Page 45 of Slayin Villain
The bullet missed Cali’s head by an inch.The scream that came out of her throat could’ve shattered glass.
Then I was up, Selene in my hand, shouting orders over the anarchy.“Lock the damn gates!Get eyes on the snipers!”
Kingpin was out front, no vest on, his gun blazing.The fucker always played cowboy.I saw the glint of a scope, someone was targeting him.
“Fuck!”I screamed.
And then I was running.
Bullets kicked up gravel all around me.A searing line sliced across my ribs as one grazed me.Didn't stop.Couldn’t.
I hit him like a linebacker, knocking him behind a parked Harley seconds before a round slammed into the headlight, shattering it in a rain of chrome and sparks.
“You trying to get yourself killed?!”I growled, holding him down.
“I was about to shoot that bastard!”
“You’re the Prez.Let your dogs handle the slaughter.”
His eyes burned hot, but he nodded.
I stood to return fire, and that’s when I caught one clean, bam, upper chest, just below the collarbone.Pain ripped through me like lightning.
I hit the ground.
I didn’t remember much after that.
Just blood.Sirens.Screaming.
Then… quiet.
Beeping.
Soft, repetitive, infuriating beeping.
I blinked hard at the white ceiling tiles, sterile light casting a cold hue across my vision.
Hospital.
I tried to sit up.Fuck.Mistake.Fire ripped through my shoulder, lighting up every nerve.
“You’re alive,” a voice whispered from my left.
I turned my head.
Rachel sat there, pale and wide-eyed, a styrofoam cup clutched in her hands like a lifeline.Her red hair was messy, her eyes swollen like she’d been crying for hours.She looked like she’d seen a ghost.
“Barely,” I rasped.
“You shouldn’t have made it.”Her voice cracked.“You bled out on the ride.”
“Never been good at following rules.”
She stood abruptly, pacing the room.“You dumb son of a bitch.Why’d you take the hit for Kingpin?”
“Because I’m Sergeant-at-Arms.Because it’s my job.”
“I thought you didn’t care about jobs.Or me.”
