Chapter 6
MELANIE
MY FACE SWUNG TO THE SIDE FOR THE UMPTEENTIL TIME
I’d stopped counting somewhere between 35 and 40, but it didn’t matter. It was going to be over soon. As if she’d read my thoughts Nadia (I’d learned her name after 20) stopped hitting me and blew out a frustrated breath.
“This isn’t working. The bitch won’t talk“, she bit out.
Her partner walked over to the little table where all the things they’d stripped from my body were placed and rifled through them.
“This doesn’t tell us anything. All she’s got are a shitload of weapons, a receipt for a teddy bear and a goddamn Twinkie“, he growled and they both shot me glares like I’d committed some sort of sin by carrying a snack
I shrugged the best I could with my hands still tied and smirked through the blood dripping from my mouth.
“Girl’s gotta eat, but Lean’t say the same for your anorexic ass though“, the last bit was directed at Nadia who took the bait like a good girl and came over to hit me some more,
I giggled hard as her hits jolted me slightly but not enough for what I needed so I decided to goad her some more by yawning even though the action stretched my split lip.
“This is getting boring. You hit like a girl“, I drawled and she let out a feral scream before proceeding to absolutely pummel me. I grit my teeth and bow down consoling myself with thoughts of how much fun it would be to repay her the favor.
Finally, the little knife I’d been trying to jolt out of its tiny sheath in my sleeve by making Nadia punch the living daylights out of me and laughing hard fell into my palm just as she stepped away from me.
Satisfied, I allowed myself a private smile at my hard–won victory and began sawing at the ropes. Enrico had long since passed out, but that didn’t matter since I was only going to be busting my ass out of here so they don’t think we’re actually working together.
To distract them from what was going on behind their backs (figuratively) and mine (literally) I leveled them a stare until the man snapped, “What?”
I put on my best innocent face.
“I just have a small question. Are you two fucking?“, they both froze and Nadia turned to glare at me.
“What?” she said coldly.
“Yknow Coitus? Intercourse? Dancing the fandango de pokum? Playing the basket hornpipe? Hide the” I was cut off from listing other creative euphemisms for sex by the glance they gave each other before quickly looking away and a shit–eating grin spread over my face, making me wince. I totally called it.
“Ha. I knew it. Congratulations, man“, I smiled at the guy whose name I had yet to learn, and who refused to meet my eyes. My hard work paid off as the rope snapped but I kept my hands behind me. I wanted to get Nadia in close range to me again
ofh.”
“I mean unfortunate haircut aside, I’d do her too if she’s as bitchy in bed as she is out of it.”
Nadia narrowed her eyes and came at me, “Why, you little…”
She never got to finish her sentence as I sprang up from the chair, taking her to the ground with me. I hit her with a punch. that was sure to dnorient her then swing to the size to evade her partner’s brass knuckled fist.
For my position on the ground. I swept out a leg and knocked him off balance. He went down like a felled tree.
Isked at Nadia as I got up and went over to the table to re–sheathe my weapons and put on my own brass knuckles.
You really shouldn’t let things get under your skin so easily. You’d be a liability in real combat. Now, let’s have some fun,
I walked back over to her and luuled her into the chair I’d recently occupied. I’d memorized her style by this time, so every single hit she’d landed on me was filled in any head like a really bad choreography.
To test out my brass knuckles, I landed the first few punches in the same style and on the same areas she’d landed mine, satisfied when Theard the crunch of cartilage.
Chapter 6
I was about to go to town on her when I caught the glint of a camera in a recessed corner of the ceiling. I swore…
Whoever was manning the cameras now knew I was free, which meant they’d be coming for me any second and I needed to get out now. Regretfully I stepped back, giving her a baleful look as she moaned and swiped at the blood running from the slit in her cheek
“I hope we meet again someday so I get to punch your lights out and stomp on you“.
With that, I made for the heavy iron door and shoved it open, now finding myself in a long corridor with pathways branching in various directions.
I decided to go with my gut and head straight down, knowing I was almost out of time. I peeked into other corridors as I passed, seeing little to no security.
Finally I came to an open door through which I could see a staircase and I groaned. Elevators were invented 1880, γει humans still choose to be backward
“Where was the progressiveness?“. I wondered as I started up the long flight of stairs.
I was still muttering about the injustice of it all when I finally got to the landing where I was met with–oh yay- another door.
I tried the handle and it was locked.
“Why, oh, why couldn’t these people just make it easy for me?“.
