Page 43 of No One But You
My heart lurched, and the hairs on the backs of my arms stood on end.Whatever that noise was, it didn’t belong in my home.
I was tempted to call out in case it was just one of my siblings who’d let themselves in with the spare key, but if that was the case, then they’d already have come out to say hello.
Whoever was there might not have noticed that we’d heard them, so I motioned frantically for Bailey to get up and leave the house.She rose from the sofa and started to tiptoe toward me.I kept ushering her on, afraid to move closer in case I somehow alerted them that we were on to them.
Unfortunately, she’d barely made it two steps before a pair of masked men charged into the room, the thunder of their footsteps shockingly loud.
One of them carried a wooden bat, the other a hunting knife.
“Run!”I shouted, throwing myself at the nearest man as he lunged toward Bailey.
The guy was shorter than me, but stockier.It was lucky I caught him off guard before he swung the bat because otherwise he might have knocked me out, and then I’d have been no use to her.
I tried to tackle him to the floor, but he was harder to move than I expected, and instead, we ended up awkwardly grappling for control of the bat.
I glanced up to check where Bailey was and got a glimpse of her stopping and turning toward us before something solid thumped into the side of my head.
“Get out!”I grabbed the man’s arm to stop him hitting me again and tried to steer him sideways to knock into the other guy, but he was too strong and resisted easily.“Go!”
It wasn’t me they wanted.It was her.If she got out of there, they might decide it wasn’t worth hanging around and leave.
But, of course, Bailey didn’t leave.
The second man took hold of me from behind but then stumbled.I tripped and hit the floor just as she kicked the back of his other knee and shoved him.
He fell, too, arcing the knife wildly but thankfully striking nothing.
“I’ll be fine,” I panted as I flopped toward the other grounded man and reached for the hand holding the knife.“Get help.”
I managed to wrap my fingers around his wrist and squeezed a tender point to make him release it, and then I tossed the knife aside, and it slid under the sofa.I felt a pang of guilt at using my medical knowledge to hurt someone, but this wasn’t the time to worry about upholding the Hippocratic Oath.
In my peripheral vision, I saw flurried movements.The man with the bat was swinging it, and Bailey was managing to avoid him, thank fucking god.
But why wasn’t she leaving?
The assailant on the floor kicked at me, and I shoved the coffee table at him, distracting him enough that I had time to sweep my legs underneath the other guy, who tripped into the bookshelf and crashed to the ground.
Something hard smacked into the back of my head.
I stopped and blinked, bemused as pinpricks of light danced in front of my eyes and the edges of my vision blurred.
“Get the fuck down,” someone snapped, and I was pushed roughly off balance.
I slumped to the ground, watching the world spin dizzyingly around me.If not for the darker shade of the carpet, I wouldn’t be able to tell which way was up and which was down.
My stomach roiled, and I wanted to curl in on myself, but I was vaguely aware that Bailey still needed help, because the stubborn woman hadn’t run away like she should have.
I tilted my head to see what was going on.One of the men had grabbed Bailey by the arm and was trying to drag her to the door, but she was fighting.The other….Well, I couldn’t see him from my spot on the floor.
I looked around, searching for anything that might be useful, and spotted Bailey’s backpack where she’d dropped it on the floor before flopping onto the sofa only a few minutes ago.
Crawling over, I edged up the zip and reached inside, feeling around until my hand closed on the item I was searching for.No one intercepted me.They probably didn’t care about the guy crawling around on the floor as long as I didn’t get in their way.
Bailey was still resisting, and I managed to make my way over to her.My limbs were heavy and didn’t want to do what they were told, but with an effort that made my head throb, I lifted myself up enough to grab her hand.
As discreetly as I could, I thrust the small item into her palm.Her eyes widened briefly, but then she tugged her hand away and yanked at the neck of her shirt as if it was choking her.
I slumped forward as I was struck across the back of the head once again.
