Tall, Silent & Lethal (Pyte/Sentinel #4)(95)

Sooner or later he would have her.

It was only a matter of time.

*-*-*-*

“Any casualties?” she heard Ephraim ask as she stood there, frozen in fear as she watched Christofer make his way to her, his intent clear.

“No,” Chris groaned, “we just got our asses handed to us.”

It was then that she realized that she could hear the sounds and conversations from the lobby and nearly sagged with relief. She opened her mouth to ask for help, but Chris’ next words stopped her.

“We can’t leave her to handle him,” he said, sounding like he was in a great deal of pain. “He’ll tear her apart.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Ephraim said, sounding winded. “But you’re not going. Keep your ass here.”

“I’m fine,” she heard Chris grit out.

“You won’t survive another round with him.”

“I said I’m fine!”

“You can barely walk, ass**le,” Caine snapped.

“We need to seal the corridor off and I’m not doing it with her still in there!” Chris shouted, sounding truly worried for her. In that instant he’d earned her forgiveness and respect. She also knew that she couldn’t risk any of them coming to her rescue.

Closing her eyes in resignation. “I’ve got this. Don’t worry, guys. Just….just have some extra blood ready afterwards,” she said, knowing that she was going to need it.

She didn’t wait around to make sure that they’d heard her since she needed to move her ass and quickly. So, she opened her eyes, turned around and swore as she found herself facing another long hallway. The only difference between this hallway and the one that she was escaping was the scent of chlorine and the sharp white tiles that lined the walls and floor.

An idea came to her, one that she prayed would work. It was something that she remembered from her early days in the Girl Scouts. Even though she knew that it probably wouldn’t help, she slammed the door shut behind her, hoping the scent of chlorine would confuse him. She ran down the corridor, ignoring the doors that didn’t look promising and followed the heavy scent of chlorine and the sounds of what she hoped was a filter.

“MINE!”

“Oh, shit!” she squeaked, wondering how she’d got herself into this.

Oh, that’s right, she’d gone psycho on him first and payback was a bitch.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” she said, risking a look back and finding the hallway behind her still empty.

Another idea came to her, one that she hoped would confuse him and give her a chance to test out one of the new skills that Christofer promised that she could do now. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she would be able to pull it off or that it would work, but she was definitely willing to try it if it meant saving her throat from another shredding.

With that in mind, she grabbed the next doorknob that she came across, twisted the knob until it broke off, shoved the door open, tore her shirt off and threw it inside and ran. A few seconds later she was doing the same thing with one of her shoes and kept doing it until she found herself in just her panties and in front of a double door that clearly led to the pool.

She yanked the door open, praying that the pool was empty and ran inside. When she spotted the large Olympic size pool, she spared a second to make sure that she was alone. A few seconds later she was running straight for the pool and diving in, praying that her old Troop leader was right about water hiding scents otherwise she was going to be sending the old bitch a strongly worded letter after this.

Chapter 41

“Lying bastard,” she sputtered as she came to the surface and grabbed blindly for the edge of the pool.

When Christofer had explained that she didn’t really need to breathe, he’d forgotten to mention that she could still drown. That tidbit of information would have come in handy, especially before she’d tried to hide from him at the bottom of an Olympic sized pool. If she’d known just how painful it was to hold your breath for, she looked at her watch, five minutes, she would have come up with a plan B. Now she needed to-

Scream her head off as she was suddenly grabbed by the arms and abruptly pulled out of the pool.

“Quiet,” the glaring bastard that she didn’t like said softly as he set her on her unsteady feet and shoved her behind him.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, hastily crossing her arms over her bare br**sts as she risked a peek past him and immediately wished that she hadn’t. “Oh, shit,” she muttered, locking eyes with Christofer, who stood directly across from them on the other side of the pool. He watched them through glowing red eyes that looked a hell of a lot more intense than they had when he’d made love to her earlier.

“Collecting another fee,” Kale said, shoving her back with his body as he took a step back from the edge of the pool and drew his weapon out of its holster.

“Another fee?” she asked, frowning as she took another step back all while keeping her eyes locked on Christofer, terrified that if she looked away from him even for a second that she’d find herself pinned beneath him with her throat ripped out again.

“A mover’s fee,” Kale said, shoving her back again.

“A mover’s fee?”

“Are you going to repeat everything I say?” Kale snapped, shoving her back again.