Protect Me (26 page)

“Wait a
second.”

Hope
clenched her jaw.

Iseul
stepped forward next to Rick and frowned at Boran.

“This
is extremely illogical,” she informed the big man. He raised his eyebrows and
frowned. Iseul seemed to take this as an invitation, because she continued,
“You cannot possibly be making more money from this Gouws fellow than you might
being hired by Rick, or by myself for that matter. Why don’t you leave with us,
and we can talk about this like adults.”

Boran
stared at Iseul for a long moment, and then rolled his eyes so hard that it
looked like it hurt.

“How
stupid exactly do you think I am?” he asked.

“In
feet or meters?” Iseul shot back. Rick slowly, slowly turned his head to stare
at her and she winced. “Sorry, I tend babble when faced with impending doom.
It’s a character flaw.”

Boran
looked almost amused. Hope couldn’t help noticing the tiny tug of lips at the
corner of his mouth, and the way he kept looking at Iseul. He liked Iseul, she
thought, or would’ve, in another time and place.

“Don’t
be ridiculous. There is no doom. We can all part here as… well, perhaps not
friends. But we will complete our transaction and all of us will walk away.”
Hope couldn’t help noticing the way he flicked a glance over his shoulder
toward the goon at his back. The goon didn’t appear to notice; his deep-set
eyes were trained straight ahead. She wondered if he moved his head rather than
his eyes, like an owl.

“I
can’t accept that.” Iseul put her hands on her hips and gave Boran a
concentrated frown, her forehead crumpling up over her nose. “Even if we were
to go back on our words once you released us - and may I remind you,
we
aren’t the ones who’ve lied - the public loves a redemption story. With your
boss out of the country and unreachable, it would be easy for you to plead
ignorance of some sort. You could say you were lied to by the South African
government. There are about thirty different groups that claim to be the South
African government; it would be extremely difficult to prove your guilt.”

“That’s
quite the case you’ve built there,” Boran said. He smiled grimly. “But I’m
afraid it’s not that easy. Even if it was that easy, I can’t just walk away.”

Iseul
kept her gaze determinedly on Boran, nodding like she was fascinated by his
words, like she was trying to understand. Hope could see stress tighten the
lines at the edge of her mouth and eyes, but only because she was looking for
it.

"Alright,
look." Boran brought a hand up to run through his hair, an involuntary
conversational gesture. It put him just slightly off-balance. "The reason
I need the money is..."

Hope
couldn't move; she had to keep Boran’s backup in her sights. Her fingers
clenched fruitlessly on empty air as the adrenaline built up in her system went
nowhere. This was the perfect moment, and she could do nothing but watch it
pass by.

Out of
the corner of her eye, Hope saw Rick lunge forward and jam the taser right into
Boran's sternum. Boran's eyes went wide and his mouth opened, but no sound came
out.

"Take
it off! Take it off!" Hope yelled, her eyes riveted to the goon, who
didn't seem to realize what was happening yet.

Assuming
you're not going to kill them, a person's body doesn't actually shake like
they're getting electrocuted when you tase them. There’s occasionally shouting
or their eyes might roll back in their head, but Boran couldn’t seem to catch
his breath to yell. There was no real way to know unless you saw the taser in
Rick's hand.

Of
course, that meant that it would be easy for Rick to give Boran enough jolts to
kill him without even realizing what he’d done.

Rick
had more self-control than she'd thought; after barely a millisecond he pulled
the taser away and let Boran slump to the ground. Usually inexperienced people
panicked, which made them terribly dangerous. Hope was proud but also
viscerally worried.

"Stay
back," she said, and stepped toward Boran, who had been standing between
the goon and her friends. Now it was just her standing between this huge
hulking brute and two vulnerable, inexperienced people that shouldn’t be there.

And she
was tired.

The
goon’s head swiveled between Hope, the taser still held out in Rick’s hand, and
Boran sprawled out on the floor.

