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 him

against right-handers. I've

Hard. Fast. Teeth

back and he follows through, but I grab him by the arm. We

close, I smell

Sweat. Sour.

scent of

Not excitement.

Fear.

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

as I lash for his neck but as he swings away,

following up on my advantage, I bully forward, reaching for his

chest with my right hand and he twists away, still

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

away from my right hand, my

rib

Got you, you bastard…

her. The

out of nowhere, pelting for the exit, apparently blind to me and Baxter, she charges between us

staggering back, my foot skids

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms wind-milling

I go down...

Baxter’s on top of

…

as his blade

rasp of

The metallic tang of

Whose?

Mine…

enjoying his moment, the

point nipping at the vein, he reaches into his jacket, he takes out a

My Glock?

and aiming for my forehead,

not use the

got the

up on my elbows I swing round wildly, one way

There are none.

up the barrel of my own fucking gun and to Baxter’s

Is this it?

this time… this is how I

irritation. Of all the ways I could have died over the years, I’m taken out by a shite like

something I

Live by the sword…

moments. The brain does odd things under

think

and huge. The rest of the world

My throat tightens…

honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a gun and a knife against an unarmed man. And he’s

know

its owner.

The matching skirt just clears the crotch and

hair tumbles gloriously over smooth white shoulders and frames a face made up with

“Mitch?”

admit it. I

So does Baxter.

a brothel. It might have been full of women offering

dressed like this, not

to strike a pose. And with

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

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