Fighting (50 page)

"Have
mercy," Fletcher said.

"Mercy?" 
Ethan laughed softly. 

Fletcher
raised visibly shaking hands and wiped at his face.  He spread the blood
around, probably attempting to appear pathetic. 

It
only served to make Ethan angrier.  "
Mercy
?" Ethan bellowed.

He
swung an uppercut under Fletcher's chin that was so forceful, Fletcher's head
snapped back violently as he flew backward a few feet to land in a pitiful lump
on the ground.  Ethan didn't stop or show him mercy.  He picked Fletcher up by
his fancy, blood soaked shirt front and slammed him against the wall so they
were on their feet and face to face. 

"The
only thing you're going to get from me is a bullet in your brain, you
motherfucker
,"
Ethan snarled.  "Where."  He slammed Fletcher's head against the
wall.  "Is."  Again.  "She?"  Once more.

"In
the middle room with the guard," Fletcher said feebly. 

"I
already checked that room! 
Where the fuck is she at
?" Ethan
roared.

Goosebumps
erupted over my skin at the sheer magnitude of fury he unleashed on Fletcher in
a desperate attempt to find me.  He didn't know I was in the very same room he
was in yet, but I was frozen to the spot, unable to move to him though I knew I
wanted to.

Fletcher
shut his eyes against the deafening blast of hostility in his face and shook
his head quickly.  "I don't know!"

Ethan
growled and swung him around by his shirt to stand away from the wall.  He
slammed his elbow into the side of Fletcher's head viciously and he collapsed
on the ground.  Fletcher roused enough to watch Ethan flick open a switchblade
menacingly.  Spencer rounded behind Fletcher to help him onto his knees and I
saw Spencer's usually so cheerful face was contorted with rage.  Spencer
twisted Fletcher's neck tie around to pull on like a leash and then brutally
yanked his hair back so that his neck was exposed.  Ethan crouched in front of
him and held the knife to his jugular.

"Talk,"
Ethan rumbled in his hard
don't fuck with me
voice.  It was his usual
timber, but even more devastating because the threat of death was very, very
real for Fletcher.

Right
then, a door on the opposite side of the room burst open and several men rushed
inside.  Ethan and Spencer dropped Fletcher to the ground and they all rounded
on the men immediately.  It was three of mine against at least ten of them, two
of whom were the ones I told to run.  Bastards.

I
retrieved my guns and jumped to my feet with Ethan locked in my sights.  He
took one man to the ground by flipping him over his back and kicking him and
immediately whirled on another man who punched him in his kidney from behind. 
Another man approached behind Ethan's back and unsheathed a gnarly looking
knife.  No longer paralyzed, I ran toward Ethan and shot the guy behind him
before he could advance while simultaneously surrendering my invisibility and
announcing a new threat to every other man in the room.  Ethan watched him fall
to the ground and then whipped around, his eyes instantly sharpening and then
widening on mine with surprise.  His lips formed my name, but I didn't hear his
voice.

The
guy that he had thrown over his back climbed to his feet but I was instantly
distracted by another man who came right at me who knocked the gun out of my
hand.  Unfortunately for him, I had two guns.  I brought the other one around
and shot him twice in the chest.  I moved forward before he even fell to the
ground.  Spencer and Brooks were fighting as well, and I glanced at them
periodically but Ethan was my primary focus. 

He
had just taken out the guy who had gotten back up, and by the look of it, he
wasn't getting up again.  He faced a new attacker as another man blindsided me
and ripped my gun from my hand.  He punched me in the face and I staggered
back, but as soon as I steadied on my feet, I rushed him and slammed him
against a packing crate.  I shoved my knee against in his junk and then slammed
my palms against his ears.  He became momentarily disoriented and I took
advantage of that to grab my knife and swipe it at him with every punch I
made.  I sliced him up and he yelled out with every flash of my knife.  I
finished him by kneeing his face and kicking him unconscious once he was down. 

