Hot Revenge Box Set 2

Chapter 15

Klempner

Although I can hear chaos from down the stairs, up here now, it’s quiet. There’s no-one in the dance room.

In the pool room, the only sound is the crunching of glass under my boots. I carry on to Finchby’s office.

All empty?

It seems so.

The time?

Time to go.

Except… as I’m about to turn and leave a girl, I see her; barely a teenager, some variety of Asian, Indian perhaps. Streaming tears, she skitters out from behind the desk, making for the kitchen.

I follow her and she cringes back into the corner. I offer my hand. “I’m not going to hurt you. You have to leave.”

She babbles at me in I’ve-no-idea-what language, then abruptly, her face swings up to mine and fingers outstretched, leaps up at me, clawing at my face. Reflexively, I jerk back, and she bolts past me and out, back the way I came.

Fuck!

I dash after her, but in the few seconds, she’s gone, vanished.

Where did she go?

Out?

Or somewhere deeper inside?

I check my watch… Three minutes…

Christ!

I have to find her… If she’s on the stairwell, perhaps I’ll hear her. I turn for the bar, heading for the stairs up and down, and there…

Fuck.

Baxter.

I reach for my Glock… And it’s not there.

Damn… When did I put it down?

Baxter flashes brows. And the knife in his hand. “Going somewhere?”

“I was planning on leaving.” I slip the knife from my belt. “Your friend Finchby has already left the building. I believe the money may be with him.”

“I’m not going to weep over Finchby. And I didn't do it for the cash. Well… mainly not for the cash. And I have my half anyway.”

We circle, eyeball to eyeball.

Make the first move?

Wait for him?

I move slowly, watching for the twitch of the hand. The nudge of the shoulder. The tell that he's going to stop talking and...

He slashes out… moves fast…

But it’s a feint and we both know it, calculated to draw a reaction from me.

Testing me…

My speed…

My reactions…

Younger than me...

How much by?

Ten years?

His knife...

maybe eight inches. Well cared

Well used…

Left-handed…

Thinks that gives

right-handers.

out. Hard. Fast. Teeth bared. Pupils

but I grab him by the arm. We grapple. His blade to my throat. My

I smell

Sweat. Sour.

sour scent

Not excitement.

Fear.

away, dancing back from me and suddenly I'm overreaching… off-balance… and I pull back

grins, then grunts as I lash for his neck but as he swings away, my fist

forward, reaching

with my right hand and he twists away, still grinning manically, but he doesn't

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

swerves away from my right hand,

rib cage

Got you, you bastard…

it’s her. The

Baxter, she charges

staggering back, my foot skids on

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms wind-milling for

I go down...

on top of

…

as his blade

The rasp of

The metallic tang

Whose?

Mine…

his

nipping at the vein, he reaches into his jacket, he

My Glock?

my forehead,

not use the

the

up on my elbows I swing round wildly, one

There are none.

up, I’m staring straight up the barrel of my own fucking gun and to Baxter’s crocodile

Is this it?

all this time… this

all the ways I could have died over

something I

Live by the sword…

mind works at these moments. The

think I’m

the muzzle of the gun looms close and huge. The rest of

My throat tightens…

and contempt in equal measure… “A

I know

eyes swing to its owner.

close to six feet in the spiked heels. The matching skirt just clears the crotch and the zip-front leather

a face made up with emerald

“Mitch?”

admit it. I

So does Baxter.

been full of women offering their all. But nothing compares to Mitch

I have never seen her dressed like

strike a pose. And with an eye on Baxter that dares him to do

finger into the loop and tooth by tooth, slides the tag

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