Page 32 of Choosing Stella

His hand disappeared inside his coat.

I dropped Stella’s bag.

“Back.”

She moved immediately.

The man lunged past me for Stella instead of reaching for a gun.

I caught his wrist before he reached her and drove him into the wall. Something metallic skittered across the floor—a prepared syringe.

Stella made a sharp sound behind me.

The stairwell door slammed again, and a second man came through low and fast, trying to get around me.

Stella kicked the dropped syringe away before he could reach it, then backed toward the apartment side of the hall instead of letting herself get trapped between the two men.

The first man drove an elbow toward my throat.

I turned, took it against my shoulder, and hit him hard enough in the ribs to fold him.

The second grabbed Stella’s jacket.

She twisted instead of pulling straight back and slammed the heel of her hand into his face.

He cursed.

I caught the back of his coat and dragged him away from her.

He spun with a knife.

I trapped his wrist, drove it down against the edge of the wall, and heard the weapon clatter to the floor.

The first attacker recovered behind me.

Stella saw him before I did.

“Geo!”

I ducked.

His fist went over my shoulder.

I turned into him and put him down with two strikes.

The second man tore free and ran for the stairwell.

The first followed.

I started after them.

Then Stella made a strangled sound.

I stopped.

Her hand was against the wall again.

Her face was pale, her eyes wide, and her breathing came too fast.