Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
Drew
Ididn’t breathe until I saw her run away.
My face was tense, each cheek blown out as I held all the air in my body and kept my focus on the men in front of me.
Cortez was stumbling around to my side, one man dead on my left next to Maisey Sutton.
The gun with the blank had done shit except stun the Emp it was aimed at as he froze and closed his eyes, waiting for his own impending death.
Every fucking part of my body creaked under the weight of the pressure I put on it as I rolled back onto my front and reached into the box.
Pulling another two guns out, I spun them around as fast as my beat up bones would allow me, falling back on my ass again as another Emp came towards me.
His gun was most definitely loaded and when he moved to stand over me, his arms locked in a hold with the barrel aimed directly at my forehead.
The look in his eyes said it all. He had no time for the fun and games of Cortez. This fucker wanted me dead hours ago. He wanted revenge for his fallen brothers.
As he moved to stand over me, there was no small smile of satisfaction, no smartass words to tell me that today was a good day to die, no arrogance or confidence oozing out of him.
Just absolute pure fucking hatred for the Hound at his feet.
He sniffed quietly, landing his foot on one of my arms to crush it down, forcing the guns away from his direction before he shook his head and sucked in a giant breath.
That’s when I lost sight of him. All I saw was the small black tunnel in front of me that would eventually deliver my own death.
Then the gun went off and the blood splashed all across my face like a warm fucking shower of red.
But I was still breathing. I was still breathing, and as I opened my eyes to see what had happened, the man above me began to fall forward, gravity making him sway one way, then another before it took over and he came crashing down beside me with a bullet hole straight through his head.
I grunted loudly as the weight of him pressed against all my existing injuries and the ear piercing scream of the girl, Sofia, sang out around the warehouse.
I didn’t have time to wait around. I didn’t know how many Emps were even in there, but Cortez was wounded and two were now dead.
As I pushed the guy away and rolled him to the side, I slid back, pushing my feet against the concrete to find some movement.
Picking up the guns and swiveling on the floor, I spun to a shaky stand and pointed both guns straight ahead of me at eye level.
Sutton was standing there limply, his shoulder hanging to one side and half of his face covered in more blood than I bet he’d seen in his life. He was a fucked up painting of black and red, but he’d just saved my motherfucking life by putting a bullet through an Emp’s head.
Every breath I took in was heavy as I stared at him in disbelief, but then the real shit hit the fan and I was lost again.
Charging at his waist, a heavy-set guy in leather threw Sutton down like he weighed nothing.
The sound of his head cracking against the concrete was almost as loud as the gun going off, sending a bullet whizzing straight past my ear.
I ducked out of the way, acting on instinct rather than knowledge, and it was impossible to ignore the heavy wave of noise and the banging inside my head as the injuries I’d sustained throbbed at the sudden movement.
My vision was blurred in one eye, making it seem like there were two of everyone no matter which way I turned, so I did all I could do with all that I had.
Aiming the two guns left and right, I fired, my shoulders flinching hard as two bullets went flying out of either end.
Cortez cried out again from one side of me, but the other side, the side where my head was the most fucked up… that was quiet.
Too quiet.
I was deaf there.
Just like Sutton, I was attacked from a lower angle, the arms of a thick bruiser wrapping himself around me and knocking my weapons out of my hands. That’s when it became the street fight it was always meant to be.
As I crashed hard on my ass, the wind poured out of my lungs and the fire began to spread through every muscle in my body.
Roaring out at the head that was currently pressed against my chest, I swung and drove a fist into his kidneys as hard as I could, not stopping as I kicked up and tried to force him off me.
His own swing landed just short of my jaw, skimming the end of my chin and only managing to catch my shoulder.
It gave me the leverage I needed as his body stumbled forward, having not connected where it was supposed to.
As soon as he was over me, I gritted my teeth together, grabbed the back of his head and smashed his face down onto all the rubble and glass.
It hurt. It really fucking hurt. I was too broken for it not to, but his wince of pain was addictive, and as soon as I’d heard it the first time, I needed to hear it again.
Pulling his hair back and turning on my side to move from beneath him, I groaned and kept on smashing his face down as hard as I could.
With each slam, I gained more power, more adrenaline, and more fucking desire to kill.
The pain in my own body began to fade, being replaced by the need to survive and to rip the limbs off anyone who tried to change the ending to my story.
It happened so fast but so hard, it wasn’t long before his body went limp in my grip and I pushed him away from me.
I’d barely managed to turn my back on my enemies long enough to scramble to a stand when another threw himself onto my back, wrapping his arms around my neck so tight the pressure in my head became unbearable.
Luckily for me, that one was young and scared.
I could feel it. Even broken and out of fuel, I was still strong enough to snap his body in two if I had to, so that’s what I did.
