Page 74 of Mine to Keep
I lean to the side and spit out blood, wiping under my eye at the blood leaking down my cheek.
“I’ll admit,” I say between gasping breaths, “your bitch hit harder. You?—”
Skylar lets out a roar, throwing a flying punch at me, clearing several feet in a single bound. I block his punch, but his aim was to distract me, not to actually meet his target. His hand glances off my raised arms, but then he grabs me around the waist and picks me up off my feet, slamming me onto the ground.
He lands three kicks in quick succession into my stomach, and I roll into a ball to protect myself. That only allows him to stomp me on the ribs, and I feel something crack. I cry out, and roll away from him, avoiding another boot to the ribs.
Skylar lets me roll away and looks around, as if searching for someone. He seems distracted, worried even, as he focuses on me, as if he's waiting on something that hasn't happened yet.
He takes a few steps back, dropping down to one knee, breathing heavily as he grits his teeth. He pulls his shirt up and I see that he’s steadily leaking blood.
I stagger to my feet, holding my side as I wince. But I stand up straight and stagger over to him, ready to end this.
Before I can get within a few feet of Skylar, he pulls a serrated blade from inside his boot and swipes at me, catching me on the thigh.
“Fuck,” I grunt, taking a step back as he sweeps the blade in the air again. “You dirty son of a bitch,” I say as I glare at him.
He smiles as he gets to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth. “What’s the matter? Didn’t think I’d have a backup? It’s life or death, Viper. Your death.”
Skylar totters to his feet, holding the knife out in front of him.
We circle each other for a few moments, waiting for the other to make a move.
I see it before Skylar does—a large rock, literally one of the only rocks in the field, right behind his foot. He steps on it and his ankle rolls. He drops down to one knee, his arms flailing.
Even though my ribs are screaming at me and my thigh burns from the deep slice he gave me, I hurry over and drop to my knees behind him. I grab the hand with the knife, twisting his wrist, then burying it in his chest.
Skylar jerks and looks at the knife in disbelief. His slack hand drops from the handle of the blade and I pull the knife out and drive it back into him again, twisting it like I did with his wife.
Leaning down to his ear, I say, “Til death do you part, bitch.”
Skylar takes a ragged breath and looks back at me, his eyes burning with pain, regret, and rage. “You got me…Viper.” Then he blows out a long breath and slumps into my arms.
I let his body fall, then check his pulse. When I don’t feel anything, I collapse beside him, taking several deep breaths.
“Son of a bitch,” I grumble when I touch my ribs, knowing at least two of them are broken. I look down at my thigh and see that I’ll need more stitches there too.
“My boys are going to fucking kill me for this,” I mutter to myself before I heave myself to my feet.
Limping and trying to breathe shallowly, I make my way to the path I took to get to the field, ducking under branches and avoiding roots protruding from the ground. The sun is setting, so no one should see me leave.
I’m not worried about Skylar’s body. The Void can take care of that.
I’m moving so slowly due to the pain that I don’t exit the woods until the sun has fully set.
As I exit the trees, a car is waiting for me, the engine running.
With a wince, I slide into the passenger seat, and look over at Olivia.
She smiles at me, and puts the car in gear, pulling off smoothly. “He fucked you up,” she jokes.
I cough a laugh. “Yeah, he did, but since I’m the one that’s still alive, I win.”
She laughs, shaking her head as she drives us back to the safe house.
“Three men were with him,” she says. “I got ‘em all. It’s been a while since I used long range. Head shots.” She makespew, pew, pewnoises while making finger guns.
I grunt. “I knew he wouldn’t come alone. Glad you made it back in time.”
