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Slowly, Pony took out his pistol and set in on the ground in front of him. Piper followed suit, taking care to move slowly enough that she wouldn’t provoke getting shot out of hand. All the while, she thought about the little backup pistol on her ankle.
“That one too,” the gunman said, nodding to her ankle holster.
Damn. So much for that idea. These guys were clearly not new to this game.
“Now, down,” the gunman said. “Get on your knees! Now!”
Piper glanced at Pony, who once again returned her look. He got on his knees, while Piper pulled herself up off of the floor and also got on her knees. No other choice. Two guns pointed at them, point blank, by two clearly experienced killers. There wasno beating those odds. If they twitched the wrong way, those triggers would be pulled in a heartbeat.
As scared as she was, Piper found herself worrying more about Carly. Had the gunmen already grabbed her? Killed her? Was she lying out there in the parking lot, hurt, bleeding, in pain, terrified?
The first gunman said something to the second in Spanish. Piper’s Spanish was sketchy at best, but her spun-up mind managed to translate it towatch the doorafter a second.
The second gunman stepped back, past the doorway and out into the breezeway. He still faced into the room, but his eyes scanned left and right and his hand kept his pistol held low and against his leg to keep it hidden from casual view.
Piper could see Pony’s body tense up next to her. He was readying himself for a charge, an almost certainly suicidal leap into the teeth of the gun that was pointed at them. Piper prayed for him to hold off, while also shifting her feet slightly for a charge of her own if it came to that. She wasn’t going to let them execute her. She’d go down fighting.
“Where is the girl?” the first gunman said to her. “The sister? Where?”
Piper laughed. “You think I’m going to tell you, you piece of shit?”
The gunman’s face twisted into a sneer. “We’ll find her.”
The gun raised slightly toward her. Time was up. The killer was going to shoot first and search for Carly later, and there was nothing left to do but spring straight into the jaws of Death in a desperate, doomed attempt to outrun a bullet and close to grappling range with the hand holding the gun.
A sudden scream, just outside the door. As one, all three of them turned to face the surprisingly high-pitched sound; there, in the breezeway, the second gunman was hunched over andclutching at his face. Blood streamed out between the fingers pressed to his cheek.
Piper didn’t give herself the luxury of wondering what the fuck had just happened. It was the perfect distraction, her one chance as her would-be killer had reflexively looked behind him toward the noise. In a flash, she was up on her feet and right on top of the killer, grabbing his gun hand and shoving it away from her and Pony.
Pony was up almost as quickly. As the cartel gunman turned back to struggle over the gun, Pony smashed a fist into his face, stunning him long enough to let Pony grab his gun arm as well.
“Piper!” he shouted.
Piper let go of the killer’s hand, dropped back a half step, and kicked out the killer’s knee. It was the only target she knew she could hit without risking hitting Pony by accident.
It did the job. The cartel killer screamed as the joint broke audibly and his leg buckled out from beneath him. At the same time, Pony smashed down on his arm, knocking the gun out of his hand and sending it flying.
“You got him?” Pony said, already rushing the second gunman just outside the door.
“Go!” Piper said.
The cartel killer took a swing at her with his left hand, but it was slow and off-balance due to his injuries. Piper had slipped a lot worse in her Krav Maga classes, and dodged it with ease, giving the killer a jab of her own in return, straight to the nose.
His head snapped back and his eyes blinked over and over. That jab had made him momentarily stunned, and Piper took advantage of it to launch a solid high kick that connected to the killer’s head with the sound of a coconut landing on concrete from a high height.
He was done. Those blinking eyes rolled back into his head and he crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Past him, Pipercould see Pony was on top of the second gunman, hurling him face-first into the concrete wall of the motel.
Piper took two seconds to cuff the first gunman’s hands behind his back. Unconscious or not, she did not want to have to deal with that guy again.
That accomplished, she joined Pony just outside the motel room. He was standing over the second gunman’s inert form, holding the man’s pistol in his hand, looking down at him curiously.
“Dead?” Piper asked.
Pony shook his head. “Knocked out.”
“Oh,” Piper said, then seeing Pony’s confused look, added, “What?”
“What is that in his face?” Pony said. “Is that a… ninja star?”
