His Favorite Color is Blood - Coffin Nails MC (gay biker dark romance) (Sex & Mayhem Book 8) (34 page)

Misha stiffened, but before he
could protest, Dennis pulled himself up, shaking his head. “No. No, let’s keep
together. I don’t want to be alone. Fuck,” he hissed and slammed his fist
against the door.

Misha nodded and quickly led the
way along the corridor across from the one they walked through earlier. “Let’s
keep to the outermost wall. This is a massive building, there must be many
exits,” he said, trying to chase away the fear nibbling away his sanity. Grim
was a professional. He’d been in worse situations and prevailed. Misha would
only be a hindrance to him.

They rushed down the walkway,
looking into rooms, some of them cluttered with old medical supplies, others
completely empty. Just like Misha suspected, they found other exits, but they
were all either blocked with bricks or locked, and neither of them had the
capacity to even attempt to break through by force.

He had no idea how long they ran
through the maze of rooms, chased by shadows and whispers of the old building.
With every single window closed with thick bars, they were like lab rats
trapped in the labyrinth, chasing after a goal that seemed farther away with
each passing minute. With Misha’s head pulsing and ready to explode, his mind
was starting to play tricks on him. Shadows moved in the same way Zero did. He
was the Minotaur toying with his prey before he could ravage it in his
underworld kingdom.

Then, everything came to a halt
when something thundered high above Misha’s head. The walls around them shook,
and it was almost as if the impending end of the world was finally here.

Chapter 27 – Grim

Grim still had the scent of Zero’s
cologne in his nostrils when he darted for the the corridor where Zero
disappeared with his men. The memory of that monster’s hands roaming all over
Misha’s delicate stumps made him itch for blood, but he knew that if he had
acted on his instincts, Misha, Dennis, and he would have been dead now.

All the time when he had to stand
there and watch Misha lose it was like having to withstand needles pushed under
his fingernails. He was proud of Misha though for making as little commotion as
he could and not outright panicking. He took all that suffering like a man, and
the payback Zero was about to receive would be satisfaction for him as much as
for Grim.

The maze of rooms and corridors
made all of Grim’s senses sharpen so he could track his prey more efficiently.
A soft clang of footsteps came from above when Grim was passing a staircase, and
he dashed that way, quiet in his soft-soled shoes.

In the corridor upstairs, he took
the first door to his side. With each step, he was understanding the space
better, mapping it in his brain as if he were in a videogame, and every wall
and door he could see automatically saved in the hard drive of his mind. If he
needed to run back through here, he would know that the old hospital bed could
prove to be a good hideout and the utility closet—a great place to shoot from
and ambush his enemies.

He rushed into the shadow of an
ancient fabric screen when he heard something move and thought one of Zero’s
bodyguards could be sniffing around, but it was only a rat. He crouched down
and hissed at it so it would get the idea and find a hole to hide in. He’d hate
to see an innocent caught in the crossfire.

As soon as the rodent found a
hiding spot, Grim heard steps approaching his way from afar, and he couldn’t
help a smile pushing onto his lips and the adrenaline rush coursing through his
veins. He turned into a room farther away, eager to play cat and mouse with a
different kind of rat.

Dust and bits of crushed glass
cracked under Grim’s shoes as a vast space opened in front of him. The ceiling
was twice as high as most of the ones in the rooms he’d ran through so far. It
had no windows, but even in the semi-darkness, the bright moonlight was Grim’s
ally and reflected against a huge disc hanging above a lone hospital bed at
least twenty years past its prime. A metal table had fallen on its side by the
wall, and pieces of paper lay scattered all around the place. Ahead of Grim
were double doors sunken deep into the wall underneath a balcony of sorts that
looked like it might have been originally divided from the operating room by
glass, which was now gone.

Grim swallowed, looking around
the white-tiled walls that must have had isolating purposes, because this room
felt too quiet for what it was. For a few seconds, all he could hear was his
own heart. No matter what his senses were telling him, doubt dug its fingers
into his flesh. He had no time to waste. If he was to hunt down Zero, he needed
to move fast. But just as he stepped toward the doors ahead of him, a quiet
buzz of conversation snaked its way into his ears. The men were coming closer,
and as Grim looked around for the perfect hideout, Zero’s words just a few
yards away forced him into making a decision.

