Out of Focus #SYTYCW15 Top10 Finalist! [COMPLETED]

34| The Gaurantor

The blow came from behind--a flash of a blade slashed, gouging into the muscle of his arm. So fast neither of them knew what happened until it was already too late.

Marshall turned to his attacker, but his movements were unsteady. Blood. So much blood. A quick flurry and explosive flashes of fists and legs, Marshall was beaten back, his head cracked against the quartz counter and he dropped like a stone.

Eva ran. Her thoughts trained on the alarm upstairs. If she could get to it--reach it, then help would come.

He caught her by the stairs, yanked her down by her throat. Skull cracking against the floor, Eva's eyes wheeled. Setting a knee to her chest, his hand slapped across her cheek, sending a flaming jolt to bring her back around.

"There she is," he said through a smile. And Eva got the first real good look at her assailant. Old. At least sixty. Flaxen hair parted over an unassuming face that was...average. Ordinary. But the eyes were shocking dark orbs of a man with no soul. A killer. Not even the wire framed glasses could mask their evil.

"I had everything planned. So careful. So precise. I supposed to have time." Thoroughly annoyed by the inconvenience of having to act ahead of schedule, he shifted his weight and pressed down on her sternum, hard enough for her ribs to protest.

"Where are they?" He withdrew a knife from a sheath tucked in the waist of his pants. The blade had a curved, custom edge, thin as a scalpel. And Eva imagined it would perform spectacularly in the hands of someone who knew how to wield it.

"I will find them, wherever they are." He tapped the point beneath the curve of her eye. "Where are they?"

"Take me," Eva croaked, hands gripping the joint of his knee, surprised by the strong bunching muscles she felt there. The man may have been old, but he was in lethal condition. "They're just children. Please. Children."

"Shhh." He stroked the dull edge across her cheek, clearing away the spill of tears. "It's not personal, love."

"Mom." The barest, softest squeak but the voice ripped through Eva, loud as a gun shut. The front door was wide open and Hailey stood in the hall, eyes wide with shock and fear, poised to run if only her little body would remember how to move.

The man lifted off her, the weight of his knee no longer pressing down on her chest. Drawing in breath, voice hoarse, Eva screamed-screamed for her to run.

The crack of a boot to the back of her head stunned her to silence, sent the world to spin but the sight of Hailey fleeing, and of the hitman storming off, knife in hand, was enough for Eva to battle to her feet.

Marshall lay in a pool of widening blood, but his chest moved and she had to hope that he could hold out a little longer on his own. She lurched after them, knees weak and stomach churning. The back, they'd gone out the back. And could only hope she wasn't too late. The yard was dense and thick with garden and bushes and trees. Plenty of places for Hailey to hide. And Hailey was smart. She had to trust that her baby would 

The sound of a body crashing through bracken drew Eva towards it and she pushed her legs into a run. The cliffs. The sound had come from the cliffs. And there she found them, Hailey with an open wall of nothing at her back, and the hitman's blade at her throat.

"There you are." He adjusted wire rims with his free hand, sweat sheened his pallid face. "Now we can begin."

The raw anguished scream of a furious mother leapt into her throat but Eva held it there. Hailey was terrified, and Eva had to be strong for her daughter. For them both.

Hailey sobbed for her, little hands reaching for her, and it took everything she had not to run to those arms. To keep her eyes glued to the man wielding the knife. He wanted her pain, her fear and the second Eva gave it to him, she knew it would be over.

"Drop the knife!" The command sliced through the tension and though Eva's gaze didn't waver, she recognized Ethan's voice.

"Where's Marshall," he demanded, the heavy steps crushing through brush and bracken, weaving from the left so he was aligned with the killer and Hailey. Gun drawn and waiting for a clear shot.

"Inside," she said. "Unconscious but--" 

"Here," Marshall called out and Eva's heart kicked with relief. Arm hugged to his body, the sleeve of his shirt ripped off and wrapped around the sliced wound to staunch blood. And when he was close enough, Eva could see every muscle in him was rigid with the ferocity of protective rage. "You hurt her and you better hope my brother shoots you dead before I get my hands on you."

The hitman shifted his stance, a mathematician accounting for new variables.

And, not liking the answer, his fingers tensed on the hilt and Hailey hissed as blood trickled from a small knick.

"Back away, cop. You too." He nodded at Marshall before flitting his gaze to Eva. "Mom and daughter are coming with me."

In the distance she heard the wail of sirens, the tick in his jaw said he heard them, too. Not long. Minutes away. Seconds, even. She only had to keep him focused on her. Trained on her.

She stepped forward, hands up, out of Marshall's reach and ignoring Ethan's barks for her to get back. Hailey's body shook with desperate cries and that blood pooled in the collar of her shirt, staining the happy pink.

Eva locked to his gaze. Cold eyes. Such cold, merciless eyes. So empty and hateful. Though a chill crept through them that said Eva's stare was just as empty. Just as hateful.

"They're coming for you," Eva said. "You're cornered. Let her go. Take me. It's your only chance."

"You'd think that. I've faced worse, and yet here I stand. I'm the Guarantor. I deliver. And I never quit. The knife slanted, catching the streaming glare from Ethan's flashlight. "You think this island cop and his ilk can hold me? That a gamble you're willing to bet? I'll get away. I always do. And I'll come back for you. All of you. And with this knife I will peel the skin from their helpless limbs. I will carve off your eyelids and make you watch as they die in anguish and fear. Screaming for you to save them. Their cries will echo within your skull, driving you mad."

The whites of his eyes flashed in his skull as he spoke, a crazed killer enjoying his moment in the spotlight, unaware that he dropped his hand-the barest fraction, but enough for Ethan to see a way in.

The crack of a bullet, the sickening punch of it driving into the meat of the hitman's arm. The punch rocked through his body, his fingers slackened on the blade-dropping it. At Eva's command Hailey launched out of his arms-ran to her.

A whirl of lights, of bodies. The cavalry was here. The hitman regained his bearings-savage hate in his face. Ethan's gun fired again, another bullet tearing through his side, but still he came. As he said he would, lunging for the knife.

Coming for her. Coming for her daughter.

I'm the Guarantor. I deliver. And I never quit.

The world became a collection of pulsing moments. All sound sucked away in the heady echoing beat of Eva's heart. For her girls, she could make this sacrifice. Had to.

Pushing Hailey into Marshall's arms, Eva charged. Body low, the knife glanced off her ribs as she drove hard with her shoulder into the muscled belly. Knocking him back, taking him off balance.

Pitching them both over the edge.

They tumbled, a tangle of limbs, his frantic wail ringing in her ears, Eva had a single moment-a breath-to think 'Oh Shit' before they were swallowed up by the pounding black surf.

And gone.