Chapter 37
She was an idiot.
Hadley realized that the second she got within reach of Franklin. She’d just been having so much fun sticking it to him that she forgot what she learned from Homelander in The Boys.
Once someone had nothing to lose, they had nothing to lose.
And Franklin, who clearly had nothing left to lose, seemingly planned to take her down with him.
Cole made a grab for her arm but was a split second too late. Franklin got her first, yanking her back against his chest, slinging his meaty arm around her neck.
“If she stays still, I have a shot,” Ren said over the com system.
“No!” Cole shouted. “She’s too close.”
Boy, this whole men-trying-to-choke-her-out thing was getting old.
Hadley knew she should be scared—and there was a tiny bit of fear there—but more than anything?
She was pissed. Because how dare this asshole who’d blackmailed both of them into this mess to begin with grab her? The fucking audacity!
“What the fuck did you do?” Franklin screeched.
Cole held up his hands. “Not much. Just a little anonymous tip to the OIG. Oh, and we planted enough evidence for them to find you a cell a mile below Guantanamo. You know as well as I do it won’t take long for them to track you here. So, I suggest you let her go and start running.”
Franklin’s arm tightened around her neck.
She tucked her chin down hard to reduce the pressure on her airway.
She even shrugged her shoulders like Cole had taught her to make her neck shorter and hooked his choking arm with both of her hands to relieve even more pressure.
It helped a little, but she was still trapped.
“Maybe I will run. Maybe I’ll take this little whore with me, Clayton,” Franklin mocked. “Or maybe I’ll just snap her pretty little neck before you and your backup can take me out.”
Cole took a deep breath and his eyes darkened as he raised them to hers. “You gonna let him talk about you like that, honey?”
The words were casual. The meaning behind them? Not so much. Because Franklin didn’t realize it, but Cole had just given her the greatest gift in the world. Way better than the road safety kit. (And that was saying something, because she dearly loved that road safety kit.)
He’d just told her he wasn’t going to rescue her because he trusted her to save herself.
And she knew exactly what to do. Cole had made sure of it. “No, I’m not,” she muttered darkly.
Hadley dropped her hips below his center of gravity, widening her stance and leaning forward slightly, never letting go of Franklin’s arm.
Then, without a second’s hesitation, she rotated and pulled hard over her shoulder, using her hip as a fulcrum.
For half a breath, he was weightless, tipping over her back, and then he slammed onto the floor, the air bursting from his lungs in a wheeze as she pivoted away.
She wanted to kick him while he was down. But she distinctly remembered Cole telling her not to give in to emotional impulses like that. Emotion gets you hurt or killed. So, exercising great restraint, she raced to Cole’s side, well out of Franklin’s reach.
Well, she was at Cole’s side for a hot second, at least, right before he launched himself at Franklin.
What followed was several minutes of pummeling.
Fists flying, blood spurting, knuckles connecting with (and pulverizing) bone.
Franklin barely managed to get a single hit of his own in, opting instead to cover his head.
It wasn’t until he couldn’t even manage to do that anymore that Hadley grabbed his arm and yanked with all her strength.
“Stop,” she said. “There’s no reason to kill him. Please.”
The please seemed to break him. With a shuddering sigh, he stood up, stepped away from Franklin’s prone body and yanked her into his arms. “I was so fucking scared when he grabbed you,” he whispered into her hair.
“I wasn’t. I knew exactly what to do. Thanks for trusting me to do it.”
“I was kind of hoping you’d go dead weight in his arms so he’d drop you and I could let Ren take the damn shot,” he grumbled.
“I was too,” Ren said over the coms. “But your way was alright, I guess. The road in is clear, so I’m coming down.”
“Thanks, man,” Cole said.
Hadley pulled her face out of Cole’s pecs. “Did I do—”
He cut off whatever she was going to ask with a quick, hard kiss. “I need to tell you something,” he said against her lips. “It’s something I should’ve said a long time ago. I—”
The next few seconds were pure chaos. Cole heard Franklin roll to his side. Then he heard his service weapon clear its holster. He had just enough time to shove Hadley out of the line of fire before Franklin took his shot.
Cole spun and kicked the gun out of his hand before he could fire again. Then he put all his weight into a punch to the jaw, and it was lights out for Franklin. When he regained consciousness next time, it’d be with a broken nose, wrist and jaw. Fucking asshole.
He turned to Hadley, who was on the floor, staring up at him in mute horror. “Are you alright?” His eyes moved over her, searching for injuries. “Did you hit your head when I pushed you clear?”
Her wide eyes dropped to his chest. He followed her gaze and was shocked to find blood seeping through his T-shirt, quickly saturating the fabric. “Huh,” he muttered. “I didn’t even feel that.”
Now that he thought about it, though, his lungs were burning. On fire, really. And when he tried to pull in a deep breath, he couldn’t.
Well…shit.
The last thing he heard when he fell to his knees was Hadley’s scream.