Page 38 of Cherished By the Sinners

The conversation around her faltered and most of the restaurant patrons turned toward the restaurant entrance.Darlene followed their gazes and saw several people in the hotel’s reception uniform running about.

“What’s going on?”she asked of no one in particular.

Multiple notification dings sounded around her.

Fen looked at her phone.Her eyes got wide.“There is an active shooter in the hotel across the street.Police are in our lobby setting up a command center.We are supposed to go back to our rooms.”

“Magnus mentioned a bunch of emergency vehicles on the street earlier,” Darlene said getting up and scooting out of the booth with the ladies.They all headed out of the restaurant, the Chinese ladies, the Japanese guests, and—after a quick check over her shoulder—the well-dressed friends of the cop.

The lobby was full of police officers in various uniforms as well as suits.They were well-armed with standard handguns and semi-automatic weapons.Enough to start a small war.

Darlene split from her new friends at the elevators, going to the staff elevators around the corner.She went up to her floor and walked to her room.

Magnus’s scent from his jacket was oddly pleasing and she ducked her head to inhale a lungful of it.

She pulled her room keycard out of her back pocket and moved to open her door, but movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention.

The two men from the restaurant were sprinting down the hallway toward her in near complete silence.

For a long second, she froze, unable to move, or even breathe.The same cold fear held her in its grasp...but this is now, not then, and she’d already survived things they couldn’t imagine.

They grabbed her, each taking one of her arms, lifting her off her feet, and running toward the stairs at the other end of the hallway.

She screamed as something hot and acidic tore through her bloodstream.She kicked and flailed and tried to butt their heads.When that didn’t work, she lunged up and sank her teeth into the only flesh she could reach.The ear of the thug on her left.

He shouted and swore and hit her, but she shook her head back and forth, as if she was a dog trying to kill a rat.His punches lacked power and leverage.

His partner shoved open the door to the emergency stairwell.

Blood filled her mouth, but she didn’t let go.She sawed her teeth back and forth until a hunk of cartilage came loose.She spit it and her mouthful of blood into the Thug’s eyes.

His partner, Thug Two, punched her in the face.

Thug One stumbled, lost his footing, and practically launched himself down the concrete stairs.He would have dragged her down with him, but Thug Two yanked her out of his grasp.It nearly pulled her arm out of its socket.

Thug One’s head smashed into a step.His body collapsed and flopped all the way down to the first landing.

Thug One down, Thug Two to go.

She kneed Thug Two in the nuts as hard as she could.When he doubled over, she jabbed a finger in his eye.He reared back, stumbling, but caught himself with his free hand.

“Stop,” he yelled at her.

“Let go,” she shouted right in his ear, then tried to catch it with her teeth like she did with Thug One.

He punched her again.

The world dissolved into pain and darkness.