No!
I can’t think like that.
That’s when an engine revs in the distance, the sound getting closer and closer.
That’s it! I need a bike.
I put out my hand, running right on the busy street, not caring how many people I knock into on my way, and standing in the bike’s way. The driver instantly pulls the brake, the back of the two-wheeler levitating in the air. “What the fuck, dude!?” he curses. “If you have a death wish, find another vehicle to die in front of!”
“Get off!” I interrupt him mid-tirade, my chest panting.
His eyes widen in surprise at both my words and my identity. “You’re…N..Noah Miller?” he stutters, his voice coming down.
“Yes. Now, I need you to do me a huge favor and give me this bike. Someone I love is in danger, and I need to get to her fast!” I beg him, praying to whatever power there is to listen to me.
The first drops of rain fall on my face, and the clouds thunder with a bang and light up the sky.
As if it couldn’t get any more ominous.
Fuck, he’s taking too long!
“I can get you a new bike and the tour of the arena,” I incentivize him. “Just talk to her, and she’ll get you everything.” I point at Kaeli in the distance, her eyes trained on me as they hail a taxi, Ezra barking on his phone.
“Gotcha!” And then he’s off the bike, and I’m mounting it in a second. He hands me his helmet, but by that time, I’m already racing off to the woman whose life might be in danger if that threatening text is anything to go by.
I’ve never been more grateful for the name and fame I’ve earned over the years playing hockey. If I were an ordinary man, this situation mostcertainly would look a lot different.
Racing against time as the wind and pouring rain beat down on me, I break every traffic signal and safety measure known to mankind, all while my brain conjures up horrid images of Andie hurt and asking for help.
Fuck! From what I could see in the image in the text, she wasn’t even aware that she was being watched. Let alone that my father fucking sold her out for some cash to the fucking goons, even when I wired him the money he asked for.
If their threat is anything to go by, they plan to violate Andie, and the mere thought of it makes me choke on my own bile. I need to get to her before they do.
By the time I pull in front of her apartment building, it’s raining cats and dogs, barely offering me any visibility in the night sky. I throw the bike with a thud, not caring to park it properly and make a run for the entrance.
Just as I’m about to enter the building, I hear a commotion. My muscles pull tight as my head whips in its direction. A ghostly chill settles over me, my skin pebbling with goosebumps.
There she is, my Andie, fighting off two men all on her own like an avenging angelthat does not fear the lord of death.
My fighter.
My Rainbow.
I can’t see her face in this torrential rain as it seeps into my body, soaking my clothes as they stick to me like a second skin, no. But I’ll know her in another lifetime with a different face.
She pushes the man who plunged into something sharp in her hand, slumping to the ground with a feeble cry as the rain washes down his blood onto the street.
I’m too stunned to move, in awe of her fight and spirit to take down two fucking men all on her own. I’ve never felt more proud of her than in this moment.
In this moment, my love for this woman eclipses everything it’s ever been.
I terribly need her to know the depth of my uncontained feelings for her. I’m rushing to tell her just that when the bald guy teeters to a stand, grabbing something that glints under the street light, and with a scream, attacks Andie, catching her by surprise.
Fear digs its barbed tendril deep into my heart and wraps around my throat, constricting me, suffocating me, and denying me the very oxygenI breathe. But none of that matters as my feet hammer into the street with every footfall. I’m hurrying to her before that sharp object hits her, to shield her from the impending pain.
The man raises his hand in the air, and she flinches, her hands shielding her face. A petrified scream works its way up her throat and resonates in the empty street, and my breath stutters, but my feet don’t as they situate themselves right in front of her, taking the make-shift dagger that was meant for her.
My chest screams in agony as the glass slashes against my left pec, the blood instantly streaming down and soaking my torn shirt.