Page 70 of Fast Fury

Abby wound up, lunged forward and swung out with a right cross. Pain shot through her hand as her knuckles plowed into the woman’s jaw. The shooter’s head snapped back and she began to fall backward.

Abby whirled to flee. A foot flashed out, tripping her.

Once more she crashed to the concrete, on her hands and knees this time.Get up. Quick.

She flipped over onto her back just in time to put her hands up as the woman launched herself at Abby in a flying tackle. Down they went in a tangle of limbs, rolling, flailing. A streak of agony shot through Abby’s head as the back of her skull bounced off the concrete.

They rolled once more, Abby coming up on top, scrambling to her knees, disoriented. But the woman heaved and twisted, sending them both tumbling over the edge of the pool.

The shock of plunging into the water knocked the breath from her. It closed over her head, the woman’s weight shoving her down, down. She flailed, kicking out with her arms and legs, couldn’t reach the bottom.

Hands tangled in her hair. Locked there and shoved down. Abby twisted her head, reached up blindly to rip at the restraining hands.

Legs wound around her ribs, squeezing. Forcing her little remaining air from her lungs.

Abby thrashed, both hands clawing at the restraining wrists. Her lungs burned, her heart seeming three times its normal size as the panic burned through her. She yanked hard against the seemingly unbreakable grip, finally freed her hands and used the woman’s shoulders for leverage to push up and kick toward the surface.

Her head broke through the water. She dragged in a desperate gulp of air, then those frantic hands locked around her shoulders and dragged her back under again.

Panic turned to rage. Abby was all instinct, lashing out with her legs, her fingers curled into claws as she raked at the woman’s face. Anything and everything to get free. To get air.

Someone plunged into the water close to them. Abby didn’t look, too focused on fighting her way free. The breath of air she’d sucked in was almost gone now, her entire chest on fire, eyes about to pop out of her skull from the strain.

Help me. Oh, God, help me…

A powerful arm wrapped around her ribs, tearing her from the woman’s grasp.

Using her final burst of strength, Abby kicked and headed upward, that strong arm propelling her toward the surface.

OVERCOME WITH FEAR and fury, Kai ripped Abby free of the woman’s grasp and hauled her to the surface.

“Get out and get behind cover,” he ordered as soon as she’d cleared the water and dragged in a heaving breath. He gave her a hard shove toward the side of the pool to make sure she was clear, then turned back to deal with her attacker.

The woman’s head broke the surface a few yards away, her furious gaze narrowed on him. She made an unintelligible sound of rage and took a stroke toward him.

Before she’d made it a single yard, Kai lunged, locking an arm around her throat, his other hand flashing out to catch her right wrist in a punishing grip that squeezed her bones together.

Ignoring her screech of outrage and pain, he pinned her to the front of his body, applying just enough pressure with his forearm to cut off her air. She made a choking sound, grabbed at his arm with her free hand and went rigid.

“Don’t fucking move,” he snarled in her ear, and began dragging her in a rescue swimmer’s hold toward the pool’s edge, adrenaline screaming through his veins.

He’d been in dozens of firefights. Faced overwhelming enemy fire with a calm determination drilled into him by his instructors in the Corps and the experience that came with enduring combat. He was steady under pressure. Calm.

But the moment he’d heard those gunshots off in the distance as he’d raced toward the pool to meet Abby, his heart had stopped. He’d never known fear like that, the kind that iced his blood and froze his muscles. And when he’d veered around the corner to find Abby underwater, the woman trying to drown her, a red-hot, primal wrath had overtaken him.

Without conscious thought he’d sprinted full out to the pool and dived headlong into the deep end, his only thought to save Abby. Now that she was safe, the bitch who’d attacked her would fucking pay for what she’d done to Abby and Hani.

“Let me go, you corruptbastard,” the woman gritted out, raking her nails over his forearms.

Kai barely felt the sting, his body in combat mode. “Shut up.” He squeezed her throat tighter, and the garbled words stopped.

From the corner of his eye he saw Abby scramble up over the edge of the pool and stay there on her hands and knees. Fuck, he wanted to go to her so badly, see if she was hurt. And he would in a few minutes.

But first, he had to deal with this murderer.

None too gently, he towed the woman the last few feet to the side of the pool. The water here was just shallow enough for him to be able to stand as he wrenched the woman’s arms behind her back and hefted her out of the water, dumping her onto the deck on her stomach like a landed fish.

She twisted and tried to sit up but he was faster, using the side of the pool as a springboard as he leapt out of the water and seized both her forearms, dragging them behind her back to pin them in place.

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