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Spinelli’s laughter stopped as he jerked his aim back to me. He wasn’t fast enough. I returned fire with two quick shots. With a groan, he crumpled. His gun clattered to the floor.
“Duke,” Serena sobbed, maybe not realizing my body armor had done its job.
Even so, when I tried to breathe, the pain was at least a twelve on the ten-point scale. It got even worse when I lifted myself off the floor. I heard gunfire as I worked through the pain to kick Spinelli’s gun away and get to my woman.
“He shot you,” she sobbed. “He shot you.”
Pulling my knife, I cut through the tape binding her. “In. The. Vest,” I grunted through painful breaths. I’d taken a hit in the vest before. But on deployment, I’d had an armor plate to spread the impact. This soft vest didn’t do that.
She fell against me as I cut the last binding. “I thought he killed you,” she sobbed.
“It takes a lot more than that to kill a Cobra.”
She laughed, which had been my intention.
Bam. The wood floor splintered at Serena’s feet.
“Hands up, or she gets the next one.”
Like a fool, I’d taken my eyes off Pons.
Serena
Pons had grabbedthe gun from the corner and had it aimed at us.
Duke froze. “Do as he says.”
I lifted my hands, as did Duke. More shots came from another room.
Tony Spinelli moaned. “Get me a doctor.”
Pons ignored him. “Two fingers only. Take out your gun and drop it,” he said, like they did in the movies.
Duke moved left, away from me, lifted his gun out of his holster, and dropped it on the floor.
“Now kick it to me.”
I moved right to increase the separation between us that Duke had created. When Pons kept his gun aimed at me, I implored my man, “Cobra, don’t.” I needed his training to kick in. “He won’t shoot me. He needs what I know.”
Pons laughed and shifted his aim to Duke. “Then I’ll shoot him if you don’t tell me right now.”
I stepped to the right. “Do that, and I won’t ever tell you.”
He turned to aim at me. “A bullet to the liver will ensure your death, but not before my drugs get the truth out of you.”
I thought I was brave, but the idea of getting shot in the stomach curdled my blood.
“No, Serena,” Duke said.
Negotiating with a maniac sucked. I stepped toward him anyway. “Let him go, and I’ll tell you.”
He swung his gun to Duke again.
The look on Duke’s face was pure pain. “Serena, stay back.”
Asshole Pons wanted to pump me full of drugs, rape me, sell me to a Russian mobster, and now shoot me, on top of polluting our water. He was lower than pond scum, and I’d had enough of him.
Pons waved the gun at me. “Tell me or I’ll shoot him.”
