Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 171

Marcus' investment pays off.

I heard a wet cough and imagined Natashya on the floor, blood gurgling from her lips and painting the cold concrete floor in dark crimson. Fuck... the last thing I wanted to do was have that image burned into my brain, but I couldn't help myself. With my head turned away from the gruesome scene, I opened my eyes just enough to peer out of the corner and see... something wholly unexpected.

The man holding the gun to Natashya's was clutching his throat as blood spilled around his fingers and from the corners of his mouth. The gun dangled from one limp finger a moment longer before it slipped free and clattered across the floor. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, giving me a clear view of the doorway and the person who stood in it, gun pointed at the body of Natashya's would-be killer. Chloe. She had an unarmed man a couple of inches taller than her in some kind of hold, the entire half of his lower face a bloody mess; one arm hung limply at his side.

I wasn't the only one looking around in confusion. Two guards had been flanking their leader on the left and two on the right. While I was processing everything that had just happened, they were doing the same. One dropped to a knee beside his leader, and two began swinging their weapons around wildly. The remaining one was a touch quicker than the others. He turned his slick-bald head toward the door and brought his weapon to bear on the intruder.

Chloe reacted in the same moment, kicking the man she was holding and sending stumbling into Baldy. It momentarily prevented him from training his rifle on her as it got caught on the torso of the man thrown at him. The movement caught the attention of the other guards, who trained their weapons on my bodyguard, and she took a shot at the third guard who had been standing just to the right of his commander - a blonde man with close-cropped hair.

Blondie's ear exploded in a geyser of pink mist as three of them opened fire at Chloe's head just as she disappeared around the corner of the doorway. The gunshots were deafening in the mostly empty concrete storage room, and I could barely hear Natashya

screaming as she dove to the ground, her hands over her head.

Baldy shoved Chloe's victim aside so he could take precise aim, and the new, bloodied guard dove over Natashya's prone form and on top of Leader's body, scrambling for sidearm with his remaining functional arm. The woman with the glasses who stood off to the side threw her arms over her head and dashed away from the firefight, disappearing from view somewhere behind me. I heard her shout something I couldn't quite make out, and the man who had wanted to kill me replied with something equally unintelligible.

The chair hung from my bloody wrists as struggled to stand, unwilling to sit there and be collateral damage. None of them were paying any attention to me... maybe I could get the drop on them or provide some sort of distraction to make it easier for Chloe. At the very least, I could dive on top of Natashya and give some kind of cover for her. She'd been through enough.

The four guards fired several more shots at the edge of the door and the wall next to it, shredding the metal frame where Chloe's head had been only moments ago. Then, someone peered around the other side of the frame. Crouched low, Shea fired two rounds at the goon to the farthest right, who looked like the oldest of the bunch. She hit him in the thigh with the first shot and the side with the second one. Her head disappeared around the edge of the frame just before the remaining three mercenaries changed their focus on her.

The older merc dropped to a knee as he screamed out in pain, reflexively grabbing his leg as he cursed. Chloe peered around the door and fired a single shot, catching him above the left eyebrow and sending his lifeless body the rest of the way to the floor. At the same time, I saw Jon round the corner of Shea's side of the door and put two bullets in Baldy's chest before disappearing. Chloe ducked back as well. Three goons down. Two left. Well, two and a half if you counted the plus-one Chloe had brought to the party.

The plus-one rolled onto his back and sat halfway up with his gun trained at the door as Shea peeked around the corner. She took a bullet to the shoulder as she fired three shots, putting the half- dead man out of his misery. I had just managed to fully right myself and nearly toppled over out of concern when she'd been shot, but she merely vanished from sight, leaving a smear of blood on the doorframe where she'd been just moments ago. She disappeared just in time to miss a bullet that instead carved a chunk of concrete where she'd just been. Jon tried to peer around the same corner a second later and nearly got his head blown off, ducking back before he managed to fire a shot.

One ankle was still bound firmly to my chair leg, but I managed to shake the other one loose; the cuff had been latched to the underside of the chair's stretcher instead of over it like the other, allowing it to slip free now that the entire thing hung a few inches off the ground as it dangled off my wrists. It wasn't much, but at least I could semi-walk.

The first guard to the left, who appeared to have burn scars on his face, ran up to the wall next to the door, pressing himself flat against it while holding his rifle at the ready. Blondie, who'd been the one to nearly take Jon's head off, backed up a couple of feet, crouched down, grabbed Natashya by the hair, and hauled her to her feet. He held her in front of him and pressed the barrel of the gun to her head. Natashya struggled against his grip until she felt the cold steel press into the side of her face. A half-scream-half- sob escaped her lips.

"Fucking drop it!" he demanded. "Drop your guns now, or I'll kill the fucking bitch!"

"You kill her," Chloe called out coldly, "and you won't leave here alive."

I stepped forward as quietly as possible, watching warily as the man pressed against the wall inched near the door. My wrists burned so badly I wanted to scream as the cold metal bit into my raw, bleeding flesh. I did my best to ignore it as I stepped forward until I was within a few feet of the man. I thought I'd lost Natashya; I wasn't going to lose her again.

"You forgetting ab-"

I lept at the man and crashed into him, aiming for his gun in hopes that it would be enough to move the barrel away from Natashya. I felt my head slam into the gun as my body connected with his, and I let out a wordless yell that was drowned by the sound of gunfire as we both crashed to the floor.

With my hands still bound behind the chair, there wasn't much else I could do at this point. I simply tried to wriggle my body on top of him and slam my head into his face. My first stroke caught him on his cheekbone; there was enough force behind my strike that I bounced his head off the concrete like a basketball. I heard more gunshots go off behind me, but all I could do was hope that they were from the good guys and not the bad guys.

Blondie kicked me off him and rolled on top of me as the fingers of one hand closed around my windpipe, and he began to squeeze.

I flailed my one free leg, trying to knee him in the back... doing anything to get him off me.