AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Everyone who heard me interpreted the message differently. Knot swears, and then I hear him talking on his phone. Savile, who’s halfway to the barn door walking backward, speeds up, thinking I’ve changed my mind. Birdie just gives up. Her pleading eyes fall away from mine as she shrinks into herself.
She’s still wearing the ankle chain, which is still wrapped around her neck. The opposite end that had been attached to the bed now drags the ground.
The cold links brush against Birdie’s right hand, and her eyes light up with an idea. She wraps her fingers around the chain and lifts her eyes to mine in a silent plea. Since this is her life, I figure it’s her choice, and I’ll be damned if I let her fight this bastard alone. I nod ever so slightly and get ready to launch.
Birdie pulls the chain up until it hangs in a loop. She grips the length in both hands and mouths a silent countdown. Three, two, one. On go, she slings the chain over her head as hard as she can, striking Savile’s face and stunning him.
At the same time Birdie does, I notice that after the chain made contact, the loop fell around the back of Savile’s neck.
“Birdie, drop!” I yell.
Birdie throws all her weight at the ground, yanking the chain downward as she falls. The move launches Savile over her shoulder, but the bastard still holds the loops around her neck.
She’s no better off when she lands. Their momentum rolls her and Savile, and the chain around her neck tightens. Birdie ends up partially on top of Savile, struggling to breathe. I push off the ground to free her and hear Cooper’s voice through the radio. He must have been patched into our coms and is yelling over and over again, “Do not kill him, Laurent!”
No promises. Before I can cover the fifteen feet separating us, Savile rolls them over and straddles Birdie’s stomach. He holds the chain in one hand and the knife over her heart with the other as blood trickles down his face. “Seems like we’re right back where we started.”
If it weren’t for the knife, I’d rush him. I freeze, throwing my hands in the air. “You’re killing her!” I yell for the benefit of those listening. Even though I understand why they can’t rush the building, I’m out of options and need help.
“Does anybody have a clean shot at this mother fucker?!” Knot demands.
“I have a shot, but unless Bash moves, he’s gonna eat it,” Kai reports. “It would be bad but not fatal.”
“If he twitches, that bastard will knife her,” Knot says.
While they argue, Birdie’s lips are turning blue. Her eyes aren’t even open anymore. “She’s fucking dying! Do it!” I yell.
Savile’s eyes bulge in shock and confusion at my command right before Cooper yells, “Fire!”
The blast and searing pain in my side happen almost simultaneously. Savile goes limp, and the hand holding the knife slides off Birdie’s chest. I suck in a deep breath and blow it out through gritted teeth. “Savile’s down.”
Ignoring the fire in my middle, I rush to Birdie’s side, throwing Savile off her and loosening the chain from her neck. She isn’t breathing.
The barn doors screech the rest of the way open, and Knot rushes through with Kai and Chelsea close behind. Ignoring them, I begin chest compressions on Birdie. My head swims as I bend down to breathe for her, and two extra hands join the fray, shoving me to the side. Chelsea checks for a pulse and yells. “We have a beat! Give her another breath!”
Fighting off lightheadedness, I bend down and blow into her mouth once more. Birdie coughs and sputters between gasps, but she’s breathing on her own again.
I’m dizzy with relief to see her chest rise and fall and rip off my shirt to cover her bare torso. Birdie wouldn’t like being seen like this. The fabric smears blood all over her thighs, pulling Chelsea’s attention to me.
Several shouts in the background barely register as Birdie’s eyes flutter open. The fear ripping at my chest starts to recede, and I reach down to pick up her hand, pressing it against my bare chest. Voice like glass because of her damaged vocal cords, she says, “You found me.”
“I had to. I’m lost without you.”
She moves the hand from my chest to wipe the wetness from my cheek and sits up. The shirt begins to fall, so I grab it and help her pull it on. Birdie’s hand goes to her throat as Chelsea and I help her stand, but then she panics seeing my bloody wound.
Savile starts laughing then. I guess Kai’s shot wasn’t fatal. Kai holds a bandage to the bastard’s chest below his collarbone, though he looks like he’d prefer to drill him.
“It must be nice to finally have a loyal friend. I didn’t tell you, but your friend Amelia, after I fucked her and before I strung her up by the swing set chain, I told her about you. I explained that I beat the shit out of her because I was angry she showed up instead of you. The funny thing is that she promised to deliver you to me if I let her live. Your friend wanted to sell you out to save her own ass.”
Birdie vibrates beside me in anger. I know why Cooper wants him alive, but I hope he dies. I would have liked for his end to be much more painful, but I’ll take what I can get.
I lift an arm to wrap it around Birdie’s shoulders, but she flings herself at Savile, grabbing the knife that was kicked away from his hand. She plunges the blade into his throat and whispers, “My friend was a scared kid trying anything she could to stay alive.”
Knot yanks Birdie off Savile, but the rest of us remain where we are. His wound isn’t survivable, not that anyone wants to save him. He tugs at the knife, somehow pulling it free but without the strength to do anything else.
His hand falls to the side, still gripping the blade, and little by little, he stops struggling, and his neck eventually stops bubbling. Now that I’ve seen with my own eyes that he’ll never threaten Birdie again, I turn to find her sobbing against Knot’s chest.
I walk over and take Birdie from Knot, pulling her into my arms. I can’t blame her for killing Savile, but worry about the ramifications. So, I stroke Birdie’s back, and I lie. “You’re safe now, Petit Oiseau.”
