Bow Down(56)

“Come on,” I said to Kasia. “Let’s get out of here. We have some bastards to murder.”

She smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

We walked together to the elevator. I said goodbye to my home in my mind as the doors slowly shut.





29





Wyatt





Another shitty motel outside of a shitty town in the middle of nowhere. Ethan and I had been driving along side roads for the better part of a week, and so far nothing had happened. Just one motel after another, my cellphone destroyed, emails going unanswered.

I didn’t know who I could trust. I knew Arturo had his fingers in just about every pot, and most people were on his payroll. I was trying to still work, sending emails only about important things from encrypted addresses on public computers, but that couldn’t do much. Ethan wouldn’t let me try anything else, and absolutely forbade phone calls. He had us destroy our phones that first day, and so I felt completely disconnected from the world.

There was no word from Louisa, but I knew I couldn’t expect any. After what she said, I had to assume that our ties were completely severed. It was frustrating, but there was nothing else I could do about it.

I stared at the ceiling then stared at the clock. It was three in the morning. I hadn’t been sleeping much lately, for obvious reasons. Ethan was snoring on the cot beside me, and I had a nice buzz still ringing through my brain. The half-empty glass of whisky was gathering condensation on the side table.

I fucking missed her. Despite her thinking that I was a traitor and turning her back on me, I missed her. I knew that was stupid as all fucking hell, but I had never felt the way I felt about her for another person in my entire life. I’d gone through my days wanting only to better myself, to get what I wanted, to take it for myself. But Louisa changed that. She made me want to sacrifice for her. She made me believe in her cause.

She made me want to be a better man, and to make a better city.

But all of that was gone. She turned her back on me and forced me into hiding, all because I had gotten involved in a war between her and her father. It was stupid of me, completely foolish. I had nothing to gain by getting involved with her, or at least nothing I couldn’t have gotten by other means. I wanted her, and that was why I trusted her.

That got me nowhere, only half-drunk at three in the morning in a shitty fleabag motel.I wasn’t going to change anything running from the mob. I could lay awake all night as much as I wanted, but only action was going to get me out of this fucking jam.

The shitty part of it all was, I didn’t want to get out of the jam. I wanted to go back into the city and take Louisa the way I knew she wanted to be taken. I wanted to make her mine and show her just how strong we could be together.

That didn’t seem likely, not anymore. Not after this fucking fiasco.

I rolled only my side, facing the window, and something moving outside caught my eye. It was just a shadow, a movement of light on the other side of the curtains, but it happened. I was probably just tired and seeing things, but then it happened again.

I slowly crept out of bed, feeling paranoid. I grabbed the gun from my side table and slipped toward the door wearing only my boxer briefs.

Everything was quiet. Ethan’s breathing was steady and even. There was nobody outside and nothing was wrong. I was just being completely paranoid. I stood next to the door, eyes narrowed.

The door exploded inward. There was a loud burst and a flash of light as wood splintered. I fired my gun blindly, and that saved my life, because a man followed the flash into the room.

I missed him, but I forced him to dive down to the ground. He hit the floor hard and I was on top of him, kicking at his gun at hard as I could. I knocked it from his hand, sending it spinning away, and he rolled again as I tried another shot at him.

His legs caught my ankle as he lashed out, tripping me up. I stumbled to the side, firing again and again until I was out of bullets. The guy was hit on his shoulder, but he was on his feet and he was coming at me with a knife.

I threw the gun at him and he dodged it. I dropped back into a defensive position as he came at me, stabbing in quick jabs. I managed to fight him off, stepping back and back, closer and closer to the wall.

His knife flashed, quick and deadly, catching me on the arm. I swiped back, lashing out with my fists, but he blocked them and came forward. His face was blank and serious.

He was going to kill me. I knew it in that moment. I was a good fighter, but this was a trained professional assassin for the mafia. This was a man that killed for a living. He was shot in the arm and he wasn’t stopping, because he didn’t stop until his prey was dead.

I was fighting for my life, and I was losing. My gun was useless and I was unarmed. I couldn’t win in a fight against a skilled man with a knife.