Primary Valor Jack Mars (miss read books TXT) 📖

to Darwin’s hand. He felt the stinging pain as she dug her teeth into hisflesh. He pulled her closer, but still she bit, tearing into him. He didn’tdare come out from behind the bodyguard. For a brief moment, he and the girlwere in a tug of war, he pulling her small body closer and closer, while sheripped his hand apart with her teeth.

She kicked at him with her barefeet. He was low, and she kicked at his legs, and at his sides.

The pain in his hand became toomuch. He let go. The back of his hand was bleeding. He was going to have animprint of her mouth in his flesh.

“You bitch!” he shouted at her. “Youlittle—”

“My name is Charlotte,” she said.

She turned and ran up the hall tothe man.

“Stand behind me,” Darwin heardthe man say. Everything, every word, every sound, echoed in this wide hallway.

The man still had the gun toElaine’s head. “That’s all I want,” he shouted. “The girl is all I came for. I’malive, you’re alive. Cool?”

Darwin suddenly realized that theman wasn’t even talking to him. He was talking to the last gunman here.

The guard gestured at the twocorpses on the floor. “What about them?”

“They’re not your problem, arethey? Your problem is you.”

“There are thirty men on thesegrounds. You’ll never get out of here alive.”

“That’s not your problem either,”the man said.

A long second passed, and then thebodyguard stood tall. He raised his hands and holstered his gun. Darwin wasstill crouched behind him. Darwin glanced back again. The two remaining girlswere here, sweet girls, loyal girls, 11 and 17. They could be blonde twins. Theywere behind him, hugging each other and crying.

Darwin looked down the hallway. Theintruder, Elaine, and 21 were all gone.

“I want that man dead,” Darwinsaid.

The bodyguard shrugged. He wasstaring down at the two dead men.

“Kill him yourself,” he said.

* * *

“You have the keys to one of thesethings?”

The three of them, Luke, the girl,and the woman Elaine, moved quickly across the parking lot toward the line ofSUVs.

The girl was barefoot, but sheseemed to be managing. Her nightdress was basically see-through. Luke was goingto have to find her some clothes. And if they made it through this, probablysome kind of rubber room to hang around inside of for a while.

The house loomed behind them, andbehind that, the flames of the burning outbuilding cast an orange glow againstthe dark sky. The explosions, and the fire, had bought him some time, butprobably not much.

“No,” the woman said. “I don’tdrive them.”

Luke was through messing around. Hewas finished. His patience was just… gone. He had left two captive girlsbehind. Who knew how many more were here on these grounds, and in the house?

He might have ended it by killingDarwin King, but he couldn’t get a clear shot. The bodyguard did exactly whathe was paid to do—put his own body in the way of harm. Luke had already losttrack of how many he had killed since Henry Bowles, just to get here. Six men,anyway. Maybe eight. Two dogs. Buzz Mac was dead. And now Luke was walking away—makethat running away—from the whole thing. It was a mess. This job had been FUBARfrom the beginning, and it had never gotten any better.

Luke’s gun was pressed against thewoman’s head as they walked. He jabbed her again, to remind her it was there.

He shrugged. “If you can’t get meinto one of those cars, and get it started, I have no reason to keep you alive.”

The woman sighed. She could havebeen exasperated by an incompetent maid.

“There are no keys. It’s keylessentry. I know the code. There’s a microchip inside a plastic fob sitting in aslot where they used to put the ashtray. We just leave the fobs in the cars. Themotor recognizes the presence of the chip. Once you’re inside the car, you canstart it by pressing a button on the dashboard.”

Luke nodded. “Good. Then that’swhat we’ll do.”

He went to the first car in theline. He turned and looked back at the house. There was movement in theshadows. Men were massing near the guardhouse. The tall metal gates wereclosed. It was going to be hot getting out of here, if it wasn’t hot already.

“Mister…” Charlotte said.

He turned. She was staring up athim with big blues eyes. She gestured behind her. Men had appeared, coming fromthe other direction. They were shadows themselves, moving around the far end ofthe house.

“Get down!” he shouted.

Charlotte and Elaine dropped tothe ground.

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

They were shooting. That was a badsign. Luke had hostages. He supposed they didn’t care anymore. He crouched downand unstrapped one of the MP5s from around his shoulder. He stepped on one ofElaine’s wrists.

“Don’t even think about running.”

He stepped to the edge of the car,turned the corner, and opened with the gun.

DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH.

It was LOUD.

Charlotte and Elaine bothscreamed. The girl put fingers in her ears. He wasn’t trying to hit anything. Hecouldn’t see anyone.

Luke reached down and pulledElaine to her feet.

“Now. Open the car. Let’s go.”

Elaine bent to the task, herfingers shaking. On the driver’s door, there was a dimly lit numeric pad wherethe key slot normally would be. She began pressing buttons. “I don’t know if Ican—”

“There’s no time,” Luke said. “Getit right. If I’m going to die here, so are you.”

A beep sounded, and the doorunlocked. Luke pulled it open.

“Get in,” he said to Elaine.

“Am I driving?”

Luke shook his head. “No. Slideall the way across.”

He looked at the girl. “Charlotte,get in the back and sit right behind the front passenger seat. Okay?”

The girl nodded and got in.

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

Bullets chewed into armor.

Luke slid in behind the wheel.

“Shouldn’t I drive?” Elaine said.“And you hold a gun to my head? Isn’t that how we’re supposed to do it?”

“No,” Luke said. “You’re not agood enough driver.”

“How do you know that?”

Luke smiled. “I just know.”

He took Bowles’s pistol out of hisbelt. He checked the chamber. Empty. He ejected the magazine and let it dropout to the floor on his left. He turned to the girl.

“Charlotte, this is a gun. It’sready to fire. It’s a little bit heavy, so use two