Page 73 of Kilo's Edge

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” I wondered out loud. “You know he’s probably going to kill me...right?”

“If he wasn’t planning to, I’d ask if I could,” he told me, tone flat and cold.

“You’re insane,” I whispered.

“I’m pissed off,” he snapped. “You shot me! Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be for me to explain that at work?”

He’d kidnapped me. I stared at him with an incredulous look. He was blaming me for defending myself when he’d taken me away? Planned to sell me to another madman? He was telling me with a straight face that he wanted to murder me. Why wouldn’t I fight back against that? I didn’t voice any of this out loud. What was the point? He wasn’t sane enough to be rational. The only thing he cared about was handing me over to Kruzman.

I fell into silence as I tried to prepare myself for whatever was about to happen next. If I was lucky the guys would find me. If not... It didn’t bear thinking about. Blinking hard against the tears, I tried to remain calm and just stared at the road ahead.

CHAPTER 31

Kilo

“Shit! 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 andwe’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.

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