Invest in a bulletproof vest when this is over, I mentally noted.
To my relief, the car pulled up to the curb and stopped. The exhaust purred as it idled, and the window rolled down.
Here we go. I’m a dead girl.
“Boss said you have a problem,” a man’s voice said, a bit nasally sounding.
I blinked, wondering how the fuck this actually worked. “He’s inside one of the storage units. I tracked him back here, planning to shoot him in the back of the head when he wasn’t looking, but he must’ve seen me. He attacked me, but I got away after taking the key and locking him in his unit. If I open it, he’ll kill me.”
The man stared at me, hand still on the wheel like he was debating simply driving away. “Shoot through the door.”
What a great plan that I totally didn’t think of.“I ran out of ammo.”
His eyes dipped down my body, like he might be able to sense if I had another magazine on me. His gaze turned scrutinizing, but a sliver of malicious intent slid past that. Was he checking me out?
“You’re not good in hand-to-hand combat,” he surmised, more a statement than a question.
Was he checking me outandsizing me up?
I wrapped my arms around my stomach, layering on the helpless girl act. “N-not really.”
His tongue ran over his upper teeth in thought before he killed the engine and got out. He was easily taller than me, but not much more than Henley. Thankfully, height wouldn’t be an issue. Henley had the element of surprise on his hands. By contrast, I did not.
He stepped a little too close, but I held my ground. I wouldn’t let him see that he intimidated me. I only needed to get him to the unit Henley was hiding in, then he’d take over. Easy.
“Lead the way,” the man commanded. His brunette hair was shorter on the sides, longer on the top, and matched his dark brown eyes. He had a deep scar over the left side of his jaw, leading halfway down his neck. I didn’t want to see what happened to the guy who had caused a wound like that.
I turned, heading into the building. Heavy boot steps followed my lighter ones, his becoming louder the deeper we ventured.
“It’s taken you this long to end up following your target into a storage facility?” the man asked.
“I’ve had a few missed opportunities.” It wasn’t entirely a lie.
“Oh, yeah? What have those been?”
My brain was so riddled with the situation at hand that I hesitated. Apparently a bit too long for this man’s liking, because one second I was facing forward, and the next, myhead was being slammed into something hard while my back was shoved up against a wall.
My mind went fuzzy, slowing my reaction time. He pressed his forearm to my throat, inching me up on my tiptoes.
“What are you planning, little bitch?No oneasks for help. That’s the goddamn point of being a killer for hire,” he gritted out.
My vision slowly came back into focus, alarm at the pressure on my windpipe snapping me back to reality. “You came, didn’t you?”
He pressed harder, and I choked. “To find out what the fuck you’re up to. Boss is getting impatient, Gracie. Or do you need me to send another message?”
My skull stung as I arched into the wall harder, hoping it’d give me a bit of relief on my throat. “It’s. Grace.”
Rage flashed in his eyes, but that was his mistake: keeping all his attention on me. One moment, he was crushing my throat. The next, he was a heap on the ground.
I bent at the waist, sucking in air between choked coughs. Two hands cupped my face, and though I knew who it was, I flinched.
“You were right,” Henley said, eyes searching me for injury.
“Told you.” My voice was hoarse, but I was recouping quickly.
I touched the back of my head, and my fingers came away red. Henley’s gaze shot to them, pure rage overtaking his features as his hands slipped from my face.
“He hurt you.”
