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…

gives him an

against right-handers. I've

stabs out. Hard. Fast. Teeth bared. Pupils

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

I smell

Sweat. Sour.

sour scent

Not excitement.

Fear.

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

then grunts as I lash for his neck but as he swings

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

slash at his chest with my right hand and he

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

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

the rib cage

Got you, you bastard…

her.

exit, apparently blind to me and Baxter, she charges between us and I twist away to

staggering back, my foot

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms

I go down...

Baxter’s on

…

My gasp as his

rasp of

metallic tang of

Whose?

Mine…

me, grinning maniacally, he hovers, enjoying his moment,

the vein, he reaches

My Glock?

for my forehead,

not use the

the balls for

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

There are none.

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

Is this it?

this is how I

could have died over the years, I’m taken

something I didn’t actually

Live by the sword…

at these moments. The brain does

think I’m

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

My throat tightens…

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

I know that

eyes swing to its owner.

to six feet in the spiked heels. The matching skirt

frames a face made up with emerald eyes painted

“Mitch?”

admit it.

So does Baxter.

women offering their all. But nothing compares

never seen her dressed like this, not even in

leg a little curved to strike a pose. And with an eye on Baxter

a finger

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