He
tilted his head up to meet Hope’s eyes again. His eyes narrowed.

“You
don’t have to,” Hope started to say, but she knew it was a useless effort
before the words were even out of her mouth. This guy had more muscle than
sense, and he actually
did
have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting
out unscathed. Rick and Iseul were remarkable human beings, but that didn’t
change the fact that they were rank amateurs to violence.

Every
inch of Hope hurt. Blue and green hadn’t started to blossom across her limbs
yet, but it would later that night (assuming she lived that long). Her ribs
were definitely at least cracked, and she was horribly afraid of moving wrong
and puncturing something. She’d been there when a man’s ribs tore open his
lungs and he drowned on empty air - not an act of violence but one of God,
horrible bad luck while driving down a rain-slick African road.

She was
scared and battered and tired; this whole things had taken too long for
adrenaline to save her. Nothing but the last dregs of mettle was clinging to
her bones. The goon lifted his lip in a snarl. His muscles twitched as he
prepared to charge, and Hope could feel despair seep into her blood like a
sickness.

And
yet, when she flicked a glance over at Rick and Iseul, they were waiting,
pale-faced but calm, certain that Hope would save them.

Hope
gritted her teeth. So she would save them, she swore to herself. Somehow. Then
the goon let out a roar and lunged forward, and thinking time was up.

The
goon took one solid step and then forgot about Boran’s prone body on the floor.
He stepped on Boran’s arm and rolled slightly over the uneven surface. Some
small part of Hope’s brain processed pity for Boran. The rest of Hope threw
herself shoulder-first into the goon’s midsection, completely graceless but
effective nonetheless. The goon’s arms flailed in the air and one huge hand
clamped onto her bicep with a crushing grip, but that wasn’t enough to keep his
huge bulk upright. He slammed into the floor and Hope slammed into his chest a
millisecond later.

She
scrambled upright, using the surprise of the fall to yank her arm out of the
goon’s grasp. Her foot caught against one of his tree-trunk thighs, and Hope
stumbled.

It was
enough time for the goon to recover. Rick’s wordless shout was all the warning
Hope had before the goon hauled himself up and snatched at Hope’s legs.

She
bent her knees and jumped straight over his arm on instinct. Somewhere behind
her Hope heard a gasp.

Hope
wanted to yell at Rick and Iseul to run now, while they had a chance, but she
didn’t have the breath for it. Before her feet even landed on the goon’s chest,
she was already throwing her weight forward. One toe hit the goon’s chest and
Hope tumbled forward over his head.

If she
was less beaten down she would’ve landed sharply and turned halfway into the
next punch, but Hope was running on empty. She hit the ground off-balance and
her shoulder caught jarringly. Instead of doing a neat somersault her body
jolted and she rolled once or twice before curling up on her side and gasping
for air. Something hurt; everything hurt. Hope didn’t know if her collarbone
was broken or if she’d just dislocated her shoulder. Her lungs seized up and
spots danced in front of her eyes as she tried desperately to suck in a breath.

She
couldn’t stay down. The goon was probably up and lumbering toward her as she
lay there and just tried to breathe. Hope pressed a palm flat to the ground and
tried to push herself up, but her body didn’t move.

Footsteps
filled her ears and a hand settled on her shoulder. Everything was confused;
Hope knew that she should be curling her fingers into a fist and prepping
herself to fight.

But she
didn’t feel angry, she felt oddly calm. Something smelled good, not like the
sweat and panic that had filled her nostrils for the last few hours.

That
hand rolled her gently onto her back, another hand coming up to cradle the back
of her head to soften the feel of the concrete underneath.

Hope
blinked up at the blurry face above her. It was too small to be her enemy for
sure, and the dark eyes were too big. She could see dark hair and a sharply
outlined jaw. It was a handsome face that tugged at her only half-conscious
mind, drawing her back up out of the darkness, and back into painful reality.
The face started to come into focus with the rest of the world, and Hope
winced. It was familiar…

“Rick?”

