No Escape From War (Trouble for Hire #1) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,73
the kitchen. Weaving a little, but upright. Still covered in blood. But up. “War?”
He grabbed her. Shoved her behind him. “G-go. Told you…g-go…” He yanked the rope off her neck. “Call…cops…”
“I will kill you both!” Gary promised. “You first, then her!”
“No.” That’s all War said. Just a deep, hard rumble.
A guttural yell broke from Gary. He surged toward War with his fists swinging.
War didn’t move at all. Rose was diving toward the couch and the gun that was still under it. She could get the gun and stop Gary. She could help War. She could—
Gary thudded into the floor near her.
She screamed and twisted her body.
War was straddled over him, and War pounded his fist into Gary’s face over and over. Gary was trying to fight back, but it was like watching someone swat ineffectively at a fly. His blows just seemed to rain off War.
Then War took the black rope, and he wrapped it around Gary’s neck. He tightened it as fear flooded into Gary’s expression.
“How does…that feel?” War grated.
Gary’s mouth hung open. Croaking noises emerged from him as his face became blood-red.
War didn’t let him go. Gary was still swinging at War, but his swats became even weaker. So weak that soon his hands fell to the floor.
His mouth was still wide open. So were his eyes.
She pushed up to her knees. “War?”
He didn’t look her way. “Call…cops.”
“War, he’s dying.”
He didn’t let go.
“War…” She inched toward him.
Gary’s body had just gone limp. He’d lost consciousness. How long would it take for him to die? “He’s not fighting.”
“He…shouldn’t be living. He…” War swallowed. “I won’t…last longer…have to make sure…no threat…you.”
He wouldn’t last longer? Oh, the hell, he wouldn’t. He was going to last for the next fifty years. At least. Sixty. Seventy would be fabulous. “War, let him go.”
He didn’t.
She jumped to her feet. Searched quickly and frantically and found the handcuffs that Odin had brought back to them. Rose raced to War, and she grabbed his arms. “Let go.” Because she could see—more clearly than ever—that his control was gone. War was operating on pure animal instinct.
His main instinct? It was to protect her. To eliminate any threat to her.
That threat wasn’t moving.
“War…look at me.”
War’s gaze lifted to her face. His dark stare seemed unfocused. Lost.
“He’s out. He won’t hurt me.” She wrenched up Gary’s hands and cuffed them. “He’s secure. Let him go so I can take care of you.”
“You…safe?”
“I am.”
His white-knuckled grip eased. As the rope loosened, her fingers slid to Gary’s throat. There was a weak, thready pulse. The bastard was still alive.
War fell back.
She grabbed for him. “War!”
His breath heaved out. “That’s…lot of blood.”
It was an insane amount of blood. Enough to have her losing her mind. She needed to put pressure on his wounds, but she also had to call for help because War needed an ambulance and Gary needed a cop car. She managed to find a phone, and Rose dialed nine-one-one with shaky fingers. It was only when she was giving the address to the emergency dispatcher that Rose realized her voice sounded like a raspy croak and that her throat burned and throbbed.
She put that pain out of her mind. It didn’t matter. Nothing but War mattered. The cops were coming. An ambulance was coming. War would be okay. No other option existed for her.
Her hands pushed against his chest. His blood immediately seeped through her fingers.
“Rose?”
“What is it?” When he didn’t respond and his eyes sagged shut, she yelled, “War!”
“Love…you.”
“I love you, too, so don’t you dare think of dying on me. Do you hear me? War? War? So help me…if you die on me, I will make you sorry that you were ever born.” Tears poured but she ignored them and kept up the pressure on his chest. “You don’t want to piss me off. So don’t you die. Please, War, please. Don’t die!”
Chapter Twenty-One
“You’re a lucky sonofabitch, you know that?” Odin helped himself to the yogurt on War’s hospital food tray. “You nab the killer, you get the girl, and you score more scars so your rep looks extra tough. Wins all around for you.”
War pulled his gaze away from the TV screen. His favorite reporter was about to come on the air. He didn’t want to miss the next segment but… “I wanted to kill him.”
Odin shoveled the chocolate yogurt in his mouth. “Why didn’t you?”
“Rose.”
Because she’d been staring at him. Eyes terrified. Body trembling. A red line around her neck from where the rope had