Chapter 6 - Muscle Memory
I grabbed the heavy, solid brass nameplate off the mahogany desk and hurled it with lethal, practiced precision.
It struck Nikolai squarely in the bridge of his nose with a sickening crack. He staggered backward, blinded by pain and blood, his gun firing wildly. The suppressed pft-pft shattered the reinforced glass wall behind me.
Instinct instantly took over. I vaulted over the desk, dropping low to the plush carpet to avoid the return fire from his two musclemen. I swept the leg of the closest man, feeling his knee buckle under the brutal force of my combat boot. As he went down hard, I grabbed his wrist, twisting it violently until he dropped his weapon, then delivered a crushing elbow strike to his temple. He went completely limp on the floor.
Nikolai roared in fury, wiping blood from his face, and charged at me like a wounded bear.
He was bigger, stronger, but he was furious and sloppy. I dodged his heavy right hook, slipped inside his guard, and drove three rapid, bone-crunching punches into his floating ribs. I felt one snap under my knuckles. He gasped, but wrapped his massive arms around me, slamming me backward into the heavy oak bookshelves.
The wind was knocked violently out of my lungs. My old shrapnel wound screamed in agonizing protest.
Fight.
I dropped my dead weight, breaking his iron grip, grabbed a heavy bronze bookend, and brought it down hard on his collarbone. Nikolai collapsed to his knees, gasping in agony.
The third man scrambled desperately toward the dropped gun. I kicked it across the floor, grabbed him by the lapels of his suit, and slammed his head against the solid wall until his eyes rolled back in his head.
May you like
Silence descended on the penthouse, broken only by the sound of the rain and Nikolai's ragged, wet breathing on the floor. I stood over him, smoothing down the lapels of my blazer, my breathing perfectly controlled.
"Tell your employers," I said softly, staring down at the bleeding mercenary, "that Apex Strategic is under new management. And the debt is permanently canceled."
