Code Name: Rose

Chapter 16: Safe, or done for?

Marco charges at me with his metal rod while the older guard runs in the opposite direction, to the wall of weapons. I hold my sword up higher and wait patiently for Marco to reach me and I dodge at the last second. He swings his rod like a maniac in the air, uncontrolled and off-focused swipes. Irritation rises in me and I thrust my sword into his abdomen. I watch as his eyes widen and he stumbles backwards, clutching his stomach. 

But I don't have time to feel proud before the other guard shoots a bullet towards me. He's holding a pistol and his bullet grazes my left arm. I cry out and clutch it in pain. It's not as bad as getting shot but it still feels like it's on fire. 

I throw myself on the ground and roll around, dodging the bullets as best as I can while holding my arm. 

That's it, this fucking dickhead is really pissing me off now. 

I charge at the older guard and grab the hand holding the gun. He lets off a series of bullets that only hit the walls. I tackle him to the ground and adrenaline blurs out the pain in my arm. I slam his hand on the ground and the gun slides away. Bringing my right knee up to his neck, I push down with all my strength. He sputters and tries to gasp against the choke hold.

Bastard is fucking strong.

I punch him on the side of his head once. Twice. Three times. And he's out.

Panting, I stand, grab a knife and cut Thyme's ropes. 

He hasn't said anything but as he stands and makes eye-contact with me I see... respect? 

"What?" I say as I throw the knife away.

He shakes his head. "That was a tough situation but you handled it quite... decently."

I scoff. Decent? That wasn't decent. That was fucking amazing. 

I grab 2 pistols off the wall and press my ear to the door. There is no sound. No talking, no shuffling, no breathing. Maybe I was wrong? Maybe there isn't anyone guarding that door. 

I glance back at Thyme who now holds a revolver in one hand and is standing 2 feet away from me. My guy moves fast. He jerks his chin a little towards the door and I give a small nod. Bracing myself, I throw the door open and jump through, holding both my pistols in the air. I feel Thyme's presence next to me and we're both alert. Except... there's no reason to be. 

The room is empty. We stand there for 3 more seconds, waiting for an ambush or jumpscare or some shit before approaching the doors on the other side. There's 2 of them. One of them should lead to the dining room and the other probably leads to a bathroom... if this is a normal house, otherwise it could lead to another prison cell for all I know.

Thyme moves towards the door on the left and rests his hand on the doorknob while pressing his ear to the door. 

I need to listen as well to be able to know what to do next.

I press my ear next to Thyme's so that we're facing each other. Only now am I completely aware of the one inch separating our faces. I feel heat rush to my face. Shit. Thyme gives me a cocky smirk and I push my embarrassment down. I need to focus. Yes, I need to focus and save my ass and definitely, totally, absolutely not get distracted by a pretty boy. Nope. Absolutely not. 

There's slight clanging of metal on metal and you don't need to be a genius to understand that there is life beyond the door. I take a step back and let Thyme lead this one. He literally copies exactly what I had done once he jumps through the door. 

The rest of the party awaits us. 

2 guards are at the kitchen counter, organising what seem to be blades. Leonardo and his giant are at the dinner table, pulling apart my recorder. What the fuck do they expect to find in that? Diamonds? 

I shake my head at their idiocy and quickly pull my right trigger at Leonardo's guard and my left trigger at one of the guards in the kitchen before anyone can react to our breakthrough. Thyme catches on quick and shoots the other kitchen guard before he can lift a knife.

But Leonardo is on his feet, yelling something in Italian and 4 more guards emerge from the living room - including our beloved man giant. 

Thyme fires at the guards while sprinting for the kitchen. A bullet hits one but the other 2 turn on him. I swivel on my ankles and shoot down both of them, dodging giant's bullet at the same time. In my peripheral, I watch Leonardo scurry to the corner and shuffle through a box of stuff. I shoot at the giant but the big guy dodges it and fires at me again. I grab a chair at the last minute and his bullet cascades off the metal. I bring my gun back up and shoot blindly at his heart, trying to avoid another series of bullets. A grunt of pain assures me that I've hit him. I shoot again and it hits him dead on the forehead. His body falls with a sickening thud and I notice blood seeping out of his chest as well as his head. 

Panting and ignoring the blood dripping down my arm, I turn to search for Leonardo but he's on the floor. Unconscious. With a knife sticking out of his chest. And Thyme kneeling next to him. 

It's not his heart and the steady rise and fall of his stomach indicates life. But the knife shouldn't have been able to black him out and it's then that I notice an ugly bruise forming on his temples. Thyme knocked him out. He gives me a small glance of his stone face before picking up the unconscious man and carrying him to the torture chamber. 

I haul the bodies into body bags I found in Leonardo's torture room and dump them in a pile in the backyard. Returning to the dreaded room, I watch Thyme tie the last knot on Leonardo's ankles. He's crouched down, facing away from me, and I can see the ripling muscles of his back. He's not so heavily muscled that he resembles Dwayne Johnson, or anyone similar, but it's a fit figure. Exactly my type. He stands and I watch his biceps and back muscles twitch and relax. 

He turns around to face me and when he catches me staring at his muscles, he smirks that hot, incredibly annoying smirk of his. I'm not letting him have his way with me though, nuh-uh, no way. I roll my eyes and walk out of the room, swaying my hips seductively, and God help me, I swear I heard a small noise, dangerously similar to a moan.

It's 10pm but strangely, I'm not the least bit tired yet. I had roughly bandaged up my arm to stop the blood getting everywhere. I crawl onto the bed and strech my legs out, wondering of what to do when Thyme walks in. He takes one look at me outstretched on the bed and goes over to sit next to me. 

"Do you have anything to do right now?" He asks, and it's a genuine question.

I shake my head. "No, nothing in particular. Why?"

"Then let's play truth or dare." There's a dangerous glint in his eye and for some reason, that scares me more than Marco with his hot metal rod.