Cambria Hebert - Text

No bullet was going to stop me handing this bastard his ass.

I stumbled backward when he plowed into my middle, jamming his fingers in the bullet hole. I bit back a cry and knocked away his hands as I slammed into the wall. He took off through the office door and I pushed up and went after him.

I heard Honor calling my name, but I kept running.

I wanted this guy out of our lives.

Seeing blood rush out of her leg like that almost sent me over the edge. Like a time machine, it transported me back… back to that night when men I loved died. When I was forced to shoot and kill to protect myself. I tried to protect Prior that night.

I failed.

I wasn’t going to fail again.

I rushed over the glass, feeling it cut into the bare soles of my feet, but I kept running. It was dark out in the yard, but my eyes adjusted quickly and I saw Lex leaping over the fence, and I leveled my gun at him and shot off a couple rounds.

Weapons were my job. I didn’t miss my target.

He let out a stark cry and toppled off the fence and hit the ground with a hard thud. With my weapon still drawn, I made my way over to his side, where he was squirming around like a damned pansy.

I kicked him.

I never said I was a nice guy.

He coughed and wheezed; blood spurted out of his mouth and spotted his chin.

There was something about that chin that didn’t seem right…

I kicked the gun out of his hands, and he reached for it, but I stepped on his fingers and bent down. He was still writhing. My bullet hit him in the chest, and I could tell from the sound of his breathing that his lungs were filling with blood.

I should have felt some remorse.

I didn’t.

I would likely be haunted with more nightmares, more sleepless nights, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I didn’t feel a thing. The bullet in my side didn’t register. The glass in my feet didn’t hurt. I didn’t think about the cuts on my arms as I reached down and yanked away the hat pulled low over his face.

It wasn’t Lex. It was someone I’d never seen before.

I stared down at the man, who began to laugh.

“Sucker,” he wheezed.

I slammed the butt of the pistol into his temple and cut off his laugh. My heart hammered as I spun around, fear and worry for Honor filling my veins with ice.

I listened through the darkness for the sound of the Jeep’s engine. For proof that she listened and made it to the car.

There was no sound of a rumbling engine.

There was no sound at all.

The night was unnaturally quiet.

“Honor!” I roared, increasing my speed and pressing a hand to the wound in my side. Fuck, bullet wounds hurt.

From somewhere in the house, I heard the sound of Lucy’s bark.

And then a gun went off.

Nathan was shot.

I saw the blood gushing out of his side and running down his bare skin to pool at the waistband of his jeans.

Where the hell were the cops?

“Nathan!” I shouted when he pushed off the wall and ran after Lex. He was an idiot! He was shot!

If he died, I was going to make the paramedics revive him so I could kill him all over again. Forgetting all about my orders from Nathan, I rushed back up the stairs and shut Lucy in the bathroom. She whined as I moved back down the hall, but I didn’t know what else to do with her. At least in there she would be safe.

I gripped the gun as I rush-limped down the stairs. I wasn’t about to let Nathan fight my battles for me. He already took some glass to his arm and back and a bullet. But this was my battle. That man out there was my kidnapper. I wasn’t going to let him control me. I wasn’t going to let him make me cower in fear.

When my foot hit the very last step, a dark figure stepped around the corner. I gasped.

It was Lex.

I’d know that handsome yet sadistic face anywhere.

I glanced behind him into my destroyed office and looked for Nathan. Where was he? Did he pass out? Was he dead?

“He’s not too bright, is he?” Lex said. Just the sound of his voice made my insides curdle like spoiled milk.

“What did you do to him!” I demanded.

Lex smiled. “Not a thing. I’m saving all my punishment for you.”

I looked at my kidnapper again. He wasn’t wearing all black like the man Nathan was fighting. Lex was dressed in jeans, running shoes, and a black NorthFace jacket. He wasn’t wearing a hat at all.

He looked like he came from the grocery store or something.

My eyes widened when I realized what happened. He tricked us.

“How did you find someone sick enough to help you?” I asked, glancing behind him once more. Where was Nathan?

“I’m offended you think I’m sick,” he mocked.

