Page 81 of The Last True Hero

Stalemate. There were four weapons drawn, and the uneasy-looking reiver seemed to be thinking about adding his own. Mia froze.

"Draw that gun and you're dead first," McClain warned him.

"I knew you were trouble," Rykker said, with a sneer. "Should have trusted my instincts."

"Easy," McClain warned, "or no one's walking out of here alive."

Where the fuck was her shotgun? Mia's mind blanked. All she had were her two knives, and the pistol at her belt. She'd given the shotgun to Ellie. Blood rushed through her veins, drumming in her ears.

Noise rustled as Zarina thrashed on the floor of the cell they'd shoved her inside. Rykker saw her, his eyebrows lifting. Then he smiled. "Got the drop on the Warlord's brat. That'd be a first." His smile turned oily. "Guess we'll take care of you, then we can deal with her. Guess what, honey? It looks like I'll be taking what I was promised from you, after all." This was aimed at Zarina. "Afterwards we can just pretend these fuckers put a bullet in your skull."

Mia's heart thumped in her chest. She hovered on the balls of her feet, her hand curled around Sara's upper arm in case they needed to leg it, but she didn't dare move.

Footsteps thundered on the stairs behind the reivers.

"Rykker?" someone called.

"Down here!" Rykker half turned his head, and that was when disaster struck.

"And you call us the monsters," Colton said, lashing out through the bars of his cell.

He grabbed the unarmed reiver, hauling him back against the bars so hard that his neck snapped.

Rykker and his remaining reiver turned on Colton, shots firing. Some of them hit the metal bars and ricocheted off. The reiver’s broken body jerked as Colton used it to shield himself, but then McClain drove both Mia and Ellie into the wall, using his body to protect them.

Jake was firing. Noise thundered through the cells. Shouts. Gunshots. Mia jerked every time a gun went off. McClain shot over his shoulder, still protecting them.

"Jake?" he bellowed, when everything fell silent.

"I'm good," Jake rasped.

"Kill them!" Rykker yelled, and more gunshots shattered the silence.

More reivers flooded the cells. Three... four of them?

"Take cover!" McClain hauled Mia to her feet, sending her and Ellie darting ahead of him.

Mia slid to her knees behind a barrel in the corner, and dragged Ellie in with her. Sara and Bethany were already tucked in the corner, curled around each other.

Everything fell silent again.

Jake? Her head spun in shock. It all happened so fast. What was going on? Where was Jake?

"Looks like your friends can't shoot for shit," Jake called. "Now you're on your own."

Jake. Mia's heart slammed against her ribs in relief. She drew her knife, though hell if she knew what she was going to do with it.

"Just drop the gun, Rykker," McClain warned. "You might still walk out of this alive."

"Two against one," Jake pointed out.

Mia peered around the barrel. Dead reivers littered the floor. One of them moaned a little. And Rykker stood surrounded, both Jake and McClain taking careful steps toward him, with their pistols trained on him.

"You know what?" Rykker's mouth curled up, all on one side. Blood dripped from his arm and thigh, but he held a pistol trained on Jake, and the shotgun on McClain. "Fuck the pair of you. How 'bout we even the odds?" he asked, then aimed the shotgun at McClain's chest and pulled the trigger.

Everything in Mia's world froze, her vision narrowing.

"Adam!" she screamed, as he began to fall.