Page 34 of Midnight Torment

There was fear in her baby blue eyes when she stared at me as if I was the devil. It had never bothered me before, but for her I wanted to be a better man. When she looked at me, I only wanted to see love there.

I propped the rocket-propelled grenade in the V where the door met my car to stabilise it as these bad boys had one hell of a kickback when I launched it. I lined it up with the car in the middle and released it. The characteristic wail sounded as it flew through the air toward its target.

The three of us stopped for a moment to watch the moment of impact and damage. The car lifted from the ground, the movement spinning it to the right to hit the vehicles on either side of it. That had been my intention since we needed to take out as many of their assets as possible.

Ash gave me a look and stalked to the back of my Range Rover. He lifted out the grenades that sat in their special areas cut out of sponge to cushion them. The guy really was a psycho when his blood started to boil.

“What the fuck?” Xavier shouted, moving back behind his car. “The fuckers are aiming for our feet.”

There was a gap between the bottom of my door and the ground. They had more intelligence than I gave them credit for. I slid in behind Xavier’s car and onto my belly to crawl under it. Ash threw hand grenades and I started to pick off the men who’d selected the wrong side in this war one at a time as they moved to avoid the carnage being rained on them. Xavier shot high and I shot low while Ash created havoc. Together, we operated as a team of death and destruction.

I slammed another magazine into my gun and I took aim. Every one of these men were a threat to Megan and none of them would be alive at the end of this. I didn’t give a single fuck who sent them, I would run their fingerprints to find who their master was. All that concerned me right now was eliminating every single one of them.

Megan’s scream cut through me and sent fear ricocheting all the way down my spine. I wiggled my body out of my hidey hole to see that some of the fuckers had made their way behind us.

Murderous rage pulsed from deep in my stomach through my veins. Everything else faded from me except the training that had been engrained in me since I was three years old. I cut away all my emotions until all that remained was a coldblooded killer who destroyed everything in his path.

My first bullet went straight through the eyes of the asshole who tried to step in front of Megan to hide her. My next was a double shot and it ripped through the neck of the man trying to take aim at me as Megan kicked and flailed, diverting their attention. She had been an innocent lamb before she entered my world, but over the past few months, her fighting skills had become more than proficient. Xavier appeared beside me, grabbing one of the guys and pinning him against the back of my car to disable him. That left three.

The first put his hand out as if to reason with me. That was a mistake. I grabbed his arm and twisted until his shoulder popped. My foot hit his head, and I slammed him to the ground. I put two rounds at close range into his head, my gun training up toward the two men with Megan.

“I would advise you to let her go and step away,” I said in a low voice.

“You aren’t in a position to negotiate,” the one with a beard said. “We’re the ones holding all the power. You won’t risk her life.”

My gaze slowly moved to Megan’s. Her eyes were wide and terror lurked in their depths alongside anger. She blinked once, her gaze never moving from mine. She wasn’t my angel right now, she was my warrior goddess. Megan nodded once as if to tell me to do what I needed.

The noise behind me had ceased, which meant that one side had run out of people to die. I seriously doubted it was my side since we tended to keep shooting and killing no matter what the odds.

“Looks like you’ve run out of backup,” I said, my lips lifting in a dark smile. “You have two choices right now. Release her and I’ll make your death quick. Continue on this idiotic mission and I will make sure you stay alive as I skin you piece at a time and start to remove your organs. You can live for days without some of them.”

The men shared a look. Both of them seemed to step back and pull Megan more in front of them as a barrier. She stamped on the toe of the one to her left and I blew his shoulder out when he moved. He cursed and went to strike her, but I took his knee out.

“I can keep going if you want,” I said as he fell to the side. I shot his other knee to ensure that he didn’t wander off anywhere.

“Need a hand?” Xavier asked as he appeared beside me.

I shrugged one shoulder. “He thought attacking Megan was a good idea.”

Xavier stared down at him. “You need to make better life choices.”

“Ash?” I asked.

“Clearing the area,” Xavier replied.

My attention hadn’t moved from the man who had his arm around Megan’s throat, ready to snap her neck at any second. Her chest rose and fell with panic even as she chewed the corner of her bottom lip.

She’d practiced this over and over again as men tended to grab women like this. Caine had trained her until this was muscle memory. I had risked my balls more times that I cared to remember to ensure she knew what to do if she was ever attacked.

My gun was trained on him, but my eyes were locked with hers.

I watched as she closed her eyes and let instinct take hold. Everything happened in slow motion and fast forward at the same time. She suddenly dropped her full weight to the ground, disabling his grip. Megan swivelled on her heel, slamming her fist up into his crotch before she scrambled away.

That was all the time I needed. Since he’d been such an asshole, he could live and find out what suffering meant. He did a double check to see where Megan was going, the gun in his hand trying to track her, but he was too slow. A double shot into his hand made him drop his weapon. I slid my gun into the back of my jeans and moved forward. He tried to defend himself, but I learnt long ago that my body was a weapon that pummelled through defences and pitiful attacks. Most men who wielded guns had never taken the time to learn to fight in hand-to-hand combat.

A jab to his nose broke the delicate bone and sent a river of blood cascading down his face. My foot slammed into his knee, popping the joint. I twisted his arm with the injured hand up his back until his shoulder gave way. Movable joints took less pressure to damage and hurt like a bitch.

He screamed from the ground when I stomped on his other knee.

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