Chapter 37
Quinnly
My fist makes contact with his nose, pushing up, I make sure to hear the crack before placing Charlie down just outside the warehouse door. “Stay here,” I tell her, though I’m pretty certain she’s not going anywhere.
There’s a noise, like static on a radio and the guard starts to speak. Slicing the blade of my hand into his throat, he lets the device go and it falls to the cement, cracking and screeching with feedback.
“Look at what you did,” clucking my tongue he rushes for me, and right at the last second, I move leaving my foot in the way so when he trips his head collides into the metal door.
“Well damn, you must have a hard head.” There’s a dent in the metal, and the bang and crack of his head against it–plus the way his body crumpled to the ground–makes me wonder if he might actually be dead. Too bad I’m not really in the position to check.
Picking Charlie back up, she mumbles something incoherent as I take us as far away as possible. There’s a shout, followed by heavy boots behind us.
“I think Lady Luck just ran out, Charlie.”
There’s a tree line to the left about fifty feet away, and if I can make it there, surely I can keep her hidden long enough to get rid of these people.
Boots crash into the woods just as I finish covering Charlie with as much foliage as I can find. I pat her head before darting to the right, away from where I placed her. Hopefully I can remember where I put her later…
Rouge limbs whip my face as I tear through the trees, making sure to create as much noise as possible to draw them away. They follow, because what else do dogs that hunt do?
With a cackle, I swing up into one of the trees, climb high, and wait. Time moves at a snail’s pace, but eventually two men with guns strapped to their backs crunch through right under me. They stop to look around, but they never look up.
Always look up, you never know when there may be a serial killer above you waiting to pounce.
Dropping from my perch, my legs circle one of their heads before he reaches for his side arm and pops off a few rounds. Twisting his neck, I feel the satisfying crack of bone and he falls.
Rolling onto my back, I wait for the other one to come after me, assuming I’ve been shot. When nothing moves, I sit up and find the other guy with a bullet hole in his cheek and another in his throat, bleeding out on the ground beside me.
A laugh bursts from my chest, maybe Lady Luck isn’t done with me yet.
Picking up their guns and emptying the clips, I kick both of them for good measure and wait. Neither of them move.
I should call Creed, and let him know about Charlie… But then Lincoln will be mad, and he’ll be all growly-angry, and then I’ll never get another chance at Paranoid Penny.
I should probably check on our little lost heiress… On the other hand, she’s pretty out of it right now. Maybe a little nappy nap will be good for her.
Damn near tripping over where I stashed her I sit and cross my legs, sweeping her hair from her face. Her eyes are closed, lips slightly parted as her chest rises and falls evenly.
“I’m gonna go take care of Paranoid Penny, alright? And then we’ll go back to the Hemlocks and they can figure out the rest. That sound like a plan?”
Putting my thumb on her chin I move her bottom lip and answer for her. “Go get that bitch, Quinnly. My savior, my hero.”
“Oh stop,” I giggle, standing up and covering her with more stuff. “I’ll be right back.”
Skipping back toward the warehouse, I see people running around, shouting things, and there at the door, is Paranoid Penny.
Her arms are crossed, scowl on her face.
She’s yelling something, but I force myself to focus on everything else.
Men scatter, and she retreats back inside the warehouse.
Now there’s no rhyme or reason to their movements, which could work to my advantage.
Heading back into the forest, I grab the guy that’s not covered in blood and strip him of his uniform. He’s bigger than me, so I forgo the pants, but his vest and jacket will do. I can tuck my hair into his hat and walk right past all the others. I doubt they’ll even pay me a second glance.
“Thanks, bud.”
Walking out of the trees, I head straight for the building, no sense in wasting any more time. No one stops me as I open the door and head for the balcony. Unstrapping my scissors from their holster, I split them and hold one blade in each of my hands.
A man walks out of the office, feet stopping when he sees me.
Rushing him, my scissors rip into his throat, severing his vocal chords so he can’t scream, and his hands immediately come up to the bloody mess.
He stumbles back, legs hitting the railing and with a little pokey-poke, he falls backward over the edge.
The smack of his body hitting the cement is loud, and I press my back into the wall beside the door where the glass doesn’t reach.
Another person comes out, but this one has a more shapely figure.
The vest over her chest is large, and her waist is thin creating a gap between her vest and her ribs. And her ass… I’m jealous.
Sweeping her legs out from under her, she hits the metal with a gross thud. Shaking her head, she gets back on her feet in an impressive time and draws a gun.
“That hardly seems fair,” I mention, looking from my blades to her gun.
She smirks, “Fair is for losers.” Then she fires, right as I bend down to grab the chunk of chin she left in the metal grate. Glass shatters above me, raining down like hail.
“I think this belongs to you,” I offer, looking at the wound on her chin. “That has to hurt…” Slapping my hand away, she raises the gun again, and I sigh.
Twirling, I kick my leg out and knock the gun from her hand. It slides across the metal grate and stops just short of falling off the edge.
Bummer.
She screams, like a battle cry from hell, and grips my shoulder. Spinning me around, her arm goes around my neck and I stab one of my blades into her arm near her elbow severing the tendon.
Her arm slackens immediately, as I grip my blade and rip it out. She howls, stepping back and looking at the hole through her arm.
Another person comes through the window at my back, the shattered glass gives them away.
