Page 40 of Cherished By the Sinners
Did she like his scent?Both he and his brother loved hers.She smelled like sunshine and apple pie.
The elevator door on Darlene’s floor opened, and the two men got off.As soon as they exited, they broke into a sprint toward her.
What?How did they manage to operate the staff elevator?
She wasn’t paying attention, was fumbling with her door keycard.
The men ran at her.
She wasn’t going to make it inside her room before they reached her.
Adrenaline screamed through Mason’s system, leaving behind an electric trail of pain.He threw open the door to the surveillance room, the door crashing against the wall and sticking to it.He sprinted to the stairs.
He pulled out his phone and called his brother as he took the stairs three at a time.“Two men are about to grab Darlene outside her room,” Mason shouted into his phone.“Head for the emergency exit on the other side of the building.”
“Fuck,” Magnus said.The sound of him running came through the call just fine.“Keep the line open.”
Mason dropped his phone into his pocket and focused on running.Staff had a stairwell they could take as far as the third floor.Access was in the restricted area of the hotel on the main floor.It meant he could get there faster than the elevator could have.
He was still too late.No one was in the hallway.
He raced past Darlene’s room, and hit the door to the emergency exit stairwell.He paused as soon as the door opened as the scent of blood hit him broadside.It was everywhere, the concrete floor, handrails, and the inside of the door.He tried to avoid it as he made for the stairs, but paused again when he saw the body on the landing below him.
It was one of the two men.He lay in a heap, his body twisted in ways inconsistent with life.There was blood all over him, but the highest concentration was on the right side of his head.It was streaked down his suit only as far as his shoulder, then gravity took it across his chest.
A messy death.Who killed him?
Darlene?
He could investigate more later.
He leaped down the stairs, clearing a distance impossible for any human without injury, and tore open the door to the street.A van was pulling away from the curb, and Mason could hear screaming coming from inside it.
Darlene.
Mason didn’t hesitate, he sprinted after the van, going faster than anyone should have been able to go on two feet.
It accelerated hard, then braked as something rolled into the street in front of them.That gave Mason a chance to catch up.
It was a white working van with two doors on the back for ease of pulling tools or equipment out of it.
He grabbed one of the doors with enough force to tear it right off the vehicle.He didn’t throw it away though, he kept it, using it as a shield as someone inside the van fired shot after shot at him.
Darlene was screaming and shouting obscenities.A man shouted something unintelligible, and the shots paused.
Mason used the door as a battering ram, forcing his way inside.
The van started forward again, almost fast enough for momentum to drop him out of the back of the vehicle, but he grabbed the edge of the other door with one hand.
The shooter started up again, but this time the door wasn’t positioned right to shield him.Shot after shot hit him in the chest.
He shoved the door harder into the shooter, hard enough to crumple the front passenger seat.The shots stopped.
The van took a hard right and Mason nearly fell out again, then the vehicle swerved left and something hit the vehicle on the front right side.Or the vehicle hit something.
Mason pulled the bullet-ridden door back and threw it out onto the street behind him.He finally had a view of Darlene.
She was lying on her back with one of the cop’s friends under her, his arm around her neck, a gun to her head.She had blood all over her face and down the front of her top.And she was screaming and thrashing her arms and legs, smacking the guy haphazardly.
