Samantha realized her eyes could move. She looked up at Ajax’s face. Did she see a little bit of disgust at his job?
“I’ve got the butcher’s knife!” a familiar voice called out clearly from the back of the warehouse.
“That’s good, Mr. Anders. I was going to have a hard time sawing through bone with this knife.” Ajax smiled at his boss as he handed the Bowie knife back to Murphy.
“Bring it here, Lonnie.” Mr. Anders called out to the dark warehouse.
Samantha’s eyes moved to watch where the new knife was coming from.
Cut the girl.
Cut the girl.
Cut the girl.
“Step away from the table,” Kane McNamara said as he walked into the light, holding a gun. She heard glass break somewhere as Murphy dropped his knife, then she saw Ajax reach for his gun. Leo was behind Kane and he had a gun too.
“He’s wearing body armor,” Sam shouted.
Men from the crowd pulled out guns.
“Get on the floor, Sam!” Ezio yelled from her left.
She pushed herself sideways off the chair and fell to the ground onto her injured arm. Hard. Her body wasn’t numb anymore. She was hurting again, but she didn’t care. She might just live.
24
Ezio heard Sam yell that somebody was wearing body armor. “Body armor,” he shouted loudly as he took a head shot at one of the two men who’d been holding the man down on the table.
One of his teammates must have taken another headshot, as he saw the other man’s head explode. More shots rang out. He looked up. Leo was watching the men in the crowd as they were fighting and firing at one another. He had his gun at the ready. Asher moved to grab an unconscious man who was tied to a chair near all the fighting and pull him out of the way. Kane, meanwhile, had Bertram Anders on the ground with his boot on his neck.
Ezio ran to Sam. He groaned when he got to her—she was covered in blood.
“Sam, talk to me,” he begged her as he carefully turned her over onto her back. Her eyes were closed. He put his fingers to her neck to feel for her pulse. It seemed a little thready, but it was there. He looked for a bullet hole. All he could see was a makeshift bandage on her arm and blood all over her suit, but no bullet hole.
“Sam, look at me.”
Nothing.
He put his lips to her ear. “God, Sam, please open those beautiful baby blues.”
He felt her breath against his cheek.
“Ezio?”
“Open your eyes, please, Samantha.”
He looked at her face. Her eyes were open and filled with tears. God, he hated that.
“You came,” she gave a small smile. “You came and rescued me. See, it’s another good day.” Then her eyes slowly closed.
He checked her pulse. It was stronger and steadier now.
He held her and rocked her for a long time. She was safe and his team would take care of the rest. She was safe, that’s what mattered.
Somebody touched his shoulder. He looked up and saw Leo. “Okay, cops and an ambulance are on their way. This is what’s happening. Asher and Kane are out of here. It was you and me coming to rescue your girlfriend. My brother will be here soon. It’ll all be cool.”
“What’s going on?” Ezio looked around and saw five men and Bertram Anders, huddled against one crate with fifteen other men glaring at them, two of them holding guns.
“Turns out Anders was going to make an example of Samantha and the guy crying on the floor. Most of the men were forced to be here so they knew that Anders meant business. They are the ones holding Anders and the others at gunpoint. They’ll be talking to the cops.”
Ezio nodded. “What’s the ETA on the ambulance?”
Leo got out his cell phone and called his brother. “Five minutes.”
Ezio continued to cuddle Samantha in his arms. Kane came over with his hand out. “Need the mic and receivers, guys.”
Leo and Ezio handed them over then watched as Kane disappeared into the darkness of the warehouse. Sam whimpered in Ezio’s arms. It about killed him.
“It’s okay, Baby, the ambulance will be here soon and we’ll get you to a hospital.”
She didn’t open her eyes but whimpered again.
“Who’s that other guy?” He noticed a man who seemed to be waking up. He was propped up against another crate. He’d been beaten.
“That’s Kevin Warner.”
“Huh?” Ezio didn’t understand. “Sam’s ex?”
“That’s the one,” Leo said. “It’s a long story.”
A man walked up to them. Leo had his gun at the ready. The man held up his hands.
“I’m Jerry Fortune. I’ve dealt cards for these guys for two months. When I found out what was going on, I tried to get out, but they threatened my family. I just wanted to thank you for putting a stop to it.”
“Do you know what happened to Samantha?”
“When I got here, she was out of it, sitting on that chair. She was covered in blood, but she was upright. Man, the other guys in the crowd said they were going to cut off her hand,” he choked out. “There were a bunch of us planning on rushing the table before that could happen, even though there were a lot of guns against us.” His voice trailed off.
Ezio didn’t know if he believed him, and if he did, he didn’t know how many men would have actually joined him. But maybe he should take a page out of Samantha’s book and trust the man.
“Thank you,” he said.
“She’s something else,” Jerry said to Ezio.
In the distance, they could hear sirens.
