Page 36 of Chase

Her door handle twisted and then the door swung open. She tried not to give away that she was awake, but everything felt wrong. No way would Chase just walk into her bedroom at night. She knew he wouldn’t. And one of the guards would only come in if she was in danger.

She watched the man between half-open lids as he crept toward her bed. Panic made the world feel dark. This man definitely wasn’t Chase, nor was he one of the guards. He was large, almost as large as Tony.

Maybe it was the wrong move, but she wasn’t about to lie here and be attacked. That wasn’t her personality at all.

“Help!” she cried out as she scrambled off the opposite side of the bed and yanked the lamp off the table. The cord ripped out of the wall, and she flung the entire lamp at the man. “Chase!”

The man dodged the lamp and lunged around the bed.

“Chase! Help!” she screamed as she raced for the bathroom.

Her knees bowed in, and she tripped on her own feet, going down in a heap.

“No!” she cried out.

The man leaped on top of her, flipping her over and slapping his palm over her mouth. “Stop screaming,” he commanded.

He smelled of a strong cologne that made her want to gag. His huge body pressed her into the floor, and she couldn’t catch a breath.

Help,she prayed.Please let Chase have heard my cries.

Footsteps pounded their direction, and a light flicked on in the hallway.

“Lizzy?” Chase called.

The man leaped to his feet and spun to face Chase. He pulled out a knife. The metal glinted in the light from the hallway.

“Chase,” she cried out, scrambling to her feet, unsteady. “Kn-knife!”

“Stay back,” he instructed.

The huge attacker rushed around the bed and faced Chase. He flourished the knife, doing a fancy spin that showed he was used to handling the weapon.

Where were the security guards? Chase had experience as a soldier and a police officer, but that just meant he was used to bringing a gun to a knife fight, and a Taser and pepper spray and probably a baton. Being unarmed had to be unfamiliar ground for him.

The wound in Lizzy’s chest burned as she remembered the horror of being stabbed in the chest. All the blood. Not being able to breathe as one of her lungs collapsed. Now Chase was going to suffer as she had, if not worse.

She screamed in horror as the man swung the knife in a swipe aimed at Chase’s throat. Chase dodged under it and brought one fist up into the man’s abdomen. The man bowed forward. Chase spun in a feat of choreography around behindthe man and grabbed his arm. The man grunted in pain as Chase whipped his knife hand behind his back in an unnatural-looking position.

The invader struggled, and the knife ripped Chase’s shirt. Lizzy cried out. Chase didn’t so much as grunt. He only tightened his grip.

Was he bleeding? Dying?

The man yelped and released the knife. It clattered to the ground. He tried to throw his head back against Chase’s, but Chase dodged the hit as easily as one of Lizzy’s staff would dodge the tantrum of a small child on their lap.

Lizzy wished she could help. Did she dare dodge in and grab the knife? It really didn’t look like her hero needed any help.

Chase yanked harder on the arm he had pinned and shoved the man forward, sweeping his feet out from underneath him. Both men crashed to the hardwood floor, Chase on top, the attacker face first. A sickening crunch and a whimper of pain made her stomach turn over.

Thankfully, it wasn’t Chase in pain but the man. His arm was now bent at a very unnatural angle.

“Lizzy,” Chase said calmly. “Grab my phone off my dresser and call Captain Macon.”

“Okay,” she replied shakily, grateful to do something. Who was Captain Macon? Her brain was foggy and confused. She scurried around the men. The attacker was still struggling under Chase, even with that painful-looking broken arm. Yikes the man was tough; she had to give him that. Why had he come after her?

Racing on unsteady legs out of her bedroom and across the hall, she stumbled but luckily didn’t go down. She grabbed Chase’s phone off the nightstand where it was plugged in, pressed on the side button and commanded, “Call CaptainMacon,” as she turned and hurried back out of Chase’s room, across the hall, and into her own room.

The phone rang once, twice …

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