Page 64 of Twisted Revelations

29

Dax

Eduardo assumed I was his main threat because I had the gun. I kept my gaze pinned on the man and Beverly, admiring her swift movements. Proud she’d waited. Now, I think I understood her and Laura’s kiss.

Beverly used her right hand to pinch the blade between her fingers before lifting it from her cleavage. She spun out of the arm Eduardo held across her upper chest. As swiftly as a cobra striking its target, she sent the blade up, slicing through his neck before thrusting it into the inside of his gun arm.

The practiced movements were so beautifully executed that even with a gun aimed at my head, my gaze wouldn’t let go of the scene. Eduardo didn’t know he was bleeding until he coughed, his forehead wrinkling with deep confusion. His gun arm shook with effort before it went limp. The heavy metal clinked to the ceramic tile covering the balcony floor.

Beverly had gotten to his radial nerve, stopping some of the motor functions in his arm. Agents were taught to shoot at certain areas to disarm a threat, and Beverly had found it with a blade. She either had exceptional knowledge of human anatomy or she’d been trained because this was the second time she’d gotten herself out of a deadly encounter with just a blade. It was only now I realized she wasn’t operating on luck.

I aimed my weapon at the man holding Laura as I kept my eye on the unfolding activity between Beverly and Eduardo.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Eddie?” His friend asked, his tone as shaky as the hand he held around Laura. From his angle a few feet behind them, he was blind to the horror riding Eduardo’s face or the blood that gushed from the ripped vein in his neck.

Shock had Eduardo unable to do anything but stand in place as his blood poured from his body, wetting his pale blue button up, turning it black in the blue lighting.

The friend attempted to peek, bending his body around Laura’s as Eduardo stumbled in my direction. The friend kept his gun aimed at me as Eduardo managed to reach for his neck with his working hand. His hunched body heaved to force air past an area that was sliced wide open.

When Beverly moved to step further away from a deranged Eduardo, his friend didn’t know where to point his gun anymore. He waved it back and forth between Beverly and me as his grip on Laura grew tighter, lifting her up off her feet. Her fingers dug into his forearm, to fight for the leverage she needed to keep from being choked.

Eduardo clutched the back of Beverly’s dress, ripping it as she struggled to break free of his hold. His face was filled with a devil’s fury as he pulled her back to him. When his grip slipped, the force sent Beverly crashing into the wall. The side of her head collided with the bricked finish before her body slid to the floor. Her chest continued to move up and down, but she’d been knocked out.

The sight of Beverly going down caused Laura to attempt fighting with her captor. I aimed but didn’t have a clear shot of the man, the waving shadows increasing my chances of hitting Laura.

A large projectile of blood gushed from Eduardo’s mouth and painted the stony gray balcony floor. His body folded and he stumbled sideways. His blood pumped out in sharp spurts, his shirt so saturated dark red droplets dripped from the material.

A moment of reckoning hit him before his eyes grew wide and he fell face first. The hard surface of the floor welcomed him and delivered a sickening crack when his head struck it. Blood spread rapidly around his head, forming a puddle and putting the final touches to his bloody end.

Laura’s captor was the last man standing. Because of his trembling fear, he was also the most dangerous. He’d managed to take back his control over Laura, and he’d inched them closer to the balcony’s ledge. His twitching eye, his trembling hand, and his shuffling feet behind Laura revealed his desperation. He had a massive body, but he lacked confidence. He continued to switch the aim of his gun from Laura’s head back to mine.

“I’ll kill her!” He yelled, shaking the gun at her head. Like with Beverly, I was at a loss. I wasn’t willing to shoot the man without a clear shot while he aimed his gun at Laura’s head. I much preferred him pointing it at me, so I yelled, taunting him, keeping his focus on me as I searched for an opportunity to take him out.

My actions on this balcony revealed a disadvantage I’d never encountered before. This was the only time I’d stalled at taking out a threat. My love for Laura was proving to be one of my greatest weaknesses.

The man’s yells rang out so loudly, I couldn’t understand his threat as his Hispanic accent overtook his English words. His gun remained at her head. Her face was squinted and angry, making me shake my head at her because I knew what the squint meant. She wanted me to shoot the man.

My unwillingness to shoot in his direction gave the man the upper hand, and he took advantage when he removed the gun from her head and aimed it at me. I saw the decision in his gaze. He knew I wasn’t going to shoot at him while he held Laura as his shield.

The first bullet flew past and struck the wall behind me, the second hit the man I’d been using as my shield, and I lost my grip on his limp body. The force of the third bullet struck me in the side. My body was spun in a circle before it collided into the wall near Beverly. The impact sent my gun flying into the shadows.

Before the man could get another round off, Laura had struck his gun hand. She’d saved my life and put her own in jeopardy.

The man and Laura tussled for control of the gun. At my angle, I had a view of their dancing legs and swinging arms as they yelled indiscernible words at each other. I stood, but I was struck with a force of pain so strong, my body crumbled, causing me to grip my aching side.

I fought the pain, picked up my gun, and staggered toward Laura and the man. The view before me stopped me cold, freezing my blood in my veins.

The man had lifted Laura and was aiming to toss her over the balcony’s railing. The sight of him about to end her life, struck me like a lightning bolt and I fired, taking out his legs, but I was too late.

The sight of Laura tumbling across the barrier as she struggled to grab a hold of something that would stop the fall stopped my heart from beating. I reached the edge of the railing with a speed I didn’t know I possessed.

My right hand grasped a hold of her forearm before her hand slipped off the edge of the ledge she was hanging on to by the tips of her fingers.

The hard yank of her flailing weight and my unsteady attempt at preventing the fall had us stretched to the max. We were a disastrous combination, me hanging over the railing with a slug in my side, and her dangling into the windy night with nothing to hang on to.

My short nails dug into her arm, drawing blood as I squeezed tighter. There was nothing but darkness and wind to contend with, and she had no leverage. My dressy, no-grip-bottom shoes slipped, making our situation that much more intense as I struggled to pull her up.

Blood gushed from my side, warm and thick as my body trembled from the bullet burning my insides and the energy I was exerting to keep Laura from falling.

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