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 used…

Left-handed…

that gives him an

against right-handers. I've done

out. Hard. Fast.

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

I smell

Sweat. Sour.

sour scent

Not excitement.

Fear.

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

for his neck but as he swings

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

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

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

I’m not. Just well-practised. As he swerves away from my

the rib cage

Got you, you bastard…

her.

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

staggering back, my foot skids

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

arms wind-milling for

I go down...

Baxter’s on

…

as his blade

The rasp

metallic

Whose?

Mine…

he hovers, enjoying his moment, the knife poised at

he reaches into his jacket, he takes out a

My Glock?

aiming for my forehead, he backs

use

the

I swing round wildly,

There are none.

of my own fucking gun and

Is this it?

time… this is how

died

something I didn’t actually

Live by the sword…

works at these moments. The brain does odd things under extreme

think I’m

of the gun looms close and huge. The rest of the world vanishes around me. My peripheral vision

My throat tightens…

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

know that

to its owner.

to six feet in the spiked heels. The matching skirt just clears the crotch and the zip-front leather vest hugs a narrow

over smooth white shoulders and frames a face made up with emerald eyes painted Goth-dark

“Mitch?”

it.

So does Baxter.

be a brothel. It might have been full of women offering their all.

I have never seen her dressed like this, not even in her ‘professional’

pose. And with an eye on Baxter that dares him

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

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255