Chapter 3 #2
Well, just Cole, I guess, but I was standing in front of him, so it sure felt like it was pointed at me.
Then the thing in his hand slowly registered, and I froze to the spot.
It was a gun. Someone was pointing a gun at me.
The room around us seemed to disappear. Time slowed. I couldn’t look away from the end of it, pointing right at me. I’d been lucky. I’d led a sheltered life. I’d never actually seen a gun in real life before. It was utterly terrifying.
“Teddy, let’s talk about this,” Cole drawled. He sounded completely unbothered. Also, what kind of gun-toting maniac was called Teddy?
Teddy shook his head. “Pass.”
And then I was falling. Strong arms surrounded my waist and threw me to the floor.
I hit it hard, biting my tongue. Blood filled my mouth, sharp and metallic.
The sound of gunshots echoed around the room, and screams. Glass smashed, and chairs scraped on the ground.
A heavy weight pressed me into the floorboards, covering my body completely.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see anything.
The shape over me moved, and light filtered back in. More shouts, and then strong arms were pulling me. The world lurched and my shoulder and hip ached from where I’d landed on the floor. I was being dragged across the floor and behind the end of the bar. Glass cut into my hands and I gasped.
“Are you hurt?” Cole Bailey loomed over me, his eyes running over my body. My back was against the bar, and Cole was kneeling over me.
“I…” my words died as he cupped my face with calloused fingers. He turned my chin this way and that, checking for damage. His thumb wiped my lip and came away bloody.
“Are you?” he snapped out, his patience waning.
“No. I’m not hurt,” I managed to get out. “I–bit my tongue.”
He nodded and glanced up, tension in every line of his shoulders. Beyond the cover of the bar, people were shouting and glass was still breaking. It sounded like chaos.
Cole’s eyes dropped over me, frowning at the glass on the floor beneath us. He shrugged out of his leather jacket and lifted me up so he could slide it under my ass, giving me a cushion from the shards on the ground.
“Fuck,” he sighed, taking my hands in his and turning them over, taking in the blood dotting my palms. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing,” I muttered, and looked over my shoulder. “What are we going to do?”
Cole sank back on his heels, reaching for something in a leather holster by his side. A gun. Another gun. Tonight I had officially seen twice the number of guns in the span of ten minutes than I had in the twenty-one years prior.
“We aren’t doing anything. You are going to stay here, keep quiet, and wait.”
Then he went to move. Fear streaked through me at the thought of being left alone.
Suddenly, reality hit me hard, sinking through my disbelief.
I was in a shoot-out. A real, live shoot-out.
For all my brave plans of getting the scoop on the MC, I was absolutely terrified right now. Some Lois Lane I was.
I grabbed Cole’s arm, and he immediately stilled, looking down at the place where our skin met.
“Don’t. The cops will come soon; someone must have called them. Don’t go out there… you’re their target.”
His eyes narrowed, an incredulous look passing over his face, before his customary impassive look returned.
“You think the cops are going to save you?”
“I mean… that’s their job,” I muttered.
The corner of his mouth quirked, and he was devastatingly handsome for a second.
“No one will come here to save you. The Clutch isn’t a place cops come without a warrant. No one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.”
I looked down at the gun in his hand. “Well. Don’t get killed then, I guess,” I finally said lamely. “Marcus would be devastated.”
That look of amusement flitted over his face once more. “I’ll do my best.”
Then he was gone, moving around the side of the counter.
Shots sounded, footsteps running, people screaming.
Glass exploded above my head and I screamed, clamping my arms over my ears.
My heart was pounding so damn hard in my chest, I could hardly think straight.
Then I was hauled into a brutal grip. I fought back, kicking and screaming.
A hard, inked hand clamped around my mouth, and I sank my teeth in as deep as I could without hesitation.
My flight had morphed into fight. I bucked and writhed, but the arms were too strong.
I was lifted and carried farther through the bar.
I didn’t even have time to look around and see what was happening.
We slammed along a corridor and into a small room, then I was falling. I bounced off a soft surface and rolled while the door shut with a loud bang, and then stillness descended.
I sat up, disoriented. I was on a bed, in a small back-office room.
Outside, noise continued from the bar and the muffled sound of motorcycles gunning on the road reached me.
I pushed myself off the bed and approached the door, reaching out for the handle.
I turned it and nothing happened. I tried again. It didn’t budge.
Had Cole locked me in here? Distant voices called outside.
“They’re running!”
I stepped back from the door, not knowing what the hell to think. I looked down and realized that I was still clutching my small handbag. Somehow, I’d managed to hold onto it, despite the madness. This was crazy. How had I gotten mixed up in this?
A bang sounded from outside the room and I jumped, dropping my purse and scattering the contents across the floor.
I kept one eye on the door in case it opened and groped for the contents of the bag.
What had all been in here? I gripped my keys tightly, like a weapon, and then sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, waiting to see what the hell happened next.
Nothing about this night was going as planned.
Thankfully, things seemed to have quieted down.
It had to be over, right? Surely, it wouldn’t be so quiet if not.
But if that was the case, why wasn’t anyone letting me out?
My phone had no service, which wasn’t crazy considering the area just outside of town where The Clutch was.
I couldn’t call anyone. I had no idea what was going on.
What if the bad guys had won? The thought suddenly occurred to me. Wait, who were the good guys in this situation?
I shot up, finding it impossible to sit still, and began to pace