Chapter 20 Jade
Chapter Twenty
JADE
It’s the cold metal of the barrel of a gun that stops me in my tracks.
“You should know better than to walk alone at night.” Noah appears in front of me, the gun lowering to be hidden between our bodies, but it doesn’t make it any less threatening.
Especially since the people across the street aren’t paying any attention to what’s happening over here.
I swallow hard, hands shaking as I try to center myself.
If I can beat Aiden in a fight, I can beat Noah. There’s just the matter of getting him to drop the gun first.
“I can see the fight in your eyes,” he says, his voice low, the corner of his mouth tipping up. “I have to admire that about you. You’re not the kind to just roll over and take it, are you?”
My blood rushes in my ears. “I’m not going to be taking anything from you.”
“No, you’re not.” His gaze rakes up and down my body. “You’re not my type. And I’m far too old for you. And there’s the small matter of your family being the ones who keep getting in my way.”
“Don’t see what that has to do with me.” I try to shift to the side, just enough to avoid getting hit in a vital organ if he does pull the trigger.
He moves with me, though, smiling and shaking his head, something unsettling lingering on his face. “You’re going to come with me.”
“Where are we going?” I look around, but there isn’t a car waiting there.
“Home. Get walking.”
I turn and start walking, his arm coming around my shoulders, the gun pressing against the side of my ribs right below my breast.
If he shoots me now, it’s going to sink deep into my lung. I’ll die before anyone even knows I’m with him.
Noah hums to himself as we walk.
The hair on the back of my neck stands, but there’s no way to get away from him. Not as we walk through the doors of my apartment building, not as we step into the elevator.
Certainly not as I open the door to my apartment, and he pushes me inside, slamming the door shut and locking it.
“I didn’t think it was going to be that easy to get you back here.” He tucks his gun into the shoulder holster he’s wearing.
“Well, you did have a gun to me. It’s not like I have much room to fight.” I take a small step backwards toward the console table. There’s a pocketknife inside that I could use as a weapon if I get to it before he shoots me.
His gaze flickers to the table.
Sighing, he shrugs out of his jacket and tosses it to the side. “I don’t want this to be more difficult than it needs to be between us, but you clearly don’t feel the same way.”
Where the hell is Ezra?
He had a fight tonight, but he should’ve been home by now. He should’ve been here waiting for me. The walk was only supposed to be long enough to clear my head, and then we were going to make dinner together.
Whatever this is, I just have to stay alive until he comes home.
Although, I don’t know what’s going to happen when he gets home either. He could take Noah’s side in this matter.
The silence stretches between me and Noah as he paces into the house, heading toward me and forcing me back one step after another.
I keep going, turning and trying to navigate around the furniture to avoid being cornered.
Noah stops and glances at a picture of me with my family. “You’re a distraction for my best fighter. A horrible distraction, and he’s starting to lose sight of who he is and what he means to my family because of you.”
“I didn’t ask him to have some fucked up obsession with me.” I whirl and reach for a vase from the bookshelf, throwing it across the room at Noah.
He hisses as it slams into his arm before dropping to the ground and shattering. “That was a fucking mistake.”
Noah lunges for me as I skirt around one of the tables, diving to the side.
I roll out of the way, my shoulder jarring. I grit my teeth against the pain and scramble to my feet, shoving open the door to the bathroom.
Spinning, I slam the door shut, twisting the lock.
It’s not going to buy me a lot of time, but it’s something.
Whipping around, chest seizing, I grab a towel and wrap it around my hand.
“Get out here, you bitch!” The door rattles against the frame as he pounds on the other side.
I slam my fist into the mirror. It shatters and I grab the biggest shard I can, ripping open the drawers until I find the medical tape.
The thin wood of the door splinters, a crack appearing.
It’s only going to be a couple of minutes until he’s through the door.
My hands shake as I wrap the tape around one end of the shard. It’s going to have to be good enough.
A hole tears through the door, Noah’s fist coming through.
I slash at it with the shard, cutting his hand deep and drawing blood.
“Stupid fucking whore! I’m going to kill you when I get in there!”
Ezra, please come home. Please come home.
The hand comes through the door, and I slash at it again, desperate to do some more damage. Anything that can keep his focus on me and a fist fight. If he starts thinking about using the gun, I’m dead.
Noah hisses. “I’m going to make this as painful for you as possible now. I was planning something nice and quick for you, but it turns out the bitch has a harder bite than I bargained for.”
“Fucking try it, asshole.” I keep one eye on the door as I rip open the cabinet above the toilet, pulling out the container of hairspray.
Lighting a fire isn’t the most ideal scenario, but if I can burn him, it might buy me a little bit more of an upper hand.
The gun appears in the door.
