Page 118 of Hide and Seek
Fuck this.
I hit the mag release on my Beretta, causing the entire magazine to slip free. There’s still a shell in the chamber, but the dumbass on his knees lets go of my arm as he makes a desperate grab and tries to catch the magazine. A well-placed kick to the mag, and his hand, sends the magazine flying so it lands about a dozen yards away, and causes the asshole to scream as his fingers crack and snap from the force of my kick.
Now it’s my turn to take advantage of his distraction, and I smash the side of the gun into his temple, then give him a hard kick to the stomach that sends him falling away from me with a groan.
He might be taken care of for now, but his buddy slams into me and starts flailing like a dumbass who’s never been in a fight as he tries to knock the gun out of my hand.
Jace rushes into my field of vision and grabs the asshole by the hair, then drags him away from me, twisting his hand and yanking so hard he tears a handful of hair right out of the guy’s scalp. The asshole drops to the ground with a scream that couldwake the dead while Jace drives the blade of his knife deep into the guy’s shoulder.
More screams and shouts ring out around me, but my vision tunnels as I turn toward where I last saw Myles, my gun raised and my entire being focused on ending that asshole before he can touch one hair on Myles’s head.
A flicker of something weird and foreign breaks through my focus when I see I’m too late and the guy has Myles in a bear hug.
White-hot rage fills me, and I fire the shot still in the chamber.
Another shot rings out almost on top of mine, but I’m so focused on Myles I don’t even flinch. The guy holding him jerks like he’s been electrocuted as the bullet embeds in his shoulder, and he slides to the ground in what looks like slow motion as his knees and legs buckle and give out.
I’m already running to Myles when the asshole finally falls to the ground, but before I can reach him, Myles gives the asshole a sharp kick to the side of his head.
“Fucker,” he spits at the guy.
I sweep him up into my arms, and he immediately wraps himself around me like a boa constrictor and buries his face in my neck as I carry him a few feet away from his attacker.
“It’s clear,” Jace says calmly. “Nothing to see here folks, just some house business,” he adds in a louder voice.
Ignoring everything going on around us, I peel Myles off me and check him over for any signs of mistreatment or injury. He looks okay, scared and frazzled, but then I catch sight of the bruise forming on his temple, and my rage is reignited.
“I’m okay,” he says over and over again, like he’s trying to convince himself as much as he’s trying to convince me.
Killian appears next to us, and I hand Myles off to him. Killian immediately holds him against his side as Myles clings to him, his eyes wide with concern.
The rage that’s still simmering inside me is so strong I’m barely able to think straight as I take in the scene around me.
The guy who rushed Myles is lying motionless on the ground. The wound from the bullet I shot into his shoulder is wet with blood, but it’s the black handle of the Karambit buried in his stomach that catches my attention.
I flick my gaze to Myles, who gives me a little smile. I smile back, even though I’m pretty sure I just look deranged and not nearly as proud as I feel.
I wasn’t able to get a kill shot without risking Myles, but the blade in his belly should do the job. My finger itches with the desire to make sure and put a few more bullets into his brain, but I turn to check out the rest of the scene.
The other four guys are all on the ground in various levels of consciousness and pain. One of them is holding his shoulder as blood leaks through his fingers, another has a slash wound on his cheek and staring up at the sky like he’s in shock. Another one is rolling back and forth as he moans in pain and holds his hands over a wound on his thigh, and the last is curled up and crying like a bitch.
Xave is standing over him, his gun held loosely in one hand, and it says a lot about my mindset that I didn’t notice him come up to us or register that he most likely fired the second shot I heard.
Pulling the gravity knife free from my pocket, I slide open the mechanism and snap out the blade.
Jace steps in front of me as I advance on the group of incapacitated guys, ready to end all of them for what they did to Myles.
“Get out of my way,” I tell him.
“No.”
His voice is as flat as mine, but the look in his eyes is intense and focused.
“Move.”
“Do you really want him to see what you’re about to do?” Jace flicks his gaze toward where I left Killian and Myles. “Do you think he can handle that right now?”
I follow his eyes, and something in my chest clenches when I see the look on Myles’s face. Even after everything he just went through, he doesn’t look afraid of me. He’s scaredforme.
