Page 31

CHAPTER 31

Kilo

“ S hit! Goddamn piece of-” I ducked behind one of the SUVs and waited for the barrage of fire to die down.

My brothers hadn’t disappointed. No sooner had the sicarios’ vehicles stopped than four men had gotten out. Ruck had driven through two like they were bowling pins. Bolo had followed suit on the other side. That took four out in one clean sweep. That didn’t mean that there weren’t at least twenty more piled in the SUVs and trucks, but we were off to a good start.

The guys had slid to a stop in front of us, canting the vehicles to provide all of us with some cover. It didn’t fucking matter. These guys were moving in, circling around.

“You three,” Ruck ordered, pointing at Bolo, Relay, and Flir, “off to the right. You,” he said to me, OD, Code, and Strike, “take the left. Drifter, Merc, Hype and I will keep them busy here.”

We split up, running through the dark, ducking behind Saguaro cactus for concealment. The moon was out just enough to make it possible to see where we were going, though every damn time I fired my weapon it killed my night vision. I knew I wasn’t the only one in this boat. We all were, even Kruzman’s men.

We were moving fast, trying to outflank the men creeping through the desert as they tried to get the jump on us, when Code yelped. Spinning, I aimed my Glock at one of the men who had Code by the back of his shirt. I couldn’t really see their faces, but the man plucked at Code’s wig—which was still stuck firmly on his head thanks to Diamond and her magical bobby pins.

“?Qué chingados?” The guy muttered in confusion.

Code let out a chuckle and did his best to point his gun at the asshole holding onto him. “Hasta luego, cock sucker,” he said, then pulled the trigger.

That was how the second round of the firefight started. Something told me that Code had wanted to say something like that for the majority of his life, so I couldn’t really blame him.

I dove behind the world’s worst cover, a rock that wasn’t high enough up to actually protect my back as I laid on my face in the dirt. Spitting sand out of my mouth, I waited to see where the enemy ended up. I could see the shadow of my brothers as they crouched behind rocks and cactus, doing exactly what I was, waiting for the threat to show their asses.

Kruzman’s men were whispering back and forth to one another, the sound carrying through the darkness as the others continued fighting in the distance.

“What are they saying?” Strike hissed.

I chuckled. “That Code is a man. The others don’t believe it even though the guy he shot is insisting.”

“Too bad I missed his fucking heart,” Code muttered from somewhere off to my left.

“He’s belly aching enough that I’m not sure he’s going to be in this fight for much longer,” I relayed to them. “I think there’s six over here, including the injured guy.”

“Strike, Code, see if you can distract them,” OD ordered. “Kilo, go around to the right. I’ll take the left. See if you can keep up,” he taunted.

"You got it," I said, bellying my way through the sand. I knew what he meant. He thought he was going to kill more of these fuckers than me.

No one was willing to start firing first because it would give away their position, but as soon as we started moving, Strike broke the standoff. He and Code started firing toward where the voices had come from. It wasn’t the most accurate way to target them since sound carried, but it would keep these fuckers busy.

As soon as the sicarios started returning fire, I got into a crouch and started making my way faster through the desert. A pained sound came from behind me and I cursed. I was hoping one of the guys wasn’t hit, but none of us had much for cover other than the dark of night, so I aimed in on a shadow hiding behind a cactus to the right of me. I knew it wasn’t OD, because he would be further to the west. I aimed in on the flash of a muzzle and pulled the trigger. The shooter slumped against the Saguaro.

Moving closer, I leaned in until I was almost nose to nose with him, relieved to see that it was one of Kruzman’s men. Theoretically, Strike and Code were behind me and OD was clear of this area for now, but at some point, we were going to meet. I just hoped it was before one of us killed the other.

I’m going to have lean on Flir to buy night vision goggles. He’ll do it if Ruck orders them.

Patting the shooter’s pocket, I shoved full magazines into my pockets. I also took a knife before I continued on. Later, I’d back track—when there was time to clean up the dead bodies and we’d take anything else of value—but for now, I needed to take out five more of these fucks before OD did, or I’d never hear the end of it. He considered himself the better shooter, better killer really. I snorted to myself. He wasn’t. I knew I was.

I inched along, creeping toward the next target. He wasn’t shooting at Strike and Code nearly as quickly as the last. It made me wonder if this was the injured man. Fuck. I hoped not. If there were only six of them and I killed an already injured one, OD wasn’t going to count that as a full kill, especially since the kid was the one who wounded him. Code might get half a point. I was going to be behind in body count, though. I put my gun down, palming the knife as I moved. It had a nice balance to it. Flicking my wrist, I sent it flipping through the air as soon as fire lit up the fucker’s face as he shot at my friends.

The gurgling sound told me I’d stuck the landing. That had to count for something, throwing a knife in darkness like this and hitting him in the throat? Yeah, double points. That has to be worth double the points. I swore to myself as I patted him down. Blood was everywhere. This was definitely the guy who’d grabbed Code before.

Now that I had the knife, I had a way of staying hidden. The guns made us visible everytime we shot them. I grinned to myself, then swore as a shot rang out and dust kicked up next to me. I didn’t have time to react before someone tackled me into the sand. Skidding on my face in the dirt, I elbowed the fucker on my back. I was back to spitting dirt out of my mouth as we exchanged blows. His grunts and groans fueled me as we fought. I ignored the blows I received, though I knew I would be feeling them later, once the adrenaline wore off.

“Don’t move,” someone said from behind me. His voice was unfamiliar.

I waited, staring down at the asshole under me. His face was streaked in blood. It looked black against his skin in the dark.

“You should have just handed over the girl,” the man behind me said. “Now you will die instead.”

The shot rang out and I flinched, then reevaluated.

“Holy shit. Kilo? You good?” OD moved toward me, nothing but a shadow as he walked.

“Yeah. Thanks. Damn.” I took the knife and plunged it into the guy I was sitting on, putting him out of my misery. “Good shot.” Fuck, when this was over OD was going to hold this one over my head, even if I shot more than him.

“Told ya I’d win this one,” he said with a chuckle.

“Oh fuck you. I don’t think you even came- Move!” I bellowed as another shadow came running at OD. He was close enough now that I could see his face and his eyes narrowed, but he ducked and rolled to his right. I let the knife fly.

The breath was knocked out of me as I hit my back, the body limp on top of me. He’d dove at OD, missed thanks to my warning, and hit me instead. I dumped him off me and wheezed as I felt around for a pulse. The knife was sticking out of his chest. He was dead. I flopped back onto the ground.

OD sat down beside me. “Thanks.”

“That’s four,” I said, taunting him. Better still, we were even in the saving each other’s ass department.

“I didn’t kill the asshole who was wounded. Which means you did, so that’s three and a half at most,” he pointed out. “You don’t get four for that.”

“Would you two quit counting shit?” Strike asked as he and Code jogged up. “We need to get back to the others.”

“Besides, it makes me feel like Flir is here,” Code complained. “If I wanted to hear counting I’d have gone with the other team.”

Laughing, I let Strike drag me to my feet while Code did the same for OD and we started loping back toward the vehicles. I was hoping the other guys had taken care of their guys just as quickly so this could be over and done with. We needed to figure out if Kruzman was actually out here or not.

“Who the fuck is that?”

I looked over at Overdrive’s question and frowned as another set of headlights crept down the dirt road toward us. “Fuck. I don’t know. Better not be more of Kruzman’s damn men.”

“Better not be cops,” Strike said.

“Shit,” OD muttered. “Let’s go.”

We gave up all pretenses of staying quiet and sprinted through the dark toward the road.