Sighing, I lowered my battered body to my knees and took my lock–picking tools out of my thigh sheath and got to work jiggling and shimmying until I heard a click. I put away my tools and got up staring at the door.
I briefly considered kicking the door open all dramatic but discarded it almost immediately. Not knowing what could be waiting for me on the other side (and it could be nothing, please, God or whatever celestial beings are listening right now).
I slid two daggers out of their sheaths near my ribs and once again blinked at the absurdity of someone who could inspire that kind of fear in Enrico having a door with a lock that was so easily picked.
“What kind of incompetent half–wit runs this shit–hole?” I muttered aloud as I swung the door open, barely stopping myself before I ran right into someone standing on the opposite side.
I raised my daggers to defend myself but before I could so much as look up they were out of my hands and I felt my back pressed against a chest with arms that felt like iron bands locking mine in place at my sides.
My latest captor leaned down until his mouth was level with my ear and I caught a whiff of sandalwood and expensive cologne and it was so jarringly familiar, I let myself breathe it in for a second
“That incompetent half–wit would be me“, he growled making shivers run down my spine.
I twisted around the best I could until my brown eyes met his green ones and I stiffened. Oh shit…
A
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
JORDAN
NOW WHEN TO QUIT.
THE GIRL DIDN’T KNOW WHEN
Even now, as I held her in my arms and kicked her wickedly sharp daggers to the side, she still struggled against me. I felt that same unexplainable pull of attraction and awareness I’d felt when I’d seen her at the airport.
The
men who I’d alerted on my way down after I’d seen her fly at Nadia like a vengeful bird surrounded us and two of them took her off my arms and for one insane moment, I wanted to snatch her back. She managed to elbow one directly in the nose and kick the other in the balls before I held her again.
“Stop damaging my men. You’re costing me a fortune in medical insurance.” I said in a low tone, inadvertently catching a whiff of her hair which, by some feminine miracle, still managed to retain hints of lavender and something a little more industrial. Like wig oil or something.
Curious, I tugged at the platinum blonde hair and it came off, eliciting an indignant sound from her and proving my suspicions right. Deep brown locks tumbled down, giving off a stronger lavender scent and sparking some kind of memory in my brain and somewhere down south
“Let go of me. Don’t any of you know how to properly treat a woman? Savages, all of you” she ranted, struggling some more which only resulted in her getting more pressed up against me. Blaine barked out orders to get Nadia and her partner out of the basement and give them medical attention while I just stood there, maintaining an iron grip on the lady who was now making some sort of weird movements, trying to shimmy out of my grip.
I couldn’t loosen my grip until someone got here with proper restraints that I could be sure wouldn’t be broken out of easily.
At some point, she stopped struggling in my arms and slumped forward and 1 instinctively relaxed my grip before I reminded myself not to underestimate her.
As I tried to once again secure her, her head snapped back, intending to catch me in the face but she must have miscalculated our height difference because she hit my chest with a thump
However, this took me by surprise and I inadvertently loosened my grip some more. Quick as a whistle, she slipped away and turned, punching me square in the face before streaking across the marble floors on this level towards the bank of elevators on the opposite end. I swore and gave pursuit.
Halfway across, I tackled her to the ground and pinned her arms to the side. My previous mild amusement had turned into irritation as I restrained her for the third time.
“You wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t attempted to take what belongs to me, so do us all a favor and stay still“, I gritted out.
The restraints finally arrived and I snapped them on her myself, making sure to leave no wiggle room. I got off her and smoothed my hands down the front of my suit while she was hauled up by two hefty men.
I studied her in silence for a few seconds before ordering the men to take her to Room B–21. It wouldn’t be so easy for her to break out of there. Especially when I’d be handling her matters myself from here on out.
Blaine came to stand by my side and we both watched as she was taken away, still hurling insults in all directions and ranting about how there was no consideration for a woman or something
“How does she still have this much energy even after Nadia beat the shit out of her?” Blaine wondered aloud.
I had no answ
I turned back to the area around the door she’d opened and surveyed the damage. One man helped another hold an ice pack to his nose, one was still on the floor moaning in pain, one was helping Nadia sit against the wall and four more were carrying her partner’s and Enrico’s unconscious bodies out of the stairwell. I myself registered a throbbing pain on the left side of my face The lady was dangerous.
I made my way down the stairs to her new residence with Blaine and observed her stare at her surroundings in disbelief through the one–way fiberglass on the top part of the door before punching in a code on the keypad next to it and stepping in when the door slid open
Her gaze immediately whipped to me and her eyes narrowed “You” she said, taking a step towards me “You run this place.
