Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Police are in route!” Dana yelled. “We got company! Hostiles coming up the sidewalk fast!”
Fuck! Shit! We got to get the fuck out of here! Duke thought. Fuck the bounty, I should’ve never agreed to this.
Looking down the dank hallway, he saw the crazy women lying on the floor; her body crouched over a bleeding man. It wasn’t his bounty. He’d shot someone else. Duke walked carefully towards her, his weapon still aimed. “Ma’am. Step away from him and let me see your hands!”
She probably couldn’t hear his demands over her own wailing. The guy she lay over looked like he’d taken a bullet to his stomach and was quickly bleeding out. Couldn’t have been older than twenty-five. As Duke drew closer, he could see the guy’s eyelids twitching. Fuck! Where the hell had –
Duke hadn’t even finished that thought when he was slammed from behind. His weapon was knocked from his grip as he took another hard shot to his ribs. He yelled out, trying to turn and reach for his other weapon. He was spun around and an angry blow glanced his cheek, but the next one hit him square on his temple, knocking him to the ground. He was confused and dazed. He rolled to his side, hoping to quench some of the pain and was hit hard in the back, with either an object or a boot, he wasn’t sure. Gritting his teeth and trying to eat the pain, he ambled to his feet, grabbing his attacker around his mid-section, trying to hold off any more blows, at least until his guys got up there to help him.
Duke heard more gunshots, didn’t know if he was confusing the lights flashing across his vision with muzzle flashes. The police couldn’t have gotten there that fast, it had to be his guys taking fire from elsewhere. Shit! More hits came down on his back and Duke hollered out in agony. He finally reached for and gripped his other 9mm, but it was knocked loose by another blow to his side. Hits were coming from all directions. Duke registered that someone else was hitting him, not just Aaron. Screaming. Wailing. Cursing. It was the crazy woman. She had that damn bat. Duke was focused on trying to keep Aaron in his sights. He was the cold-blooded killer; they’d deal with the lady later.
Duke was using any energy he had left to fight off his assailants, his fists swinging and flying as fast as his racing heart. He hoped he was giving half as good as he was getting. He felt the pain in his fist, knew he’d landed a couple shots, but Aaron was big and probably doped up. Duke wondered if the guy even felt his punches. Something struck him hard across the back of his head and more bright flashes of white appeared before his eyes a split second before the pain registered. It was like nothing he’d felt before. His head felt like it’d been split wide open. He crashed to the ground, hitting the wood floor face-first, the wind knocked out of him. He tried to take in air but it tasted poisonous, the thick, moldy, crack-infused oxygen acrid and bitter on his tongue. Nausea was fast approaching. Duke curled in on himself. Gagged and spit out blood. Oh, fuck.
He could hear the woman’s banshee cries like she had a bullhorn pressed directly against his ear. She was yelling at someone to run… to go. Duke was on his belly. There were loud footsteps around him but he couldn’t see faces. He wasn’t capable of lifting his head, but through squinted eyes he could see the shiny chrome of his weapon on the floor against the wall. He felt if he could just get to it everything would be all right. Sirens wailed. Shots were still being fired. Someone was firing a shotgun or else Duke’s head was so sensitive, every sound was amplified. He pushed off with one knee, but something hard and unforgiving landed across his lower back, followed by another blow and another and another. His last thoughts before he blacked out were of his guys. He hoped they’d at least made it out. Then he welcomed the darkness. Anything to stop the pain.
Duke wasn’t sure where he was or who he was with, but he knew he’d never been as scared in his entire life. He could hear voices, sort of. Faraway sounds, like he was in a tunnel or underwater. His eyes fluttered open but he quickly shut them. The light was blinding and his head felt like someone was driving a corkscrew threw the back of his skull. What the fuck is happening? He was confused. He wanted to try to conjure up memories of his last activities, but it seemed that doing so made his head hurt worse. He realized a few seconds later that he was in an ambulance.