Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
By the time I did reach her door, my heart was pounding, and my head was throbbing. My palm was slick as I turned the knob. It didn’t take long to find her. Muffled sobs were coming from the balcony along with hushed whispers. I moved further into the room, making sure to keep my back protected while still maintaining a visual on the balcony. I sensed Boone’s presence in the bedroom doorway behind me. Without looking at him, I signaled in the direction of the balcony.
It felt like it took forever to reach the open sliding door that led to a spacious balcony. I already knew that its design offered several weak spots in terms of areas where someone could place themselves and not be in immediate sight of the door.
That wasn’t the case this time.
As soon as I reached the door, I spotted the young actress and the man standing behind her. The man was glassy-eyed and nervous. He had one hand over the woman’s mouth and the other had a gun pressed against her ribs.
“Everything okay, Jenna?” I asked.
The woman was crying but she nodded, which was smart of her.
The guy leaned in and whispered something in Jenna’s ear. He shoved the gun hard into her side when it took her too long to open her mouth after he dropped his hand so she could speak.
“You, um, you can go. I’m okay. He’s a friend of mine. He’s not going to hurt me.”
I had to applaud Jenna’s ability to stay calm. She’d always struck me as some whiny, loud, overindulged young woman who thought the world revolved around her. Although there hadn’t been any credible evidence that she had been in any true danger beyond a couple of explicit and disturbing so-called love letters from a fan, my brother had taken her case as seriously as he did with any client who sought his help.
“She’s coming with me!” the guy screamed as he pointed the gun at me. Blinding pain scorched the length of my scar as all the nerve endings seemed to start misfiring one by one.
Not now. Not now.
Jenna’s terrified eyes helped me to ignore the pain and focus on the situation. I had enough cover to shield myself if the guy pulled the trigger, but I could tell he wasn’t there just yet. He still believed he could walk out of this with Jenna on his arm.
“She loves me,” the man continued. I could tell he was high on something. From the track marks on the inside of his elbow, it was likely heroin, but it could have been just about anything.
“I know she does,” I responded. I lowered my weapon since I knew Boone had my back. The guy was using Jenna as a human shield but if I could get the man to move even a little, Boone would have a clear shot.
“We’re just here because Jenna was telling us how wobbly this railing is,” I said as I moved a foot closer, enough to let me touch the balcony’s railing. “The guys are coming tomorrow to fix it, isn’t that right, Jenna?”
Jenna sucked in a harsh breath. “Yeah, yeah.”
“So how about you step away from the side so you and Jenna don’t get hurt. You don’t want Jenna to get hurt, do you?”
Between my comment about the railing and not letting Jenna get hurt, the guy seemed confused. He wasn’t completely out of it, though. He kept glancing at the ground below the balcony and then at me and Boone. I saw the moment that clarity returned, and I knew what he was going to do before he did it. When he shoved Jenna forward, I managed to catch her and take her to the ground with me as I covered her body with mine.
The guy’s gun went off but thankfully he was a shitty shot, so the bullet whizzed past us and shattered the glass door behind Boone. Between the glass breaking into a million pieces and Jenna and me in Boone’s line of sight, he couldn’t risk taking his own shot.
I released Jenna and launched myself at the guy before he could pull the trigger again. We both went over the railing, landing hard on the ground below. I’d hoped to use the guy to break my fall, but we hit the hard, dry dirt at the same time. The air left my lungs for several long seconds, enough time for the man to scramble away, his weapon still in hand. He began running down the steep hill behind Jenna’s house. At the bottom were a bunch of smaller houses. If I lost sight of the guy, he could easily shoot anyone who got in the way of his escape.
I managed to make it down the hill at a good clip without losing sight of the guy until he reached the base of the slope. There were two houses, each separated by their own six-foot-high wooden fencing. Between the two fences was a small gap. The guy was slim enough to quickly scramble through the gap while I lost several precious seconds since I had to angle my bigger body and still hold my weapon to cover myself if there were any vulnerable spots along the way. The far end of the gap was the biggest danger since I’d have no way of knowing if the guy was waiting there to ambush me or if he’d continued to make a run for it.