Page 21 of Breathe
When the gun didn’t go off, Azrael realized that the manprobablydidn’t want to shoot anybody.
However, rapists had to die.
Slamming his knee into the man’s crotch, Azrael caught him in the junk.
The gun went flying somewhere unknown, skittering across the dark, wet pavement, but at least it was out of the stranger’s grip.
The man was hunched over, and Azrael tried for a throat punch, but he missed when the bigger man stumbled back and away.
“Not so tough now, are you?” Azrael growled.
The laughter and voice grew nearer as clubgoers approached the end of the building where the alley lay.
“You have no idea who you’re fucking with.”
The raspy words brought him to a standstill, and the stranger took the opportunity to step out of the alley and walk closely along with the passing crowd.
As if knowing Azrael wouldn’t follow.
Which was odd.
Who the fuck was this guy?
Along with those hissed words, the whole thing didn’t seem like something random.
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered under his breath and shook back his soaked hair before he hurried from the alley.
The Uber he had ordered had come and gone, charging his account with a no-show fee, damn it.
It was too late to even attempt retrieving the list when he got back to Dave’s when he climbed through his window an hour later.
He was too fucking tired to even think about messing with the computer. Plus, he did have tomorrow night. Sunday night might just be better when the estate became even more deserted as the weekend wound down.
Stripping, he washed the stench of the club from his body, dressed in pjs, and wrapped his aching hand before he climbed into bed.
The stranger lingered in his mind.
What the hell had the guy wanted? He didn’t look like any assassin he’d met before.
But maybe that was what the guy was. Maybe the man was taking out the competition? It wouldn’t be the first time nor the last.
He should sit out on the roof and try to unwind…but nixed the idea. Being on the roof reminded him of Real.
He remembered the first time he connected with Real on his first night at Dave’s place.
Azrael had taken solace on the roof. It was quiet out there, and it gave the illusion of being on his own in a house full of secret operatives.
Surprise had taken him aback the moment Real stepped out of his bedroom window and onto the roof.
Azrael drank in every inch of the big warrior, and his heart pounded at his instant attraction to the guy.
“Are they looking for me?” Azrael asked.
“Yes,” Real murmured and kept his eyes on the sunset and beach that lay beyond Dave’s Santa Barbara estate.
“Sorry,” he said, but he wasn’t sorry. He wasn’t comfortable around people. In fact, he hated people in general because they were fucking unpredictable. Most of them were out to fuck with him in one way or another.
“Sometimes you just need to be alone. I get it,” Real said.
