Page 164 of Intent to Kill
Casually striding down the steps of the Burke Street mansion was Dorian Blake. Thinking he’d won.
It should’ve taken Adam longer to reach the front door, but he was a whirl of speed, tripping over rubble, pushing past fleeing guests, and diving over railings to get to the jagged broken front steps.
And Blake should’ve been farther away, but that arrogant cock was strolling down the stairs as if he had all the time in the world. He’d been unhurried, thinking it was already over when he left his men to die.
“We’re not done, you motherfucker!” Adam shouted. Blood flying from his mouth as he raised his gun.
Blake whipped around in shock before covering his head and ducking behind his waiting limo. The last of his guards poured from within, forming a final defense.
The porch grumbled beneath Adam’s feet, foundation weakened enough that it was trembling. Like the rest of Blake’s coveted mansion, the stone steps fell away, taking Adam down two flights with them.
Groaning as he sat up, Adam fired haphazard shots at the guards. His head pounded, throbbing with white at the edges of his vision. But he couldn’t delay, because Blake was making a run for it, from behind guards, past the front steps and to the side of the house. Into the hedge maze.
Rising from his knees, Adam ran recklessly at the guards, not bothering to shield, only raising his gun to fire kill shots into their heads. Once they were all dead, he rounded straight for the hedge maze.
He found Blake sprinting ahead. That stupid fuck was running now. Much smarter than he’d been minutes before.
“I fucking see you!” Adam shouted, charging forward, too.
Adam had only made it a few steps when Blake, in a panic, fired his gun behind his back as he ran off, slowing Adam’s approach.
The shots ceased as Blake rounded another corner and Adam was back on his trail again. “I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
“You have to catch me first!” Blake shouted back, from somewhere far away.
Adam followed the hedge maze all the way to its exit. Where it ended, Adam found himself standing alone on the pool deck in the seating area where three Mediterranean stone benches laid around a flaming firepit.
Adam’s calculating eyes surveyed the landscape. Blake was nowhere to be found. Nowhere obvious. But he was here. This would be the arena. Here, they would fight to the death.
There!
Blake leaped up from behind a stone bench, firing his gun. Adam dove out of the way, lying flat and shielding himself behind the adjacent stone bench.
“You ready to die?” Adam laughed once the firing had stopped.
“You’re the one who’s dead!” Blake said. “I’m gonna fucking kill you properly this time.”
* * *
Paul shielded his face as Dan demolished the glass. A series of explosions cracked spiderwebs along the glass barrier. Leaving behind enough weak points for Paul to take advantage of.
Using his pistol, Paul shot along the weak points, and the glass began shattering to mist.
T.B. and the remaining three guards dove behind the desk.
T.B. was something of his own, but still nothing compared to the skills that he, Dan, and Carlos had. Especially because of Antonio and Yani, T.B. was the weaker one. He was a driver, not a shooter, there was no way he would be able to match up against them.
T.B. seemed to know it, too.
“Oh, fuck,” Dan said.
Paul looked to where Dan’s eyes had stopped. Behind Blake’s desk, T.B. secured a machine gun and rested it on the tabletop.
Taking Carlos down with him, Paul dove behind the leather chairs on their side of the room. Dan found shelter behind an armchair, while Paul and Carlos were concealed by the back of a black leather couch.
What the fuck had happened?! Paul rarely lost control, but for God’s sake. The plan was clear. Kill Blake. Take T.B. Find Mercedes. How did they get to this point?
Staying low, Paul covered his ears against the harsh burst of machine gun bullets.
