Page 74 of Kilo's Edge

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 ofmymisery. “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 asquickly 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.

CHAPTER 32

Camila

It was so dark out here. We really were in the middle of nowhere and I was starting to get worried that Ashley was just going to kill me and dump my body where it wouldn’t be found. I sat up a little straighter as lights came into view. It was hard to say I was relieved though, because I wasn’t sure what was going on. There were vehicles parked on and near the little dirt road, doors open, lights shining, but no one was around. “Where are we?”

Ashley didn’t answer. He got out of the car, came around to my side and yanked open the door. There was no avoiding him as he pulled me out of the car and started dragging me toward the vehicles. “Kruzman!” he bellowed into the night.

My heart sank just hearing that name. It was like the darkness was pressing in around us. My chest was constricted as I struggled against his hold. I didn’t want to go willingly to my own death. I leaned forward and sank my teeth into Ashley’sforearm. At least he wasn’t coming out of this kidnapping without his own damn scars.

Pain exploded in my face as he backhanded me with his free hand. Then the world spun as he tossed me like a rag doll. I skidded to a stop in a pool of lights.

“There! Proof enough that I’ve got her?”

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