Page 120 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
I leapt at him. We collided, and he had to fling me off him before his back hit the ground, since he didn’t want me to have the upper hand—just like I’d known he would.
He launched me over his head, and I landed lightly on the staircase outside the door.
He rolled over, and I bolted up the stairs as he scrambled to follow me.
I crested the stairs in the small lounge with Chad right on my heels.
I felt him snag the straps of my little backpack, and I whirled on him.
I blocked the meaty fist he launched at my face, and I sank my knee into his stomach.
He released my backpack, then tossed a follow-up punch at me that just clipped my ear.
It stung like a bitch, but I didn’t have time to fret about it because Chad was coming again, determined to keep me in this room for whatever reason, while I was slowly but surely backing us toward the door to the aft deck with vague plans to chase him in the direction of the bridge—or let him chase me there—until one or all of the bloodthirsty men in my life showed up for an assist.
This time I took the brunt of our collision, taking us to the ground and rolling Chad off me. I flipped, getting my feet under me and ready to sprint the last five feet to the door, when Chad’s hand closed around my ankle and dragged me backward.
It was all so eerily familiar, and unfortunately, this time I didn’t have my knife in my hand. Chad would avoid having his hand impaled, but he would not avoid having my bare foot jammed right into his barely healed nose.
“Fuck!” he shouted, rearing back and bringing his hand to his nose, the blood immediately seeping through his fingers.
I turned again, jumping to my feet.
“Oh no, you fucking don’t!” he bellowed, lurching to stand up and still surprisingly nimble for someone so wide and also gushing blood from his nose.
I ran for the door.
Come on, Chaddy. Come get me.
He slammed into me again, and we went careening out onto the aft deck, still quiet and deserted with only Chad’s grunts and the distant laughs, shouts, and thumping of the music filling the night air.
I bounced off the railing, shoving him away from me, and I’d just turned and readied myself to hurdle the loveseat we’d upended on our way out the door when I froze .
The barrel of the tiniest little handgun imaginable was pointed right at my head as Harper held it aloft in a shaky hand. She crept along the narrow walkway that bordered the yacht’s spacious main cabin until she was standing a few feet in front of me, just out of my reach.
“Fucking took you long enough, Jansen,” Chad spat. He grasped my forearms roughly and wrenched them behind my back, keeping me locked in place.
It was a hold I knew I could break out of without much sweat, but I didn’t trust Jansen and her trembling hand on that fucking gun.
“Yes, well, I’m here now,” she barked at Chad. “I had to make sure I wasn’t seen coming back here, obviously .”
I’d be having a discussion later with my security about letting this bitch sneak a gun into my party, but I suspected she’d stashed that little thing in her bra—Harper was wearing a suspiciously ample amount of clothing for someone who would have jumped at the opportunity to run around in a bikini in front of Bennett or any other man on this boat.
“Hurry up and fucking do it,” Chad hissed. “We can’t fuck this up.”
That didn’t sound good. My mind whirled, and my mouth started running.
“Are you two on a secret mission?” I asked. “What’s in this for you, Jansen? Seeing as how you’d be going down for murder if you pull that trigger, it must be something pretty spectacular.”
She scoffed. “I will not be going down for anything. Spencer still runs this City, and I’ll be taken care of once you’re gone.”
I gave her a pitying look. “And you think Bennett is just going to fall right back into your engagement if you off me?”
“We have a binding contract!” she screeched, her hand shaking even more. “If you would just die , we could put everything back the way it was.”
Chad yanked on my arms, and sharp pain shot through my shoulders. “Shut the fuck up, bitch. Jansen, she’s trying to distract you. Fucking do it .”
“I dunno, Chad,” I said, trying to calm my thundering heart. I had to watch Harper so, so carefully or else I really would be fucked. “That’s her bad wrist, and that hand looks pretty wobbly. I’d say it’s fifty-fifty whether it’s you or me who gets the bullet.”
“Chad! Make her stop talking! ”
“What’s in this for you, Chad?” I went on. “An attaboy from James Spencer himself?”
“Try a fucking Heirship,” he growled behind me. “Hendrickson elevated to Four Families status. Knight fucking wiped from the City completely. You at the bottom of the fucking river where you belong. Everything I could ever want.”
James Spencer sure did love dangling a seat at the table of the fabled Four Families to entice people to kill me.
I was getting so fucking tired of it.
“Chad, she needs to be still!” Harper snapped.
“Come on, Jansen, for fuck’s sake!” Chad screamed back at her.
The moment I clocked the twitch of her finger—the same moment that thundering footsteps sounded along the walkway behind her—I moved.
I dropped like a rock, startling Chad as he lurched forward to hang onto my arms. The blast of the gunshot sounded, and an excruciating pain ripped through my right shoulder.
Zach’s panicked shout came next. “Jojo!”
Blood splattered all over me. I felt it wash over my head, my neck, dripping down my back as I hit the deck hard.
Harper screamed. Bennett tackled her to the ground, her gun clattering to the teak floor where Noah scooped it up and flicked the safety on, stashing it in his pocket before pivoting to run to me.
I rolled, turning to face the back of the boat.
Strong arms banded around me while I watched with detached fascination as Chad stumbled backward, his fleshy hands now clamped around his own neck.
Harper’s bullet had hit him there, and he was helpless to stop the bleeding or the momentum of his stocky form as he slammed into the railing and flipped right over the side. No scream, just a loud splash.
And then fucking Chad Hendrickson—asshole of the highest order, idiot bully, and confirmed sexual predator—was gone.