He didn’t go down, probably because of a bulletproof vest.
I got hit three times right in the heart, but my vest protected me. I finally got him down, but Joe opened fire. His driver did the same.
I moved behind another car and took cover while they shattered the windows. I waited for them to burn through their rounds before I took aim again. I reloaded then fired again, destroying the doors to the SUV.
Another car sped down the road, the headlights becoming visible. He halted to a stop, and more men got out.
Shit.
He had had more backup.
Fuck, I was outnumbered. Even I couldn’t do this.
I pulled the grenade from my pouch and threw it at the SUV.
They all ran for cover.
I sprinted into the alleyway, but not before I took a bullet to the arm.
“Fuck.” I didn’t slow down, sprinting hard and making more blood ooze from the wound because my heart was working so fast.
I knew these streets better than they did since I’d slept on these sidewalks. So I cut across different alleyways and took alternate roads, even the ones that had been torn up and closed for decades.
I was losing a lot of blood and growing weaker by the second.
I wanted to call for backup but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t drag Max into this.
So I kept going until I found the right place to hide. I ripped off my shirt underneath my sweater and vest and secured my wound, applying as much pressure as I could. Then I turned off my cell so they couldn’t find the signal as they searched the streets for me.
I’d be there until morning. And maybe even longer.
I laid low until the following evening.
When the night was at its deepest, I got into a taxi and headed back to my apartment.
I didn’t catch sight of any of Joe’s men.
They must have assumed I got away and gave up. They would try to figure out who I was, but other than seeing glimpses of my face in the dark, they didn’t have much to go off of. I didn’t leave anything behind in the car, and the car wasn’t even mine.
But it would make it much more difficult to kill him now.
He’d be waiting for me.
My sweater covered my injury so no one would know I’d been shot. Black was a great color to wear if you were trying to hide blood. But the bullet was painful, and I’d lost more blood than I should have. I needed to remove the artifact from my body and have it properly dressed.
And I needed antibiotics—immediately.
If it grew into an infection, then I would have a serious problem.
Going to any hospital wasn’t an option. Joe’s men would be checking the records every hour, hoping I would show up.
I was just around the corner from my place when I thought of Vanessa.
She must be worried out of her mind. She made me promise I’d come back.
I always kept my promises. Soon enough, she would see. I wondered what her face would look like. Would there be tears? Would she be angry? Would she fuck me harder than she ever had before because she was relieved I was back?
Or would she just be disappointed instead?
Disappointed that I hadn’t died.
The thought hurt more than I wanted it to.
When I finally arrived at my place, I took the elevator to my floor. The doors opened, and I found Vanessa standing right in the entryway, her eyes red and puffy from not sleeping. She was still in the same clothes she’d been wearing when I’d left. The second she laid eyes on me, her hands moved through her hair, and she breathed a sigh of relief so loud it could reach through solid glass. “You fucking asshole. You told me you would be back by the afternoon at the latest. It’s almost midnight. You didn’t call, you didn’t text, nothing. How could you—”
“I’m here.” I cupped her cheeks and kissed her, caring more about that mouth than the gunshot wound in my bicep. My fingers dug into her hair even though they were dirty and smelled like metal from the gun. My lips moved with hers, bringing her down to a sense of calm. “Baby, I always keep my promises.”
She pulled away from my lips and looked at me, still angry but not as much as before. “What happened? Why are you home so late? Did something go wrong?”
I got hard watching the concern spread across her face. She couldn’t downplay her worry in the moment, not when she was so relieved I was back. If this were a different situation, she would have hidden her true feelings as much as possible. But right now, she simply couldn’t do it.
“Stop smiling like that. This isn’t funny.”
“I’m laughing.”
“But you’re grinning like there’s something humorous about this situation.” Her green eyes flashed with ferocity. “You went to kill someone, and when you didn’t come back…I thought you might never come back.”