Page 44 of Over the Edge

Trevor fell backward, tripped by his own bag, and the jumping assailant went down on top of him.

Trevor’s knife clattered to the cobblestones.

Oh, shit.

Anna sprinted forward, silent and fast. In the dark, wearing black robes, she must look like some kind of specter bearing down on the fight. The second attacker looked up in alarm. He probably caught the billowing of her burka as she closed in.

She came in low, using her smaller stature to slip under the second man’s guard. He reached out to grab her with his free hand but didn’t bring his knife to bear. When it became clear that she planned to ram into him, he braced himself, obviously expecting to catch her and fling her aside.

What he didn’t count on was the switchblade hidden beneath her robe and gripped tightly in her fist.

At the last second before she slammed into him, she let go of her burka and raised her free hand as if to scratch his eyes out. He threw his hands up to catch her clawed hand…

…which opened up his entire torso to her.

Through the cloth of her burka, she slammed the blade home just below his sternum, angling it up and right into the lung cavity. Her knife wasn’t long enough to reach the heart, but it was plenty long enough to cause internal mayhem. She yanked down and right, dragging the razor sharp blade across his stomach and into whatever other entrails got in the way.

The guy cried out and staggered back, staring down at his belly in confusion. She yanked the blade back inside the burka, hiding it from view as he looked at his stomach and back up at her. He pressed his hands to his gut and staggered again.

Surprise. The woman wasn’t defenseless.

The guy went down to his knees, clasping his arms across his torso as the severity of his injuries began to register.

She stumbled as the two men grappling on the ground slammed into her leg. Peering down frantically at the tangle of limbs and torsos, she made out Trevor on the bottom. The guy on top of him had his blade pointed down at Trevor’s face, and Trevor’s hands strained against the guy’s wrist to keep the blade from plunging into his eye.

She lunged forward, plunging her knife into the back of the attacker’s neck at the base of his skull. The bones and fibers there were tough, and the blade met resistance about a half-inch in. She leaned into the blow with all her strength and shoved the blade another few inches until she hit bone.

The attacker arched backward, his entire body going rigid. Then he collapsed all at once.

Trevor shoved the guy off him fast and scrambled to scoop up his knife and jump to his feet, scanning urgently for other threats. Trevor strode forward to where the second attacker knelt in a spreading pool of blood. As he approached, the second attacker toppled forward to lie face down on the ground.

“He’ll bleed out,” Trevor muttered.

She nodded vaguely as a fog of numbness came over her whole body.

“We need to go,” he bit out.

She heard the words. She gave the command to her body to walk. But her limbs didn’t obey. She stood frozen in the street, staring at the men she’d killed.

“Don’t think,” Trevor said low. “Just move.”

“And do what?” she mumbled.

He swore under his breath and then ordered sharply, “Do what you know has to happen next, soldier. Hide the bodies. Erase the evidence.” Trevor bent down to grab the guy she’d stabbed in the neck by his armpits.

She lurched into motion and grabbed the dead man’s feet, helping Trevor carry the corpse into the shadows. They lowered the guy to the ground—he was a familiar face from this afternoon’s shopping trip. He’d been hanging around the weapons bazaar.

They carried the second man over beside the first. Trevor pulled his shirtsleeve down and used the cuff to cover his hand as he placed the second guy’s knife back in his fingers and wrapped them around the hilt. Trevor jogged over to where the first guy had dropped his knife and picked it up with his sleeve, as well. He ran the blade through the pool of the gutted guy’s blood on the ground and then dropped the knife beside the first guy’s body.

It looked now like the two men had been fighting each other. Ahh. A misdirect for the police.

She hurried over to the other corner of the alley and quickly picked up her duffel bag. She rejoined him as Trevor hefted his.

She’d just killed a man. What to do now? Move.

Trevor put a hand in the middle of her back and nudged her forward. Right. They had no time to stop and engage in impromptu therapy. Cal had lectured her and the women multiple times on the impact of making a first kill, and she’d believed everything he said. But it was totally different to actually experience it.

She did know from her training, though, that she had to tough out this shock until they got back to home base, in this case, her grandmother’s house.Thenshe could fall apart.

---