Free The Assassin and the Girl From the Coffee Shop by Terry Towers

immediately jumped to Scott, crouched over the body of a blonde man of average build. Something caught his attention then; a figure suddenly appeared in the doorway with a gun raised to Scott's head. Luckily, Scott was quick drawing his weapon and exchanging shots with the man.
    A slight movement caught the corner of her eye as she watched them exchange shots, a figure in the window. Instinct took over, rushing from the bathroom she raised her gun to the head of the figure in the window and pulled the trigger, sending three rounds into the surprised man, who hadn't seen or expected her.

Chapter 7

    Pain shot through Scott as his body took the assassin's bullet in the shoulder and he was thrown to the floor from the force of the impact. But the pain was the least of his worries. The two assassins in the living room were both dead. He'd gotten lucky and been able to pull off a kill shot to the second assassin. However, he had suffered from a shot to the shoulder in their exchange of bullets.
    But Lily had defied him and was now standing in the middle of the kitchen, a prime target if there were any more men out there, though he doubted there were. He’d assumed there would be two, so the third had been a complete shock to him.
    He glared at her as he struggled to his feet. "You could have been killed," he snarled. He wasn't in the mood to sugar coat the situation for her, or spare her feelings. She’d done a stupid and reckless thing and he intended to let he know just how stupid.
    Her eyes widened as they landed on him, and then on his shoulder where the bullet was lodged. He looked down and saw that his t-shirt was beginning to color with his blood. He ignored the problem of his shoulder for the moment. "Stay here and stay down," he ordered.
    "But…" her eyes stayed locked on his shoulder. "You're hurt, let me…" she took a step towards him but he raised his hand to her, palm up.
    "Stay back and hide. Now!"
    She visibly flinched at the hard, icy tone his voice had taken, but he didn't care.
    Nodding, she complied, scurrying back into the bathroom like a scolded puppy.
    Dammit to hell!
    Knowing he needed to check on the status of the third man, he walked out of the front door and around the side of the building to where the man's body should be if she’d managed to kill him. As he turned the corner, Scott came face to face with the dying man, spread eagled on the forest floor, lying in a rapidly increasingly large pool of his own blood. Scott guessed it would take about ten minutes for the man to bleed out onto the forest floor and it would be ten of the worst minutes of his life.
    Marching over to the man, he kicked the gun from the assassin's limp grip and placed a booted foot on his chest. He cringed when he saw the dying man's face. He knew him well, had worked with him on a couple of jobs in the past as a matter of fact.
    Upon seeing Scott, the man's eyes took on a look of relief. "Kill me," he rasped, his words so faint Scott could barely make them out. "Kill me, please."
    "How many of you are there?"
    The man gurgled, presumably choking on his own blood, but managed to gasp out: “Three”. Scott nodded and aimed the gun to the man's forehead. "Good-bye, friend." With that he squeezed the trigger ending the man's suffering.
    With the immediate threat averted the intense burning pain of his shoulder took precedence in his mind. He made his way back into the cabin, barely giving the two dead men, bleeding out onto the floor a second glance as he made his way to the bathroom. By the time he reached the doorway of the bathroom he found himself becoming a little unsteady on his feet and at that moment realized that his blood loss was more substantial than he'd anticipated.
    He needed Lily.
    Leaning his good shoulder against the door jamb, his gaze immediately landed on her petite body sitting on the floor, her legs tucked against her chin, her golden hair draped around her and her shoulders heaving in what he assumed