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Click.The sound of a bullet being chambered. They spun around.
“Just where do you ladies think you’re going?” Gordon rasped.
Miles’s shoeslipped on the branch. He grabbed the bough above his head. There was so much smoke in the air, he hoped that the leaves and twigs falling to the ground would go unnoticed.
He’d crawled off the roof of the underground building, and onto an overhanging branch. He was filthy from crawling on his belly through mud and leaves. His legs wobbled and shook. They could probably hear his heart thudding a half a mile away.
The grave digger’s taunting voice floated up from below. “…one of you shall I shoot first? Tough choice. I wanted to bang you both before I snuffed you, but it looks like I’m going to have to pick. Eenie, meenie, minie, moe. Did you take your pants off just for me?”
A low, hacking cough. “No, I didn’t.” Cindy’s voice was hoarse, but steady. “Fuck off and die, you sick asshole.”
Miles inched further out. The slender bough he crouched on was bowing under his weight, but he wasn’t over T-Rex’s head yet. He was only getting one chance at surprising this guy. It had better count.
“Ooh. Naughty girls who use bad words will get punished,” T-Rex crooned. “Turn around, sweet cheeks. Show me your ass.”
“Not,” Cindy said. Her voice shook.
“Let me restate that. Turn around or I’ll gut-shoot you.”
Miles took one more shuffling step. Another. Almost there…
Crack.The branch broke. Down he went, along with what felt like half the tree. He landed on top of the guy. Thuds, shrieks, shouts.
A gun went off. He was flung, like a toy. Concrete smacked him, conking his head. T-Rex came at him, screaming with rage.
Miles’s body jackknifed. His dress shoes slammed into the other man’s gut, lifting him, tossing him headlong. He rolled up onto his feet. So did the other guy. Miles’s leg whipped out at T-Rex’s gun hand, and he was astonished to make contact.Smack.The gun flipped, twirled. Miles lunged, but T-Rex jabbed in a frontal kick, right into his nose.
Blood squirted. Miles reeled back, saw stars.Crunch, he took another doozy to the ribs. He fell, saw the gun, reached for it—
T-Rex kicked it away, and stomped on Miles’s fingers with a huge booted foot. “I don’t think so, dickhead,” he snarled.
There was a crackling, popping noise. Miles screamed as the boot crushed all the bones in his hand. He grabbed Miles’s wrist, lifted his boot off. Wrenched the arm up, and violently back.Snap.Agony.
Then T-Rex stumbled back. Cindy was clinging to his back like a crazy monkey, clawing at his face with something sharp. He bellowed, and flung her off. She flew, legs flailing, hit the concrete. Lay very still.
Miles struggled up onto his knees, but knives were stabbing his lungs, and his arm, his hand, were a throbbing mass of fiery splinters.
He tried to get into guard. His legs wobbled crazily beneath him.
T-Rex wiped his bloody face. “Say goodbye to your face, pretty boy,” he snarled, winding up for a kick. “I’m going to cave it in for you.”
Thunk.A hollow, wet sound. T-Rex’s face took on a surprised look. He toppled forward. A ton of malodorous meat crashed down on Miles’s fucked-up arm and hand, and sweet bleeding Christ, it hurt.
Liv stood there, clutching a tire iron in shaking hands. Barefoot, eyes blank and staring, in her clinging, blood-drenched red halter dress.
Liv waiteduntil Miles had wriggled out from beneath T-Rex’s bulk before she staggered forward and prodded at the man’s head with the tire iron. No more surprises for this woman today, thank you.
There was a bloody, gaping hole in T-Rex’s skull. She stared at it, mouth dangling. She should feel proud. Triumphant. She felt nothing.
Miles was scooping up T-Rex’s gun, and saying something to her. She couldn’t understand him. She’d forgotten what words meant. Miles dragged out his cell phone. Calling for help. That was good. His face was streaked with blood, but he’d be OK. So would the girl. They’d all do.
The only one who wouldn’t do was Sean. He wouldn’t do at all.
She staggered to where Sean lay, half in and half out the door, and fell to her knees, searching for a pulse. His wrist was sticky with drying blood. She found one, a faint fluttering under her finger.
There was nothing she could do for him. He needed medical help, a team of neurosurgeons. She still saw Osterman’s horrified eyes as Sean spoke through the man’s lips.Goodbye, princess. I love you.
God, how had he done that? How the hell had he done that?
