Page 88 of His Favorite Color is Blood
As soon as he blindly hit the door, he searched for the handle, and to his relief, nothing was locked.
Wind and noise hit his face along with the lights of the helicopter about to lower itself onto the roof. The menacing black beast of a machine would not be taking Zero onboard. Grim pulled up the rifle and shot a round at the pilot, as the gun trembled in his hands with the ferocity of the assault. The moment he started shooting, Zero ran all the way to one of the big white chimneys to hide behind it like the cockroach that he was.
The helicopter went up in an abrupt move, and Grim couldn’t hear if there was any screaming from the man inside because of the deafening noise of the rotors. But just as he was about to swear at wasting his bullets, a gunshot from Zero’s direction woke Grim up to the other threat.
He rolled behind what looked like a ventilation shaft and sent another round of bullets at the helicopter before darting forward, only to hide behind a brick chimney. His heart was drumming with the noise of the rotor, but when he considered shooting at the machine again, the pilot toppled over the dashboard, and the helicopter plummeted along with Grim’s stomach. When it smashed into the roof, it was as if an earthquake shook the whole building, and despite all of Grim’s attempts at keeping balance, he dropped to his knees.
He hid his head and face as bits of rubble landed all around, along with a wave of heat, but as soon as the worst was over, Grim glanced behind the chimney. He used the moment of distraction provided by the crash that was still heating up his back and darted forward, noticing a flash of bright color behind a chimney across the roof.Fuck. So Zero was on the other side now. Tough luck. Grim was out for blood, and he would sink his teeth into the fucker eventually.
Grim looked at the useless assault rifle. He’d sent all the bullets at the helicopter before it crashed, so he threw it to the ground to get rid of the excess weight. Unfortunately, Zero wasn’t out of ammo, and Grim almost earned himself a bullet in the face, but he dropped to the ground in time.
With the fire blazing behind him and Zero still with fuck knew how many bullets, Grim crawled forward over the rubble until he could hide behind a metal cabinet someone had left there. He held one of his knives in his bleeding hand and gripped the handle hard despite the pain. He would not be stopped.
Another bullet flew above his head. As it seemed, Zero wasn’t that good of a shot.
Grim smirked and looked at his reflection in the blade, staying motionless and quiet to listen to whatever move Zero would make next. Grim could bet it wasn’t often for the bastard to find himself up against a predator without trusty bodyguards at his side. Just like many of Grim’s kills before him, Zero believed himself to be top dog, but a top tier predator didn’t need company to do the deed.
He exhaled. “Your first mistake was insisting for us to play a game that you can’t win,” he called out, slowly turning behind the cabinet so he could get to his knees at any time. The debris dug into his skin, but he didn’t care. “You’re always after the weakest prey, and it has you so used to getting what you want that you don’t take into account that you should know who you’re up against.”
“Listen,” Zero yelled back, and Grim focused on following the voice to make sure the scum wasn’t moving. “We got off on the wrong foot, but I could use a man like you. I have connections all over the world. You could be drinking champagne with Misha in Dubai tomorrow! I’ve got the means, I hold no grudge over my men, or the helicopter. I’ve clearly met my match.”
Grim laughed. “Bullshit. I have killed over a hundred men on my own, and most of them were far better shots than you. You will die here unless I have a fancy to remove your legs and arms first.”
There was a noise of metal hitting the roof to his side, but no footsteps. A bluff. Did Zero expect him to dash over there while he tried his luck with the last few bullets in his gun?
Grim smiled and pinched his fingers over the blade of his knife, readying himself for action. “I could take your tongue as well. And I would definitely take your cock.” Grim exhaled deeply and leaned closer to the side of the cabinet, asZero would expect him to emerge vertically. “And I would sell you to your own underground ...” He leaned out from behind the cabinet.
He would have laughed if that didn’t betray his position. Zero was aiming at the other side, red in the face and not a fraction as dignified as he was when he had swanned around Misha and Grim not so long ago, flaunting his tiny dick.
Grim’s knife flew through the air and struck Zero’s wrist. Grim got to his feet, chasing the speed of the blood pounding in his veins as he charged at Zero, pushing him against the chimney and slamming his fist into Zero’s gut. The man toppled over with a grunt, unable to fight back and holding on to his stomach. His gun lay on the ground, and his wrist bled all over the light-colored suit.
When Grim was about to hit him again, Zero went for a punch to Grim’s crotch. Grim’s eyes almost popped out of his head as searing pain spread down his thighs and up his stomach. His brain couldn’t comprehend any man sinking so low. Folded in half, he didn’t manage to shield himself from a blow to the head and stumbled back, desperately trying to will his body to move again.
He knew exactly where Zero would be going. He was already stumbling forward and reaching for the gun like a pig searching for truffles. His suit was dirty beyond repair, and soon it would be soaked in blood.
Grim dashed behind him and swung his other knife right above Zero’s heel, cutting his Achilles’s tendon. The shock of pain gave Grim enough time to pick himself up and charge. This time, he didn’t play around and just threw in two punches straight in that handsome, ageless face.
Unable to hold his weight on the injured leg, Zero fell back, his wide eyes trained on Grim. When he fell to the floor of the roof, a rusty metal rod fixed in the concrete pierced through his shoulder and now stuck straight up, as if Zero were a moth pinned to a corkboard. All Grim now needed to do was pick off his wings and legs one by one.
Zero screamed out and tried to pull himself up, but Grim put his shoe on the man’s chest and pushed him right back down. He’d never felt this satisfied to see someone cry as he did now.
But Zero held up his hand, squeezing something in his sweaty palm, his gaze still determined. “This isn’t over!” he yelled in a manic high pitch. “I can still have your little boy die! There’s explosives downstairs. Blowing you all up was what I was planning in the first place. I’ve had enough …” He had to stop talking for asecond to swallow. “If you try to kill me now, you and your boy are going down with me!”
Grim’s skin tingled, and he alternated between hot and cold as he slowly lowered his body, still pushing Zero down with his shoe. The fucker could be bluffing to save his hide, but what if he wasn’t? The man was desperate enough to blow himself up with the building, just to spare himself the torture.
Grim’s thoughts went to Misha waiting for him downstairs. “You’re like a movie villain, you know that? Waiting ‘til the last moment to tell me about your evil plan.”
Zero was heaving. “I’ve got no witty comeback,” he rasped. “You help me get out of this alive or you and your boy die. It will only take one push of a button. If we struggle for th—”
Grim sliced right through Zero’s throat and kicked at the hand holding the device, but as dark blood spilled all over Zero’s white shirt and expensive suit, the roof shook under Grim’s feet, and he had to grab the blood-covered rod for balance. There was no satisfaction in Zero’s darkening eyes, as explosions drummed within the hospital, a clear sign Grim’s decision to risk and kill Zero didn’t pay off. The bastard managed to squeeze the remote as the last thing he’d ever do.
Chapter 28
Grim
Instead of reveling inZero’s death, a million questions flooded Grim’s mind with dread. Were Misha and Dennis still down in that same room where he left them? Would they have left the building? Were the explosives planted only on the first floor? Would the whole building collapse?
None of these questions could be answered by Zero who convulsed under Grim’s shoe. With the helicopter furiously burning on the other side of the roof, the only entrance into the building was blocked, and Grim’s decision needed to be fast. Just seeing the flames had Grim on the edge, but he would not go down without a fight.
