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Her heart’s drumbeat made it hard to hear anything. She coiled herself behind the base of the fallen trunk, and strained, to listen.
A soft crunch, a shush-shush. Her ears reached for the sounds, straining to catch more sound waves out of the air. She wondered if those goggles could see her behind the spreading tangle of roots.
She pretended to be empty air. There were ragged holes in the splayed root system, she noticed, where the roots were smaller and finer. She could see the sky through them. Like lace.
“I know you’re there, Lily.” Miriam’s tone was gently mocking, maybe five yards away. “Behind that fallen tree root. Just stand up. Let’s finish this. I promise I’ll make it quick.”
Lily dragged in a slow breath through chattering teeth.
Think. Think.The woman was a cat type. Cats played with their prey, disemboweling them before they ate. It was a big, fat lie that she meant to kill Lily quickly. She would want her fun.
“W-w-will y-you t-t-tell me one th-thing first?” She made her voice small, pathetic. Cowering mouse. Whiskers quivering.
Miriam chuckled, indulgent. “Sure, honey. Ask me anything.”
Lily positioned the revolver pointing straight up, under one of the holes in the root system, and rose until her face showed.
The woman waited, attentive, her gun leveled at Lily.
“I just, um, wanted to know…” She blinked, rabbit-like.
Miriam’s full, sensual lips curved. “Yes?”
Lily tilted the gun horizontal, pulled the trigger.Bam.
The recoil flung her arms up, sent her stumbling back, tripping over rocks. She hit the ground, scrambled to her feet, took aim again.Bam.Miriam lay on the ground, struggling to rise.
Lily tried again.Bam. Bam. Bam.Twigs and leaves and trees snapped.Bam.The bullet tore a hole in the fallen tree. Wood chips flew. Her arms shook. Her fingers were numb.
And Miriam rose up, like some immortal demon spawn. “Is that all you’ve got for me?” she wheezed. “You stupid fucking whore!” She laughed, her lips were peeled back from her teeth, swung her gun up.
Bam.A huge blow to Lily’s chest slammed her to the ground. The gun flew from her hand. She struggled to rise, groping in the underbrush for the Glock, her chest burning with agony. “You crazy bitch,” she gasped out, fighting for air. “What’s your problem with me?”
Miriam aimed. “Just that you’re still breathing.”
Crack, crack.Lily jerked, stumbled.
It took a beat to realize that she wasn’t shot. It was Miriam who spun and was flung down onto her side. Her gun hit a dead branch, flew into the bushes. The woman lurched to her feet, looking around for it wildly. She spotted Lily’s Glock the same moment Lily lunged for it.
She let out a shriek, and ran at Lily like a charging bull.
The impact knocked her backwards, and they tumbled over the rounded edge of the ravine, sliding in a clawing, screaming, grappling ball, thudding, rolling, jolting down that rough, steep slope.
Closer and closer to the edge of a sheer rock face below, where it was ten yards of freefall down to the creekbed below.
Lily snatched at small trees as they rolled by, but hers and Miriam’s combined weight made them rip and shred through her hands, thwapping at her face. They fetched up against an outcropping at the edge of the cliff. Miriam’s back hit it first. Lily took advantage of that stunned second to tear herself loose, scrabbling for something to hold.
The first thing her groping hands could clutch was an old root from some ancient tree, still jutting from the hillside. Her other hand grasped a bunch of saplings, no more than two feet high. Shallow, tender root systems on a hard rockface. They wouldn’t hold for long.
Miriam lunged for Lily’s ankles. Lily hung on grimly, wrists and shoulders screaming at the strain. Miriam dangled from her feet, slowly clawing her way up Lily’s leg. Her nails dug in painfully as she grabbed handfuls of Lily’s jeans, which were sliding down over her hips.
Lily kicked, twisted, trying to knock the woman loose. The root systems started to give. One pulled loose. The others were straining. Miriam was dead weight, and clad in heavy body armor just as Lily was. Swinging on Lily’s knees, like a horrible ripe fruit that would not drop.
Crack, crack.Gunfire echoed through the canyon. Miriam let go, sliding over the edge of the cliff. Her long, wailing cry cut off abruptly.
Lily dangled, staring at a wall of frozen mud and rock. She was intensely conscious of the cold smell of the icy earth. Blood on her hands trickled down into her sleeves. Her jeans were twisted around her thighs. The icy rocks scratched and bumped against her naked hip.
Her tormenter was gone. And she could not move.
