Page 75 of Butcher

Judging by his swearing, the stuck round didn’t loosen. “I have an extra rifle,” I told him, pointing toward it. “Use that.” I always tried to bring an extra because I knew all about temperamental rifles. We fell back into silence as we worked together to help our men on the ground.

Movement caught my eye and I saw Butcher fighting with someone. They were grappling for a gun. “Move,” I muttered, willing Butcher to take a step to the left so I could shoot the fucker putting hands on my man. More movement made me swing Donna further to the left and my heart leapt into my throat.

I’d know the shifty bitch slinking up behind Butcher anywhere. Vega was one of the three top female assassins. She had no morals, no boundaries. She’d kill her own mother if someone was willing to pay her to do it. Shifting my sights onto her, I pulled the trigger. The hollow click made my stomach clench. “Not now,” I hissed at Donna. I tap racked, then tried again. This was the reason for the second rifle. The minute my Prima Donna got dirty she liked to stop performing. My eyes flicked down to where the men were still wrestling for theweapon as I tried to force Donna to bend to my will. She refused. “Anyone not using their rifle?” I barked.

“Sorry.”

“Busy.”

Tossing Donna aside, I made a split second decision and started running down the hill. That bitch was creeping in behind Butcher so she could kill him while he was distracted. I wasn’t about to let that happen. They were only about five hundred yards away. I could make it. Brush slapped me in the face as I barreled down the hill. When I got to the bottom, the land leveled out so fast I almost face planted. There was no time, so I scrambled to keep my feet.

“Almost there,” I panted. I couldn’t call out to him. It would bring more attention to him. And me. Vega stopped in her tracks, raising her gun. She was normally a knife kind of girl, most of us were, but we knew better than to bring a knife to a gunfight. Most of the time. Not that we didn’t have our knives on us, too. We just knew when it was beneficial to use a gun. I’d promised Butcher I’d stay up on the hill, killing people from afar, so I’d only brought my rifles and Stabby with me.

No.

Vega was going to shoot him.

“Butcher!” I screamed, not caring at this point if it brought every killer down on my head.

His head snapped to the side and his eyes found mine. They narrowed, then he turned. He dropped the dead weight of the man he was holding, finally having dispatched him. He turned just in time for Vega to shoot.

“No!” I was only feet away, but it was too late to stop her from firing. I pulled my knife from its sheath and tackled Vega. Hitting the ground with a jarring thud, I brought my blade down toward her face. She managed to deflect it.

“Stupid cunt,” she snarled from beneath me as we fought and rolled along the ground.

“I’ll fucking kill you,” I roared as we fought. My fist was makingsatisfying contact with her body. I punched her anywhere I could, and grunted as she returned the blows.

Her eyes widened at the fury and pain in my voice. She managed to get a hit into my solar plexus and we broke apart, her breathing hard, and me just trying to suck in any breath at all. “What’s wrong Manta?” she purred. “Oh.” She gave me an over exaggerated pouty face. “Was that your man?” She shrugged as she started to circle around me. “Too bad. He was a pretty fucker. Now he’s dead.”

With a wounded sound, I forced myself up to my feet and charged her. She hadn’t been expecting it. Stupid of her to taunt me, to think I wouldn’t bash her gorgeous head in. Her dark hair was piled high in a bun and she was wearing all leather. She always had to be dressed up. It was her thing. I’d never liked her. And the feeling had always been mutual. She was too much of a showoff for me. And had no fucking heart. She often let her marks bleed to death. Even though we were assassins, we needed a code.

I hit her so hard my teeth rattled, but this time I was thinking clearly instead of attacking in panic and rage. I thrust Stabby into her side, enjoying her howl of pain. She punched me in the side of the head, managing to break my hold. We circled each other, two angry sharks and now there was blood in the water.

There was a bellow, a demonic howl that ripped through the valley. It caused us both to pause. “Sounds like someone found your boyfriend,” she mocked.

“Fuck off bitch.” My skin flushed from anger, adrenaline, and fear.

“Seriously?” she taunted, one hand pressing against her side. Her knife was now in the other. She’d lost her gun the first time I tackled her. “You fell in love?” She rolled her eyes. “The perfect Manta, breaking her own rules.”

“I almost feel sorry for you,” I growled. This was the last thing I wanted to be doing. I needed to get to Butcher, but if I made the wrong move, Vega would kill me without hesitation. The bitch needed to die first, then I could go help him. “You’ll never know love.”

“Like I’d want to,” she sneered. “It weakens you.”

There was a time I might have agreed with her, but now I knewthat I’d been wrong. She waswrong. Love gave you a purpose. It made other people, outside of yourself, important. It made you fight one-hundred percent harder to protect that person than you would for yourself. “Guess you’ll never find out,” I told her, watching as she stepped on a loose branch. The minute her ankle twisted, I made my move. Her and those stupid heeled boots she insisted on wearing. Her shallow ego was going to be her downfall.

“Oomph,” she grunted as her back slammed into a tree. I had my blade under her chin and pressed to her jugular before she knew what was happening. Her eyes flared in fear and her breaths came hard and fast. “You stupid bitch,” she hissed. “You’re willing to kill me? For him?” She searched my eyes. “You threweverythingaway.”

“I did,” I admitted. “And I’m willing to kill you just to end you, but everything else I do will be for him. I wouldn’t take back a single thing Igave up.”Because really what had I given up? Loneliness? Emptiness? A lifetime of growing old by myself? Fuck that. No matter what happened, at least I had love, even if it was only for a brief time. I’d take that over Vega’s worthless existence. Over what mine had been before Butcher.

“Not if he’s dead,” she snapped. “I shot him right in the heart.”

I hadn’t seen where Butcher had been hit, but the thought of her having killed him made everything inside me tense up. I was finished talking. My knife raked across her throat and I held her, immobile, against the tree as she bled out. Normally, I would make a person’s death quicker, less painful. I didn’t like people to die panicking as their life left them. But Vega deserved no less for how she dispatched her own victims. This was karma coming back to her.

As soon as the light was gone from her brown eyes, I let her drop to the ground and turned. My gaze found where Butcher had fallen and I saw Toxic there already. The shooting was dying around us. Or maybe the hammering in my ears was drowning it out. I stumbled forward, running toward the men.

There were bodies everywhere, and screams erupting from the woods. “Lockout’s going full Lockout,” Toxic said by way of explanationas I dropped to my knees next to Butcher. There was no humor in his voice.

I wasn’t about to stop and ask him what that meant. I was too focused on Butcher.

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