Page 34 of Dirty Game

Both are in street clothes, but there’s a heaviness to their walk, a familiarity.

The short one is closer. He’s got a hand on his side where she must have stabbed him.

The taller man hangs back, eyes flicking between her and the safe room door, calculating the odds.

They haven’t seen me yet.

The three seconds it takes me to analyze the field is all I need.

“Rosalynn,” I say. Calm. Steady. She doesn’t look up, but the shorter man does, and that’s when I move.

I cover the distance in three strides.

The short one turns, fumbling for a gun in his waistband, but I’m already on him.

I hit him in the throat with the edge of my hand—a move I learned from a man who died two hours after teaching it to me.

The cartilage crushes, and he drops the gun to claw at his own neck.

I catch the weapon as it falls, flip it in my palm, and put a bullet into his thigh.

He drops to his knees, and I let him stay there.

The thin man tries to run for the window.

I’m faster.

I grab him by the collar, wrench him back, and slam his face into the corner of my desk.

The first hit splits his eyebrow.

The second takes out two teeth.

On the third, I hear the crack that means he’s no longer in this fight.

I let him slide to the floor, leaving a smear of blood and hair on the wood.

Thirty seconds.

Two men neutralized, one still gasping for air, the other leaking brain matter onto the carpet.

I look at Rosalynn, who is still frozen, the knife shaking in her grip.

Her pupils are huge, swallowing the blue of her eyes.

She doesn’t scream. She doesn’t drop the knife. She doesn’t move at all.

The short one is still breathing, a wet, rattling sound.

I walk over, nudge his head with my shoe.

“You have a message for me?” I ask, lifting my foot to press on the wound in his leg.

He tries to spit at me, but he’s too busy choking on his own spit.

I lean in close. “You failed,” I say. “I guess I have to tell your boss what happens to anyone who tries to take what’s mine. Don’t worry, I’ll have my men deliver the message.”

He gurgles something in Russian.