Only One Road – chapter 18

– XVIII –

I got to my apartment building in record time of four minutes. I didn’t even bother with waiting for the elevator, I just ran upstairs. While I was running, I kept calling myself every single name in the book. “Dumbass” was probably the mildest one. I expected my door to be unlocked and when it was indeed, I just swore out loud.

I burst inside, knowing that the damn apartment was empty. Son of a bitch! Mickey’s out of the hospital, Tanner is trying everything to keep me away from coming back here… Goddammit!

I have no idea how I knew that someone was behind me. I mean, I was almost panicking. But I knew that someone was behind me so I whirled around and threw my right arm up at the weird angle. She made a very surprised grunt when my wrist collided with her face and staggered backwards.

She pressed her hands against her face and looked at me with huge eyes. I pushed her against the wall, making sure that she couldn’t possibly knee me in the groin. That would be bad. I was pissed off. At my own stupidity mostly.

“Where is he?” I asked in a low voice and she tried to weasel out of my grip. But as I said, I was pissed off so I squeezed her throat harder.

She squeaked and clawed at my hand.

“Where is he?” I repeated.

Her eyes started to bulge out and I released my grip slightly. She gasped air and immediately coughed. Then I remembered what Dylan said recently. “I wonder if she has a concealed weapon permit.” I ran my hand over her hips and sure enough, there was a gun underneath her jacket. I pulled it out and snorted when I saw a silencer. She managed to bite my hand and I slapped her so hard that her head jerked backwards and hit the wall hard.

“Don’t fuck with me, Ms. Waters”, I hissed at her. “Where is he?!”

“I…” she gulped some air. “Don’t know… Let go of me!”

I clicked the safety off and gave her a very nasty smile.

“If I kill you right now, it’ll be just a simple case of self-defense”, I murmured. “Breaking and entering on your part, catching you in the act on mine. Now for the last time… Where is he?!”

“I don’t know”, she muttered, her eyes huge as if she was mesmerized by the gun barrel. “I swear, I don’t know…”

“What the hell were you doing here?” I demanded. “Speak, damn you!”

I shook her and her teeth clanked.

“I…” she blinked rapidly. “I had to make sure that you don’t…”

“Get in the way”, I finished her sentence with a small nod. “Got it.”

I doubted that she would’ve shot me. Too messy. That meant there had to be something else. I quickly searched her pockets. When I found a white plastic syringe that was filled with clear liquid, I almost laughed.

“You were supposed to knock me out so I stay put until they are done with him”, I said.

Her eyes flashed helpless anger at me.