blinked his vision clear and saw the woman he’d thought was Jennifer Scott underneath him. The oven-cleaner foam still clung to her face in places. The chemicals had scorched her skin, leaving vivid red burns. She was bleeding from burst capillaries in her eyes, and she stared up at him blankly, unseeing. She was blind. Probably for life.
For a split second, the doctor in Beck wanted to help her, even though he’d caused her injuries. He hesitated for just a moment, unsure of what to do. She had to be in tremendous pain.
But it didn’t even slow her down. She reached up, found Beck’s face with her hands, and immediately landed two hard punches to his head.
Beck tried to grab her, to stop her, but her fists were as fast as a boxer’s. She hit him again. And again.
It suddenly became painfully clear that this woman had killed Jennifer Scott. She had been trained, and probably knew a dozen ways to kill him with her bare hands, even as injured as she was.
She hit him again. Then her hands found his throat. She dug her thumbs into his Adam’s apple and started to squeeze.
He had to get up, get away from her.
With everything he had, Beck knocked her hands away from his neck, and staggered backward.
He fell on his ass and bounced into the kitchen island. He felt it come loose, pulling away from the floor.
Beck became aware of Susan, suddenly jumping into the fight. He wanted to shout at her to stay back, but he could barely breathe, let alone speak. Susan was already on the woman. She was trying to rescue him.
The woman couldn’t see Susan, but it didn’t matter. As soon as Susan landed on her, the woman punched her hard and fast in the chest, stomach, and throat. Susan recoiled in pain, and the woman kicked up with both legs and sent Susan flying.
She hit the kitchen island and knocked it completely away from the floor. Beck heard wood splinter as Susan fell back and hit her head on the refrigerator door.
She slumped to the floor and didn’t move.
Beck saw her fall and felt rage hit him like a tidal wave. It swamped all his thoughts. All he wanted to do was hurt the woman. He scrambled toward her on the floor, ready to beat her, to strangle her with his bare hands—
Only she’d found the gun again.
The woman turned and aimed it in Beck’s direction. Blindly. But she was close enough. She could not miss at this range.
Beck was dead.
Chapter 16
Beck didn’t even have time to close his eyes. He knew that she was going to pull the trigger and kill him, and there was nothing he could do.
Then Beck noticed something. The barrel of the gun was bent slightly where he’d hit it with the frying pan.
He wondered, stupidly, what that would do to the gun.
He found out a split second later as the blind assassin pulled the trigger—and the gun exploded in her hand.
Beck went completely deaf in that one ear again, but he could still hear the woman’s wail of pain as she pulled back her mangled hand. The bullet had caught in the chamber and backfired. She screamed louder and louder, clutching her bloodied fist to her chest.
Beck tried, again, to attack. He was clumsy and off-balance, but he knew this was the best chance he had to stop her, to subdue her before she could recover.
But she’d been trained, and he had not.
She intercepted him as he tried to tackle her, rolled with his momentum, and threw him painfully through the kitchen doorway into the living room.
Beck hit the floor hard, feeling the concrete under the thin carpet. He realized she was still screaming, an unholy wail of pain and rage. He tried to stand, and she was immediately on top of him again. She was like some demon dragging him down. They both landed on the floor.
She scrambled over his body, searching with her undamaged hand, looking for any vulnerable spot. He tried to kick her away. She landed another punch, this one deep in his stomach, and for a second, all the air left his lungs. A second later, her right foot swung around and clobbered Beck in the head.
He saw stars. His limbs stopped working for a moment. When he got control of his body again, she’d already put her feet on either side of his neck. Then she had a leg-lock around his throat, just like