Blade

 

“Who did that?” the behemoth shouted as his boss’s body crumbled to the floor.

 

I didn’t know, but the gunshot came from right by my head. I looked to my left, and I could have sworn I saw a small pistol fall out of Vlad’s hand. Vlad, who had been sitting there slumped over, presumed dead by all of us, for however long. He slumped just a little farther after he dropped the gun.

 

The goon who had been holding my head up let go and stepped back. He raised his hands as if to say he didn’t have anything to do with the gun. Maggie frantically looked around, trying to see what happened behind her. Axel’s body lay on the floor at her feet, blood pooling around his head. The arms around me relaxed then, and I saw my chance to finally break free.

 

“Oh, you’ve fucked up now,” I said as I slid my arms out of the hold the strongman had one me.

 

He stumbled back as I broke free, a look of shock covering his face as he realized it. I rolled my shoulders a few times to work out the ache in my arms from being held behind me for so long. I rolled my neck and laughed. It was time to get my revenge.

 

The other two big men – about my size, not quite as big as the giant – stepped over to the table where Maggie was restrained. The man in all black followed them. They muttered amongst themselves, trying to figure out what to do.

 

“Yep, he’s dead,” one of the three said behind me as I faced off with the big guy.

 

“I’ve been waiting for this,” I told him.

 

“Why don’t you get your gun and make it quick?” he asked.

 

“No way. I want to enjoy this.” I smiled at him as we started to pace around each other.

 

“You want a piece of this?” he asked. “Come on, little man, whenever you’re ready.”

 

The other three stood over by Maggie, watching us. Maggie was still restrained on the table, her pants down, her shirt cut off, her panties on the floor. She tried to look over her shoulder at what was happening behind her. The three men ignored her, despite the fact she was exposed to all of us.

 

“Oh, you want her?” the behemoth asked. “Guys, get her out of here,” he called over his shoulder to the other three.

 

“Don’t you dare,” I warned them. “Leave her where she is.”

 

“But she double-crossed you, Blade. She sold you out to her ex-boyfriend. It’s kind of like they were still together, huh?” He scratched his head in mock confusion. “Now, I’m not a genius, not by a long shot, but I think you can do better than that.”

 

I looked from him over to her. The two big guys were undoing her straps while the little guy in black stood and watched. As soon as she stepped back, her pants fell to her ankles. They laughed at her and admired her front.

 

The giant made a sudden move, distracting me from Maggie. He laughed when my attention turned back to him. He knew I was trying to keep an eye on her, and it was entertaining him to make that impossible for me.

 

Sure, she’d double-crossed me. Just like he said, she’d sold me out to Axel. It hurt. It hurt like a son of a bitch to think I had been developing feelings for her, and all the while she’d been trying to turn me over to her ex-boyfriend so he could enlist me or eliminate me.

 

On top of that, the other guys weren’t harassing her. From what I could tell, they were giving her space to get dressed. She shrugged off her shirt, and even though they didn’t avert their eyes when they saw her breasts, they didn’t make a move to grope her or anything. In fact, the little guy took off his jacket and handed it to her so she could cover up.

 

A fist came flying at me, bringing my attention back to the matter at hand – the behemoth. I knew one hit from him meant I would be toast. Down for the count. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I kept my attention on him as he started throwing teasing little punches to try to rattle me.

 

“Are you even trying?” I asked him as I ducked and weaved to avoid his little jabs.

 

He laughed. “I’m just playing with you, little man,” he said.

 

“That’s what I wondered.” We kept going in a circle. I didn’t swing. I didn’t even go for it. I was looking for an opening.

 

What I saw instead was the other three men grabbing Maggie and dragging her with them. She tried to fight to get away, but they were too strong for her. She didn’t stand a chance.

 

“Blade,” she called for me as they pulled her out of the room. She looked over her shoulder. Her eyes were scared and worried.

 

“I’m sorry, big man,” I told my fighting partner, “but this is where I get off.”

 

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he barked as he charged me, trying to prevent me from grabbing my gun.

 

I sidestepped him as I pulled my piece out of my waistband and took aim at him. I pulled the trigger. Once. One shot was all it took. I dropped him by putting one between his eyes. His bulk fell down next to me, like a bear. It was astonishing that someone so powerful could just crumble next to me like anyone else would have done from a gunshot.

