Page 84 of Waiting Game

Her hair was wild and stuck to her face with sweat, her icy blue eyes were the only visible part of her face with the tape over her mouth.

I let out a breath when I saw her, though dishevelled - still alive.

I stepped towards her, pulling my knife out of my back pocket and I quickly sawed through the rope that kept her tied to the rolling chair. The gathering upstairs broke out into roaring laughter which caused both me and Val to jump.

I checked over my shoulder as my knife let the last rope fall to the ground.

We heard the front door slam, and I wasn’t sure what it meant.

Either Rome was now inside the house, or they had locked her out. Either situation was dangerous - but not knowing which it was, was even worse.

I ripped the tape off of Valerie’s lips.

I cupped her face for a moment, but now was not the time to appreciate her. All I had to do was get her out, and keep my promise of keeping her safe. I put a finger to my lips, telling Val to be quiet and she nodded.

I grabbed her hands, pulling her along behind me.

There was more of the booming laughter coming from upstairs, but we couldn’t hear Rome. As we got closer to the small set of steps that lead to the main part of the house, I stole a glance towards the crowd of men.

I exhaled a sigh of relief when I noticed that Rome was not inside with them.

Valerie gripped my hands harder, and I looked over my shoulder at her.

Her face was pale, and her eyes were full of panic. I could feel the nerves radiating from her as her hand trembled around my own.

I turned and took her face in my hands again, “it’s okay,” I mouthed.

She nodded, and loosened her grip on my hand slightly.

I turned back around, counted to three in my head and made a run for the door.

“Hey!” a voice boomed, and the guard launched towards us just before we reached the exit. I pushed Valerie out of the door, behind the house and she fell to the ground, scraping across the concrete.

I fired, shooting the guard in the thigh.

As he fell to the ground with a groan, it alerted the others to my presence. They all turned, and headed my way until they heard another sound from the opposite end of the house.

The screeching of tyres. Antoni and the others were here.

They quickly forgot about me, and suddenly Rome was there too, helping Valerie off the ground. I heard the sound of a loud boom, and I looked up inside the house.

The Bikies turned around, and saw Antoni kicking their door in with his gun drawn. He caught eyes with me for a second, and nodded once. Rome, Val and I snuck up the side of the house, keeping close to the wall to not be caught in the fire.

Valerie clamped her hands over her ears as the gunfire began. The sharp noises echoed throughout the neighbourhood, and I knew it wouldn’t be long until the cops arrived. We all had to get out of here, and quickly.

We were so close, and it was a straight dash from the corner of the house to our car. Rome put out a hand, signalling us to wait as she checked around the corner. She stumbled backwards and drew her gun as a body appeared in front of us, blocking our path.

They both exhaled and Rome lowered her gun when she recognised her husband.

Antoni pulled her in close against his chest.

“Why the fuck did you come here alone?” he said against her hair.

“I wasn’t alone,” she smirked, looking back over her shoulder at me.

Antoni shook his head at me and Rome, running his hands through his hair. We heard more gunshots, and Antoni shielded Rome, pushing her body behind his.

He ducked his head around the corner, checking.

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