Grim ran up to the wall, stepped
on a lone chair, and pushed his shoe onto a wooden shelf, which somehow managed
to hold his body weight as he pulled himself up by a metal ledge, all the way
to the damn balcony. His muscles screamed when he kept himself in an unnatural,
twisted position between the ledge, where he now rested one foot, and the lower
edge of the former window, which he held on to. He wasn’t sure if it was a
piece of remaining glass or a sharp element of the frame, but something clawed
hard into the flesh of his palm. Yet with the doors swinging open below him,
Grim couldn’t allow himself to adjust his hands now.

The drumming in his chest gained
momentum once T4 appeared underneath Grim, looking around with the rifle ready
to shoot. He was careful but not careful enough to look up. He waved his hand,
inviting the others inside, and Zero’s bright figure passed beneath Grim’s
hideout. Grim’s lizard brain screamed at him to attack now. To rip the fucker’s
throat out and stain that elegant suit with his own blood for once. But without
a gun on him, it would have been a disaster for Grim. He might be able to get
rid of Zero, were he fast enough, but he was not ready to get his revenge at
the cost of his own life. He liked his brain where it was—in his skull, not on
the wall. He needed a gun, and he knew just how he’d get it.

The moment Zero’s second goon
passed through, Grim fell on him like a falcon, throwing the man to the floor,
which would give him just enough time to reach for his knives.

Zero looked back, briefly, and
his face went slack as he sped up, yelling at his man to finish Grim. Their
eyes met, but then something glinted in the darkness, and Grim ducked just in
time to push the barrel away from his face. The smell of gunpowder was sucked
into Grim’s lungs, and the loud bang right next to his face had his ears
ringing, but he pushed at the goon’s arm with his whole body weight. The man
showed his teeth and tried to roll on top, grabbing Grim’s other hand to keep
the rifle away from his reach.

Grim cursed beneath his breath,
as both his arms were now trapped, and he descended on the goon, headbutting
him almost too hard. He saw stars, but as the man’s hold lessened on the rifle,
Grim managed to shove it away, screaming in frustration.

The man’s now free hand slammed
against Grim’s teeth hard enough to send him rolling, and Grim turned toward
the gun, desperate to keep the goon from getting it back. But the moment he
pulled himself up, the man darted for the door on the other side of the room,
chasing his pack of coyotes. Grim slipped on the pieces of crushed tile, not
ready to give up the chase. The goon was almost at the door, but hunts were
bound to be unpredictable. Grim took a deep breath and threw himself forward,
grabbing the massive surgical lamp. He swung across the room, kicking the bed
as hard as he could. It swallowed the goon, trampling him to the floor, and
Grim jumped off just in time to do the deed. His knife sunk in the man’s throat
and sprayed Grim’s face with a bloody mist when he pulled the dagger out.

Grim took a deep breath and
exhaled, but this was the most he could offer himself in terms of rest, because
Zero was getting farther away from him by the second. He put the strap of the
trophy rifle across his back and ran past the corpse into a narrow corridor.

Before Zero had disappeared from
sight earlier, Grim saw him moving to the right behind the swinging door, so he
followed, wishing his sense of smell were as sensitive as a hound’s. He could
then pick up the stench of death Zero undoubtedly carried from miles away.
Instead, his ears caught something odd. A buzz accompanied by a rhythmic drumming,
out of place around a lonely building such as this one. And then it hit him.
There must have been a reason for Zero to head up instead of simply leaving
through the doors in the first floor. A helicopter was coming for them.

Grim looked through the plan of
the building that he managed to map so far in his brain. He knew there were
five staircases, but only two could possibly lead to the edge of the roof. He
darted forward, rushing for the nearest one. His feet stomped over the floor,
but as the noise of the engine got louder, he could still hear Zero’s every
step ... or was it his heart?

The grand staircase in the middle
of the building was so massive Grim could imagine a Victorian queen descending
it with her whole entourage, even if the rubble on the floor and the broken
plaster on the walls betrayed just how long had passed since this hospital
prospered. The stairs curled around a column between the two levels, and Grim
sped up, already seeing an open doorway in front of him.

The buzz of the helicopter echoed
through his brain in a countdown to failure. He couldn’t let the fucker leave
this building alive.

He darted across the breadth of
the staircase to rush into the corridor above, but a swish of black pulled his
mind away from Zero. Grim’s body tensed, and his breath froze on his lips as he
leaned back. A huge dagger missed his chest by a mere two inches, and the
moment his foot landed on the edge of a stair below, he yanked both his knives
out of their sheaths and charged at T4.

