Back in Black (McGinnis Investigations #1) - Rhys Ford Page 0,67
storage shed, where I’d put all of the old things I found when refurbishing the house, her eyes lit up. Tasked with cleaning out the shed, there were quite a few things I ended up tossing, but the green monstrosity was a throwback to Claudia’s childhood, and she insisted on having it.
I was very thankful my office manager slash adopted mom had fallen in love with that damned phone.
Especially when the asshole shot at me. Point blank. Aimed straight for my head. A single bullet.
If I’d still been standing in front of him, he would have blown a hole the size of New Jersey through my skull. But since I had other plans, the piece of lead with my name on it screamed past my shoulder when I lunged for Claudia’s desk.
Once again, the woman had my back and didn’t even know it, because her damned phone was as heavy as fuck and easily broke loose from its tether after I hooked my fingers into the space below the headset rest and yanked hard. Armed with a piece of nostalgia with the heft of a refrigerator, I clobbered him across the face.
I’d like to say I felt no pleasure in smashing apart the guy’s forehead, but I’d be lying.
The first hit was hard. It had to be. There was no going back from this. I had to take the guy down as fast and hard as I could, because if he gained any advantage, I was going to die. As healthy as I tried to keep myself, there were things I’d never been able to overcome—scar tissue from the bullets Ben put in me and the chasm opening up in my chest where fear rushed in to fill. My muscles were seizing up. I hadn’t stretched out that morning, and now the burn was reminding me I was getting too old for this kind of shit.
The gun went flying, but I wasn’t going to chase it. I was done dealing with this asshole, and there was no way in hell I was going to leave him in any shape where he could get to Jae. His hands were how he made a living. They needed to go first. I wasn’t going to leave him in any condition to ever get his fingers around anything ever again. If I didn’t, he was going back to killing, and he would probably succeed if he came for me and mine one more time.
That was never going to happen. I was never ever going to walk in and find this asshole waiting for me in the dark. And I didn’t care what I had to do to make that a reality.
There wasn’t any blood splatter until the third strike of the phone down on his gun hand. I’d tackled him to the floor, pinning him in the chair and using my weight to hold him down, my free hand at his throat while I concentrated on pulverizing his fingers. The rotary chimed and rang as I smashed it down, its bell clapper striking the metal dome hidden in its guts from the wild flailing of my arm rising and falling. It was a curious infinity of noise, a jangle of bells punctuated by the snapping of crushed bones and his high-pitched screaming.
There might’ve been begging. I didn’t know. I didn’t care, and I wasn’t listening. I’d stopped listening to whatever was coming out of his mouth right after Jae’s name dropped off his tongue. I’d already lost everything once, including myself, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to go through that all over again. I wasn’t going to hold Jae’s lifeless body as he bled out, his eyes filming over and the too-painful stillness of his heart beating one last time. Not if I could help it.
Never again.
When I was done with one hand, I started on the other, working to make sure neither one of them would ever fit around a knife’s hilt or through a trigger guard. I didn’t stop until I heard Jae’s voice break through the rush of blood coursing through my brain, yelling at me to put the phone down, his hands desperately yanking at my shoulders.
I sat back then, actually resting against the man’s twitching legs because I’d ended up in his lap, nearly as trapped in the chair as he was. I couldn’t catch my breath for the fear and anger racing through me, but Jae being there helped.