Page 51 of Intent to Kill
“Blake guys, regulars.”
Double fuck.
Mercedes worked her way toward the back, pushing past the dressing rooms and the kitchen until she finally found the back exit and didn’t hesitate before kicking the door open with her boot.
“What the fuck?” A large man dressed in all black shouted.
There were two of them, dressed identically but polar opposites of each other, one tall and skinny, the other short with an overhanging belly. They had Tia pushed up against the railing, one wrong slip and she’d end up in the river below.
“Who the fuck do you think–”
The tall dickhead didn’t get the chance to finish the sentence. Mercedes acted fast, spinning a kick to his stomach. He dropped, clutching his gut and leaving Tia to slide down the railing to the ground, holding her own stomach.
Dodging an attack from shorty, Mercedes ripped the tie from around his neck and kneed him in the balls, snapping his neck as he fell to his knees. Tall guy rose then, swinging at her. She ducked under his arm and jumped on his back, strangling him with the tie. They thrashed for only moments before he slumped and they eased down together.
She pushed him away like the trash he was, finding Tia still slumped over, clutching her stomach with panic in her eyes. “M, you shouldn’t have done that.”
“They won’t be the only dead bodies by the end of the night. What the fuck happened?”
“Let’s just say they wanted a free sample.”
Mercedes helped Tia up and she hissed when Mercedes’s arms came around her waist.
“They broke your fucking ribs,” Mercedes seethed as she supported her friend.
Tia pushed Mercedes off, steadying herself. “I have to get out there. We need to finish what we started.”
“Tia–”
“No.” Tia pinned Mercedes with her stare. “Let this be the last time.”
Mercedes screamed internally before taking a breath. “Okay. But you’re not going out there alone.”
* * *
“What’s taking them so long?” Carlos said, saddling up to Adam’s side as he cautiously kept eyes on the Blake associates.
“No fucking idea,” Adam said. He checked his watch. “Five minutes and we’re going back there.”
Paul waved a finger to order another round of drinks and gulped his back in one go. He looked just about as settled as Adam felt.
Finally, the curtain parted and Tia appeared, limping out of the back rooms. Adam’s eyes widened, what he saw doing little to settle his racing heart. Mercedes followed behind Tia. She’d changed—now dressed in tiny shorts, a silk crop top, and wearing a red fucking wig. The edges curled over her face just enough to hide it. But it was definitely her.
“Oh, fuck,” Paul said, echoing Adam’s thoughts exactly.
“Tia’s injured,” Adam said, watching as she favored her left foot. Probably broken ribs, Adam remembered what that felt like. “Mercedes is backing her up.”
“This isn’t good,” Carlos said. “As little bloodshed as possible, remember?”
Adam paused with his drink at his mouth. “Might not be an option anymore.”
The waiting Blake associates moved as a group, leering at the club girls as they approached Tia. Stopping just within earshot of him, they crowded Tia, Mercedes, and the rest of her girls.
“Look at you,” one of them said, a thick-bearded Viking-looking guy who was clearly the leader. He ran his hands over the waist of a Vietnamese girl who unsuccessfully tried to swat him away.
“Don’t touch her,” Tia said, grasping the leader’s wrist and tugging. The bearded man just laughed, pushing Tia away and smacking the girl so hard that she floated to the floor like tissue paper.
“Should we go?” Carlos said, voice shaking.
