Page 28 of Killian
I had no idea who this man was, but something inside told me to listen.
One, because the second bedroom was an interior room, only one wall to the outside. Two, because the closet was the central location of the house with no exterior points.
“Okay!” I cried out over the bullets flying. Bri’s eyes were wide, but she nodded, and she was still focused on me rather than freaking out.
The Army crawl.
I remembered it from grade school when we had to go under a net and do it in the shortest amount of time possible. I hated that damn crawl because I always sucked at it, but in this moment I was damn happy for the practice.
Like Army women, we crawled. A bullet whizzed by my ear. As if I weren’t freaked enough, now the damn things were getting closer. Bri and I moved fast. We had no idea where the guy wearing all black was, but we didn’t care.
It took longer to get from point A to point B with death right on your heels. Or at least it felt that way in the moment. We made it into the bedroom, and I pushed Bri into the closet first.
“Ouch!” she cried out, her hand coming up with a mousetrap hanging off the tips of her fingers. She shook her hand, trying to get it off to no avail. Her eyes welled with tears.
“Shit!” I cried out, reaching over to pull the metal apart and releasing her fingers. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper yelled as Bri shook out her hand, tears rolling down her face. I pressed her down to the ground and put myself on top of her.
My poor Bri. I swore about a month ago a mouse ran across my floor, but after putting the traps out, not getting it and never seeing it again, I figured it was just a figment of the imagination. Guess I’d forgotten one of the traps.
Pings could still be heard, but they were tapering off. Then silence.
“Should we?” Bri started to ask, but I shushed her and listened for something—anything to get us the hell out of here. The man in black said to wait for him. As much as listening to a stranger didn’t sit well with me, he’d just saved our asses, so I'd figured this one time I should stay in place.
We stayed quiet for a long time as I tried and failed to come up with a plan.
Neither of us had our cells, and I didn’t have a landline in the house. That needed to be added to my to-do list. Every room was getting a damn phone in it.
The door to the closet opened, my head darting that way as I shifted to ensure I was in front of Bri. Killian stood in jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a gun in his hand.
Relief like no other filled me, seeing Killian and having him here. How that emotion was the first I thought at the sight of him was something to ponder at another time.
“Is it over?” I asked him, and it came out quieter than I’d anticipated, but hello—we were just shot at! Any woman would lose her mind over that shit.
“Yeah, babe. Come out.”
Bri climbed out from around me first, and I followed, still stunned. “You’re sure it’s over?” I asked again as he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me to him, my body colliding with his. My arms instantly went around him as the shakes hit me. They were slow at first but got progressively worse.
“Yeah. It’s over. My guys are all out here.”
“Your guys?” I asked against his chest.
“Yeah. You okay?” He pulled me away and started inspecting me from toe to head. He was incredibly calm … I was not.
Bri had tears in her eyes, and I went to her and pulled her into my arms and held her tight. She sagged her weight into me and, somehow, I took it, the tremors going away.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure this out.” I tried to absorb her fear.
Whatever in the hell this was. It couldn’t be about the other night, could it?
“Pack a bag,” Killian ordered me, and this time I didn’t put up a fight, not even a single word. My house had just exploded, and I couldn’t stay here. It wasn’t safe. Behind Killian’s steel windows and with Killian, we’d be safe.
“Bri’s coming with us.”
Killian nodded once, surprising me with no lip about it.
“Go!” he demanded. Obviously, patience wasn’t his strong suit.
“Come on. We’ll pack your stuff too,” I told my best friend. Bri nodded, holding my hand. I’d never had a mousetrap shut on me, so I had no idea what that felt like, but it killed a mouse, so it must have done something. “We’ll get you ice for your hand.”
