Page 69 of Bottoms
“She belongs to us, Amira.” Tanner's voice filled the room as he pushed through the double doors of the pool house. The other men were hot on his heels, and my heart raced in my chest.
“She’s wearing my collar. She belongs to me now,” the woman said. Her finger brushed over a thin chain of silver with a heart charm on my wrist. “Even you can’t afford her minimum bid,” she laughed as she turned to face Tanner.
Colten moved quicker than possible, drawing his gun from the holster on his back, pointing the barrel, and firing off a round. Mike’s lifeless body dropped to the floor next to Mr. Ryland.
“Stop,” the woman in red said loudly. Grabbing the back of my chair and tilting it until only two legs remained on the floor. I tried to lean away from the edge of the water. My stomach screamed out in protest as I strained the still-healing muscles.
My heart hammered in my chest, and my eyes slid across the room, beyond where the water would be shallow enough to survive if only I was closer rather than positioned on the edge of the deeper end. Colten, Fynn, and Nik held guns in their outstretched arms. Colten and Nik’s aimed at the woman holding onto my chair while Fynn pointed the end of his at Tanner’s father.
“Let her go,” Tanner ordered, and my stomach bottomed out.
“Okay,” the woman said before I felt a hard push in the direction of the pool.
Rather than screaming, I filled my lungs with as much air as possible before the cool, blue water covered my face. Muffled sounds of gunfire reached under the water. Telling me all hell had broken loose. I struggled against the ropes, twisting despite the pain in my stomach. The chair slowly sunk to the bottom of the pool, taking it with me as bubbles of precious air escaped from my lips as I struggled to get free.
Please don’t let me fucking drown.
I looked up to see the surface of the water break as someone dove in, gliding through the water like a missile until we were face to face. Blond hair, weightless in the water as Nik swam up to me. The chair had landed on its side, and I felt as Nik started to work to undo the ropes holding me in place. The air still trapped in my lungs ached to be free while my vision started to dim.
I felt the ties loosen around me, but my limbs were heavy to command. Water rushed into my lungs as they attempted to breathe despite the water surrounding us. The ropes must have found a way to reattach themselves as a strong band wrapped around my chest.
Familiar darkness held me in its embrace, and I felt myself sinking deeper into the void.
“BREATHE!” I heard Nik shout, slamming me back into my body as my lungs forced the water out of them. I gasped, my eyes flying open.
Water dripped from Nik’s blond hair. A grin stretched across his face. I was lying on the side of the pool.
“My kiss brought you back from death himself,” he said. Placing a chaste kiss against my lips before jumping up.
“Wait?” I asked, still trying to convince my lungs that breathing was now okay. They ached and burned with the remnants of pool water. “I missed it?”
“I’ll kiss you all day and night long. Let’s just get out of here alive first,” he said, offering a hand to help me up.
There was no one in the pool room except for Nik and me, but shots rang from other parts of the mansion.
“Take this,” Nik said, bringing the gun off Mike’s dead body.
“Why is someone trying to kill me now?” I asked after Nik poked his head out the double doors, checking to see if the coast was clear.
“We’re not sure,” Nik said. Motioning for me to move with him into the hallway.
I pulled my gun up, mirroring Nik as we slowly made our way through the mansion.
Shots continued down other hallways, coming in two or three bursts before another round of quiet.
A stampede of footsteps broke the silence in place of the next round of fire, and Nik grabbed for a door handle, opening it. He gestured for me to get inside, closing it behind us. Silence stretched between us as we strained to listen. A few minutes later, footsteps were pounding from right outside. Nik waited a second before opening the door, pointing his gun at the running men. His finger was on the trigger, but he didn’t squeeze when he noticed it was Fynn and Colten.
“Hey,” Nik hissed.
Causing them to turn around and notice us. Doubling back to shove us into the room as they crowded in with us.
“Where’s Tanner?” I asked.
“He took off after his father,” Colten said, breathing hard. His hand came up to push his glasses back in place, but this time he didn’t bother to smooth back his messy hair. He wasn’t in a suit for once, sporting a black hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants.
“Let’s go find him then,” I said, moving toward the door, but was blocked by Fynn’s arm.
“You are getting out of here, sweetheart,” Fynn said. Ejecting the magazine from his gun to check how many shots he had left. It didn’t look like much, and Fynn seemed to agree when he frowned.
