She hadn’t expected him to be that fast. Dizzie tried to lunge out of the way.
Too slow.
Her legs slipped out from under her and she fell on her hip. A whisper of heat kissed her ribs as she tumbled to the floor.
The heat turned to fire. Dizzie scrambled to her knees and pressed her hand to her left side. “Fuck!” Her fingers skimmed over an open wound.
That had been a kill shot. How had she ended up with only a flesh wound? Was his aim that bad?
Leopold’s shadow fell over her. It didn’t matter how she was still alive. She needed to keep moving. Her knees slipped and she looked down. She knelt in a slowly growing puddle of blood. One that traced back to Portia.
Portia had saved her life, however unwittingly. Now Dizzie needed to save hers.
“Stop.” Portia’s voice was weak, but it was enough to catch Leopold’s attention. He turned toward her. Dizzie scrambled toward him on her blood-slicked knees.
She’d only get one chance.
As soon as she was close enough, Dizzie swiped at the tendons behind his knee with her nails. She ignored the sensation of cutting through skin. Instead, she concentrated on seeing Killian again as she forced her nails deeper.
Leopold screamed and tried to turn toward her. He dropped to the ground between her and Portia. Dizzie swiped at his torso from behind, her nails tearing through flesh. She caught him on both sides, leaving deep scores. Every movement of her arm sent pain sparking along her side.
Finally, he dropped the gun. It hit the floor with a clatter.
Dizzie scrambled on her hands and knees to grab the gun. She stuffed it in the back of her pants. Hopefully Leopold would stay down, because Dizzie wasn’t sure how much more she could take.
Panting for breath, she stared at Leopold. He twitched and moaned on the floor. One swift kick to his head or his side with her boots and she would have been able to knock him out. Barefoot, that wasn’t an option.
Painfully, Dizzie pushed to her feet. Her side throbbed. Her hands and knees were sticky with blood.
She circled around him to get close to the door. What could she use to tie him up? She couldn’t see anything. The room was sparsely furnished, intended to keep prisoners locked up with no way to hurt themselves or escape.
The gunshot wound in her side burned. The magic drugs from the hospital would be welcome right now. Were the nanomeds still in her bloodstream? It would be awesome if they kicked back in. Her whole body hurt.
Dizzie studied Portia. Her shoulder appeared to have stopped bleeding, but there was an awful lot of blood on the floor beside her. Dizzie’s pants were drenched with it and she didn’t want to think about her feet and hands.
Help still hadn’t arrived and Leopold could wake up at any moment. She had to find a way to restrain Leopold. Or did she?
Dizzie started to laugh.
Maybe shock had made her brain slow. Maybe it was the loss of blood. She didn’t have to tie Leopold up. She could lock him in instead. Safety was just outside the door.
Now to get Portia out of the room. She was conscious, somewhat, but Dizzie didn’t think she’d be able to walk.
“This is probably going to hurt,” Dizzie warned, then bent and slid her hands under Portia’s shoulders. Fire raced up Dizzie’s side when she strained to move Portia’s weight. Step by slow step, she dragged her backward, inching toward the door. Dizzie tried not to think about the blood squelching under her feet as she tried to keep her footing.
Portia was semiconscious and mostly dead weight. Dizzie’s back and side screamed as she hunched over, dragging Portia inch by inch from where she lay on the floor bleeding.
Dizzie paused to catch her breath. Portia roused slightly. “What are you doing?”
“Getting us out of here.” She wrapped her fingers under Portia’s shoulders again and pulled. Portia screamed.
“Ohmygod that hurts! Stop!”
“I can’t.” Dizzie dragged her another few inches.
“I demand you stop!” Portia screeched.
Her cry was loud enough to make Leopold twitch. Dizzie didn’t like that. “Shut up! We don’t want him to wake up.”
