Dammit, Cruz!” I yelled as I was reluctantly pulling myself off of Vanessa.

“Don’t you dare answer that.” She tugged at my shirt. “Go the fuck away!” Vanessa yelled as loud as she could toward the front door.

I pulled away from her, kissed her on the forehead, and attempted to shove myself back into my pants. He did not want to obey.

A voice that didn’t belong to Cruz yelled back, “Is that anyway to talk to company?”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I ran to the front door. I motioned for Vanessa to run to the back room just as I reached the door. I heard a cracking noise as splinters flew at my face.

“I’m armed!” My gun already in my hand, I steadied it.

“So are we.” That one, I did recognize. It was the bald goon from the nursing home. Just as the realization hit me, so did the butt of a gun.

When I came to, the smaller of the goons was holding me down, the other was standing over Vanessa, who was tied into my kitchen chair. Another man, tall and wide with thick, black hair and a massive cloud of cologne around him, who could only be Antony Amara Junior, stood between me and Vanessa. I could barely see her, but from what I could see, she had a red mark across her face as if she had been slapped by a massive hand.

“Don’t you hurt her!” I tried to get up, but the goon pushed me back to the floor, and I felt my head throb. I reached up, and blood wet my fingertips. “I mean it!”

“Shut him up,” Amara ordered the man standing beside me.

Amara held a phone to Vanessa’s face, and I heard her saying something to her father about demands. Tears streamed down her face, and each one tore at my heart a little more. I had failed.

“Tell him that he will give me half of the business, and in exchange, I will let you live. Remind him that if he had taken this deal six months ago, maybe your dear, sweet mother would have fared better.” Amara took a hand and swept a strand of hair back from Vanessa’s cheek.

Vanessa looked down at me on the floor, her eyes pleading, and I summoned the strength to act. I signaled for her to hold on tight and kicked the legs out from under the man who was holding me down. Almost instantly, the bald one who stood over Vanessa ran at me at full speed.

I used his momentum to flip him over my head. I heard his body slam against what remained of my door, and the air come out of him with a loud “Oompf!”

Before Amara had time to react, I tackled him to the ground and punched him as hard as I could across the bridge of his nose. I saw his hand go to his pocket, and I punched him again. I removed a small semi-automatic from his pocket and threw it across the room.

I tore at Vanessa’s constraints, trying to untie her and comfort her at the same time. The tears had stopped, and she stared straight ahead as if in shock. Her eyes widened, and I was hit from behind.

The largest goon picked me up as if I weighed nothing and slammed me on the card table, where moments earlier, Vanessa and I had finally given in to our emotions. Through the pounding in my head viewing the fear on her face, that now seemed so long ago.

From behind me, I heard a slap and then a whimper from Vanessa. I turned to see Amara with his hand raised in the air to commit the foul act again. I kneed the goon on top of me in the groin, and he crumpled to the floor.

Without even thinking, I lunged through the air and landed on top of Amara before he had a chance to strike Vanessa again. I could hear Marco’s voice from somewhere, yelling through the phone that had gotten dropped and the confusion. He was screaming for me to take care of his little girl.

I heard the distinctive click of a hammer pulling back on a handgun. I picked up Vanessa, chair and all, and threw us out my balcony door. I must have misjudged the amount of adrenaline in my muscles because we did not land on my balcony as I had planned or expected. Instead, we tumbled over the balcony wall, down the three stories, and landed with a deafening thud.

Amara and both of his men appeared in the shattered doorway, their weapons drawn. Still using my body to shield Vanessa, who lay unconscious and hopefully still alive beneath me, I returned fire. I heard a scream, and then another. I didn’t know who was hit, but all three faces disappeared.

“Are you okay?” I patted Vanessa and shook her to wake her. She groaned, and it was the best sound I’d ever heard. “Can you stand up?”

“What happened? Did we just—“ Vanessa stuttered.

“That didn’t go as planned.” We stood up and took stock of our injuries. “I thought I had time to spin around so you would land on top of me. I’m so sorry.” I hugged her tightly to me, not wanting to let go.

“At least we broke the chair.” She attempted a laugh as she pulled the ropes from around her wrists. “I’m free. Let’s get out of here.”

“Good idea. I don’t know what’s going on up there, and I don’t want to stay and find out.”

As we ran off as fast as we could, I felt my shirt become damp. Vanessa, who had her arms around me, felt it, too. “You’ve been shot!”