Tattoo (Take It Off #7)(47)
Author: Cambria Hebert

What happened at the bank was horrible, and being shot and scared I might die had been borderline traumatizing, but something good had come out of it.

Meeting Brody.

If I had to choose between being shot or never meeting him, I would take a bullet any day.

Did that mean I was in love?

I wasn’t as naïve as I thought I was, but I was definitely in lust. And I liked him… a lot. He made me laugh and he was surprisingly easy to be around. If our relationship progressed the way I thought it might, then love wasn’t too far off.

Once the egg and milk mixture was whisked together, I grasped the handle on the mixing bowl to pour it over the bread. When the bowl was in midair, the doorbell rang.

I glanced at the clock. It was after eight. Kind of late for someone to be visiting. It rang again, insistently, and I smiled.

It was probably Brody.

The thought of falling asleep in his arms tonight was so extremely enticing. I set down the bowl and went to the door, smiling.

After I threw the lock and cracked the door, an ominous feeling came over me. I moved to slam the door back in place, to call out before I opened it…

But I was too late.

The door was rammed from the other side so forcefully that I went flying backward and fell onto the floor, sliding across the tile and coming up against the bottom stair. I lay there stunned and reached up to feel the back of my head, which took the impact of the stair. It wasn’t bleeding, but it still hurt.

A man charged in the front door after me, leaping on top and grabbing my free arm. “Shouldn’t have opened the door, bitch.” He snarled.

I’d know his voice and face anywhere. He was supposed to be jail. Brody said Snake was arrested. Fear broke out over my skin like a rash, turning me clammy and shaky.

He laughed. “You underestimated me. I like when people do that.”

“I thought you were in jail.” I gasped as he yanked me up off the floor.

“I wanted you to think I was in jail.”

I glanced around, looking for something I could use as a weapon. Unfortunately, since we were standing in a foyer, my options were very limited.

But the front door was open. If I could get away, I could run outside and scream for help. “What do you want?” I asked him, looking away from the door so he wouldn’t gauge what I was thinking.

“That pig took away my money, my crew… He made me look like a fool! No one will ever follow me now,” he spat, dragging me farther into the house.

I tried to dig my heels into the floor. I needed to stay as close to the door as I could.

“So I decided to take something from him. And you seem to be just the thing to take away.” He laughed as he dragged me toward the kitchen, and frankly, it pissed me off.

I bent at the waist, leaning down to where he was holding me, and sank my teeth into his arm. I bit down so hard I tasted blood. He howled and pushed me away from him, slamming me face first into the wall.

From inside the kitchen, the landline was ringing. It was like a beacon in the dark. Without thought, I raced toward the sound, desperate to get help. Snake rushed after me as I skidded around the island just as the ringing phone cut off.

He lunged forward and I grabbed the closest thing within reach, the bowl of egg mixture. I threw it, the bowl and all, right at his face. It smacked into his chest, the mixture splattering all over him and then falling to the floor where the glass shattered.

He cursed and I grabbed the phone, skirting around his grabby hands and pressing the number for 9-1-1.

As he slid in the mess I created, I lunged around him, desperate to get to the open front door.

I almost made it.

He caught the hem of my shirt and yanked. My foot caught on some of the spilled eggs on the floor and I went flying, landing hard on my butt.

I gasped, the wind whooshing from my lungs, and my arm groaned from the impact of the fall. The phone flew out of my hand and skidded across the tile just as the operator picked up the line.

“Help!” I screamed. “Help me!”

Snake jumped on me. He looked like some kind of swamp monster with the orange-colored goop all over his face and dripping down the front of his shirt. A gun appeared in his hand, and I struggled anew, slapping at him with my free arm and kicking my legs.

He reached back and slapped me hard across the face. My cheek stung and my eyes watered from the assault. I blinked, desperately willing away the pain when he held the gun down, leveling right at my head.

“Any last words?” he said, giving me a psychotic grin.

Beneath my arm I felt the jagged edge of a piece of the shattered bowl. I wrapped my fingers around it and, with a battle cry, launched myself up and off the floor, swinging my arm around and catching him in the face.

He screamed and dropped the gun, slapping his hand over the cut, which was now oozing blood. I bucked him off and scrambled to get up, slipping a little in the mess but managing to make it to my feet.

At the same time, both of us saw the gun lying there between us. We dove at it, but he was faster, closing his hand around the barrel.

To hell with this.

I slammed the heel of my hand down on his head, knocking his forehead into the floor, and then took off running toward the front of the house.

“Taylor!” Brody bellowed, and just the sound of his voice from out in the yard was enough to make tears blur my vision.

“Brody!” I screamed, running toward the sound of his voice. “He has a gun!”

I heard some sounds behind me. I knew Snake would be taking aim in mere seconds, but I kept on running, moving as fast as my feet would let me.

Brody appeared in the doorway, his face wild with fear and his eyes like huge dark saucers. When he saw me, he burst into action, rushing into the house, reaching for me.

So close.

He was just so close.

The last thing I saw was him literally throwing himself into the air at me.

The last sound I heard was the explosion of a gun.

23

Brody

Pulling up to the house and seeing the light from the inside spill out across the front porch from the open door was scary.

Hearing her scream my name shaved about ten years off my life.

All I knew was that something bad was happening, she was covered in something wet and sticky, and the fear on her face was one of the realest things I’d ever seen.

When Snake appeared in the hallway behind her, brandishing a gun, my heart nearly stopped in my chest. I was still too far away. It seemed like the distance between us was miles.

Snake lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.

I leapt, launching myself off the floor and jumping at her.