Page 88 of Fool Me Twice
He braced himself, then fired a few shots of his own down the hallway. The guys yelled and the bullets echoed. Cane didn’t muffle shit.
He pressed his advantage while he could, darting out of the bedroom in a sudden move, sending shots flying. He caught one of the guys in the leg and he went down yelling, stumbling into his friend. Cane got that one in the arm, then put another bullet in his leg for good measure while he was distracted and trying to fix his aim.
He walked over to them, pistol-whipping one unconscious and kicking both their weapons down the hallway. He turned to the one he’d shot twice, who was sweating and cursing and bleeding out as he tried to apply pressure.
He was about to ask who the fuck they were working for when a metal baseball bat came swinging around the corner for his head.
He barely ducked, and the metal tore a chunk out of his wall.
He didn’t duck the second swing though. That smashed into his arm and sent his gun flying down the hallway after the other two, completely out of reach.
Cane hissed as pain radiated right through the bone. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was fractured. He didn’t even get a chance to compose himself as a hand pulled at him, making him stumble into the living room before he could break free, to see just who he was fighting properly.
The guy was a beast, and that was saying something considering Cane’s occupation. His arms were the size of tree trunks, and his chest was massive. He could barely fit through a doorframe, and he looked like he talked only in monosyllables. His beady eyes were glaring right at Cane, arms pulled back for an overhead swing.
Cane dodged toward the kitchenette and his coffee table shattered to pieces behind him.
Fucking hell.
No wonder they hadn’t given him a gun. He could do much more damage with just brute strength.
The guy grunted and lumbered after him.
Cane grabbed his toaster and launched it at the guy’s head to buy time. It got hit like Cane was pitching him a baseball, bits of metal and electronics exploding into the air.
The gun he kept in this room was in the dead plant in the corner, the other lying uselessly down the hallway. The beast was standing between Cane and both of them, he just needed to get around his Earth-sized circumference.
“Okay, Beast. Is it okay if I call you Beast?” Cane said, glancing around himself for anything he could use. “I feel like your mother secretly named you that at birth. She must have had a hell of a time.”
Beast narrowed his eyes, coming straight for him. He swung, and Cane used the fridge door as a shield. It dented in and Cane grabbed a bottle of beer from inside to smash over the idiot’s head. Glass and amber liquid went everywhere, and Cane used the distraction to dart across the room to the planter. It was closer.
He made the mistake of thinking that just because Beast was big, he was going to be slow too. The bat made contact with the small of his back and sent him to his knees with a shout.
“You motherfucker,” Cane yelled, trying to scramble away.
He just needed to get to the gun, and then he could blow this fucker’s brains all over the wall.
Beast stomped over faster than he could crawl away though, and Cane decided to cut his losses before he got his head caved in and got back to his feet instead. Just in time to intercept another swing from the bat. He caught the body of it with a grunt of pain and used the momentum to spin with it, ripping it out of Beast’s hands and around to slam it into Beast’s ribs.
Beast let out a shout of pain as something finally penetrated his rhinoceros skin, and Cane pulled back for another go and got tackled to the floor. The bat went skittering away.
It was like having a mountain fall on top of him.
Cane somehow managed to roll them so he wasn’t pinned, straddling the guy instead. He tried for a punch to Beast’s jaw and it felt like punching concrete. Beast barely reacted, backhanding him hard enough to send him flying sideways into the TV cabinet.
It broke, and shit went flying. While he was recovering from his daze, a meaty hand grabbed his neck and squeezed, actually lifting Cane off the floor. Cane grasped the wrist, choking as he was lifted.
Shit, shit, shit…
He reached into his pocket with his other hand, slipping his fingers through the brass knuckles, then hammering his fist into the Beast’s temple.
Beast grunted, and blood ran from the C A that disappeared into his hairline. Cane let another blow fly and got two vicious punches to the stomach as payback. Cane felt his ribs bend under the pressure, but landed another punch in the same spot on Beast’s head until he felt the grip on his neck loosen just a touch.
He pulled both his legs up and kicked at the center of Beast’s mass, launching himself backward into his couch with such force that the back snapped off and sent him tumbling farther.
Cane rolled to a stop gasping for breath.
He watched as the Beast shook his bloodied head as if to clear it, stepping forward after him before swaying. He seesawed for a second, grasping the mess of his bloodied temple before his eyes rolled and he dropped to the ground like a felled tree. The ensuing crash echoed.