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...

inches. Well cared

Well used…

Left-handed…

Thinks that gives him

practice against right-handers. I've done

Fast. Teeth bared.

through, but I grab him by the arm.

close, I smell

Sweat. Sour.

scent of

Not excitement.

Fear.

I'm overreaching… off-balance… and I pull back recovering my

grunts as I lash for his neck but

up on my advantage, I bully forward, reaching for his blade, slashing out

hand and he twists away, still grinning manically, but he

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

I’m not. Just well-practised. As he swerves away from my right hand, my left

the rib cage

Got you, you bastard…

it’s her. The

me and Baxter, she charges between us and I twist away

back, my foot skids

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

arms wind-milling

I go down...

Baxter’s on top of

…

My gasp as his blade

The rasp of

The metallic tang

Whose?

Mine…

hovers, enjoying his moment, the knife

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

My Glock?

and aiming for my

use

got the balls

elbows I swing round wildly, one way or the other,

There are none.

the barrel of my own fucking gun and to

Is this it?

all this time… this is how

have died over the years, I’m taken out by

for something I

Live by the sword…

these moments. The brain does

think I’m

the gun looms close and huge. The rest of the world vanishes

My throat tightens…

real man.” The voice is sultry, smooth, and drips honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a gun and a

I know

eyes swing to its owner.

set her close to six feet in the spiked heels. The matching skirt

over smooth white shoulders and frames a face made up with emerald

“Mitch?”

it. I

So does Baxter.

a brothel. It might have been full of women

I have never seen her dressed like this, not even

chin lifted, one leg a little curved to strike a pose. And with an

She hooks a finger into the loop and tooth by tooth, slides

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