Among the Echoes(15)

I startle awake with a creak from the front door. I scrub my hands over my face, trying to get my bearings. It takes me a few seconds to realize where I am. I immediately glance to the woman sleeping soundly at the other end of the couch. When my eyes swing back around to figure out what woke me, I come face to face with the barrel of a gun.

"Don’t f*cking move," I hear a man growl, but in the darkness, I can’t see his face.

I should lift my hands in submission. People always tell you not to fight, and if I were alone, I probably wouldn’t. But the fact remains that I’m not alone and my fierce need to protect the woman next to me erases all rational thinking. I won’t allow her to be scared again.

As fast as I can possibly move, I push the gun aside with one hand and land the other with a hard fist against his temple. He falls back with a grunt and the gun goes flying. We both jump toward it, fighting as we tangle on the ground. He rolls me to my back and lands a few punches to my face. I guard myself as much as possible, but I’m useless on the ground. I shove him to the side, knocking his head hard into the end table.

In the distance, Riley begins to scream, and the sound of her fear only fuels my fire. I land a punch to the gunman’s face that dazes him, but I don’t let up. This isn’t a match where the ref is going to stop me; this is a fight for survival. Pound after pound, my fists land against his skull until his body eventually goes limp under me.

I need to find Riley and get us both the f*ck out of here. I don’t know who that was, but it’s clear that she has more than enough reason to be afraid.

"Don’t move," I hear her demand from the corner.

My eyes immediately find hers from where she stands across the darkened room. Her arms are raised and the gun she is holding shakes wildly in her hands.

"We need to get out of here," I say very calmly, careful not to frighten her. "Put the gun down." I push to my feet and take a step towards her.

"Don’t move," she pleads with a whine as the tears stream down her cheeks.

"I won’t hurt you. I promised you that. But I need to get you out of here. You have to trust me. We have to go before he wakes up."

She stares blankly at me for a second before she loses grasp of her emotions. A sob rips from her throat as she very slowly lowers the gun.

I rush forward, lifting her small body into my arms. "Shh… It’s okay. Don’t look."

Looping an arm around my neck, she melts into my touch. I'm almost to the door when a weak voice comes from the man lying bloody on the floor.

"Riley," he gurgles, and she explodes in my arms.

"Leo!" she screams, fighting from my grasp. I hold her tight, desperate to restrain her. "Leo! Oh God. What did you do!" she shouts at me, breaking free and rushing to his side.

What did I do?

At the last second, I catch her around the waist, dragging her away. I have no idea who he is, but I’m not letting her anywhere near that man.

"Let me go!" She kicks and hits me, all the while screaming his name.

"You need to calm the f*ck down. I just woke up to him holding a gun in my face. Who the hell is he?"

"He’s my..." she starts but pauses for a beat before finishing. "He’s not the enemy."

"You don’t know that," I growl.

"That might be the only thing I really do know," she retorts before spinning out of my arms and heading to his side. "Leo. Oh God." She kneels over his body, carefully inspecting him.

He grunts and reaches up to palm the back of her head, pulling it to his chest with a sigh. "I’m okay," he rasps.

"No, you’re not. You have a deep laceration over your left eye and a possible left orbital fracture too." I listen to her ramble off medical terminology, even more confused than ever.

I watch with a sick feeling in my stomach as she begins to repair him. Is he why she is afraid? Is he the man she was searching for earlier? Or better yet, is he the man she was flinching from when I tried to touch her?

"I need ice," she demands, but I don’t move an inch.

"There’s some in my apartment," I say quietly, but no one could mistake my menacing tone. I need three minutes with this man. One round—that’s all it would take to give him a little reminder. I would really only need half of that, but with the way Riley reacted, I have a feeling I would need the next ninety seconds to clean up.