Page 93 of Protecting Bree
Attempting to maneuver in a way that would allow her to plunge the knife into Castillo’s throat, like she’d done to the man back in Ensenada, Bree thrashed in his hold. With a growl, Mateo shifted until his arm wrapped around her neck. He wasn’t cutting off her air, but he definitely had better control of her now.
An anger so hot and fierce swept over Bree.No!This wasn’t how her and Smiley’s story ended. He was still fighting the other two men, and as she watched, one of them broke away and scrambled for the weapon that had been kicked out of his grasp.
He was on his hands and knees in the dirt, and had just grabbed the rifle when Bree made her move.
She swung the makeshift knife and stabbed Mateo as hard as she could in the arm wrapped around her neck. It wouldn’t kill him, but if she could make him let go long enough for her to run, that’s what she’d do. Smiley had found her once, he’d find her again.
Mateo let out a pained roar, which made Bree’s ears ring—and amazingly his arm dropped from around her neck.
When she tried to run, Bree’s legs collapsed under her. She fell to the dirt like a sack of potatoes. Even as her brain told her legs to get up, to run, gunshots echoed off the buildings surrounding them.
Horrified, Bree whipped her head up to see if Smiley was all right, but a heavy weight fell on top of her, making her surge forward, face-first onto the ground.
Grunting, she desperately tried to get out from under whatever or whoever had tackled her, with little success.
Meanwhile more shots rang out. It sounded like World War III was going on all around her.
A sob escaped. Smiley couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be! If he was, she’d never forgive herself. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her—and she’d gotten him killed!
Suddenly things went eerily quiet. Bree was almost afraid to move. Maybe if she stayed really still, the assholes after her would think she was dead and they’d flee.
The weight on top of her was suddenly removed, and she was flipped onto her back. Blinking, Bree had trouble focusing on what she was seeing. Then strong arms lifted her, wrapping around her in a painful grip.
For a second, Bree thought she was being restrained byMateo’s men—but after one inhalation, she knew the arms around her belonged to Smiley.
She latched onto him with more strength than she thought she had.
“Are you hurt? Fuck!”
She shook her head against him, then a thought occurred to her. The men from the apartment building… They had to get out of there!
Lifting her head to tell Smiley they had to run, she blinked in confusion. Her eye was still pretty swollen, but in the last few hours, she’d been able to see out of it a little. But she couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was.
Crouched next to her and Smiley was Blink. And athisside was MacGyver.
“She’s got blood on her. Where did he get you, honey?” Blink asked gently.
This felt surreal. Bree was confused. She tried to look down at herself, but Smiley wasn’t relaxing his grip.
“Smiley, ease up, man, we need to check her out,” Kevlar ordered.
Ever so slowly, his grip around her loosened, and Bree leaned back far enough not to look at herself, but to check Smiley for injuries. “Did you get shot?” she asked.
“No. You?”
She shook her head.
“Is this what I think it is?” Preacher asked, holding up the plastic knife Bree had used on Mateo. When she glanced to the side, she saw Mateo Castillo lying still in the dirt, a large puddle of blood forming around him and a hole in the center of his forehead.
“I felt you taking it out of my holster,” Smiley said, bringing her attention back to him.
“Good job on distracting him,” Safe added.
Looking over her shoulder at him, she saw the men Smiley had been fighting lying on the ground, bullet holes in their heads as well. “What…how?” she stammered.
“Twenty-two minutes and forty seconds,” Kevlar said. “Not thirty minutes…my bad. Was never very good at estimations.”
It finally sank in. Kevlar and his team had arrived at just the right moment. She didn’t know how, didn’t really care. They probably heard Mateo’s goon yelling at them or something.
