Page 71 of My Crazy Killers
We stay like that, half-hidden and silent, our focus split between the warehouse and the slow progress of Elias and Harry as they search for an opening. My muscles remain coiled, my hand resting near my knife, every instinct warning me that danger is only a moment away.
Even from here, I can see Harry’s excitement. He must have found an opening. They squat down, and I watch him use the controller as Elias holds the phone out, so they can both watch the camera.
I’m so focused on them, I almost miss the movement as Pete and Jagger start waving their arms at us frantically.
“What—” I start to ask, but then I see what they’re signing.
Behind you.
Dex reacts instantly, pivoting before I have fully processed the warning. The guard barely has time to register that he has been seen before Dex is on him, all raw strength and decisive violence, driving him into the ground with a force that knocks the air from his lungs. The man goes down hard, and Dex doesn’t hesitate to hit him.
Shouting breaks the silence as two more figures come running from behind the buildings. Sly moves to intercept the first of them, his motions controlled and efficient as he redirects the man’s momentum and sends him sprawling. The second turns toward me, with a look of someone who thinks they’ve found easy prey.
I step into him before he can realize I’m not as sweet as Ilook, my knife already in my hand. Remembering what Pete taught me, I aim for his throat, but he pulls back just in time, leaving me lunging to the side off balance from the momentum. He reaches for me, not expecting me to swing backward as I jam my knife into his calf.
He howls in pain, shoving me onto my back as he bares his teeth at me. He looms over me and reaches down, pulling my knife free as he takes another step toward me. Suddenly, Dex is there, finishing what I started as he twists the guard's hand, making him drop my knife, then he slams his forehead into the guy's nose, making me gasp as blood sprays everywhere.
Dios mio, that was hot!
His hands shoot to his face as he cries out in pain, and Dex wastes no time knocking him out. Sly steps up then, having finished with the guy he was fighting, and kneels down, slitting the guy's throat in one quick swipe. The guard doesn’t wake when he does it, and he never will again.
I blink up at my two guys, feeling a little in shock. At first, Sly appears calm and collected, but I can sense the rage radiating under his skin as he stares down at the man who tried to hurt me. He tosses his knife back and forth between his hands, glancing up at the other end of the alley like he’s expecting more guards to come running down at any moment.
I glance at Dex. He’s not as good at hiding his rage. His eyes almost look red from rage. I can see his teeth as he bares them at the enemy, and he’s basically growling as he stares at the bodies around us. They both look unhinged, crazy, and I love it. Because they’remycrazy killers.
Quick footsteps start to draw closer, the sound of someone moving quickly through the snow, and Sly reachesout a hand to help me stand as he positions me behind him. I can’t see when they arrive, but I see Sly’s shoulders drop as he lowers his knife.
I peek around him and see Pete and Jagger running toward us.
“Is anyone hurt?” Pete whispers, his wide eyes trying to take everything at once.
“I’m not,” I confirm as Sly shakes his head.
“Dex?” I ask, realizing he hasn’t answered.
“Shit, his eyes are hazed over,” Pete says, assessing him. “We need to carefully pull him out of his blood lust.”
“I can do it,” I say, quickly stepping right up to him as Sly tries to reach for me.
“Don’t!” he hisses as I grip Dex’s blood-splattered cheeks and tilt his head down to mine.
I can see what Pete is talking about; it’s like the lights are on, but he’s not home. “Dex,” I say as I press up on my tiptoes to reach him, but I'm still too short to reach his lips. “Kiss me.”
He blinks once, then twice, before finally tilting his head down toward mine. “Hi, baby,” he says, a smile quickly covering his face.
“Hi, Dex.”
“I think you said something about a kiss?” he asks, and I nod in response. Not missing a beat, he leans down and kisses me. It’s a little dirty and messy, but considering our surroundings, it’s perfect.
Pulling back, I grab his hand with mine, in case he needs me to keep him grounded as I assess what’s going on. Sly and Jagger are watching around the front of the alley, and Pete is now watching out the back. That’s a smart idea. Why hadn’t we thought to watch our backs?
I guess it seemed unlikely they’d come from that direction, as we would have seen them leave the warehouse. Which begs the question—Where did they come from?
Jagger turns to us and signs,“They’re heading back to us now.”
I nod, and Dex and I move to join Pete at the other end. When Elias and Harry come into view, I wave, and Elias jogs closer. His eyes dart to Dex and widen before moving back to me and scanning me from head to toe.
“What happened?” he asks, stopping right in front of us as his hands skate up and down my sides.
