26. Helen #3
My heart beat painfully in my chest, like war drums that pounded in my ears and thumped through my sluggish veins. Silent sniffles ran away from me as I shakily scooted toward the object glinting under the crude yellow lights.
“Once you’re dead, I’m going to see how tight that Montgomery pussy really is, and then I’m going to slit her throat,” Douglas said.
Drake’s wheezed gasp for air stressed his pained grunts.
Douglas wrenched his head back further until Drake lifted onto his knees.
He attempted to twist and claw at Douglas’ arms, but the bastard held all the leverage.
Douglas had his back to me, muscles visibly shaking with the intense effort of keeping Drake down.
Cold steel kissed my palm. Shaking hands lifted, taking aim across the parking lot.
All the world slowed to a singular moment.
The air stilled, the river froze, the lights brightened and haloed the two figures in front of me.
A singular breath filling my lungs and a wrathful resolve steadied my trembling hands.
An audible crack ensued from my curling finger. Douglas gasped when all the air was punched from his chest. A wet ruby flower bloomed to the surface, staining the back of his shirt.
Douglas tripped over Drake’s legs as he twisted around. His shoulders lifted and dropped. A line of red dripped from his lips as his fluttering eyes took me in. His gaze hardened, and he weakly snarled at the gun in my hands.
With an impressive, greedy gulp of air, Drake propelled himself around. He shuffled to his feet while Douglas floundered toward me. Douglas tripped on the gravel and dropped to his knees. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Drake made a noise that might have been my name.
My eyes cut to him over Douglas’ shoulder, watery blue meeting deep brown.
Gazes locked, we communicated silently through the space and time keeping us apart.
Floating adrift in a liminal space, it was the rich, fathomless adoration in his eyes that grounded me.
With one blink, I asked a question.
He swallowed, but nodded.
I pulled the trigger again, jerking at the loud pop and recoil in my wrists.
A body thumped to the ground, head almost comically bouncing on the concrete. Sweat slicked auburn curls lifted in the gentle breeze blown in from the river. If not for the void, lifeless stare in his eyes and the pool of red spreading beneath him, Douglas might have looked like he was sleeping.
“Come here, baby. Come here. I got you. I’m here.
” Strong hands peeled away my fingers glued to the weapon in my hands.
Rasping gasps scraped my throat and lungs raw and a fire coursed through my veins.
He pried the gun free and tossed it away before wrapping powerful arms around me.
That heady warmth, that crushing pressure, the familiar, intoxicating scent of him. It all enveloped me, anchored me.
“Dr—Drake,” I stuttered.
“I’m here. I’ve got you. You’re safe, alright.” Drake pressed consoling kisses to the top of my head, rubbing his hands up and down my back as if reassuring himself as much as me. “You did such a good job. Such a good girl, Monty.”
“You,” I sucked in a breath, “you came for me. You came for me.”
“I promised, didn’t I? I protect what’s mine. Always.” More heated kisses on my cheeks, and he crushed me to his chest as if trying to shove me into the space between his ribs.
“You came for me.” I couldn’t seem to stop repeating it. Deep in my mind, I knew I was going into shock, but there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. Like watching an incoming train wreck from a distance.
Other voices filled the surrounding area, and I tensed on instinct. Drake continued rubbing my arms, my back, breathing life back into me. Stomping boots on gravel and raised shouts made me jerk in his arms to face whoever approached.
Drake vented a wet gurgling sound that cut through the daze of shock. I looked at him right as he coughed up blood. “I don’t remember eating that.” His roguish grin tamped down the panic cutting through me.
“Goddammit.” A new voice sent a prickle of awareness through me. Julian hurried from the warehouse with a small team on his heels. “This is highly upsetting, I hate to admit. But I’m so glad to see you’re both alright—” his voice morphed into an odd droning in my ears.
A sea of relief crashing through me compelled me to melt into Drake. His arms caught me, partially limp and dangling in his embrace as my fading adrenaline rush left me utterly deflated.
“She’s alright. She’ll be alright.” Drake’s voice reached me across an ocean.
“I’m here. You’re safe, Monty. I’ve got you.
” Those words ebbed and flowed through the sea of my mind as darkness swept me under an oppressive tide.
The rushing roar of violent waves sounded like the voice of a dragon, and the crashing surf sounded like the thunderous beat of wings.
But I was hoisted along in a steadfast life raft that fought the drowning tide, and I let it carry me away, knowing as long as I remained there, I would always be safe.