Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 18063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
“Fuck,” I swore, charging ahead of her, arms pumping, legs churning, easily gaining on the men as they hit a door with a panic bar at the end of the hall.
Hurling myself against the door, as soon as it was flung open from the force of me hitting it, there was a strafe of bullets and the familiar sound of an AK-47 being fired.
I of course had dived for the ground, and Hannah was right behind me, both of us rolling behind a parked SUV.
“Are you all right?” I asked frantically, checking her over quickly, making sure she was bullet-free.
“I’m—oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” she whispered beside me, and I leaned sideways, looked where they were dragging the kid, and returned fire, my Glock 19 sounding loud in the parking structure as I squeezed off shot after shot, the men retreating behind parked cars.
“You’re so lucky,” I told her, moving sideways, hitting one guy, dropping another, thrilled that, even though they were all shooting, there didn’t seem to be even one guy with any real training. They were filling the air with lead, hoping to hit something, but from where Hannah and I were, behind an enormous Chevy Suburban, we were pretty safe.
“Drop the gun.”
Turning to my left, I saw a guy with an Uzi pointed at Hannah at the same time I heard someone else coming around the right side of the SUV to reach me. “You’re supposed to be watching my six,” I growled at her.
“You’re mad at me?” She was indignant.
The way she answered me made the guy really focus on her, and seeing how young she was gave him pause. That was good, gave us more time, but she’d already kicked her shoes off when she ran after David, so she didn’t really need it. She easily swept his legs out from under him and put him on the pavement.
I shot the guy on my right in the foot, and when he crashed to the ground beside me, put one in his head, then shot in the temple the guy Hannah had taken down.
It took seconds, and she was quick, pulling the Uzi away and passing it to me. With the machine gun in my right hand and my Glock in my left, I stood, shot out the rest of the tires of all the cars around us so nothing was drivable, then ducked back down before I heard squealing tires, which meant more people were coming and their arrival was imminent.
I would not allow Hannah to be grabbed, and she could not be in a larger firefight.
Taking hold of her chin, I had her face me. “You go back inside and get help, you understand me? I’ll cover you, you run.”
“No, no, no,” she whimpered. “I can’t leave you. I just saved your life.”
“I don’t give a shit. You’re gonna get me killed. You go now, or God help me, if I get outta this I will never speak to you again for as long as I live.”
“Oh,” she cried softly, weighing her options, and I stood and emptied the Uzi into the van that pulled up between the SUV we were taking cover behind and the original kidnappers. I threw the useless gun away as she flew back to the door of the hotel and disappeared inside as more bullets filled the air.
The sound of an AK-47 being fired was imprinted on my brain after so long, and though I was glad more people with submachine guns had not appeared, I wasn’t stupid enough to think that I could hold off everyone alone, especially if more and more people showed up. By the same token, if this was the extent of their men and arsenal, and if my backup arrived soon—there were many cops outside—it was possible that I’d get out of the parking structure alive. My present concern was that I needed to get David out with me.
At that moment, someone with a brain yelled over to me.
“We’ll kill him if you don’t put down your weapon.”
I was glad Hannah wasn’t there to see me put my Glock on the ground.
They were on me fast, and because nothing anywhere near us, not even the van that had arrived seconds before, had working tires—I was trained to always shoot those out first—I was marched down ten cars to a Lexus SUV that was opened fast, hotwired even faster, and I then was shoved into the back seat with an unconscious David and two others like stone-faced bookends on either side of us.
“Why am I here?” I asked. I wasn’t stupid. They didn’t need me.
“You’re gonna get us out of here or the kid dies now,” the driver informed me. “We know you’re Sutter’s daughter’s bodyguard, so I know you can make it happen.”
People always thought Hannah was Aaron’s daughter. All they had to do was a bit of research to discover the truth.