Page 39 of Blood in the Water

Another two shots rang out from somewhere else. Quickly, I tapped the camera feeds on my tablet. There. The main hallway entering the building. Two bodies lay on the ground, with two other people gently stepping over them. I switched the feed. Another two bodies lay outside.

Who else was here? And why the hell were they encroaching on my mission?

“Fuck, we gotta get outta here, man,” one of the other guards said from below. “Let’s grab the girls and leave!”

Oh, no, you don’t. I let another bullet fly. The man crumpled.

The back door to the warehouse opened, and the three remaining traffickers instantly snapped in that direction.

“Who the hell are you?!” One of the scumbags yelled.

I took that opportunity to finish them.

Three more bullets. Three more disgusting lives were wiped from this earth.

Then everything went quiet.

The women still huddled together on the mattresses. A few sobbed, their cries breaking the eery silence that had befallen the warehouse. Some stared straight ahead like the life had already left them.

The woman wearing the sequined sweater covered her ears with her hands and screamed. “Please don’t kill us!”

They weren’t safe yet. Not with these other unknown intruders.

I couldn’t get a good look at them from my perch in the rafters, so I quickly got to my feet and hoisted my rifle over my shoulder. I gingerly maneuvered down the catwalk, keeping my eye on the movement below.

Here. This would give me a view.

I crouched, resting the rifle against one of my knees as I stared down the barrel.

And then froze.

There were two people slowly making their way toward the victims. One man dressed in all black, holding two guns out in front of him. By the way he carried the weapons, checked every possible hiding place, and began to sweep the room, it was clear he had training. He knew what he was doing, and he had killed before.

Behind him followed a woman. I could see her clearly through the scope, andshewas the reason I had frozen, my finger hovering over the trigger yet unable to squeeze. She was relatively small in stature, with bright red hair that burned even in the darkness. There was something about her that made me literally unable to look away. I followed her with my scope as the two people got closer and closer to the women.

My brain screamed at me to shoot, to take them down. They were both unknown variables. Unaccounted for. Unplanned. They could hurt these women.

But still, I couldn’t move.

She wasbeautiful. Breathtaking.

It had taken me years of therapy, at my sister’s insistence, before I’d even considered romantic relationships. I’d been with women since. I’d experienced the attraction and anticipation, though it was always more muted than I expected was normal. Normalcy was something I’d never experience again.

Even so, I’d never felt this. My heart had never beat so fast in my entire life. Not even when Obi held my head under ice-cold water until I thought I was going to drown. Not even when Ryuji had a gun to my temple and pulled the trigger.

Nothinghad ever come close the moment I saw her face through that scope.

There was a cord wrapped around my chest, pulling me directly to her. I had a compulsion to throw my weapon down, run to her, and stare directly at her in order to understand what had me so transfixed.

She carried a gun and followed closely behind the man, but it was clear she did not have the same amount of skill. She didn’t move with the same careful yet lethal intention, but she had her eyes trained on the victims.

“Are you okay?” she shouted. “Are there any other guards? We’re here to help!”

The women, still sobbing, only retreated further on the mattress.

“The traffickers are all dead,” I yelled down below, still watching her through my scope. “I finished them myself.”

Instantly, the two of them snapped in my direction. The man held his guns trained on me, but I knew he could barely see me. He wouldn’t fire unless he were sure.