I jump into the shower around the corner, protected from the shots by a stone wall. I flinch at the shots fired, the bullets pinging off the stone and shooting to the sides.
What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.
I let out a slow breath and open the vanity drawers across from me, barely ducking out from around the wall while he mutters to himself.
There’s a lighter in there.
I scramble to grab it, flicking it to make sure there’s still some fuel.
The little blaze flickers.
I move fast, hurrying to the door and stepping to the side. I hold down the top of the hairspray, a fine mist coming out.
With a flick of the lighter, the hairspray ignites.
I keep my finger pressed down on the top, using the flames to keep Noah back from the door.
“You fucking psycho bitch.”
I let out a shaky sigh of relief, but it’s too soon. The aerosol runs out, the flame dying.
As soon as it does, he’s through the door. His hands wrap around my neck.
I flick the lighter and touch it to his skin.
“Fuck!” He flings me to the side, my head bouncing off the wall.
The coppery taste of blood fills my mouth.
He grabs me by the hair, ripping the lighter from my hand and tossing it to the side.
I bite down a scream as he uses that grip to haul me around the bathroom, smashing my head off the edge of the counter.
“You get your fucking hands off her!” Ezra roars, surging into the bathroom as my vision starts to blur.
Noah laughs, grabbing for me again.
I try to crawl away, but my limbs feel really heavy. It’s like I’m moving through molasses.
Noah’s boot collides with my side right before Ezra is on him, hauling him out of the room.
Shouting echoes down the hall, but I can’t make out much more than fuck you a couple of times before the front door slams.
I spit out some of the blood in my mouth, grabbing the edge of the counter and hauling myself to my feet.
Ezra flies back into the bathroom, scooping me up and carrying me out. “Where are you hurt?”
“Where is he?” Tears burn in the corners of my eyes.
“He’s gone, and he’s not going to be able to hurt you again, but you need to tell me where he did hurt you.” Ezra lowers me to the couch, perching on the coffee table in front of me and gently taking my head in his hands. “You’re bleeding. And to be honest, I’d like to know why the door is singed.”
“Homemade flamethrower.”
He looks at me with pride in his eyes, gingerly turning my head this way and that, inspecting the damage. “I should’ve been here. If I had, he wouldn’t have gotten his hands on you.”
“Noah only got to me right before you came in.”
Ezra draws in a sharp breath, touching the spot where my head met the counter.
I hiss in pain, stomach turning as his fingers come away covered in blood.
“I’m going to kill him for putting his hands on you,” he growls through gritted teeth, getting up and going to get some towels. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it yet, but it’s going to happen.”
“You’re probably going to have to fight off my entire family if you want to be the one to do it.” I grit my teeth against the pain as he holds the towel against my head.
Ezra has more pain than any person should ever have, all of it lurking in his eyes.
“He had me kill my family a long time ago, and now he’s trying to take you from me.
But I’m not going to let that happen. It’s going to take some time to get a plan together, but he can’t be allowed to live. Not when he tried to kill you.”
“He’s not going to let you get close to him after this, you know that, don’t you?” I wince and pull away from the towel, needing a moment to allow my head to throb without his touch right there.
“I know.” Ezra gives me a grim smile and gets up, leaving the room. He comes back with some pain medication and gets two pills, handing them to me. “I don’t want him to see me coming. He’s ruined too many lives.”
“He’s taken most of the people my family cares about.” My voice breaks as I lean back on the couch. “He kills and he takes and it’s all wasteful. Aiden kills, but it’s not without purpose. He makes sure that the murders he plans are never without cause.”
“Noah won’t get near your family again. I promise.” Ezra glances at the time on the stove. “I’m going to go after him tonight. He won’t expect it. He’s going to think that I’m sitting and taking time to plan.”
The first few tears slip out. “Not tonight. Don’t focus on that tonight. Focus on me instead. I don’t think I can be alone after that. Not yet.”
Ezra shifts to sit on the couch beside me, his arm slinging over my shoulders. He pulls me into his side. “Okay. I’m not going anywhere tonight. We can take time and plan this together.”
I nod, biting my bottom lip only to find that it’s swollen. When I shift, there’s a pain in my ribs from the kick, but it doesn’t feel like anything is broken. “I want you to spar with me. I want to be a better fighter.”
“We’ll start in a few days when you’re better.”
It’s as good of an answer as I’m going to get for now. And it’s fine.
I just don’t want to be weak ever again.
With this war, there’s going to be a time when Ezra can’t get to me, and I shouldn’t rely on him to save me either.
I can fight, just not well enough. Not to fend off Noah, and certainly not enough to fend off him if he ever gets tired of me.
That’s going to change, though.
I’m going to fight, and at the end of the day, I’m going to be the last one standing. If that’s what it comes to.
But there’s a part of me that really hopes Ezra isn’t going to disappoint me.