Page 132 of Lethal Game

“You have cost me far more men, money, and time than I can afford.”

She tried to talk, but his hold on her throat was too tight. She tried again anyway. His curiosity must have got the best of him, because after the third try to talk, he let off on the pressure so she could speak.

It was probably a fool’s errand, but she was going to try talking to the human being who used to inhabit this monster’s body.

“Why?” she asked in a tone made harsh by the pressure he’d already put on her neck. “These people didn’t hurt you. Why kill them in such a horrible way? Why kill them at all?”

For a moment she thought her question might have reached him. Might have given him pause, perhaps a moment to realize just how terrible the things he’d done were. He looked at the hospital, at all the people, some of them dying only a few feet away of a virus he’d given to them. His face relaxed a little, his jaw sagged, and he sucked in a breath.

A moment later, yelling and gunfire turned his face to stone.

She sucked in a breath while she still could.

His hand tightened on her neck again and this time she knew there would be no reprieve. He was going to kill her. An insane smile spread over his face as he pressed harder. “Every one of the people I love has been murdered. Why should anyone else be free of the pain and suffering I live with every day? Until I know peace, no one else will know it either.”

Goddamn it, she hadn’t beaten cancer as a kid, then become the youngest medical doctor in the USA with a double speciality, just to cave in to the whim of a madman.

She closed her eyes, fisted some sand and threw it in Akbar’s face. He reared back, so she lunged up and managed to punch him on the side of the head, hoping his current injuries made him more susceptible to a strike there.

It loosened his grip on her neck and she slid away, but he followed, backhanded her and grabbed her again. This time he had both hands around her neck.

She wasn’t going to get away. Death was looking at her and he seemed much too happy to see her.

She’d accomplished one of the two things she wanted to do before she died. She’d done something worthwhile. Something worth dying for.

Please, let Connor be safe.

Spots crowded her vision and she struggled to take in a breath, began to panic, claw at his hands until blood coated her fingers, but the world was going dark and...

The vise around her throat suddenly disappeared.

She coughed and sputtered, her battered throat still tight as she sucked in air. Wonderful air.

Nearby, a sharp cry of pain caught her attention. Two men were struggling together, fighting, one with a knife. Con and Akbar.

Con should have been able to subdue Akbar, but he’d been stabbed in the thigh and lost a lot of blood. And Akbar had noticed. He kept punching Con’s leg.

She forced herself to her feet and moved to interfere in their death match, but three of Akbar’s armed guards were running toward them. Akbar’s back was to them or they likely would have shot Con. As it was, their shouts distracted Con enough for Akbar to break away.

He yelled at his men and pointed at Con and Sophia.

Their weapons came up.

Sophia dove behind a crate, her attention split between Con and Akbar’s goons.

Con hesitated.

“Con!” she shouted. He’d promised,promisedher he would stay alive.

At her shout he threw something at one of the gunmen. His knife struck the chest of one of the men so hard, he fell backward.

The others scattered, their shots going wide.

A distant gunshot rang out and one of the men dropped to the sand. The other two ducked and backed away just as another shot hit one of them in the neck.

Akbar grabbed the injured man’s rifle and he tried to wrestle it away, but the next shot hit Akbar in the arm.

The uninjured man grabbed Akbar and ran, putting the hospital between them and whoever was shooting at him.

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