Page 22 of The Gambler
They made a wide circuit around the block to get the lay of the land. In back was another leg of the Hudson, this one dirtier than others. It looked like the area had once been an industrial park of some type that had since gone under. Most of the buildings were abandoned and they looked it. There looked to be a brand new speeding vessel of some sort tied up in the back of their destination though.
Jenna hopped out of the car before he could stop her and he almost had a fucking heart attack. He couldn’t yell and bring attention to them, so he got out as well, before security was in place.
She walked with a purpose, right up to the backdoor, and he thought his heart was gonna give the fuck out; until she stopped short and did some kind of duck and dive. He held Garrett and the others back as they made to follow her. That was because she’d turned back to him and placed a finger over her lips. What in the fuck was this?
She was playing with that toy again, only this time her fingers were moving faster than he’d ever seen them. When she was finished doing whatever it was she was doing, he heard a soft whirring sound and realized there were cameras on the sides of the building that had stopped in mid swing.
She started digging in the grass and he’s thinking ‘not now baby’. Her moods changed so rapidly from one moment to the next, he wasn’t sure what to expect. She turned to him with the sexiest fucking grin and beckoned him over.
She’d uncovered a trap door that led down into the basement of the place. “Gramps here.” He couldn’t resist kissing her, even as the others filed past them and started down the steps. Who the fuck was this girl really? And how had his sister known?
How could she have known all those years ago, that this one woman would exist, and that she would be his? And why had fate chosen now to bring her to him? He had a million questions that needed answers and he intended to find out each and every one of them in the not too distant future.
He followed the men down the steps, intending to stash her somewhere down there out of harm’s way, until the shit was over. They could hear footsteps overhead and men talking and laughing. She held up her fingers to her mouth again, as the others came down the stairs behind them.
Then she closed her eyes and seemed to be in deep concentration. He got that spooked feeling again and his gut churned. What the fuck was it gonna be this time? He was proud as fuck of her and what she could do, but everything so far pointed to her being trained as some sort of criminal.
That he could not accept. To take advantage of her innocent gifts in such a way! He had no doubt that the gifts were hers naturally, whatever they were. But he knew that they had been used for something other than they were intended.
No one moved as she did her thing. Even his men were coming to understand that there was something more than met the eye with her. She popped her eyes open and held up her fingers. “Five?” she nodded in answer to his question.
Then she started pointing out locations, which he guessed represented where each man was stationed. Then she held her hand up again. “Two.”
She nodded and mimed walking and someone tied to a chair. Get the fuck out. She was the fucking bionic woman what the fuck?
“Angel chocolate.” Un-fucking-believable…
He didn’t need to tell the men where to go, from the information she gave them they pretty much knew what needed to be done. First order of business was to neutralize the two on gramps, because chances are they’d been told to eliminate if there was a rescue attempt.
He sent the men on ahead so he could talk to her before following them up. “Jenna I need you to stay down here baby okay.” He led her to a spot hidden behind an old furnace and hoped like fuck that she understood what he was saying. He heard gunfire erupt just as his foot hit the first step to go up, and started running.
Gramps! There was chaos when he made it to the top. Two of the men were already dead on the floor and Jameson was untying the old man. He heard running feet and aimed his gun in the direction they were coming from. He wasn’t really interested in eliminating these fucks right now, not with Jenna and gramps on the scene, his first priority was getting them the fuck out. He’d have to deal with the fucks later, but it seemed like they were gonna force his hand.
“Angel.” He heard her scream two seconds before she flew at him and his heart fell to his fucking knees. What the fuck? He heard the recoil and felt her weight hit him, a second before he raised his arm and shot the guy who’d been about to shoot him.
“Jenna, baby?” He felt the warmth of her blood on his hand and her eyes glazed over before she passed out. Snatching her up he headed back for the stairs calling gramps to follow him, leaving the others to finish it. He never stopped moving until he reached the boat docked at the back of the property. Gramps was two steps behind him and it wasn’t long before the others came through the door.
“Torch it.” One of the guys went back, and using a cloth soaked in gas from the car, lit the place on fire. If anyone were left alive in there, they would be trapped, since the front was boarded up and there was only one way in or out. “You guys head back to the plane, I’m taking the boat with gramps and Jenna.” It was a straight shot on the water to his place; besides, he couldn’t risk getting on a plane with her in this condition, too many eyes too many questions.
Jameson and Garrett got on the boat with them of course, but it was gramps he entrusted her to. “Keep pressure on her shoulder gramps, I think it was a through and through.” Turning to the throttle, he sped across the water with his heart in his throat. She could’ve died. Why the fuck did she do it? He knew the answer to that of course, she was trying to save him and probably had.
He couldn’t think about the fact that she was back there bleeding and unconscious, as he sped towards home. His only focus was on what he had to do once they got there. Thank fuck there wasn’t too much traffic on the water or he would’ve probably crashed at the rate he was going.
He pulled up to his dock and waited for Garrett to hop out and tie them off, before taking her from the old man. “Call Dr. Pruitt, tell him to get here yesterday.” He was moving as he threw the order over his shoulder to the old man. Inside he yelled for his housekeeper even as Willy came rushing to the door. “Sue I need you upstairs.”
“What happened to her?” She came rushing over to his side as he made his way up the stairs.
“She’s been shot.”
“Oh the poor little thing.”
He placed her on their bed and hovered as the woman started tending to her. Now that the danger had passed and he’d got her home safely, he felt the full effects of what had happened, what could’ve happened. His knees started to shake when he saw all the blood that had soaked through the top of her dress. Shit, he hadn’t even shaken like that the one time he’d been shot.
She was bleeding like stink and he started to worry that maybe it was worst than he’d thought. “How bad?” He looked over Sue’s shoulder, as she eased the dress away from the wound. There was a deep gash where the bullet had sliced through her skin.
He saw red in that instant and wished he’d done more than shoot the fucker that had done that to her. Now for the rest of their lives he’d always be reminded that she’d taken a bullet for him, had risked her own life, which was worth so much more than his, to spare him a bullet to the heart.
Chapter 13