Free Diary of an Assassin by Victor Methos

was propped open with a garbage can and he could hear the cooks shouting in Spanish. He slipped inside.
    The kitchen was hot and the cooks looked at him like he was crazy. He simply acted like he needed to be there and said hello to them before walking into the restaurant and then through to the hotel lobby. An elevator dinged down the hall as Stephanie and the men stepped on.
    He ran over and watched the small red numbe r above the elevator stop on four. He rushed to the stairs, taking them two at a time. When he got to the fourth floor, he pulled out his .22 and stepped into the hall. Around the corner, a door slammed shut and locked. He ran over and stopped to listen. Unable to hear anything, he went from door to door, placing his ear on the wood.
    He heard a groan from one door , and he leaned back, slamming his heal just underneath the doorknob. The door splintered and crashed open. Rhett stepped in gun first. He realized he was pointing it at a nude elderly couple beneath the covers and looked away.
    “Sorry, I’m really sorry.”
    A scream came from down the hall.
    Rhett sprinted out then stopped and listened. A woman was shouting something. It was muffled, like someone was trying to keep her quiet. He ran to the room and kicked the door down, rolling over the carpet and coming up on one knee.
    Stephanie was tied to the bed, one of the men standing over her binding a gag over her mouth. Rhett let loose two shots, hitting him just above the eyebrow, and the man toppled over onto the carpet.
    Another man stepped out of the bathroom. Their eyes locked. He dove back into the bathroom as Rhett fired three rounds and leapt behind the wall, his back pressed against it. A mirror in front of Rhett allowed him a view into the bathroom. The light was off and he couldn’t tell where the man was.
    “You can leave,” Rhett shouted. “I don’t want to take your life. Just come out with your hands behind your head and get down on the floor. I promise you won’t be hurt.”
    Silence. Rhett slowly stood, the gun up by his chin. He glanced around the corner and began to make his way out.
    The man jumped out of the bathroom with a modified Tec-9 in his hands. Rhett jumped behind the bed as the shots rang out, tearing away bits of plaster and wood from the walls, exploding the television and one of the windows.
    Rhett aimed underneath the bed and fired, hitting th e man’s ankle. Rhett jumped onto the bed before landing on the man’s back.
    The man flipped him off himself and came up with a small, claw-shaped blade in his hand. He swung at Rhett’s face, slicing his cheek, before coming in with a downward blow aimed at his eye. Rhett stepped out of the way and grabbed the man’s wrist. He spun him around using his own weight against him and slammed him headfirst into the wall, leaving a hole.
    The man spun and blindly swiped at th e air. Rhett elbow locked him as he put his other hand on the back of his neck and bent him low. He began to knee the man in the groin. When the man shifted his groin out of the way, Rhett bent him down farther and kneed his chest and then his face, knocking out several teeth.
    The man, blood pouring down his chin, charged for Rhett’s eyes with his free hand. Rhett grabbed his fingers and twisted them upside down and back toward the wrist. He snapped three of them. The man screamed and Rhett pulled the blade from his other hand and stuck it into his throat.
    The man fell to his knees, blood raining out of him and over the carpets. The claw was meant to enter and then, because of small reversed hooks, only be pulled out when it could take flesh with it. Rhett ripped it out of his throat and made the wound bigger. The man toppled over, a choking, wet mess and Rhett turned away from him and untied Stephanie.
    “We need to go, now.”

 
    CHAPTER 18
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Gustav Fabrice saw the light of the setting sun for the first time in six weeks. He had been in what the prisoners