This time, the goon backed away,
and Grim managed to safely step his feet onto the third floor. A curse left his
lips when he noticed that T4 was alone. The bastard must have stayed to take
him out before Grim reached the roof. Would the helicopter be waiting for the
goon, or was Zero’s intention to leave as soon as he boarded?

“He left you to deal with me?” he
asked, smiling despite nerves eating him up. The hallway was too dark. That
dagger could swing at him any moment now, and realization could come a split
second too late. Grim stepped back, intent on moving the fight into one of the
well-lit rooms, but he had to move fast, because T4 charged at him immediately,
like a great white smelling blood in the water.

“No. I was the one who asked him
to let me stay behind. I’m gonna gut you, you stupid fuck!”

Grim exhaled, and as soon as
bright light fell on his face, he darted through a doorway, followed by the
goon, who squinted faced with the windows.

Grim allowed himself a brief
glance around the space he’d use to get rid of this idiot. It was some kind of
communal bathroom with metal tubs on lion legs standing along both the long
walls like saluting soldiers. Wind pushed at him from behind, whistling through
the broken windows.

T4 bared his teeth at Grim and
slouched with the dagger in his hand. He moved closer and made a step to the
side, as if he was wary, but it could have been just a trick to seem less
capable than he was. The man didn’t lack confidence before. He took one more
step and then kicked a metal bucket full of murky water at Grim, bolting at him
half a second later, dagger aiming for the eyes.

Grim could already smell blood.
The rattle of the helicopter above him was counting the time, and he exhaled,
watching the dagger glint in the moonlight as it rushed his way. He swung to
the side and grabbed T4’s hand, twisting it back as he pushed the man forward,
straight at the tub. He slammed his elbow into the back of T4’s head, sending
his face at the hard, metal edge.

The nasty ring of the tub
smashing against T4’s skull gave Grim a surge of satisfaction, and he was sure
he’d heard some kind of crack as well. T4’s shove back was weak, and Grim
pushed the man forward, headfirst into the dirty water filling the tub. That
seemed to wake the fucker up, as he writhed and struggled, but Grim’s hold had
no give.

Blood rushed to his head as he
watched the weak struggle of the dazed man. At this moment, he wanted to hold
him down like this until he swallowed the smelly water and filled his lungs
with it, but as the noise outside became stronger, he knew he couldn’t allow
himself the pleasure if he didn’t want to feast on rabbits when he was out to
get a bear. He twisted T4’s head hard, and the big body slumped after a soft
crack in his neck.

Grim stumbled away from the tub,
searching for the knives he let go of in the midst of fighting. Just seeing
them close by made him smile, but there would be time for celebrating later. He
picked them up and ran up the nearest staircase, only to find out it wouldn’t
take him where he wanted. Frustrated, he rushed to the next one, and this time,
it seemed to be the one he needed.

Grim climbed two steps at a time
in a desperate attempt to catch up with Zero. After all of this, was Zero to
slip out of their grasp and hold them by the balls? Not only did Zero need to
lose his head, Grim had to get back the flash drive as well. The whole plan
tonight was about not letting that video leak anywhere.

The darkness in the staircase was
getting thicker, as the space didn’t have any widows, but when the stairs
guided him higher and higher, Grim was sure they would lead him to the roof. If
the door at the top was locked, he could use the gun to open it.

The sound of the helicopter was
like the buzzing of a mosquito right next to his ear, and he craved to either
silence it or chase it away before Zero could board.

As soon as he blindly hit the
door, he searched for the handle, and to his relief, nothing was locked.

Wind and noise hit his face along
with the lights of the helicopter about to lower itself onto the roof. The
menacing black beast of a machine would not be taking Zero onboard. Grim pulled
up the rifle and shot a round at the pilot, as the gun trembled in his hands
with the ferocity of the assault. The moment he started shooting, Zero ran all
the way to one of the big white chimneys to hide behind it like the cockroach
that he was.

The helicopter went up in an
abrupt move, and Grim couldn’t hear if there was any screaming from the man
inside because of the deafening noise of the rotors. But just as he was about
to swear at wasting his bullets, a gunshot from Zero’s direction woke Grim up
to the other threat.

He rolled behind what looked like
a ventilation shaft and sent another round of bullets at the helicopter before
darting forward, only to hide behind a brick chimney. His heart was drumming
with the noise of the rotor, but when he considered shooting at the machine
again, the pilot toppled over the dashboard, and the helicopter plummeted along
with Grim’s stomach. When it smashed into the roof, it was as if an earthquake
shook the whole building, and despite all of Grim’s attempts at keeping
balance, he dropped to his knees.