Ethan
and I made eye contact again across the room.  I sprinted toward him as he
tried to get to me, but we were both stopped by new attackers.  Ethan and I
were very literally fighting across the room to get to each other, slowly
closing the distance between us. 

We
were like magnets, fighting the resistance to get to each other.

Ethan
savagely slammed his fist into the guy's face several times as the guy
staggered backward, toward me.  I punched my guy and then kicked him in the
knee to take him to his knees.  I jammed my elbow down where his neck met his
shoulder and stabbed his side before stepping back to do a spin kick to his
face.  Blood erupted from his mouth, nose and ear as he flew onto his back but
he didn't give up.  He quickly crawled away from me and scrambled to his feet
to face me, bringing me even closer to Ethan.  We were close enough now that I
could see Ethan's eyelashes and the specks of blood splatter stained on his
navy blue shirt.

I
refocused on my attacker as he took a swing at me, but I dropped to a knee to
dodge it and ruthlessly junk punched him.  His hands flew to his crotch and his
body caved in on itself.  I flew back to my feet and positioned my body behind
his, so his back was to my chest and my knife was at his throat.  I got him in
a chokehold and jerked us backward a few feet but he got free by elbowing me in
the ribs before I could do any damage to him.  He spun around to face me and I
dropped down and swept his feet out from under him.  He landed on his back and
I rained kicks down on his body several times, focusing on his liver and
kidneys while mentally thanking the people who manufactured my boots for making
them so study and reliable.

I
stopped kicking him because he was still conscious but moving around very
slowly, like he was seconds from passing out.  I glanced back and Ethan was so
close, he was only a few feet away.  He chanced a look at me and without
discussing it or signaling each other, we both spun toward each other and switched
opponents.  His guy was on his knees holding his ribs with his arms and my guy
was staggering to his feet. 

I
grazed my knife against his cheek, cutting him open and stunning him.  I shoved
him back with my foot on his solar plexus so he flew from his knees to flat on
his back and I straddled his chest and slammed his head into the ground twice. 
I stood up once he was subdued and quickly surveyed the room.  Brooks and
Spencer were still fighting and Fletcher was crawling out of the room toward a
hallway.  I wanted to go after him, but the guy who I was standing over
apparently came to because he knocked my legs out from beneath me with his
hands on my calves.  My back landed on his legs and we both struggled to our
feet. 

He
took a few swings at me, and I dodged all but one of them, backing up a step
each time.  I stopped when my back hit something solid and I twisted my neck
quickly to see that it was Ethan's back I collided with as he glanced around at
me to discover the same.  I felt his very warm and solid muscles move against
mine fleetingly until I sidestepped away.  I took a step back so we were side
by side right as my assailant suddenly reached behind his back and withdrew a
gun to aim at us unsteadily in a last ditch effort.  I quickly wrapped my hand
around the back of Ethan's neck and shoved down so we both bent at the waist in
opposite directions a split second before the guy pulled the trigger and fired
off four rounds rapidly.  He paused when he realized he killed his ally instead
of us and I shot forward and kicked the gun out of his hand.  Ethan whipped
around and advanced to ruthlessly punch him in the chest, stomach and neck in
quick succession.  The guy choked and his hands flew to his throat.  He was
trying in vain to breathe while backing away from us steadily.  We let him
retreat until I bent at the knee to throw my blade at him.  It sunk into his
chest and his eyes bugged out as he fell to his knees and then to his back.

I
stood and twirled to Ethan right as he reached for me and we came together at
long last.  Our foreheads pressed together and we stared into each other's eyes
as we gasped against each other's parted lips, both of us winded from
fighting.  My hands feathered through the back of his hair and landed on his
neck as palmed my cheeks.  He was alive; this was real.  I could barely wrap my
mind around it. 

