swung as hard as she could. The crush of the metal cylinder connecting with his head was sickening, but it worked. The man dropped. She didn't even care if he was dead, because fuck all of them.
This time, she was fighting back. She might be the goddamned damsel in distress, but no one said she had to be helpless. Rhaven moved to the next one and swung again, but he saw her in time to dodge. She still managed to hit him in the shoulder. He lunged for her and she jumped back, changing her grip on the extinguisher to wield it more like a baseball bat. When the asshole tried it again, she was ready.
One hard hit against his gut made the man drop. She followed up with her foot in his face, hoping her round-toed ankle boots would be hard enough to hurt. The man groaned and lay still, which had to be good enough.
But Braden still had four on him, and her man was fighting for all he had. While three of them pounded on him, Braden pummeled another guy, roaring like he'd lost his mind. Rhaven swung at one of the others just as a blur rushed toward them. She jerked back, expecting another attacker - only to find Chance jumping in without hesitation.
Now the odds were a little more even. Three of them against four bad guys, and Rhaven wasn't going to lose. She swung with her extinguisher. Chance threw some guy onto the ground. Braden handled two of them. For a moment, everything was fine. It looked like they were winning. She was sure this was going to be ok - and then pain flared in her back.
Her weapon fell to the ground and she gasped, unable to find her breath. Another hit came, then another, and she couldn't even cry for help. The sounds around her began to feel muffled and her eyes glazed, blurring the scene so that she couldn't keep up with everything that was happening.
Then Chance snarled, "You! I warned you."
And he lunged over Rhaven's body to grab her attacker. She heard the sound of a fist on flesh. She could see someone lying on the ground just beside her. More than anything, she wanted to call out for more help, but her lungs just wouldn't fill. Her diaphragm wouldn't cooperate, but that wouldn't stop her.
Shoving a hand to the floor, Rhaven made it to her knees and threw her body weight at one of the guys attacking her lover. It was just enough, even if she was going to pay for it, but thankfully, crashing into the ground with him jolted her body enough for her to breathe again. Sucking in a breath, she got her arm up in time to block a hit, thrusting her other toward the man's crotch.
And then the whoosh of a fire extinguisher sounded at the desk. Deviant wasn't about to let their world burn. No, they would fight to the end.
Chapter 20
Zara had just fallen asleep when some super-sonic screeching woke her up with a start. Crysis crawled on top of her and began licking her face, clearly as upset by the sound as she was. That had to be a fire alarm - or something! Shit. Fire. Burning.
Immediately, she was out of bed, pulling on her pants, finding shoes, and grabbing Crysis. The leash got attached, and she opened the door to the room to find Chance on the other side. He must've been banging, but she hadn't been able to hear it over the sound of the alarm.
"What's going on?" she asked.
He shook his head, making it clear he couldn't hear her, then pointed toward the side. Yeah, evacuations. Zara hurried that way, rounding the corner of the wall to find Amy, Mark, and Dez coming down from the apartment. Smoke was rolling into the warehouse from the lobby area, and one of the extinguishers was missing.
On the far side of the room, Braden was struggling with the other. He couldn't get the case open! Zara took a single step that way when Chance grabbed her arm, turned her toward Dez's desk, and pointed. She nodded, waving for Amy and the rest to catch up, and Chance ran to help Braden. The whole thing was chaos. They couldn't talk over the sound, and everyone was going in different directions.
So Zara pulled out her phone, scrolled to Jason's contact, and typed in an X. Pressing send, she sent another message that the