bigger question was, would I actually pull the trigger?

Before I had a chance to think that through, the masked man issued another order.

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