He began toward the bed and Tayler’s leg came up out of reflex. The limb felt as though it weighed two tons. Eric’s calm disposition was burned away by a flare of outrage.
“You can move?” he yelled, fishing a syringe from the pouch.
Kendall suddenly threw her Barbie against the wall. The plastic head popped off and rolled across the floor. Eric looked at her as though she’d lost her mind.
“What am I doing?” he asked in response to the quick movements of her hands. “I am going to give Tayler a shot so she will not get sick. Then you will get yours. Afterwards, we will leave.”
Kendall shook her head and pulled out a storage basket, sending all of the toys inside crashing to the floor. Eric didn’t flinch at the noise, and Tayler realized that the room had also been soundproofed.
“This is why I never do this shit in front of you,” he scolded.
Kendall shook her head again. He ignored her and continued toward Tayler who counted his steps to decipher the right moment to strike. Gage had said that she had powerful legs. When Eric’s knees touched the mattress, she would force them into his midsection as hard as she could.
Suddenly, Kendall’s body was on top of hers. Her head rested right beneath Tayler’s breastbone and her fingers wiggled under Tayler’s body for a firm grip. Then, she made a small, whimpering noise.
“Kendall, I don’t have time for this,” Eric roared, pulling on his daughter’s shoulder. When she didn’t budge, he wrapped his hand around her middle and tugged her body until her grip released. Tayler fought to pull the little girl back into her arms, but they were as heavy as her legs had been.
In a fit of rage, Eric lifted and tossed Kendall into the storage unit. Her small body hit the wood, and the minute she slumped to the floor, all the color drained from his face.
He moved over to her and knelt over her body. The sound of sirens suddenly filtered into the room just as muffled as the footsteps had been. Eric’s head didn’t turn in the direction of the commotion; he remained poised over Kendall as though contemplating something heavy.
Tayler flipped her legs over the side of the bed. There was very little that she could do in this state, but this was the only distraction that she was going to get. This was the only time she would have to get both her and Kendall out before Eric decided to take their lives with his.
She stood, using the wall as a source of support. The jump rope was still lying on the floor.
She picked it up and in one motion, flipped it over Eric’s head and around his neck. The syringe fell from his hand as his grip went to the rope. Though she was using all of her strength, her limbs were heavily compromised, and she hoped he at least passed out before she lost all her strength.
It didn’t happen. Her arms felt like balloons being deflated as her grip slackened.
Eric yanked the rope from around his neck and shoved her backwards into the other wall.
“If that had worked, you would never know the irony,” he growled.
His palm came toward her face and she raised one tired hand to block it. Her knee lifted and she aimed for his groin, but the power wasn’t there. She still tried anyway, but he pushed her knee away with his and tried for another slap. This one landed, but as a closed fist against her jaw.
The earth shook. Blood filled her mouth. She lost her footing, but he grabbed her and pulled her back up to stand. Behind him Kendall began to move, pushing up until her body was in plank position. When she got to her knees, she swayed.
The jump rope was still in his hand.
Eric spun Tayler to face the wall and wrapped the nylon around her neck. Tayler clawed at the rope, but then remembered that it mentioned in one of the survival books to go for the attacker’s face. One of her fists shot back toward his nose, but the blow wasn’t enough to knock him off balance. She could see Kendall standing out of the corner of her eye and tried to catch the little girl’s attention. Maybe she could direct her to pick up the syringe.
Eric gripped the back of her head, pulled it back, and Tayler prepared for the impact of her face against the cinder blocks. She prepared for the broken nose, busted lips, cracked cheekbones, and ruptured blood vessels that would scatter additional bruises across her face.
She closed her eyes. She’d promised that she would fight, but as less and less oxygen reached her brain, her limbs began to weaken even further.
A large explosion suddenly rocked the room. Eric’s grip disappeared, and a man’s large forearm now supported her waist. When she opened her eyes, the unknown man from before was standing in front of her with Kendall on his other arm. Eric was across the room, his body contorted into the storage unit. Gage was standing between them.
-19-
Gage’s fingers twitched near the metal strapped at his waist. Tayler could sense his urge to add two pounds to Eric’s weight by way of lead, but knowing Gage, she knew he believed that type of death would be too easy.
The unknown man began to move them toward the door, but Gage stopped him, walked over, and held her chin in his hands. He moved her head from side to side. His eyes scanned the bruises on her face and her lips, which were stained with blood. Her body still felt as though she was moving underwater and the room buzzed from Eric’s blow to her temple.
“I’m not okay,” she said. “You want to ask me if I’m okay and I’m supposed to say that I’m fine because that’s just how it goes. But, I’m not okay. I’m in pain. I’m hurting and I thought I was going to die. You made me a promise. Fuck him up, baby.”
The right side of his mouth hitched up.
Eric pulled himself from the storage unit. His brows narrowed to the middle of his forehead, and his lips curled back to bare his teeth. All forms of ordinary and innocent disappeared. This was the man who’d carried out those acts against those women. This was the evil that had been suppressed.
