Chapter 6 - The Broken DoorwayI reached Room 1216 in three long strides. The "Do Not Disturb" sign was hanging loosely from the door handle, fluttering slightly as if someone had just yanked it off.
The door was cracked open about an inch.
My stomach plummeted into my shoes. “Rachel!” I shouted, throwing my full weight against the door.
It flew open, slamming against the interior wall with a loud bang.
The room was completely trashed. Drawers had been pulled out of the dresser and dumped onto the carpet. Clothes, hangers, and shopping bags were strewn everywhere. The mattress had been slashed open along the side, white stuffing spilling out like guts.
And standing in the center of the wreckage was Marcus Vance’s head of security—a massive, scarred brute of a man holding a heavy metal crowbar—and Rachel, backed up against the bathroom glass, holding a heavy glass vase like a weapon.
“Well, well,” the brute muttered, turning his cold, dead eyes toward me. “Looks like the football player wants to play hero.”
Rachel’s eyes widened as she saw me standing in the doorway. “Tyler, get out of here! He’s armed!”
The guard didn't wait. He lunged forward, swinging the heavy crowbar in a vicious horizontal arc aimed straight at my ribs.
Years of professional football training kicked in automatically. Instead of freezing, I dropped my center of gravity, ducking under the whistling arc of the metal bar. Before he could recover his balance, I drove my right shoulder straight into his midsection, executing a textbook defensive tackle that sent both of us crashing violently through a small glass coffee table.
Glass shattered everywhere. The guard grunted, the wind knocked completely out of him as my 240-pound frame pinned him to the carpet. I grabbed the collar of his suit jacket, hauled him up by an inch, and slammed the back of his head against the floor until his eyes rolled back and he went completely limp.
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I stood up, breathing heavily, wiping a small shard of glass off my forearm.
Rachel dropped the vase. It shattered loudly on the floor. She stared at me, trembling from head to toe, before running across the ruined room and throwing her arms around my neck.
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