Already Gone (A Laura Frost FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) by Blake Pierce (notion reading list .txt) 📗

to finish hissentence. The second his eyes were off her, she sprang, leaping toward him withher arms outstretched. She tackled him to the floor, rolling with the momentumand ending up under him, then on top again. Ed grunted with the impact, thengrowled low in his throat, his gritted teeth bared as he tried to throw Lauraoff him to the side.

She kept hold of his shoulders, wrappingher legs around his waist, using his momentum to keep the roll going. They bothhit the side of a coffee table, crying out with the impact, and rolled back.Laura’s back connected with the floor and stayed there.

Laura had to get the upper hand tosurvive this. She reached lower down his arm to try to restrict him, pullingher legs under her to try and flip him over so that she could keep him down,but his other hand whipped around, the knife still in his grasp. She felt itslash over her left arm, slashing through both her jacket and shirt and thenthe skin, and drew back her right arm to punch him in the face. He took theblow full on the nose, forcing a sound of pain and surprise out of him as theimpact pushed him back.

Laura didn’t have time to register howbadly her arm was bleeding or how much it hurt. She yanked with her feet again,pulling one of her own legs back up toward herself, knocking him furtherbackward. He hit the coffee table again, dislodging a rain of coasters and oldmagazines and the bottle of beer Thomas had been drinking.

Ed snarled as he looked down on her,recovering his balance enough to plunge forward, the knife outstretched in hishand. He had her now. She was trapped, pinned down—he lunged downward—

Laura twisted to the side, but it wasn’tenough. She didn’t have enough leverage, enough room to get out from under him.But the trick with the coffee table had given her what she needed to stop theknife plunging into her heart. Instead, it hit her ribs, glancing off them. Edleft it stuck in her, like it was all over.

“I’ve got you now, Agent Frost,” hecroaked, his voice calling as if from the grave. “Now all that’s left for youto do is die.”

And he was right. She wasn’t fatallywounded, but that didn’t matter. She would bleed out here, from her arm and herside, and Ed wouldn’t let her get help. It would be slow, and maybe he wouldget impatient and speed things up a little, raining down more wounds on herexhausted body. But it was a sure thing. She was going to die.

The gloating smile on his face showedher he was sure he had won.

But he didn’t know she had backup.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

Laura felt the shadow of death fillingthe room. It made her as sick as the pain did. Burning in her arm, her ribs. Itwas so close and so strong that she couldn’t even work out where it was comingfrom. From Ed? From herself?

But then she saw a flicker of silentmovement over Ed’s shoulder, and she knew.

Nate was here, and the shadow of deatharound him was so strong she could feel it even without a touch. This was it.This was the moment that he died.

Nate made some kind of noise, kickedsome small thing that had fallen off the coffee table and rolled toward thedoor, hard to see in the dark. Within a flash, Ed’s sneer was no longer aboveher face, and Laura realized that he had snatched up the gun and moved quick aslightning.

He stood above her now, facing Nate. Hergun in his hand. Pointing at her partner.

“Looks like the cavalry’s here,” Edrasped, and Laura could see him now: her brave, loyal, strong partner, holdinghis gun up in front of him, the two of them locked in a Mexican standoff.

“Drop the weapon,” Nate barked. He wassteady and true, but Ed was unhinged. He had his revenge. There was no way toknow if he cared about his life anymore.

“You first, Agent,” Ed said. “Or yourpartner here doesn’t get the help she needs to survive.”

Laura saw with absolute clarity how itwould play out. She didn’t need a vision. She knew Nate too well. He was goingto look at her and see the blood, and he was going to put down his gun. Justlike she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ed wouldn’t play fair.

The second Nate let down his guard, Edwould kill him.

The shadow filled the whole room, makingit hard for her to concentrate on anything else. The air was thick with it,like it was a visceral smoke she would breathe in when she inhaled. It washappening now.

She couldn’t let Nate die here.

Laura found some last reserve ofstrength, reached with her right hand for the blade that was still stickingjust out of her ribs. She grabbed it, gasped with pain and the renewed spurt ofher blood as she pulled it out. She couldn’t wait. Couldn’t let the pain takeover. Couldn’t acknowledge that yes, in return for saving Nate’s life, shemight be ending her own.

She sat up. She stumbled to one knee,then the other. She pushed herself upright. Her vision went black for a moment,but she fought through the nausea, the dizziness, the pain.

She brought her right arm up, and justas Ed’s muscles moved, signifying his hand tightening around the gun, shestabbed the knife into his back.

Her aim was true. She knew the rightangles to use, had been through all of the training. She didn’t hit a rib. Shehit his heart. She twisted the knife as she dragged it down, opening it upwider, causing more damage.

The first thing she felt was the warmthof his blood, splattered over her and beginning to pour down from the gapingwound in his back.

The second was the weight of his body ashe fell backwards onto her, pinning her back to the floor.

And the third was relief, when she heardNate calling her name and rushing to her side.

***

“You’re lucky,” the doctor said, whichmade Laura want to laugh in his face. “With these stitches, I don’t think you’regoing to have a scar on your arm. Just