Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, feeling the snow crunch beneath my boots.
Eleven of them circled me, a pack of wolves shrouded in darkness. The idea of taking them all on at once was daunting, to say the least.
My eyes might as well have been closed for all the good they were doing me.
But then it struck me—the darkness and the snow were not just my enemies; they could also be my allies. Their eyes were as human as mine, their vision just as hindered by the night. I took a deep breath, the cold air sharpening my senses.
My mind whirring as I calculated my odds.
I just have to see better than them, use their confusion to my advantage.
Their numbers give them a disadvantage too. They can't move without stumbling into each other or risking friendly fire.
Divide and conquer. Strike fast. Strike hard. And turn their numbers against them.
The best way to take down multiple people was to make them forget they were many and I was only one. That meant, I should strike with the ferocity of a cornered animal and the unpredictability of the howling wind around us.
It had to be a dance with death, a dance where I was leading.
Sighing, I cracked my neck and shrugged my shoulders, hoping to show complete confidence. “Let’s get this over with.”
They closed in.
I fisted my hands and moved with lightning speed, charging at the first assailant. My fingers clamped around his neck like iron bands and he gagged as I tightened my grip.
“Fuck you.” With one swift twist, I heard a sickening crunch. His body slumped to the ground, lifeless.
The others didn’t have time to react before I was onto the next target.
His gun glinted in the moonlight.
He pulled the trigger and a bullet zipped out.
But I was faster.
I ducked, grabbed his wrist, and twisted hard.
He screamed in agony and dropped the gun.
I grabbed it and shot him in the head.
Blood sprayed on me and the snow.
I whipped around, shooting two more in front of me.
Many scrambled around, trying to not get hit.
Shots echoed through the empty street.
I pivoted, pulled the trigger, and another was down. The smell of gunpowder mixed with the crisp winter air.
No more bullets.
I dropped the gun.
The remaining six hesitated with their guns aimed at me. Shadows danced around us. And where there wasn’t the fading shift of darkness and light, there was the curtain of snow distorting our view.
No one truly had a clear shot, not even me.
“Go ahead.” I inched back. “What’s the matter? Go ahead, make your move.”
My breath misted in the cold air.
They already knew that whoever pulled the trigger, I would come for them first. So like cowards, they waited for someone else to do it, hoping that they could then get a shot.
The icy wind howled, but my focus was unyielding, narrowing on the six figures that stood between me and survival.
“Come on!” I glared at them. “Is this all Francesca has to offer? A bunch of amateurs?”
Snow swirled and whipped around us.
“Are we going to dance or not?” I lunged towards the nearest one.
Someone shot and missed.
I yanked a handful of snow from the ground and hurled it at his face.
Confused, he staggered back, blinded and sputtering, I closed in. My elbow crashed into his throat, a blow that stole the scream from his lips.
Keeping him as my human shield, I pivoted and snatched up his fallen firearm from the snow. The cold metal bit against my skin.
I squeezed the trigger, getting one in the head before he could get me. “That’s it?”
Meanwhile, my human shield struggled to get out of my grip. “No. No. No.”
They all shot my way.
And my human shield absorbed the flurry of bullets. His body spasmed against me.
It’s time to finish this.
I kicked the body towards my attackers, throwing off their aim.
Snowflakes danced around as I rolled to the side and found cover behind a car.
“Where did he go?!”
“Over there!”
“No! There!”
Glass shattered above me as bullets sought my flesh. I wrenched my guns out of their holsters, waited, counted their shots, and when their fire paused to reload, I emerged and aimed.
Bullets sprayed.
The force of the shots spun two into the white-covered earth. Their blood stained the pristine snow.
It was all scarlet against white.
I darted into the snowy gusts. The last two tracked me, but not quickly enough.
The ground beneath one betrayed him. It must have been a patch of ice hidden by fresh snow because he slipped and then shouted in shock.
And I was on him, shooting a bullet into his head.
Finally, the last one charged at me.
I sidestepped his wild swing, grabbed his arm, and sent him crashing into the snow.
“And on Christmas Eve?” I stood over him with my gun trained to his head. “In front of Zuri’s place? You all knew I never wanted any blood to come close to her.”