Page 81 of Final Exit

More of them reached the entrance, and each one went either left or right, depending on which direction the person in front of them had gone. Too bad Devlin couldn’t have scouted out the entire network of caves and radioed that back instead of just the main ones. But they were worried that if they took the time they needed to map out every single branch and fork, the Enforcers being held captive would be killed by then.

Kade and Jace were the last to the entrance.

“See you on the other side.” Jace saluted him and disappeared to the right.

Kade went left, following the path deeper into the side of the hill. A string of lights in the ceiling lit the way, though not very well. But the rock floor was smooth and clear, as if many feet had passed through here. Which made sense since everything they’d seen indicated this was where Faegan and his men were operating from.

Pounding down the tunnel sent a sharp jolt of pain through his thigh every time he set his foot down. He gritted his teeth, belatedly wishing he’d taken even more pills. But he couldn’t slow down. He was already the slowest man out here and he’d be damned if he missed the whole show because of his damned leg.

The light was better up ahead. He remembered Devlin’s directions, that the left and right tunnels from the entrance opened into a large chamber. He slowed, raising his pistol. But when he rounded the corner, the chamber was empty, except for stacks of wooden boxes in neat rows, with labels on each one—guns, body armor, bottles of water, food. Faegan was nothing if not organized.

He stopped when he saw a trail of blood near one of the boxes. He followed it into the aisle of food and bottled water, and realized it was one of Faegan’s men, most likely one of the guards that Devlin had taken out. Kade hated the loss of life, but knew that the mercenaries Faegan had hired wouldn’t hesitate to kill him and the others.

He jogged to the next set of tunnels at the far end. There were three to choose from. They’d each been assigned to go down one of the tunnels, splitting them into three groups. He was assigned to the tunnel on the far left. He’d just started down it when the sound of gunshots echoed from behind him. He whirled around and ran back into the chamber, scanning his pistol back and forth, looking for the threat. Empty. There was no one there. Another shot sounded, followed by a shout. Kade whirled around again. The sounds had come from the tunnel on the right.

Bailey gasped for breath as she crouched behind a boulder. She’d barely made it behind the rock to avoid being shot and her pulse was buzzing in her ears. On the other side of the cavern, two Equalizers she’d only met a few hours ago motioned to her to stay down. No kidding. If her quick glimpse of the situation before diving for cover could be relied on, she and her two companions were pinned down by at least six gunmen.

“Put down your weapons,” she yelled. “You’re outnumbered four to one.”

One of the men across from her raised a brow, obviously doubting her math skills.

She shrugged.

“Toss your guns down and no one will get hurt,” she added, just for fun. Because, really, if you couldn’t joke in a situation like this, what was the point?

A volley of shots rang out in answer to her jibe.

She cursed and covered her ears, mildly surprised when her hands didn’t come away bloody. The cave amplified sounds, and those gunshots were at about the decibel level of a jet airplane.

Well, if nothing else, the shots had probably alerted more Equalizers, and someone would be here soon to even the odds. Assuming, of course, that they weren’t pinned down in a similar situation in another tunnel. One could always hope.

She counted down from five, four, three, two... she leaned around the boulder and fired off two quick shots. Score! One of the men flew backward, obviously dead before he even hit the ground. The others let loose with another barrage of gunfire in her direction. She dove back to cover and held her hands over her ears. Across from her, the two men were glaring at her liketheywanted to shoot her. As soon as the bullets quit whining through the cave, she answered their glares with two middle fingers.

Damn, she’d missed this kind of excitement.

If her two supposed allies would just do something... anything... to help, then maybe they could all walk out of here in one piece. As it was, she was going to have to keep picking off the enemies one by one. But her odds weren’t good, not when they knew she was behind this boulder. And the next boulder was a good ten feet away, with no cover.

“With dozens of people on the team you’d think I’d end up with at least one who was willing to do more than hide behind a damn rock,” she grumbled, hopefully loud enough for the two Equalizers to hear but not loud enough for her enemies.

Another volley of shots rang out. She jerked around. No, the two men across from her hadn’t shot their weapons. So what were the bad guys shooting at?

A blur of movement off to her right had her whirling toward the motion, gun raised.

“It’s me,” a deep voice yelled, as he dove toward her.

Kade.

She swung her pistol up toward the ceiling just as he slammed into her, crushing her against the rock.

Gunshots echoed for a full minute as the bad guys took aim at the newcomer. But thankfully the rock was solid. When the echoes died down, she shoved at Kade.

“Move,” she hissed. “I can’t breathe and I think you broke two of my ribs.”

His eyes widened and he lifted himself off her just enough to run his hands up her shirt.

“What the... stop it.” She slapped at his hands. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Checking your ribs. You said—”

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