Page 98 of Saving the Last Heir
With a massive heaving effort, I jumped and turned, spinning so that the man on my back was now on the bottom. When we hit the floor, all of my weight crashed onto him, and his grip released, flooding my lungs with blessed cool air.
Managing one quick gasp, I scrambled away from him and kicked Lucas, the toe of my boot catching his face. A couple teeth went flying as he tumbled backward, landing on his back. He was out cold.
Dave growled low in his chest and lunged at me. Still disoriented from him choking me, I moved too slow, and he caught me with two quick punches. One landed wild, striking me in the chest,but the other struck me right below the eye, and my head rocked back at the impact. I managed to grab the collar of his shirt as I fell back, though, and brought him down with me.
We struggled, each of us trying to gain the upper hand, until Dave managed to straddle me, raining fists down at me that I managed to deflect by covering my face with my forearms.
Gasping for breath, he straightened and sucked in a lungful of air to scream for help. I couldn’t allow that. I grabbed his jaw, my middle and ring finger sinking deep into his mouth while my thumb dug under his chin. He gagged as I shoved my fingers to the back of his throat and pressed his tongue down as hard as I could. He clawed at my hand and wrist, trying to extricate my fingers from his mouth. While he worried about that, I jerked my hips up, sending him tumbling forward over my head to land face-first on the ground.
He gave a short bark of pain as his nose cracked against the hardwood floor, but before he could do or say more, I scrambled onto his back and wrapped my arm around his throat. Unlike him, I used my knees to push his legs apart so he couldn’t use them to stand, kicking at his calves and feet each time they tried to push him up.
The man clawed and gasped, hissing out incomprehensible words as I cut off his breathing. Finally, blessedly, after what felt like an eternity, he went limp beneath me. Rolling off of him, I collapsed to the ground gasping for air.
This wasnotgoing as planned. Climbing to my feet. I headed for the stairs, not even bothering to hide the unconscious men like I had the first. Time was not on my side, and I needed to get this done before I lost my nerve.
Taking the steps two at a time, I made my way to the third floor. I’d managed to get halfway down the corridor when I heard a sound that made my blood run cold. A single male voice screamed from the bottom floor, his voice echoing up the stairs.
“Intruder! Men down! Men down!”
My body was moving before I even realized it was happening, instinct and my dragon’s urging sending me pelting down the hall toward Bryn’s room. A general alarm would be going through the house. Everyone would be on alert. An entire army of people would try to stop me. Christian’s father was an alpha as well. Between him and everyone else? There was no way I was getting out of here alive, much less with Bryn, if I didn’t hurry.
I sprinted toward Bryn’s door. My single-minded focus never let me see the man emerging from the main stairs. A huge guy, not in a security suit, but wearing a Houston Rockets sweatshirt, speared me, his shoulder slamming into my side an inch or two below my ribs. Our bodies crashed sideways into the drywall. Dust and plaster rained down on us as the entire wall gave way with the weight of two dragons banging into it. We fell through it into a guest bedroom.
“Motherfucker!” the man growled as he brought his fists down on me with hammering strikes.
In the chaos of the fight, a distant, panicked part of my mind recognized his voice. One of the men in the garden earlier. The one who hadn’t come into the shed. He clawed at my ski mask, but I slapped his hand away and jammed my hand forward, the webbing between my thumb and forefinger smacking him in the throat right below his Adam’s apple. He made a terrible retching sound and rolled off me, clutching his throat as his eyes bulgedout. I’d not struck him hard enough to collapse his larynx, but that should put him down for several minutes at worst.
By the time I got to my feet, he was gasping for air. To keep him down, I reared back and kicked him in the face. He went down, face pressed to the ground, heavy snores emanating from his mouth.
Leaving him, I shoved my way out through the hole in the wall, and continued my path to Bryn’s room. I stepped forward, lifted my boot, and kicked at the door right above the knob. With a shower of splinters and acrack,the door swung inward, the knob burying itself in the wall behind.
Bryn yelped in surprise and jumped off her bed, her red hair swinging wildly as she turned. With my black ski mask, latex gloves, and heaving chest, I must have looked like a walking nightmare.
Bryn’s face broke into a massive smile, and she clapped her hands together. “Is it time for my performance?”
Sighing, I waved a hand at her. “Yes, but get that damn smile off your face, Sweep. This needs to look convincing.”
“Oh! Right,” she said, the big grin vanishing in an instant, replaced by a deadly serious grim expression “Gotta get into character.”
23
JACKSON
“Come here,” I said, yanking the king-sized, pastel yellow duvet off her bed.
Bryn came over and stood with her arms at her sides as I wrapped the blanket around her, turning her into a girl burrito. Down the hall, the sounds of chaos reigned. The unconscious men had been found. The family and the rest of their security knew there was an intruder. One of the first places they’d check was in Bryn’s room. With surprisingly steady hands, I pulled out my phone and texted Shyanne.
Jackson:I’ve got her.
Shyanne:Be there in three minutes. MOVE!!!
“We gotta go, young lady,” I said, tucking the phone away and picking her up.
“Time?” she asked, looking at me hopefully.
“Time,” I agreed, giving her a nod of affirmation.
Bryn took a deep breath, filling her lungs with air. Then the screaming started.