“Okay,
good, you’re with the living still, no thanks to you.” Rick’s voice was tight
in a way she’d never heard before, like he actually needed to keep a grip on
his temper to stop it from fraying. Hope gave him a brief, unfocused smile and
started trying to push herself upright again. The frown lines on his face
deepened, but his hands were infinitely gentle when they went around her back
and slowly drew her up.

The
room swam in front of her; past Rick’s outstretched shoulder she saw Iseul
shuffle away from the goon’s prone body and peer down at Boran’s slack face.

“Thanks,”
Hope gasped as her whole body screamed in protest. Her shoulder twitched and
she bit back a yell. “Okay, grab my shoulder.”

Rick’s
frown shifted into confusion. He clearly didn’t get it, for which Hope counted
herself lucky. If he did understand, he probably wouldn’t help.

She
forced her face into a blank expression and grabbed Rick’s wrist with her good
hand. “When I put your hand on my shoulder, I need you to push back.”

Before
he could ask any questions she didn’t have the energy to answer, Hope shoved
her bad shoulder into his grasp. She clenched her teeth and jammed her shoulder
forward. Rick obeyed her request on instinct, the way she’d bet he would.

There
was a sick, wet popping noise and the joint slid back into place. Hope
swallowed down a wave of nausea.

Fortunately
the feeling didn’t settle; her nerve endings were apparently already stretched
to the limit informing her that she was hurting and tired. Rick looked a little
green, though.

“You
didn’t tell me that was going to happen,” he said, swallowing slowly and
deliberately.

“Because
if I had, you wouldn’t have helped.” The fog began to clear from her vision.
Hope tilted her head to look around Rick and reassure herself that the goon was
still flat on the ground. He was. “Now help me get up.”

“Pushy,
aren’t you?” Rick said, sounding greatly relieved. His tone made Hope pause and
take another long look at his face.

She
realized that the first thing that came to mind when she looked at Rick wasn’t
his sharp cheekbones or strong jaw anymore. It wasn’t even his dark eyes,
striking in their curiosity. Instead of any one feature, it was a feeling of
rightness, a feeling of coming home.

When
Hope first met Rick she had been content, but drifting, wanting something
without knowing the shape of it. She’d been waiting for the next thing to come
along, and almost hadn’t realized it when he’d invited her into his life and
kissed her at the door, asking her to come inside.

“Always,”
Hope said, and the somber tone of her own voice ringing in her ears made her
realize she’d completely forgotten the original question.

True to
form, Rick paused and narrowed his eyes, thinking it over. His face softened
and he reached out a hand. Hope really needed to gather her strength, get up,
and take care of things, but when Rick’s science-scarred hand touched her cheek
she shut her eyes and leaned in to the feel of it.

“Guys?”
A high-pitched voice entered Hope’s consciousness and her eyes blinked open in
sleepy surprise. That was Iseul talking, she thought muzzily. “Guys, that’s
adorable - sort of disgusting, but mostly adorable - but… This guy is moving.
That’s normal, right? He’s allowed to be moving?”

Hope
forced her eyes all the way open just in time to see the goon jerk his head off
the ground.
Stubborn bastard
, she thought in weary amazement.

“Tase
him!” she yelled at Iseul and scrambled to her feet, feeling every muscle and
joint fight her along the way.

Iseul
whimpered; Hope heard it as the goon got to his knees. The man was clearly
still out of it, but there was a smirk underneath the drool on his lips. He
knew. She started hobbling faster. Rick hovered at her side, clearly unsure of
how to help.

“I
can’t,” Iseul whispered. “I… I can’t hurt somebody. He’ll die!”

At the
moment, Hope was okay with that. “You can do it, he won’t - look, just give me
the…” There were only a few yards between her and Iseul. She could grab the
taser and down the guy and then they could finally, finally all get out of
here. Hope ignored the way her knees screamed and the twitch of loose ribs in
her chest and strode ahead of Rick.