Chapter 12 #3
I grabbed her face and kissed her, hard and fast. “Stay safe,” I ordered. “I’ll be right back.” I grabbed a bandolier of throwing daggers from the shelf to my left.
As I put my hand on the door to open it, Lu called out loudly, “Hey, asshole!” I looked back at her over my shoulder. “I’ll be pissed if you die.”
I shot a cocky smile at her before leaving the room.
I heard the groan of the lock as she bolted it in place.
These fuckers came to my land and shot up my house with my pregnant wahine inside?
I strapped the bandolier over my shoulder, the handles of the dozen daggers cool to my skin.
They were about to learn what happened when they brought guns to a knife fight.
Externally, my basement had two small windows and a storm cellar entry.
Unfortunately, the fuckers currently shooting up my home were all standing on the same side of the house as those three points.
The basement door, which currently resembled a slice of Swiss cheese, was my only exit that wouldn’t result in me dying before I made it two steps.
The basement itself was secure. Either they didn’t know it existed or they had no reason to believe any of the house’s occupants would be in it this time of night.
Thank Kū I had been having trouble sleeping with shorts on.
I was used to going through life barefoot, but even I was not looking forward to trudging through my house filled with debris.
Not that it would stop me. These fuckers owed me blood.
If I hadn’t been awake, if I hadn’t heard the van… ?
I glanced up at my basement door. That would have been Lu and I. Pua too, though I highly doubted she was the target. If she hadn’t been here, Tangaloa would have. It was more likely that either he or I was the target.
It took some time for the bullets to stop. Not knowing if they were reloading or pausing to make entry, I slipped out the basement door and made a crouching run to the kitchen counters. The old wood hadn’t stood a chance. In fact, everything in my kitchen but the refrigerator was destroyed.
My hands started to tremble as my eyes landed on Pua’s tea set, now shattered pieces of plastic on my floor. I had to control my rage. My niece could have been killed so easily tonight. She was just a baby. Innocent in the wars of men.
I heard the squeak of my front screen door. I couldn’t believe that fucking thing had survived. Of all the things in my house I would have been happy to see destroyed, that bastard was still standing.
Six men entered. If any one of them turned, they would see me crouching in the corner.
But this was not a military or a police raid.
These were thugs, wearing Bloody Scorpion cuts and balaclavas.
Their goal was clearly the master bedroom, because they never even paused to check my kitchen, living room, or the basement.
I did not reach for any blades at my chest. They were there merely as insurance. I wanted these fuckers’ blood on my hands—and they moved themselves into the perfect bottleneck that gave me the advantage.
My house was old and the back hall that led to the bedrooms was only three feet wide. It forced these men to walk single file, and provided me their backs. Even if they all tried to come at me, it gave me the advantage so long as I kept them in the hall.
A quick glance out the window showed no more men outside. That didn’t mean there couldn’t be more men, but at least no more were looking to enter at the moment.
I stood, mindful of the larger glass pieces. As the first man in the hall kicked down Tangaloa’s door, I snapped the knee of the sixth man, the one directly in front of me. Before he could cry out in pain, I broke his neck.
When the fifth man spun, his gun caught on the wall.
I kicked, and the weapon flew from his grip.
The fourth man had better luck raising his gun, but I shifted my position.
The fifth man moved to attack me with his bare hands just as the fourth man fired, hitting the fifth directly in the back.
As the fourth man’s eyes went wide behind his mask at shooting his own man, I leapt up on to the wall in a running jump.
I landed between the fourth man and the third man, who was only just now realizing there was a problem at the sound of the gunshot behind him.
Reaching behind me, I grabbed hold of the fourth man’s head, bending him backward over my shoulder. He cried out in pain and shot his gun again, but the bullets only hit my ceiling. I twisted in such a way to dislocate his neck and rupture his spinal cord. It left him alive in a useless body.
Which meant he could answer questions later.
Dropping the fourth man’s dead weight, I moved just in time to avoid a bullet to the skull as the third man fired.
The second man was smarter than his comrades.
He shifted around the third to try to get at me, too.
I ducked low, pulling a blade from its holster.
Slicing the tendons at the back of the third man’s knees, I drove the blade down through the second’s boot.
As the third man fell backwards and the second fell forwards, I aimed their gun hands at each other as they instinctively fired.
I took down all five men in less than a minute.
There was no flare, no Hollywood dramatics.
It was the Jackie Chan version of Wham Bam, Thank You, Ma’am.
As the first came charging out of Tangaloa’s bedroom, his eyes going wide at the sight of his fallen companions, I felt someone approaching from behind me.
While the bottleneck had been to my advantage to take down the Bloody Scorpions at my feet, it also left me just as vulnerable to attack.
Before I could turn to see who it was or assess which man was the greater threat, something collided with my shoulder. I fell forward, pain radiating up and down my arm.
The first man reached for me. I allowed my body to fall, using the momentum of the strike to take me to the floor.
Avoiding landing on my shoulder, I rolled.
The first man spun, following me, and when he snagged my now useless arm, both of us toppled over into my bedroom door.
The wood collapsed, and we went down. I felt something jab me in the side as whatever had been in the back of my shoulder came loose.
My blood ran cold as I saw what it was. A dart, like vets use to tranquilize animals. The bright pink feathers at the end were splattered in blood.
I felt my right arm go numb almost immediately. My vision blurred and I struggled to rise. I couldn’t find my footing and somehow got to my knees.
I barely saw the fist coming at my face. In all honesty, I didn’t know if I dodged it out of skill or because gravity was pulling me down. With limited mobility in my left arm, I reached for a blade.
When the blur of the man came over me again, I struck blindly, and only knew I’d hit home by his cry of pain and the hot splatter of blood hitting my face. As he collapsed beside me, I realized I was lying useless on my back in the splintered mess that had once been my door.
I blinked, my vision fading.
I knew the last Bloody Scorpion was approaching, knew that I needed to take him out before I went unconscious or he could hurt Lu and Pualani.
I tried. I fucking tried to reach for another blade.
I barely remembered how to breathe, let alone how to make my arm move.
I blinked again, my vision making out the dark silhouette as he approached me through the doorway of my bedroom.
Cold metal touched my fingertips just as my world descended into darkness.