Page 57 of Slaying for Santa
“See this bitch?” he snarls. “This is what happens when you don’t do what you’re told.”
He lifts me by my hair, pain tearing at my scalp, my hands instinctively wrapping around his wrist to reduce the burn.
“Leave her alone!” Libi cries.
“Not until she pays,” he snarls, dropping me to the floor.
I try to hold in my sob, seeing him bend in my peripheral, and I’m too late to react when I realise what he’s doing.
With the syringe now in his hand, he leaps on me, forcing me to the floor in some sort of MMA grapple that I can’t get out of, my head slamming to the concrete floor again. My dark rimmed vision finds Libi, and I see her more than I hear her as she screams, her little face red, her tears falling like a waterfall.
The biting sting of the needle pierces my skin in the bend of my elbow, and it’s too late, he’s found the vein and he’s injecting the rest of the Spaceball straight in.
My free arm flails, and I can see Libi pointing to something on the floor. I don’t know why I can’t hear her, but as the first rush starts to wash through me, my hand connects with something familiar, and I pick it up.
I feel like I’m having an out of body experience as I swing it towards the guy, plunging it into the side of his neck. Thisisn’t something I wanted Libi to see, but as his hold on me loosens, and the heat of his blood washes over me, I’m almost certain I feel a smile tugging at my lips.
There you go, Santa.
I slayed.
CHAPTER 18
KIT
“On your six.”Wes, aka Wildcard, says quietly, his hand on my shoulder as Ghost does his thing and picks the lock.
“Viper to Cipher, confirm phone jammer is active,” I say low as I watch Ghost click the lock open.
“Copy that. Jammer is working. Calls to emergency services can’t be made.”
I smirk to myself at Cipher’s confirmation that he knew why I was asking.
The last thing we need are cops getting notified while we are in the middle of this. We can deal with the fallout later. Right now, I need to get my girls back.
As soon as Ghost pushes the door open, my gun is raised and we are moving in.
“Heat signatures show one inside the bathroom, two moving around in the living room,” Cipher’s voice rumbles in my earpiece. “Three in the kitchen. Another three in a small room downstairs, although one is cooling. As well as a couple at the rear of the house. And there are five or six in the rear shed.”
“Copy that,” I whisper, my eyes scanning everything wepass on our way up the passage, our steps barely audible as we go. “Bruiser and Doc, move in.”
“Copy.” Bruiser acknowledges as Wes, Ghost, and I near the cracked door leading into the kitchen.
I lift my hand in a stop gesture, and we still as we wait, our focus on the room we are about to enter, but our senses scanning our surroundings every second.
“Three. Two. Go.”
At Bruiser’s countdown, we burst into the kitchen as quietly as we can, taking the three Serpents by surprise as they bag and weigh cocaine.
I don’t hesitate to pull the trigger, instantly killing the lanky looking Serpent that goes for his gun, while Bruiser coming in from the outside door takes out the guy bagging the drugs, and Wildcard puts two shots into the third guy’s chest, but not before he fucking yells, alerting the house.
Pounding feet on the timber floors indicate the others in the house know something’s up despite us using silencers, and as soon as Ghost goes to move out into the hall, bullets spray the doorway, splintering wood as we take cover.
Lowering to his haunches just inside the door, Ghost locks his gaze with me, pointing to his eyes, and then low in the direction of the shooter, before pointing to me and Wes and then in the other direction, up the hall.
I nod, knowing exactly what he means, and Wes and I get ourselves into position as Ghost holds his hand up before counting down silently by lowering each finger.
Three.
