I rushed to the railing to look down onto the second level. Malory's clothes were gone from the floor where she'd thrown them. Terrified panic blasted through me. No. No, no, no. She'd left me. She'd fucking walked out. I had to stop her. I had to.
I whirled and rushed back into the bathroom, snatching up my discarded clothes, and pulling them on. All the while, Reggie continued frantically yipping and barking. I came out of the bathroom and yanked my shoes onto my bare feet before rushing downstairs as fast as I could. I raced across the first floor and found Reggie pawing desperately at the front door, whining pathetically.
"Move!" I barked out at him as I shoved him aside and reached for the door. I yanked it open to find the foyer empty. My eyes flew to the elevator to see that it was already descending. Fuck. Without a thought, I hurried to the nearby stairwell door and shoved it open violently. I rushed down the stairs, not even caring that I was on the tenth floor. I almost slipped a few times, but managed to stay upright in my haste to get downstairs.
I was sweating and panting for air as I reached the first floor and barreled through the stairwell door. I absently noticed Robert's startled face behind the security desk as I flew across the lobby to the front door. I burst out into the freezing cold that barely fazed me in my haste. I looked to my left, and then my right. Halfway down the block a taxi was next to the curb, its back passenger door just closing.
"Malory!" I shouted as I somehow found the energy to sprint in that direction. The cab began pulling out into the street. "Wait!" I ran faster, but it was already too late when I got there. I was left standing on the sidewalk under a street light watching the vehicle's rear lights disappear into the night.
"Fuck!" I snarled out as I stood there fighting to catch my breath as my lungs burned. My thoughts scattered as I gripped my sweat dampened hair in my hands and yanked on it frantically. "Fuck me." This wasn't over. This couldn't be over. I just needed to go talk to her. I just hoped to God she was going home and not to a friend's house instead.
I spun to run back into the building and unexpectedly slammed into a dark hooded figure that wasn't there a moment ago. I staggered back a step as the glint of something metallic coming at me caught my eye, and I jerked away. It was followed by a sudden blow to my belly that I was too slow to dodge. I grunted out a breath as strange electric tingles spread across my right lower abdomen. I saw another gleam of metal coming at me and realized this fucker was trying to stab me with a knife.
Instinct kicked in just in time. I jumped backward and thrust my hands down in an X to block the knife. I grabbed my attacker's wrist and jerked it aside. I kicked him hard in the inside of the leg, then twisted his arm up and around into a wrist lock, forcing him to bend at the waist. I yanked the blade from his hand, disarming him.
Without a conscious thought, I slammed the knife into my attacker's right side, thrusting it in deep into his chest and eliciting a harsh grunt from him before I pulled it out and let it clatter to the ground. I kicked the inside of his knee and stomped it down until he was face down on the concrete. I dropped down and held him there with my knee in his spine as I cranked his arm painfully behind his back.
He twisted his head and the hood fell away. I stared in gape jawed shock at a familiar face. I recognized the greasy yellow hair, the watery blue eyes, and the rotting teeth of Leonard Rigby, the meth head and nephew of Judge Rigby that I refused to take on as a client a few weeks ago. What the fuck?
"Motherfucker," he wheezed out with blood bubbling out of his mouth onto the sidewalk as he weakly fought me. "Said you'd pay, you fucking pussy..." His voice trailed off as his body slackened and his eyes began to glaze over. I watched in morbid fascination as the life faded from his body, and he went completely limp.
Fuck, I just killed him. I just killed someone. Fuck. I lurched to my feet in a panic and staggered back in horror, staring at the lifeless body now sprawled across the sidewalk in front of me with a growing puddle of blood underneath. I became aware of a strange warmth spreading across my lower abdomen, and I reached down to find something sticky and wet all over my T-shirt. When I pulled my hand away to look at it, it was covered in blood that gleamed on my fingers under the street lamp above. For a second, I thought it must be Rigby's blood, but then a sudden shocking blast of pain hit me hard in the gut, and I knew better. It was mine. That bastard stabbed me, and my blood was now soaking into my clothes and making it stick to my skin. Shit, I needed to get back into the building and get help.
I started staggering away from Rigby's body, feeling suddenly lightheaded and disoriented. It was all I could do to stay upright, and I was starting to shake from more than just the cold. I took three more steps, then two, then one. The edges of my vision began to darken and close in on me. I pushed the darkness away and tried to take another step, but it felt like my legs were made of rubber, and I stumbled.
I saw the sidewalk rushing up at me as if in slow motion as I fell, yet I was unable even to raise an arm to stop my momentum. I hit the ground hard and felt the side of my head bounce off the concrete with a dull sickening thud that blasted my brain with a white-hot explosion of pain. Then my vision narrowed as I was pulled down, down, down into black nothingness. All I had time to think was that Malory would never know how sorry I was for how I left things between us, never know how I really felt, before I finally slipped away.
Look for Dark Devotion: Dangerous Desire Book 2, the second and final book of the Dangerous Desire Duet coming later this year.
If you loved this book or any of my others, please leave a review on my Amazon author page, http://www.amazon.com/Samantha-Wolfe/e/B0172GSQGY. I'd really appreciate it.
S.W.
About the Author
Samantha is a self-professed nerd from the Midwest, who loves anything with a good plot. She'll watch anything with werewolves, vampires, or zombies in it. She is a voracious reader and loves smutty romance novels and contemporary fantasy. Samantha started writing her first erotic romance in February of 2015, and now she can't stop. It's a passion that she can't shut off, nor would she want to. She loves animals, especially dogs, and if her husband let her, she'd have a dozen, but two are his limit. She's looking forward to sharing more of her books with the world.
Website:
http://samanthawolfe1021.wix.com/samanthawolfe
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Samantha Wolfe's Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/Samantha-Wolfe/e/B0172GSQGY
Dark Dominion: Dangerous Desire Book 1 Page 32