Page 156 of SINS & Riley
He staggers back, roaring, his massive frame folding as his arm hangs useless at his side.
Two more rounds explode from the barrel, ripping into the second guard’s knees. Bone shatters as he crashes down, bellowing like a slaughtered bull.
Elena throws her hands up, eyes wide, voice pitched high. “Thank God, you’re here! You have to help me. They tortured me?—”
Cold and steady, I level the barrel between her eyes.
“I’ll deal with you later. Now get the fuck out of my way.”
Her face drains, lips trembling, but she steps aside.
I move past her and grab the handle. Locked.
One hard kick and the door flies open.
“Pom?”
That’s when it hits—white-hot agony detonating at the base of my skull.
My knees buckle. The floor lunges up in a blur of black and gray, swallowing my balance.
I roll halfway, dazed, vision splitting—swimming.
The doctor looms over me.
One hand wrapped in filthy bandages. Powder crusting his nose like a junkie’s badge of honor.
And in the other, some sort of small tank, clutched like a sledgehammer, slick with blood.
His?
Or maybe mine, judging by the sticky warmth sliding down the back of my neck.
“Nighty night, asshole.”
The plastic mask slams over my face, trapping the reek of chemicals. Sweet. Sickening. Suffocating.
Anesthesia.
I thrash once—twice—but the fight drains out of me fast, stripped with every forced breath.
Darkness closes in.
And that’s it. Lights out.
49
RILEY
I hold my breath, and leap.
Air knifes past me before I slam into the awning. Pain detonates across my ribs, my spine—metal scraping a hip as the canvas scorches my skin.
The impact blasts the breath from my lungs, but I choke the scream down. For a moment I’m nothing but pain and momentum, disoriented and sliding helplessly down the slant.
For a heartbeat, I think I can hold myself here—maybe even pull back up.
I can’t.
