Page 77 of To Curse A Knight

The brunette turned her attention back on us with a hard, no-fucks-to-give stare. “I do not want to make an enemy of Antonio. And since he has already signed this check, I intend to follow through.”

Before I even blinked, she dropped to the ground, swapping out the tiny pistol for a knife in her boot. She threw it in Aaron’s direction at the same second Kellan shot her in the shoulder.

She let out a howl of pain, but before she could retaliate, I shot her in the thigh. The small-caliber round pierced through her flesh, crippling her and sending her to the ground. Kellan’s gun had a silencer; mine did not. The sound ricocheted in the small room and blasted my eardrum, definitely letting everyone know in the building we were here for a not-good time.

We needed to get the fuck out of herenow.I didn’t think brothels would call the police, but they probably had their own reinforcement, and I wasn’t keen to meet them.

I turned to my most unlikely partner in crime. “You deal with her, I’ll get the Robot.”

I spun on my heel to run to Mr. Roboto’s aid, only to see his body curled into a ball on the floor, his arms and legs unbound. In the chaos, I hadn’t heard him crash out of the chair.

Had the fucker beenpretendingto pass out? Or came to while we were there? It was the only way to explain how he’d avoided a knife to his chest. He’d fooled me—but that older stab gash in his stomach was definitely not a sham. It was too close to his liver to be a flesh wound.

His skin was as pale as mine, which on the well-tanned Colombian, meant he was in averybad way. Panic, real and raw, crept into my belly.

“He needs a doc, Kellan,now.”

The man was at my side in an instant, moving me out of the way before gently hauling Aaron upward to carrying him bridal-style. I ripped off the sleeve of my jacket and held the fabric to Aaron’s stomach, but the blood loss was already so great I didn’t know if pressure would make a difference.

I didn’t want Aaron to die. I didn’t want Hillary to kill me, and I didn’t want him to die.

Carmen—whatever the hell her name was—laid out on the floor, weapons removed, with hateful eyes watching us. Her wounds would heal, and apparently the Barbarian was more concerned about saving Aaron than killing her. I was on board with that plan.

“This isn’t over, Kellan,” she spat, her threat so jagged it could slice through steel.

Instead of replying, he took off on a light jog down the hall. Should I kill her, or…?

“Kill her!” Kellan bellowed, his voice carrying down the hall as I stared dumbly at the beautiful assassin.

Answered that question, then. Fuck. I’d never killed a woman before. Never actually murderedanyone—injured, sure. Maimed—once or twice. The most brutal I’d ever been was stabbing that fucker in the dick who’d hurt Blondie, but he’d already been dead.

I’d never taken a life. That wasn’t my bag—I ruined rich lives by taking their precious little billionaire possessions, but murder…

I stared into her violent eyes; loathsome hate stared back at me, like I’d already killed her entire family and stolen her puppy, too.

A kill shot would be a kindness. I wanted her to hurt for what she’d done to our third musketeer, but I couldn’t watch the life leave her eyes while I did it.

I aimed at her heart, fired, and spun on my heel, unwilling to see the aftermath of what I’d done. Watching Aaron strip another human differed from putting the bullet into the heart myself.

Apparently, my stomach wasn’t as iron as I thought.

I chased Kellan back up the stairs, keeping my gun at the ready in case we encountered anyone.

We didn’t see a soul until we got to the second corridor. Three women in skimpy suits screamed in fright when we racedthrough the hallway to the rear door, but they did nothing to stop us. I ran in front of Kellan to hold open the door for the two of them, and we rushed out into the parking lot.

Aaron had passed out again, his limp head bobbing up and down in Kellan’s arms.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Kellan raced to his own vehicle, and I followed him, climbing into the driver’s seat of the Jeep while he laid Aaron down on the backseat. He jumped into the passenger seat without complaint.

“Where am I going?” I was desperate to get out of here, but had no idea where to go. We couldn’t risk being followed back to Hillary’s condo, and Kellan’s house was too much of an obvious target.

Kellan reached back to press his hand on Aaron’s wound, applying pressure as our passenger let out a groan of agony in his barely conscious state. “Hillary owns his old warehouse now—the one you followed us to. She finished the construction contract, so we’ll lie low there for now.”

“He’d gonna die without a doctor, Conan.” I couldn’t keep the worry out of my voice, my heart actually tugging for our android side-kick.

“I have someone I can trust,” Kellan grunted, pulling out his phone with his other hand. “I’ll have them meet us there.”

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