Reaching up desperately, I tugged on his grip in a jerky movement, throwing him over my shoulder before stamping on his chest and pulling his arms in a direction they were never designed to go.
The cry of pain was almost as loud as the sound of the bones breaking, but I didn’t wait to give him any sympathy.
I was gone—in another headspace. There was that dangerous black around me again.
The bulb hung limply over where I’d been chained up, allowing just enough light to show the shadows in the darkness. It wasn’t that easy for me, though. My eyes were tripling in size with every minute that passed by, and my body kept falling to the side no matter how much I tried to keep control.
I couldn’t see Sutton. I couldn’t hear Ayda. All I could see was Cortez and another man beside him.
I knew then more than ever that not all enemies could be seen.
Cortez was standing there with a knife hanging out of his shoulder, doubled over as he clutched at his ribs. The fact that the gunshot had caused some sort of damage made the small war smile creep up on my face again.
“I guess this wasn’t part of the plan, Chester?” I wheezed out.
He didn’t say anything at first, instead choosing to look at the man beside him as if he had a plan of escape written on his forehead for him to take advantage of.
“You may not have died the way I wanted you to, Tucker, but you will die today,” he growled back in my direction.
“I don’t doubt it,” I said, taking a step forward as I tried to hide the fact that one of my legs was now dragging more than the other.
“I guess I was just expecting a little more from you. The show was impressive for a while. You gave good game. Now…” I stopped, holding my arms out to my sides and gesturing all around us. “Not so much.”
Cortez looked back at his brother, nodding his head in my direction for him to finish it.
I knew the instruction he was giving without him having to say a word.
My toe hit the head of the Emp who Sutton had shot with a dull thud, and I glanced down as discreetly as I could, watching as a pool of dirty blood framed the whole of my boot.
That’s when I saw it.
It was like we were in the middle of a western after all, and a small thought of Sutton flashed through my mind, and how much he would have probably enjoyed that moment more than anyone, no matter who walked out of there alive.
“Do it,” Cortez ordered quietly. The man next to him stepped forward, pulling his gun out of his cut and aiming it straight at me.
I tried to move fast enough, but by the time I’d bent to grab the loaded gun by my foot, it was too late.
A bullet was flying through the air in my direction and the pain as it pierced through the skin of my shoulder rendered me silent.
I fell quickly, slipping in the mess of the dead and injured that I’d created.
I was all out of chances.
I could feel death getting ready to throw me over his shoulder and take me away.
The air around me became thick, like the walls were closing in on my life.
I glanced around for the gun but I couldn’t see anything, and all my thoughts went to Ayda.
I tried. I fucking tried… and I hoped that by some miracle she’d gotten free, ‘cause no matter how indestructible I thought I was, I knew a miracle was exactly what she’d needed.
But we’d already had all our luck. By some grace of that fucked up guy everyone calls God, we’d already been handed too many miracles since we arrived there.
I just wasn’t expecting the final one to show up when it did, and when the sound of aggressive gunfire filled the air and the doors burst open like a stampede of wild animals had entered, I held my breath and waited.
The moment I heard Jedd’s voice shout out for Cortez’s man to drop his gun, I knew it was time to start praying more often.
“I won’t repeat it. Drop the fucking gu—”
Bang.
His body fell hard and with no grace at all.
“Oops,” Slater growled.
“Good work,” Jedd said quickly.
I rolled to my side, unable to believe they were actually there.
The sound of their boots charging closer to me almost made me sick with relief, but I was convinced that I was hallucinating.
My head fell sloppily from side to side as I tried to widen my eyes and focus on them to see if they were real.
“Cortez, you dirty, rotten bastard,” Slater roared, charging towards him. “You’re dead.”
“No,” I croaked out weakly, raising a hand in the air. “No.”
“Fuck,” Jedd said, obviously registering the state of me for the first time as I lay there rolling around in shit. “Jesus Christ, Slater, we need to get him out of here.”
Slater was too busy smashing his gun around Cortez’s head, knocking him sideways before catching the back of his cut in his grip and forcing the fat bastard to stay standing.
Jedd was by my side in a flash, crouching over me but keeping his gun aimed high in case anyone else jumped out from the dark.
“Let me kill him.” I blinked slowly, my voice hoarse and weak. “Find Ayda. She ran somewhere. I told her to get out of here, so you better find her alive or so help me God…”
Jedd nodded, not questioning me for a single moment before he jumped back and grabbed whoever was beside him. I couldn’t bring myself to look as I pushed myself up and growled out at the absolute agony I felt everywhere. I was unfixable, but I wasn’t through yet.
I had two more things to do before I gave up and let my body fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.
I had to kill Chester Cortez without any mercy what-so-fucking-ever.
Then I had to pray again for Ayda. I had to find my girl; otherwise I’d be picking up the nearest gun and ending my own life in a heartbeat.