Chapter 269\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blood bloomed on his shirt but he kept coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I watched in amazement as Sarah held her own against him. Every move she made was calculated, efficient. No wasted energy. No panic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was someone who\u2019d been trained not just to fight, but to win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I understood now why Orion had chosen her. My brother wouldn\u2019t mate with someone who couldn\u2019t stand beside him, couldn\u2019t protect herself and their children when he wasn\u2019t there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d always known Sarah was strong, but I\u2019d never realized just how strong until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second man lunged toward her while she was occupied with the first, and I didn\u2019t think. I just acted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I fired the gun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sound was deafening in the enclosed space and the man stumbled, clutching his leg where I\u2019d hit him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou bitch!\u201d he screamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The third man was coming toward me now, and behind him I could see a fourth emerging from the kitchen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four against two. Not good odds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought about firing again but then I remembered Lily and Liam sleeping down the hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The gunshot had been loud enough. If this turned into a shootout, they\u2019d wake up terrified. Or worse, a stray bullet could hit them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t risk it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I quickly tucked the gun into the waistband of my jeans at my lower back, making sure it was secure, and grabbed the other knife\u00a0<\/p>\n
from the coffee table.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The third man laughed when he saw me switch weapons. \u201cYou think you can fight me with that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess we\u2019ll find out,\u201d I said, positioning myself carefully.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had to protect my stomach. Had to make sure none of their hits landed there. But I couldn\u2019t be obvious about it or they\u2019d figure out\u00a0<\/p>\n
why.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He lunged and I dodged, the way Kiara had taught me when we were training. She\u2019d insisted I learnt it so well, said I needed to be\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 269\u00a0<\/p>\n
able to protect myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d complained about it at the time, thought she was being unnecessarily strict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, now I was grateful for every lesson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A623\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man was bigger and stronger than me, but I was faster. I ducked under his arm and slashed at his side, making sure to keep my body angled so my stomach was protected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The knife cut through his shirt and drew blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He snarled and came at me again, this time catching my wrist. His grip was like iron and pain shot up my arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I brought my knee up hard between his legs and he gasped, his grip loosening just enough for me to wrench free.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I twisted away from him, keeping my front protected, and stabbed backward with the knife. I felt it connect with his thigh and he howled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Behind me, I could hear Sarah still fighting. The sound of bodies hitting furniture, grunts of pain and effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when I risked a glance, I saw she was holding her own against two men now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She moved between them like a dancer, her knife finding openings, her feet sweeping legs out from under opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She took hits, I could see bruises forming, blood running from a cut on her arm, but she didn\u2019t slow down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was magnificent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fourth man had entered the fight now, going after Sarah, which meant she was facing three while I dealt with one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah!\u201d I called out, worried.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fine!\u201d she called back, and incredibly, she sounded like she meant it. \u201cProtect yourself!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I understood what she meant. She wanted me to not just protect myself but this little bunny growing inside of me. And I\u2019ll protect it\u00a0<\/p>\n
with my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man I was fighting had recovered from my knife strike and was advancing again, more cautious now but also angrier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re better than I expected,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you\u2019re still going to lose.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d I said, my breath coming hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We circled each other and I was hyperaware of every movement, every potential threat to the baby. I kept my stance slightly turned,\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
12:35 Mon, Jan 19 M\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 269\u00a0<\/p>\n
protecting my stomach without making it obvious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He feinted left and I moved to block, but he went right instead, his fist connecting with my shoulder hard enough to make me\u00a0<\/p>\n
stumble.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 269 Chapter 269\u00a0 Blood bloomed on his shirt but he kept coming.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}