“Even if you kill me, you won’t get away with this. The police have Mary’s locket. They already know what you did to me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Yes. I saw the news. Not to worry,” he said, taking a step forward as I took one back. “By the time the cops get here, you’ll be dead and I’ll be long gone.”

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” I said, remembering the gun clutched in my hand.

“Who says I need a reason? Maybe I just do it because I like it.”

For some reason, I glanced down. His crotch was hard. Talk about a guy with sick fantasies. I swung up the gun and aimed it at his head. He lashed out, smacking the glass in my leg and making me cry out and stumble.

Lex took advantage of my momentary rush of pain and slapped my wrist and yanked the gun out of my hand. I kicked him and then scrambled up the steps away from him.

(Yes, I am aware I now joined the ranks of stupid idiots who run UP the stairs when a killer is after them.)

He grabbed my ankle and my chin slammed into the step. I felt my lip split open, and the pungent taste of blood flooded my mouth. I groaned, rolling onto my back and kicking with my free leg. My foot connected with his face. He let go, and I scrambled across the landing and up the second set of stairs.

Lex was hot on my heels as I raced into the living room, desperately looking for something I could use to defend myself.

The contents of my purse were still spilled everywhere, and the cell phone was still lit up and open on the table. “Help me!” I screamed in the direction of the phone. “He has a gun!”

Lex jumped me from behind, and I fell under him, onto my stomach and crying out as the glass in my thigh was shoved even deeper into my leg. Pain screamed through my body and tears filled my eyes.

I couldn’t seem to think past the pain.

Lex flipped me over and straddled me. I forgot about the pain as my hand closed over something lying on the floor and I brought it up and jammed it down into the top of his thigh.

Lex shouted as the pen buried itself into his leg. Then I picked up a pack of Tic Tacs and threw it at his head. (What? I had to use what was available.)

He knocked the mints away and then reached for the pen sticking out of his leg. I twisted beneath him and he fell sideways. We went rolling across the floor as I reached up and gouged my thumb into his eye socket.

He jerked away and I followed him, ripping my gun out of his hand.

“Please stop!” I cried. I knew he wouldn’t, but I admit, I yelled it for the benefit of the operator on the other end of the phone line.

I wanted absolutely no doubt that what I was about to do was self-defense.

Lex grabbed onto my ankle and grinned up at me. I kicked him in the face and blood bloomed around his teeth. He looked like some funhouse clown that had gone mad.

With a single jerk, he sent me falling backward, landing on my back.

Inside the bathroom, Lucy barked and I could hear her clawing at the door, trying to get out.

“After you’re dead,” Lex said, crawling up my body. “I’m gonna screw your body before it turns cold.”

I shot him.

The bullet slammed into his shoulder and he recoiled. I scrambled out from under him and stood.

“Honor!” Nathan screamed from downstairs, and my knees went weak with relief.

“I’m up here!” I yelled, my voice sounding more like a squeak.

Feet pounded on the stairs, and I moved to rush toward him. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted to see that he was okay.

A hand closed around my ankle and jerked me back.

I screamed.

Lex laughed.

Twisting quickly, without hesitation, I shot him in the head.

Nathan skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs, his wide eyes going between Lex and me. I could only imagine what he saw. Me covered in blood with a busted lip and a heaving chest, holding a gun, while standing over a man with a bullet in his head.

Reality crashed over me.

The gun fell from my hand and bounced off the carpet.

I shot someone.

I killed him.

My kidnapper was dead.

“Honor,” Nathan said breathlessly and rushed across the room to wrap me in his arms. My body shook violently, so hard that my teeth chattered and my skin felt icy.

“I killed him,” I said, shoving my face into his bare, blood-smeared chest.

“You protected yourself, baby,” he murmured. “You did real good.”

Police sirens drew closer and soon, the flashing blue-and-red lights filled the windows and the driveway.

I felt lightheaded and I knew I lost a lot of blood. I pulled back from Nathan and looked at his side where the bullet entered his body.

“It’s not so bad,” he murmured, tipping my chin up so I couldn’t look.