Page 55 of Breathe
Azrael stared at the tile beneath his feet. The spray of water ran dark red as the blood washed off his face and out of his hair.
It had been stupid, really, to yank his mask off, but back in that apartment, he had trouble getting air.
He just couldn’t breathe.
The screwed up thing was that he recognized Micky.
“I know that guy,” Azrael had said, drawing Real’s attention.
“What?”
“Yeah, he tried to take me at gunpoint outside of a bar a few nights before he shot Apollo.”
Real had little to say, but the man was livid. It was evident in the way his big hands had squeezed into fists, and a muscle ticked in his strong jaw.
So yeah, Micky had tried to snatch him up, probably to use him as leverage to get to Real.
What boggled the mind was the fact that there had been eight people in that fucking room when he charged in behind Micky.
What had started out as a tail of Micky to his apartment building ended up being a nightmare. He and Rebel hadconverged on either side of Micky, and when the guy opened his apartment door to go inside, Azrael had shoved the man from behind.
He and Rebel were inside before Micky could blink.
That was when all hell had broken loose. Here was a killer who, Azrael had thought, lived alone, walking into a place that had a shit ton of men.
From there, it had been duck and cover. The surprising thing was that nobody pulled a gun. Maybe they didn’t want the gunfire noise to bring the cops? Probably, but all Azrael had known from that point was to cover his and Rebel’s asses. While he was fighting one of the men, another hit him in the back of the head.
The hit was so hard that Azrael fell to his knees. Rebel was there, stabbing with both hands simultaneously. Azrael stumbled up.
Micky was first out of the apartment door, leaving the eight men behind.
Shit.
Azrael dove over the side of a broken-down sofa. Rebel followed him, both breathing hard. He waited for the attack, but nothing happened, and he pulled himself up to see the last man leaving, dragging one of his friends with him out the door.
Azrael slumped, but Rebel had pulled him to his feet.
“Let’s go, stay close,” Rebel said.
At that point, nausea was lifting bile into the back of his throat. He wanted to tell Rebel to hold on, but he couldn’t get the words out.
Rebel crept toward the door.
“Go call for Crow and Real,” Azrael told Rebel in the silent front room.
It was funny that neither Crow nor Real had seen them enter the apartment building.
But how could he not go in? How could he stand by and let someone else kill the man who had shot Apollo? It was laughable that Genesis thought they were sneaky at keeping him out of the loop.
They should have known better.
“I’m not leaving you,” Rebel had argued.
“Go get Crow and Real. I’ll be right behind you,” Azrael ordered, and Rebel hesitated before racing out the door.
Azrael had taken a few steps, but then the room whirled.
Thank fuck his weakness had come after Micky and his friends had exited the apartment.