 

I put my gun back behind my belt and hurried to catch up with the other three and Maggie. I couldn’t believe that even after it was all over, they were still trying to run. Their boss was dead. What else did they think they were going to be able to accomplish by taking her with them?

 

As we neared the back door, one of the big guys kicked it open while the little guy in black fell back. Maggie looked over her shoulder as they carried her through the door and out into the night. With her eyes, she pleaded for me to follow her.

 

“Why are you even trying, man?” the little guy asked me. “She set you up, dude.”

 

I drew my gun. “I know she did,” I told him. “It has nothing to do with that.”

 

I had no idea why I was chasing after her. It wasn’t like there was any future in store for us, not after what she’d done. I couldn’t stand by and let them take her away though, for the same reason I couldn’t stand by and watch them auction her off like a piece of livestock the first time. She was a person, regardless of anything else. She was not a piece of meat, and she was not someone’s property.

 

“I’ve got a gun, too,” the guy in black in front of me said.

 

As he reached for his, I popped off a shot at his head, dropping him right there on the floor. I stepped over his body and reached down to grab the gun he’d been trying to pull on me. I removed the silencer. I didn’t need it. I checked to see how much ammo he had. It was enough to warrant taking the gun.

 

I knew he’d bought the others some time, so I didn’t linger. I ran outside in time to see them pulling away in one of the sedans. I squeezed off a couple of rounds, trying to hit the windshield, but I couldn’t seem to get a good shot at the front.

 

“Shit. Shit. Shit,” I repeated, realizing they had a pretty damn good head start on me. I ran through the building to the front door; it was faster than trying to run around to the front to grab my bike. Instead of taking the time to try to open the door, I simply kicked the damn thing open. I didn’t have time to play.

 

They were pulling up to the entrance of the parking lot as I hopped on the back of my motorcycle. The engine roared to life and I sped up behind them just as they pulled off. I didn’t know why they were running with her or where they thought they were going. They didn’t know me, or else they would have stayed and accepted their punishment.

 

Traffic had picked up some since I had shown up earlier. We weaved between cars all along the busy downtown streets. I tried a few times to get a good aim at them, but there were too many cars around. I didn’t want to risk hitting innocent bystanders by trying to take them out and save Maggie from whatever it was they had in mind.

 

Of course, once I saved her, there was the question of what I was going to do with her. Was this going to be the end of our relationship? Was I going to drop her off at the safehouse again and just let her figure things out on her own? Or was I going to continue to help her?

 

I gunned it and tried to catch up to them. I figured if I got right up on them, I’d be able to get a clear shot. Traffic was too tight, and I couldn’t get between the cars to pull up alongside the sedan.

 

I backed off. I figured if I gave them enough room to drive without worrying about being chased, I didn’t have to be as concerned about them running someone else off the road while they were trying to get away from me. I put a couple of car lengths between us and started to maintain a safe distance. I stayed close enough to keep an eye on them, but hopefully far enough back that my bike blended in with the headlights around me.

 

As I waited for my opportunity to make a move on the car, my thoughts strayed back to what Axel had said about using Maggie as an informant. I wondered how long she’d been doing it and if she’d been a willing participant in his little games. He seemed to have had a knack for controlling people against their will. That had seemed to be his thing, what got him off.

 

If she’d been willing, that meant she’d lied to me. That meant she’d deceived me the whole way through. She’d deceived everyone. But if not, she was probably still in danger with the guys running away. I started to grow impatient.

 

My mind drifted off after a lot of different tangents. I wondered if there was a second in command under Axel that the guys were taking Maggie to. The guy in black had seemed like the closest thing he’d had to a second in command. Maybe there had been someone below him who would have known what to do to pick up where I had interrupted.

 

I still wondered how the hell a small-time creep like Axel had organized something clever enough to take out someone like Vlad. Vlad had believed he was dealing with a boss from out of town who was running a large operation. Axel had built up a kind of underground prestige for himself. And he managed to employ some impressive talent. He certainly hadn’t met those guys slinging rocks to the junkies downtown.

 

He’d been working on his operation for a while, which meant there was a good chance it was a lot bigger than I realized. There was a lot of cleaning up to do, because without him at the head of it, someone else was going to try to step into place.

 

Then again, it was still very possible that the only two people in his operation who were left were the ones in that car in front of me with Maggie as their hostage. No matter what, I had to get her away from them. That was the most important task in front of me.