Heat
from his body chased away the coldness in mine.  We stood like that for less
than five seconds because we broke apart when we heard footsteps bounding
toward us from the side.  Ethan flew into action and surprised the hell out of
me when he sprinted to the nearest crate, which was only a few feet away, and
ripped a panel of wood off of a pallet, shredding the wood where it was nailed
to the grid.  He held it aloft and raced to meet the man who was still running
toward me.  He swung it against the guy's face so hard that his jaw
dislocated.  The guy cried out as he flew backward but fell quiet on impact
because his head bounced on the concrete floor fatally.

We
looked at each other and then at Brooks and Spencer.  Spencer decked the last
guy standing in his face and as his head whipped to the side, Brooks kicked and
punched several pressure points on the guy and he fell to the ground and had a
freaking seizure.  Shaking body parts and foaming at the mouth and everything. 
Whoa.

Ethan
yanked me against him and pressed his lips against mine before I could even
focus on his eyes.  His arms became bands of steel around my waist and back to
fuse our fronts together.  At the feel of him, I closed my eyes and wrapped my
arms around his neck to pull myself closer but I almost immediately pulled
back.  He chased me and didn't release my lips, so I kissed him back harder,
showing him how much I missed him.  As soon as his lips opened, I pulled back. 

"I'm
bloody," I gasped.

"I
don't give a fuck," he exhaled gruffly.

He
kissed me more aggressively, not holding anything back.  I took him at his word
and ignored the sting of my cracked lips as I wrapped him up tightly,
practically crawling up his body in my need to be close to him.

After
a few frenzied seconds, I really didn't want to but I broke our kiss again. 
"Fletcher," I said.  "He got away."

His
eyes focused on mine and he muttered a curse.  He released me and grabbed my
hand to race toward Brooks and Spencer.  We all took off running down the
hallway, following the trail of blood.  He couldn't have gotten too far if he
crawled the whole way, which judging by the bloody handprints, he did.  The
prints stopped outside of a locked office door and Ethan kicked open the door
and marched inside.  We followed behind and watched as Ethan wrenched a gun out
of Fletcher's feeble grip and tossed it to Brooks, who dismantled it and threw
the pieces on opposite sides of the room.  Ethan lifted Fletcher from where he
was kneeling in front of a desk to throw him against the wall.  He slid to the
ground, unable to support himself.  Brooks, Spencer and I stayed by the
opposite wall as Ethan glared down at Fletcher from his powerful, towering
height.  Fletcher sat up and scanned all of our faces but focused on me through
his already swelling eyes.

I
dropped to a knee with exhausted relief that we were close to the end, but also
to be on his level.  "I warned you," I seethed.  "I told you
that you would bleed."

Fletcher
slumped against the wall and took very long blinks.  "Bragging doesn't
become you," he mumbled halfheartedly.

"Shut
the fuck up," Ethan clipped.

Fletcher
switched his gaze to Ethan.  "I don't know what you're so self-righteous
about.  You're in the same boat as me," he said.  Ethan ignored him but
that didn't stop Fletcher.  "You'll never really have her.  No one
will," he said.

I
slowly shook my finger at him the way a teacher would admonish a student. 
"You're wrong about that," I said tepidly. 

I
was trying to recall my snark, but it was a mere ghost of what it was before,
like I was trying to capture smoke with my bare hands.  My speech was slowing
down, too.

"You
know I'm just going to send more men after you," Fletcher said sluggishly.

"Actually,"
Brooks said.  "You shouldn't have brought Alex here to your base of
operations.  When we cleaned out your men, we found evidence of a whole ton of
shit, including a kidnapping operation.  You held two kids for ransom and you
have very detailed plans to do it again.  You're going to prison, and you know
what prisoners hate almost universally?"

Fletcher
stared at him with panic in his eyes.

"Men
who fuck with kids."  Brooks crouched in front of Fletcher and said in a
matter of fact tone, "You're going to burn for this, and I don't just mean
your asshole after you're repeatedly prison raped."

Ha.

"You
reap what you sow, Fletch," I smiled.

Brooks
stood up and walked to stand beside of Spencer as Ethan crouched beside of me
and ran hands all over my torso, making sure I wasn't bleeding out.  I needed
to reassure him but I was stuck on Fletcher's face.