Page 120 of Drawn Together

With a movement so quick my eyes couldn’t even register it, the security guard was next on the floor, touching his bleeding mouth in surprise.

I stood there in shock, my eyes wide as saucers, shouting all kinds of obscenities. Sebastian wrapped an arm tightly around my waist and picked me up to carry me into the elevator, where he set me down before I had time to even process what had happened.

“Are you crazy?!”

“I saw someone… We have to get out of here.”

I looked at him, wondering if he really believed I was that stupid.

“You’re jealous; that’s the problem.”

Sebastian looked at me in disbelief for a second, and then panic flashed across his face as the elevator doors opened to two men, both pointing guns at us.

Sebastian pushed me back, covering me with his body, and someone fired before I had time to understand what was happening. I screamed at the top of my lungs as I fell to the floor and curled up against the wall.

Sebastian acted quickly. With one dry blow to the wrist, he knocked the gun from one of the attacker’s hands, then proceeded to knock him out with a punch to the head, as the other man picked up the gun and pointed it at me.

“Sebastian!” I shouted as loud as I could, terrified.

The next thing I heard was a howl of pain and a hollow blow, then I felt arms lifting me from the floor. Sebastian took me by the hand, and we rushed out into the street like a bat out of hell.

“Marfil!” came a voice from behind me.

I turned around and saw Tami running toward us. Liam was behind her, his eyes full of fear. I had no idea what they were doing out there. I hadn’t seen them since they’d disappeared together earlier.

Sebastian stopped for an instant to look around, and that’s when I saw them: Egor and Jakov lay on the ground, dead.

“Oh my God!” I shouted in horror, covering my mouth with my hands.

Then everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Tires screeched on the asphalt as a car skidded around the corner and stopped in front of the spot where we stood. Sebastianpushed me back inside, causing me to fall to the floor as he aimed his gun at a man, who was pointing his own gun at us.

We heard the sound of gunfire as people began running and screaming in all directions. One of the screams sounded like a voice I knew well.

“TAMI!” I shouted with all my might as I rushed toward her and fell beside her. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

My friend lay on the ground, blood pooling around her. She’d been shot in the side.

Liam dropped down beside her as well and frightenedly applied pressure to the wound as he shouted for someone to call an ambulance.

“Tami!” I shrieked, tears clouding my eyes. I felt a hand lift me from the ground. “NO!” I shouted, pulling free with all my might.

I’d kill them. I would kill whoever did that to her.

Sebastian swept me into his arms and was carrying me to the car before I had time to react. He deposited me in the passenger’s seat and jumped behind the wheel, starting the engine and pressing the accelerator all the way down. “Fuck!” he shouted at the steering wheel. His eyes darted between the rearview mirror and the side mirrors as he turned the wrong way down a one-way street and then barreled through a pedestrian area.

“I want to go back, take me back!” I shouted. “They shot Tami!”

“I know, I know,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. “There’s an ambulance on the way. You couldn’t stay there, Marfil; they were going to kill you.”

“Take me back!” I shouted hysterically, pulling at the handle to open the door but finding it locked.

“They’ll kill you!” he shouted, shutting me up.

I looked frightenedly in the rearview mirror, but the car wasshaking so hard that I couldn’t really see, forcing my hands to grip the armrests.

What was going on? Did we have a flat tire?

“Hey, relax…” Sebastian said, now speaking more calmly.