Twisting around, I plunge both blades into their thighs to sever the femoral artery, and enjoy the way they scream and drop.
The woman missing half her chin pulls my borrowed hat off my head and I spin watching her movements, anticipating.
She launches herself at me, hands grappling for anything she can hold on to, and struggling because of her useless arm. There’s a click and then bright white pain as she manages to sink a switchblade into my side.
Now it’s a party!
Flipping my scissors over my fingers, I smile and take a few steps back before throwing my left hand into her side. She blocks the blade, landing a punch to my cheek. We exchange blows, until I spot my opening and stab both blades into her neck.
“Someone should have taught you that blocking is just as important as attacking, Smoochie-Poo,” I whisper, hearing voices below grow in volume.
Her legs give out, and she falls to the metal. With some difficulty I manage to drag both bodies to the top of the stairs, kick them over, and watch them bounce until they smack the concrete floor. Turning around, I waltz into the office only to find it empty.
“Ugh.”
Checking every crevice and shadow, I can’t locate her. I also can’t know for sure if she came back in here after my little side quest with Charlie, but it was worth a shot.
Hopping out of the shattered window with a grunt, my boots make a wonderful crunching noise on the glass. Twisting around, I allow myself the simple joy of listening for a few seconds, realizing with some irritation that I feel a bit strange.
“Focus,” I whisper, taking a deep breath, and bolt down the stairs. Two more guards are running at me, guns pointed at my chest. I kick the first one and his gun flips up as a string of bullets spray the ceiling. The ting, ting, ting of the bullets hitting metal is loud and makes my head hurt.
The other lands a fist in my side, in the same place that bitch got me earlier with the knife.
Fuck, that hurt.
The first guard recovers and joins his partner, kicking at my legs.
Knocking his head into one of the nearby crates, he makes a short noise and then ends up on the floor.
His buddy runs at me with an angry wail.
Using his momentum I jump, wrapping one leg around his neck and swinging my body down, sending him crashing over top of me to the floor.
Straddling him, I stab at his chest with each of my blades, poking holes in his body and making sure he never gets up.
There’s another pop and a bullet tears through my shoulder. Twisting around, I laugh, finding none other than Paranoid Penny with a gun aimed at my head, and a sadistic smile on her face.
“I knew you’d come for me. Chameleon.”
Evil monologue, blah, blah, no thank you, unsubscribe.
Launching from the floor, I stand to face her. The gun she used is still trained on me, but I like my odds. There’s no one else here, for now. I’ve got to make this quick, if not, I’ll have a whole separate issue on hand.
Like bleeding out alone, with Charlie in the woods and no one knowing. Not exactly ideal.
“Even with that hunk of metal, you’re shaking,” I giggle, reaching up to where the bullet created a nice hole in my shoulder, and the knife left a deep slice in my side. “This is gonna stain, do you know how hard it is to get blood out of things?”
Her hand falters a little and her mouth drops open.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen,” I start but she pulls the trigger, narrowly missing my foot. “You soggy fucking pop-tart! Not. My. Boots.”
Before she can raise the gun again, I easily swipe it from her hands and backhand her with it.
She has no chance of winning this fight, and I almost feel bad, but I did have to kill four…
Wait five? Fuck, six? I can’t remember now how many of her people I’ve killed at this point, my head is fuzzy, and I’m buzzing.
North Carolina’s got a higher body count than New York at this rate, but who’s keeping score?
Her eyes round and she turns tear filled eyes on me holding her bloody mouth, then darts away toward another door in the warehouse. She screams something as she runs, possibly “help,” but it could have easily been “fuck,” one may never know.
I follow at my own pace, pushing the bar to the door, feeling the air flow into my lungs as I inhale and catch the overwhelming scent of blood.
It’s not like I haven’t smelt it before, but ew.
It’s metallic and tangy, not appetizing at all.
“Kill her!” Paranoid Penny shouts, snapping me out of the fuzz that my head was feeling. When I look in the direction she shouted I see there’s a good amount of guards out here. I’m fairly confident I can take them, but she’s my real prize.
Why waste energy on them when I can have her?
Pulling the gun I’d taken from her, I aim and fire off a few rounds, dropping three of the eight. Another runs off, I imagine shitting himself, and can’t control my laughter.
Only four left.
She’s running to an SUV idling near the road. If I can’t get her now, it’ll take months to find her again. Running after her I pray Lady Luck is still on my side, and manage to dodge every bullet sent my way.
“You really need to hire better help,” I pant, catching her before she can reach the handle of the vehicle. Taking her to the ground, I land a few hits to her face, just for funsies, as she screams into the air.
God my head hurts, and my eyes keep going in and out of focus.
Twisting around when I hear muffled gunshots and shouting, I find new players have entered the game, and one of them is my Shadow.
Well, I’m in trouble now.
The SUV McGrath was running toward sprays us with rocks and debris trying to get away, when the telltale click of a gun reaches my ears and Penny shoves it into my gut before pulling the trigger.
Everything slows, turning milliseconds into eons, until I find one blade from my scissors and lodge it deep into her wrist. She screeches, but the sound doesn’t reach my ears.
Everything’s muted, and nothing makes sense.
Thrusting the other blade into the space where her shoulder meets her neck, I close my eyes and turn my face to the sky, enjoying the spray of her blood on my body as her heart pumps its last few beats.
That is, until my breaths falter, my head starts pounding, and I collapse on top of her.