“What the fuck?” White screeched as the walls and windows and fixtures rattled and shook. “What the f—”
More explosions rocked the world outside.
The house shook. The abstract painting on the far wall fell off and crashed to the floor. The glasses on the table chinked and toppled over. The lights went out.
A gun fired.
Janice squealed.
And I moved.
Fast.
Just as Tac did the same.
He whipped his other hand from behind his back, revealing a .38 snub-nose revolver, and shot the two guys standing behind Ronnie’s mom and dad straight in the middle of their foreheads. Then he spun around and took out the two running into the room, their own guns drawn.
He did all this before anyone seemed to realize what he was doing.
Except for me. Diving straight for Ronnie as Tac was taking care of the grunts, I wrapped my arms around her torso and took her to the ground, spinning mid-fall so my shoulder took the brunt of the impact.
She did exactly what I knew she would do. She scrambled out of my arms, crouched low, and found my stare.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, snagging a fist full of my hair and smacking a fierce, quick kiss on my mouth before letting me go. “See?”
I snorted out a short laugh.
She grinned. “Now go deal with that asshole White. But be careful.”
“I will,” I promised, as I yanked my pen out of my pocket and vaulted to my feet.
In the brief second I was down on the floor with Ronnie, chaos had erupted in White’s dining room.
Fluffy had broken whatever had bound his wrists behind his back and was now smashing the shit out of one of White’s grunts. I had no idea where Tannah and Ronnie’s parents were, but Janice’s furious shouts of, “Get them! Get them!” were coming from below the table.
Another grunt was flung backward on the other side of the table, a bullet hole puncturing his forehead.
Tac laughed—the guy was clearly having fun—and Fluffy was dealing with another two grunts.
So where the fuck was—
Movement in the corner of my eye snapped my head around.
White was running up the sweeping staircase out in the foyer.
Fucking gutless bastard.
I ran.
“Pratt!” Tac yelled. “Remember the plan, mate!”
I didn’t stop.
Me taking out White wasn’t the plan. Tac was meant to deal with White while I got Ronnie out. But that plan was gone, devoured by my fury at what the fucker had done. To Ronnie, to her parents, to my friends.
Fuck letting someone else end his existence. The bastard was mine.
Tac yelled my name again, as did Ronnie. I heard Fluffy bellow something, and then I was out of the dining room and bolting up the stairs.