I didn’t think it possible, but my heart slams harder as I hear Mason start to climb the stairs.
Move! my inner voice begs me. My palms are clammy against the wooden floors as I drag myself across the floor. Do something! I don’t know who’s here, I don’t know what they’ve come for. But I can’t stay here and let Mason walk into what could be his death sentence.
I crawl out as quickly as I can, the rug beside the bed burning against my forearms and the metal from the bed frame scraping against my back, but I’m out with time enough to open the door just as Mason reaches the top of the stairs. I swing the door open prepared to scream and when I do, the man is standing right there, staring at the stairwell with a gun in his hand. The thin silencer on the end is pointed straight ahead, right at where Mason should be in only a moment.
“Mason!” I yell out his name, or at least I think I do. I can’t hear anything but a loud ringing and my body is so numb from fear and the heat coursing through my body that I can barely feel a thing. As if I’m not even here. As if I’ve left my body, yet I’m still standing where I was.
The end of the gun points straight at me, only feet away with nothing in between us.
My head spins, and my vision nearly goes black from fear. I never imagined what it would be like to know that you’re dying. That you only have a precious second or two left to live.
How time would slow and my body would sway, yet be utterly still.
As I stare at the man’s cold dark eyes, it feels as if I don’t even exist anymore. They’re so brown, they’re nearly black. His skin is a beautiful tan, but it looks pale against the black turtleneck and leather jacket he’s wearing.
He doesn’t look like a killer; he’s too handsome, his clothes too expensive.
But that’s just what he is.
I’d think this was all a nightmare, if it wasn’t for the way Mason screams out and snaps me from this moment, bringing me right back as my own scream pierces my ears.
But the man doesn’t shoot, and instead he turns and runs.
Mason
“No!” The word is ripped from my throat as my body moves forward purely out of instinct. My muscles scream as I move as fast as I can, watching the end of the silencer swing toward Jules.
Not my Jules. Not my sweetheart. Take me instead.
I lunge forward to block her, but I already know it’s too late. The strike of a bullet doesn’t hit me and I can barely stand to open my eyes, my body pressed to Jules, expecting the bullet to have already found her. It’s her wide eyes and heavy breathing that hammer the message into my thick skull that she’s all right. I search her body for any sign of an injury, but she pushes my hands away. “He’s running!” she screams in my face.
He could have killed her. I saw it happen. In that split second, she was dead. It takes more than a moment to come to grips with the fact that she’s still here. She’s alive. She’s okay. And the prick who pointed a gun at her is getting away. With his back to us, he sprints toward the end of the hall and into the last bedroom.
My muscles coil as I stand up, hell-bent on killing the bastard. “Stay there!” I scream at Jules as I chase after him, my heart pounding.
He slams the door behind him, but the palms of my hands smack against it and my shoulder shoves the door open.
It all happens so fast, I can’t think, I can’t control what I do. With my hands still on the door, a fist crashes into my face, catching me off guard.
My jaw cracks as my head snaps back and he lands another blow before I’ve recovered from the first.
I bring my fists up, ready to fight, but he shoves me back, even as I strike him hard in the shoulder. He yells out in agony but doesn’t stop. The push gives him enough room to get by me. I can’t let him go. He’s fucking dead.
Fisting his jacket, I grab him with everything I’ve got, ripping at it and ignoring the shit that falls from his pocket. My nails scratch at his slacks, ripping down the fabric but I get ahold of him, tripping up his right leg and the man falls hard to the ground.
Adrenaline courses through my veins and all I can see is my fist pounding into him over and over. But then I hear her scream.
Jules cries out, terrified, and I stop to look at her, my heart leaping up my throat. I stare at her and search for the threat, the danger that’s scared her. There’s no threat that I can place. She stands there in the doorway, her hands over her mouth, pale with fright and looking so frail. It’s only when I feel the man beneath me buck his hips, lunging with all of his strength and moving so fucking fast I can’t pin him down that my attention leaves her.
“Stay in the room!” I shout at her, hating that I can’t be in two places at once. Torn between protecting her by staying close, and eliminating the danger. I launch myself forward, grabbing at him once again but failing to find purchase. My muscles scream in pain as I lunge at full speed after the man I don’t recognize. He swings around the banister and gets ahead of me, but I take the stairs two at a time, feeling my blood get colder and colder as I leave her behind.
Someone else could be here.
The thought makes my foot slip on the last stair. My heel catches the edge and I fall forward. I’m so close to him though that when I reach out for him, I pull him back by closing my fist around his sweater. I reach up with my other hand, ready to wrap my arm around his throat, ready to pull his body to my chest and hold him there until the struggling stops.
I’ll strangle him until he has no life left.
But he’s quicker and has better balance than I do, slipping the thin leather jacket off and tearing for the door.
It’s unlocked. It’s never unlocked. It wasn’t earlier. Not a damn soul has a key other than me.
The door stays wide open as he disappears from view. The jacket flies behind me as I follow after him. The harsh and brutal wind wraps around every inch of my heated skin.
I’m only a few feet behind him, but he’s running faster and with every step I’m reminded that I’m leaving her farther and farther behind.
Someone else could be there. You can’t leave her alone.
The man darts to the right, gaining ground and slipping from my vision behind the row of trees. Fuck! I can’t think straight with thoughts of her.
Closer to the street, the sound of cars passing parallel to us surround me as I sprint after him, but it’s useless. I can’t see a damn thing through the pine trees. I keep running even though I don’t see him. I don’t stop even when the cars flying by lay on their horns.
Where the fuck did he go? There’s nowhere to hide. I stand on the curb, listening to the cars whizzing by only feet away and searching everywhere. I spin around to my right and left trying to find the man, but he’s vanished.
Another car beeps several times as the cold sinks in, and I realize I’m not even wearing shoes. My bare feet sink into the thin layer of snow and my heavy breath fogs in front of my face.
Jules.
Her name echoes in my head as I race back to the house, breathing in the cold air and letting it soothe my tired lungs.
The vision of her staring down the silencer of the gun is the only thing I can see as I ignore the harsh weather, and the screaming of my aching muscles as I run with everything I have back to the house.