Page 46 of Chad's Chase

Taking hold of my Bersa, I made small, quiet steps to the men’s door on the right of the hallway, directly opposite the women’s on the left.

Using my booted foot to quietly ease the door open, I slowly, steadily raised my gun. But before I could even press a foot inside, I heard the telltale creak of a hammer cocking, as something hard pressed against the back of my head.

Shit.

“Our fuck in the gardenreallydidn’t mean anything to you, did it?”

My body stiffened, froze, and on the inside shivers raced through me like I had a serious case of ague.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Beating the craven bitch inside me into submission, I remained still, gun still aiming at…nobody. Nobody. Because nobody was in the fucking men’s room.

The women’s restroom, that’s where he’d been all along.

Waiting for me.

This was Chadrick Niiveux! How could I have been such a bonehead?

The hard mouth of his gun moved from the back of my head, and relocated at my temple. Then his chest was—unnecessarily—pressing into my back. Not just his chest, but his fucking hard-on.

Seriously? At a time like this he was sporting a fucking hard-on?

Running his free hand down the length of my outstretched arm, he pried the gun from me. I didn’t fight. I let him have it, while struggling to ignore the rigidity of his erection as he shifted a little to tuck my gun in his waist.

“You need to consider a different career path, Blood,” he breathed down my neck, his breath hot and strong with the scent of peppermint. “Assassination is not your strong suit.”

His free hand smoothed down my side now, and tried as I did to not react to his touch, I couldn’t prevent the sharp hitch of my breath. I shouldn’t be turned on by his hands on me, because it wasn’t a caress. It was a search, and a reminder of my ineptitude.

“Playing you, Blood, is not just easy. It’sfun.” As his hand reached my waist, it paused, then moved to the buckle of my belt—camouflage throw knives holder—undid it, and stole it from around my waist. “And amajorturn-on.” With a simple flex of his wrist, the belt bounced off the wall and hit the ground in an inharmonious clatter of leather and metal. “I’m so hard and hot for you, I could fuck you into oblivion right here, right now without a flipping care we’re in public…but it would only be a waste of my precious time, wouldn’t it?”

As his hand returned to my waist to resume his search, I took a deep breath, steeled myself, and made my move.

Driving my elbow upward and back, I knocked the gun from his hand, then spun around and rammed my knee upward, aiming for his ribs, but he was too tall for me, so my knee impacted his side instead.

An expletive exploded from him as his hands flew to his side, gripping cotton and flesh, as though he were trying to rip the pain out. Fighting was my fucking forte. I delivered painfully solid blows and could kill in an instant with my bare hands if I were determined. Twelve months with my trainer, and at thirteen I was knocking him on his ass. The man had been astounded.

So Chad would know better next time not to underestimate me empty-handed.

Taking advantage of his distraction from the pain, I crouched down and nimbly tried to free my Colt from the ankle holster in my boot.

Chad’s foot was a black blur as it moved through the air and connected into my side, kicking me over.

Intense pain bulleted through me, and, unable to swallow it, an agonizing cry tore up my throat. It was like dynamite imploded inside me. Abandoning the gun in my boot, I clutched my side and folded at the pain.

“Tit for fucking tat,” he said. No smooth or suave or safe this time. But pissed-the-hell-off. Dark. Scary. Hideous.

Bending slightly at the knees, he hauled me up by my ponytail and mercilessly flung me against the wall like I was just a smelly skunk. Next second, his gun was under my chin.

So black, hard, and cold were his eyes under the visor of his ball cap that a rush of breath blew through me as,something, as heavy as an anchor, tanked inside me.

Who knew fear was this heavy?

Remember when I said I felt safe with him? Well, not this time. This time, I was very, very afraid.

This moment reminded me of the night he’d murdered my parents, how I’d gone from believing he was my savior to realizing he was the Night Rider.

All this time, all this training, so many lives easily and unerringly taken, and I was still an ignorant, incompetent fool.