Page 21 of Fear the Reaper
Reaper descended backward, pointing his gun upward. When he fired, there was a painful grunt followed by the echo of flesh hitting concrete—hard. I glanced back to see him stopping the man’s roll with a foot. When the man lifted a gun at Reaper, he fired again. I looked away and kept running. I knew that had to be a kill shot. Though I didn’t know why they called him Reaper, I was going to assume it was because he didn’t miss—especially in close quarters.
Another bullet ricocheted off the rail by my hand and I did scream then. The gun battle continued. Each fire a loud boom as if it in a tunnel. My ears rang painfully but there was no time to stop and pay the pain the attention it deserved. Instead, we struggled down the steps, Reaper between us a few dozen bullets. It crossed my mind that he only had one gun—
No, it wasn’t time to panic. He was military, he had his job and I had mine—to get Estelle out of there without her getting shot. On the third floor, the door swung opened and Kujo pushed his head out.
“This way.” He ordered. “Hurry!”
Estelle hesitated but I pushed her toward Kujo and held the door opened for Reaper. A loud boom echoed through the staircase. Kujo stopped and looked up.
“And his name that sat on him was death and hell followed him.” Kujo whispered.
“What?” I called.
“Come on!” Kujo shouted. “No time to explain.”
“We’re not leaving him!” I said. “Reaper, hurry up!”
When he reached me, he wrapped an arm around my hips and drew me onto the corridor with him just as a bullet crazed the door. I shoved my face into his neck to muffle my scream. There was no time to wait, or for me to catch my breath for he was already pushing me down the corridor. As we motored it through the halls then down another set of stairs, I couldn’t help wondering how they were going to explain the gunshots, spent shells and dead bodies in the stairwell.
“Montana,” Kujo was saying. “We need a cleanup.”
Well, that answers that.
We dipped out into the night finally. Reaper herded Estelle and I toward the SUV, while Kujo and Molly headed for their vehicles. I tossed Estelle’s bag into the back seat and climbed in. She dove in from the other side and soon we were peeling from the parking lot.
None of us spoke until we were back in the freeway, Molly’s truck right behind us and Kujo’s jeep further down.
“Okay.” Estelle shrieked. “What. The. Actual. Fuck?”
“Where’s Mary?” I asked again.
“She’s in Canada for a couple of months with my mother,” Estelle said. “You remember me telling you, right?”
“Someone is trying to kill me.” I reported.
“It was bound to happen.” Estelle shrugged. “What I don’t get is why am I being drawn into it?”
“You’re the only person they know of that would pull Star out in the open.” Reaper explained for I was too shocked at her reply to say anything. “They were trying to get to her, through you.”
“Who are they?” Estelle asked.
“We don’t know yet.” I replied. “Right now, we’re just trying to cover all the bases.”
“So far, they’ve been making creepy calls, following you around, blew up your house and now is trying to kill me because we’re friends. Am I even close?”
“Pretty much.” I sighed. “I’m so sorry. Out of all the things I thought would happen, this isn’t even in the same damn ballpark.”
“And who are you, Mr. Tall, Dark and Yummy?” Estelle leaned forward.
Her flirting with Reaper sent my back up. The thought of Reaper being with her or any other woman, for that matter, infuriated me. To hide my reaction, I turned my gaze out the window.
“They call me Reaper.” His voice was soft yet hard. “I’m with Nova.”
“With Nova?” Estelle asked. “You’ve been holding out on me?”
Before I could speak, Reaper beat me to it.
“It’s a fairly, new thing.”
