Hunter
The knock came. Three fast raps. Hunter took one final breath. This was it.
He opened the door and made a show of looking around Jeremy and the parking lot before letting him inside.
“Were you followed?” he asked.
Jeremy glared back. “Are you kidding me? I’m the one who has people followed, not who gets followed.”
“Right, and were you followed? Did you have your people follow you here?” Idiot. What did he think he was asking, if the cops had followed him?
“My people are everywhere.”
Sure they were. Asshole. He could barely stand to be feet from him and not punch him in the face. Every time he talked, Hunter pictured his hands tight around his throat.
“You wanted me here to explain, so explain. This is taking too long,” Jeremy said.
“I know, but I’ve never done a hit where there’s a child involved.”
“I never asked you to kill the child. Just don’t shoot her when you shoot her mother. It’s not that difficult, but clearly you can’t handle it.”
“I’m not going to shoot Vanessa with Opal in the room.” Picturing that made his chest tight with agony. “I think that would do a lot of psychological harm to her.”
“Psychological harm? What do I care about that? You know what? Forget it. The deal is off. I know where Opal is, and I already have someone on their way to get her. I’ll have Vanessa taken care of in the meantime, and it’ll all be done by the end of the day. You took too long, and you pissed me off. I’ll be expecting back the money I gave you as a down payment.” Jeremy crossed his arms and glared at him.
Hunter swallowed and tried to keep his feet from dashing out the door. “I said I’ll do it. It just needs to be done right.”
“Too late. She’ll probably already be dead by the time you make it back to the apartment,” Jeremy said smugly. “Oh, but that’s right. You won’t be making it back to the apartment.”
Hunter watched in disbelief as Jeremy opened his coat and pulled a gun from his inside pocket. Hunter’s hand twitched. This was the perfect set up. It would be self-defense, no question. He never expected Jeremy to do something like this.
He reached his hand to his back, but Jeremy pulled the slide on his gun. His years of training kicked in, and he saw Opal’s face flash through his mind before he acted. There wasn’t enough time to pull out his gun.
Hunter lunged for Jeremy and collided with him hard, sending him to the ground in a crash. Jeremy still had hold of his gun, and turned it so that it pointed at Hunter’s shoulder. Hunter spun out of his aim.
He threw his body over Jeremy and slammed his fist down on the arm holding the gun. Jeremy moaned in pain, but didn’t let go. Hunter considered reaching again for his own gun, but it would take too long, and the risk was too high.
Jeremy tried to throw Hunter off him by twisting under him, but Hunter was too heavy for him. As Jeremy turned, Hunter grabbed the hand holding the gun. They struggled for several minutes—Hunter trying to get the gun, Jeremy desperately holding on.
Hunter got his hand on the gun, and Jeremy lost his grip. He quickly got to his feet. Jeremy rolled out of the aim of Hunter’s gun, and scrambled to his feet.
He ran at Hunter, jamming his head into Hunter’s chest and causing him to drop the gun. It hit the ground, and the men dove for it. Jeremy reached it first and closed his fingers over it.
He pointed the gun again at Hunter. Before he could pull the trigger, Hunter slammed his hand down. The gun fired.
For a moment, Hunter wasn’t sure what happened. Who had been shot. Was someone dead? This was such a messy way to do this, and all of his hits had been clean and simple. None of this fighting with the mark stuff.
He didn’t feel any pain, and Jeremy wasn’t moving. Hunter carefully stood up. A hole was at the front of Jeremy’s chest and blood trickled out.
Hunter ran out the door without another glance back, only one thing on his mind—get to Vanessa. Now.
# # #
She almost texted him or called him a few times, but she knew that would only make things worse. He was playing a role, pretending, and he couldn’t seem like he cared about her at all. But the wait was killing her. She needed to hear Hunter’s voice, know he was okay. She had a bad feeling about all of this and was terrified something would go wrong and someone would get hurt.
She looked at her phone again. He was going to call as soon as he could. As soon as he was alone. Still nothing.
As she put her phone back in her pocket, she turned to face the door, still pacing. The door flew open with a loud bang. She screamed as three men in black ski masks burst into the room.
Her mind spun. What should she do? Could she fight back? Would they hurt her or take her or both? They had to be hired by Jeremy, but was he one of them?
She looked at Nicholas. He was in the corner of the room, huddled into a ball, looking terrified. What a pansy. She wished Hunter was there. He would have pulled out a gun or his fist, and he would have defended her. Nicholas was useless. A whining little boy in the corner. It was up to her to defend herself. At least Opal wasn’t there to witness this. It would be hard enough trying to get away from them, if she had to get both herself and Opal out, it would be much harder.
As she got into a fighting stance, she recalled her gun. She’d stashed it in the top drawer of the little table near the door. The one right by her side.
Vanessa tore open the drawer and grabbed her gun. She pulled back the slide and pointed, then squeezed the trigger.
Actually firing the gun was terrifying and exhilarating. As many times as she’d gone to the range to practice, this was very different. There was a person, a real live living person at the other end of her aim this time. But, this was a person who was coming to hurt her or abduct her. She had no choice.
Her first shot went too far to the right and hit the wall. Drywall and plaster trickled to the floor in pieces.
She aimed again, but in her panic and heightened emotional state, she was shaking. One of the men was close and swung at her. She stepped out of the way, fired again, and missed again.
Another man grabbed her arm and had the gun out of her grip in seconds. She felt instantly defeated. She had failed miserably.
She was lifted off her feet and thrashed around, trying to break free. “Nicholas, help!”
But she didn’t expect him to do anything. She couldn’t see him, but she suspected by now that he was in tears, hiding under a bed.
Her thrashing only made them hold her tighter. She screamed as loudly as she could. Maybe one of her neighbors would see or hear. Surely if someone saw three men in masks carrying her out as she kicked and screamed, they’d call someone, wouldn’t they?
She kept screaming, hoping to alert someone, until one of the men shoved something into her mouth. She choked, and her eyes teared up. She fought harder, pulling at her arms and legs to do anything. To hit one, to break free, to gain any sort of upper hand. But with three of them and one of her, she was no match.
If Nicholas had managed to get up and attack one of them, or use her gun to shoot one, maybe things would be different. The rage burned inside her chest every time she pictured him curled in the corner. She was trusting this man to have Jeremy locked up and keep Hunter out of jail, all while keeping Opal safe?
She felt like everything was falling apart. Where was Hunter? Was Opal safe? What would happen to her now?
One of the men put a cloth over her face. At first she thought, well that’s stupid, I’m already gagged. But then the room started to spin, and she realized it was something else. She felt herself being carried out of the apartment, and she heard sirens in the distance.
The hallway twisted around her, and her arms and legs no longer responded to her brain telling them to move. She was limp weight.
None of her neighbors’ doors opened. Apparently, someone cared enough to call the police or an ambulance or something, but no one stepped out to help her.
She felt the morning sun on her face and knew then that the sirens were too far away. Help would not reach her in time. Blackness closed over her as she heard a van’s door slide open. She vaguely felt herself being thrown in before her remaining senses failed her.