Gage stepped forward just as Eric charged. Eric reached toward Kendall who recoiled from his grasp, and Gage jabbed his elbow into Eric’s stomach, causing him to stagger backwards. The blow and Kendall’s reluctance only fueled Eric’s anger as he reared back, ready to charge again.
Gage’s fingers contracted as though gripping an invisible handle. Both hands were down near his waist while Eric’s were up, blocking his face like a professional boxer. Eric’s muscles were tense and large, but they paled in comparison to the size of Gage’s back as it swelled with anger.
Eric advanced again. All Tayler could make out between the two men were thrashing arms and body shots.
“Dez, take them outside,” Gage ordered.
A bling of metal appeared and Eric began jabbing in Gage’s direction. From the black handle and serrated edge, Tayler recognized that it was a combat knife. Despite Gage probably being loaded to the hilt with weapons, she didn’t know why he didn’t pull at least one of them out.
“I want to stay,” Tayler argued.
“Outside!” Gage barked, taking a quick glance over at her.
Dez hoisted her into the air and moved toward the exit. Tayler twisted at the last minute to see Eric bring the blade up and into Gage’s back.
*****
The pain was sharp. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d ever felt tearing flesh but the blade had hit something. Something vital.
“Didn’t think it would be this easy,” Eric said.
Gage didn’t reply. A cardinal rule of combat was never to be the first man to gloat, especially when you were the man who’d tried to end Gage Wolfe’s woman’s life. There wasn’t ever a bigger mistake made anywhere in the universe.
Eric wiped the blade on his pants. “You ready for me again, big guy?”
Gage ignored the throbbing in his back. From its location, he was pretty sure that the vital thing that had been hit was his lung. That meant that he wouldn’t have long before the pressure in his body was altered and the lung collapsed.
Fuck him up, baby.
He wouldn’t break another promise to Tayler again.
Eric
charged at him and he quickly assessed the man’s weak points. The man was definitely former military, but what he’d learned had transgressed basic military training. What he’d done had taken it one step further. It was either your life or your opponent’s. There was no in-between. A person was either a friend or foe, and it was a decision that had to be made sometimes within milliseconds. The goal was never to maim—a dead man couldn’t seek revenge.
Eric stuck the blade toward his abdomen. He sidestepped the thrust, grabbed the wrist holding the knife, and bent it behind Eric’s back. He continued to twist and bend the wrist until the knife fell from Eric’s hand and he heard the sound that he was looking for…bones breaking apart.
He shoved the hand up toward Eric’s back, the withering of bone coming through like an instrumental. Eric groaned and started toward his knees on the floor, but Gage pulled him back up and shifted the arm a third time until his wrist bent awkwardly as though being held on by string.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Eric spat.
The man didn’t know the half of it.
He shoved Eric toward the wall and forced his face into the blocks until his blood painted the surface. When he released him, Eric slumped to all fours, panting while red streaks dripped beneath him onto the floor. Gage wanted to prolong this as much as he could, but he could feel the changing sensations in his body. It was time to end it.
He reached for the same rope that he’d seen wrapped around Tayler’s neck and brought it around Eric’s, squeezing until the man gasped for air and grasped at the nylon. Rage enervated his senses, giving way to the sight of Eric holding Tayler against the wall, trying to kill her. His woman. She would always be his woman. Anyone who had a problem with it would just have to die too.
He pulled tighter. Eric’s gasps grew weaker. Then he waited for the sound of silence to usher in the end of the man’s reign of terror.
*****
The tunnel they were walking through was made of packed dirt. The edge of the tunnel looked like pieces of wood that had exploded, which clarified the sound that Tayler had heard earlier. Gage and the man named Dez had somehow found the entrance to the structure and then used an explosive to blow through the door. An explosive. In North Carolina. To save her.
Dez continued to carry her hitched to his waist with Kendall in his other arm as though they were only a few pounds heavy. Tayler stared into the darkening abyss, waiting for Gage’s outline to step out or for him to call out and say that he was right behind them. But only the empty darkness remained as they got further away from what now appeared to be some kind of doomsday tunnel or hiding spot.
“Can you walk?”
It was Dez’s voice. Though he had a menacing appearance, his voice was soothing.
“Yeah, I think so,” she answered.
He let her down to her feet. More of the heaviness had disappeared, but she still didn’t quite feel like herself.
“Think you can hold her?” He nodded toward the silent, wide-eyed child on his other side.
Kendall was looking around in shock, unable to process what was going on around them with her five year-old brain. Tayler held out her arms and Kendall comfortably climbed into them, wrapped her limbs around Tayler’s body and rested her head on her shoulder.
“I’m going to check to see if it’s safe up top,” Dez said, pointing to a small flight of stairs leading up toward the ceiling of the tunnel.
She held Kendall tighter as he climbed the stairs. His arms rose, pushed open a hatch door, and he lifted himself out. A few seconds later, he peered in and motioned for her to follow.
They appeared in the middle of an open clearing. Several feet ahead of them around the old house, dozens of unmarked vehicles decorated the night in ribbons of blue and red. She looked back at the hole they’d emerged from; it was literally just a hole in the middle of the ground. The door to the hole was covered in a patch of grass that matched the surrounding lawn.
