Page 101 of Deadfall

I kept our pace deliberately slow, both to help Emersyn out with her ankle, but also to ensure we meticulously checked each corner we came to. The maze eventually pushed us back toward the center, away from the forest, and we found ourselves on several long stretches of straight path. We’d just rounded the corner of another one, when I saw something odd up ahead and held up my hand.

“What is it?” Seven asked.

“The ground—” I nodded my head at several weird patterns in the dirt.

Emersyn peered around me. She’d been suspiciously quiet and had tagged along with us without a fight.

“Mines?”

I looked at her sharply. “How would you know that?”

Her lips pressed together and she shrugged. I crouched down near one of the strange areas. I knew it was a mine field already, but it was weird that she knew it too. It again confirmed she’d had some sort of training, and now I knew it was definitely military.

I stood up. “We need to find a new path.”

We were just about to find another way, when Seven and I heard footsteps behind us at the same time and whirled, guns pointed at the nearest corner. Angel and Marcello appeared.

“You found her,” Angel said.

While Angel had lowered his gun when he saw it was us, Marcello still had his trained on me with a wicked look of victory on his face.

“Hand her over, Griffin,” he demanded.

“How fast are you with that thing, Marcello?” Seven drawled.

“Fast enough,” Marcello snapped. “Drop the gun.”

“What the fuck, Marcello?” Angel signed in annoyance.

“I’m taking what’s mine,” Marcello said. “Either help, or stay the fuck out of my way.”

I weighed my options and decided I’d play along. I slowly lowered into a crouch and set the gun on the ground.

“You too,” Marcello snapped at Seven.

I jerked my head in a nod without looking away from Marcello, and Seven begrudgingly dropped his gun into the dirt.

“Come here, girl,” Marcello ordered.

Emersyn scoffed and crossed her arms over her bare chest. “Fuck you.”

“I’m not playing around,” Marcello growled. “Come here.”

“Or what?” Emersyn argued. “Are you going to shoot one of them?” She gestured to Seven and me. “Because, I don’t care if you do, so that would be a stupid decision. And, I think it might be against the rules to shoot me.”

Seven coughed as he hid a laugh, and Marcello gaped at her like he had no idea what to do next. Angel rubbed his mouth to fight off his own amusement. Marcello’s hand tightened on the gun, but he looked far less sure than he had before. He hid it behind a scowl and took a step toward her. I went to move, and the barrel of his gun swung to me.

“Don’t move, Griffin. Don’t think for a second I’d love nothing more than to put a hole through your skull.”

Emersyn threw up her hands. “Fine, fine,” she sighed. “One captor is as good as the next I guess.”

She went to take a step forward and stumbled. With her ankle, I might have thought it was real, except she didn’t catch herself. With a dramatic oops, she fell into me. I used the distraction for what it was and lunged forward. I grabbed Marcello’s gun and pushed it wide, just as he pulled the trigger and a deafening explosion went off at my back.

47

EMERSYN

Fuck, Marcello hit a mine.