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...

eight inches. Well cared

Well used…

Left-handed…

Thinks that gives him an

right-handers.

Hard. Fast. Teeth bared. Pupils

him by the arm. We grapple. His blade to my throat. My hand locked to

I smell

Sweat. Sour.

scent of

Not excitement.

Fear.

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

lash for his neck but as he swings away,

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

his chest with my right hand and he twists away, still grinning manically,

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

away from my right hand, my left hand is coming

rib cage and

Got you, you bastard…

it’s her. The

to me and Baxter, she

back, my

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms wind-milling for

I go down...

on top of

…

his blade

rasp of shredding

The metallic tang

Whose?

Mine…

hovers, enjoying his moment, the knife

at the vein, he reaches

My Glock?

for my forehead, he backs

use

the balls

elbows I swing round wildly, one way or the

There are none.

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

Is this it?

this is

I could have died over the

something I didn’t

Live by the sword…

at these moments. The brain does odd things

think I’m

huge. The rest of the world vanishes around me. My

My throat tightens…

and drips honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a gun and a knife against an unarmed

know that

eyes swing to its owner.

matching skirt just clears the crotch and the zip-front leather vest

frames a face made up with emerald eyes painted Goth-dark and fuck-me

“Mitch?”

it.

So does Baxter.

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

dressed like this,

one leg a little curved to strike a pose. And with

a finger into

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