How in the hell did they find me?
“Julien found out that this place had a hidden space that was a stop on the Underground Railroad,” Dez replied, letting her know that she’d asked the question out loud instead of keeping it in her thoughts. “When we checked inside, we saw the brick wall and figured that there had to be another way in. I stayed inside and walked around, causing a ruckus like I like to do, while Gage checked outside.”
“But how did he find this?” She gestured to the opening. “How did he know to check underground?”
“Underground is always the first place we check when there’s no visible entrance.” He motioned for her to walk ahead of him toward the federal vehicles. “We used sonar, kind of like scientists do to look for groundwater during bad droughts. Turns out that we got a hit.”
“But…how did he know? I mean…I don’t even know what I’m asking.”
“Gage ever tell you about his gut?”
“A little.”
“Well, his gut told him you were here. Gage’s gut has only ever been wrong once in all the years I’ve known him. Add that to the connection he has with you, and I knew we’d find you here.”
His hand went to her back, steadying her. “You alright?”
“Yeah. I’m just a little weak. The majority of the time I was down there, I was under the influence of some kind of temporary paralytic.”
“Need me to carry you? I can carry you two, easy, you know.”
“You must be the American,” she said. “Gage said there were six of you of six different nationalities. I’m guessing you’re one of them, and you’re the American.”
“Five,” he replied. “There’s five now.”
Tayler’s chest hiccupped. As she was about to ask him if that meant he thought Gage wasn’t going to make it, one of the official’s flashlights streaked across her face.
“They’re over here!” he yelled. “We found them. Get EMS over here.” When he spotted Dez, his hand went to his waist. “And you are?”
“Not a threat,” Tayler answered. “Is Agent Lattimore here?”
“I’m here,” Joel said, running up. “Are you okay? Is this Hall’s daughter? Where did you guys come from? Where’s Hall? Matter of fact, where’s Wolfe?”
“Can we get EMS here before the questions?” Dez asked. “Then I’ll show you where we came from.”
The emergency personnel rushed over. A paramedic tried to pull Kendall away but she tightened her grip on Tayler. Tayler held her where she could see her face and reassured her that everything would be okay. The paramedic tried a second time and this time, Kendall’s grip released.
“She might have a head injury,” Tayler said. “Check for a concussion.”
“We’ll have to check you too, ma’am.”
Tayler suddenly went still. Something urged her to turn around and when she pivoted, she saw Gage pulling himself up out of the hole in the ground. However, he was pulling his body up with a degree of difficulty that would only be present if he was hurt.
Gage was hurt.
She called out his name and ran toward him, ignoring the cumbersome condition of her legs. He looked up when he heard her voice and took a step forward, but then fell to his knee. Tayler didn’t slow down until she reached him.
She dropped to her knees and searched his body for the injury. There was a large blood stain on his shirt near where she’d seen the knife land. If only she’d gone with Dez instead of distracting him, this would have never happened.
“Baby, stop moving,” she said when he tried to get to his feet. “You’ve got a puncture wound. Just stay still for a while.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Am I okay? Gage, you’re bleeding.”
“He’s dead.”
She lifted his shirt and grimaced. The wound was gaping and bright red. From its appearance, Eric had stabbed and twisted. Gage had kept fighting, which had only made the wound seep quicker.
“On your stomach, baby,” she said, pushing him.
He lay prone on the
grass. She looked up as some of the agents made their way over. As if finally registering that Gage was hurt, the paramedics followed. She took a deep breath and silently reminded herself that they were there to help, so taking her wrath out on them would only make an already dire situation much worse.
She pulled the nightshirt over her head, balled it up, and pressed it into Gage’s back. Hot tears burned her lids, but she blinked to send them rolling down her cheeks, clearing her vision so that she could focus on the man in front of her.
“You kept your promise to me,” she said. “And I promised you, what feels like a long time ago now, that I wouldn’t let you die.”
“Is it a GSW?” a female paramedic asked, falling to her knees next to Tayler.
“Not a gunshot. Stab wound,” Tayler answered.
The woman radioed in for assistance, and Tayler backed away, letting her take over while she moved around to Gage’s face. The color of his eyes seemed to burst through the darkness.
“You’re going to be okay, Gage,” she said, easing onto the ground next to him. “You promised to take me on a date. Is this your way of backing out?”
“Ethiopian?” he asked.
“An Ethiopian dinner sounds nice for a first date.”
“How many?”
“As many dates as you want.”
“No, how many…before…I can ask you...”
“Pulse is fading!” The paramedic yelled.
“Ask me what?”
“To marry me.”
Tayler felt her body being tugged backward. Time slowed as more emergency personnel rushed in, most moving to tend to Gage while others came to her. Lights flashed into her pupils. Questions were yelled at her that she didn’t quite understand, but her head somehow moved in response. She felt her body being lifted and carried. When she peered over the side of the gurney on which she’d been placed, more uniforms had surrounded Gage. He was still on the ground, eyes closed, his body lifeless.
Angels & Assassins: BWWM Romance Page 22