Page 181 of Lone Star

Candy walked into the light, pushing a bound and hobbling Agent Cantrell in front of him. It looked like Candy’s grip on the back of his shirt was all that held him up. Candy held a gun poised at his temple, his hand red and shiny with fresh blood.

“I’ve got your boy,” he said. “You can either answer my questions, or I can blow his brains out, and then yours. What’ll it be, gentlemen?”

~*~

Jenny fired before the front door rebounded off the interior wall of the clubhouse. The man – and she hadn’t cared if he was cartel, or FBI, or some poor bastard whose car had broken down; you kicked in her door, and she was going to shoot – managed a startled expression before he fell, on his face, slow and heavy like a cut-down tree.

There were more behind him. Jenny fired again, and she heard Talis, Nickel, and Pup firing, too. A bottleneck in the door, the enemy overwhelmed.

“Get behind something,” Talis said, off to her left. “Go, I’ll cover you.”

“I need a new mag,” she called, and ducked and rolled. Got behind the shelter of the bar. Nickel had pulled out a box of them from their place beside the cocktail napkins, and she ejected her own and reached for a fresh one.

By the time she’d gotten on her feet, ducked low over the bar, the firing had stopped. A heap of bodies blocked the door of the clubhouse, and the silence rang, heavy and faintly pulsed, in sync with her heartbeat.

No…it wasn’t silent. Not totally. There was…

Jenny swore when she realized what she’d heard were running footsteps. She swung toward the mouth of the hallway in time to catch a flash of movement, to register the rush of breath and the shift of clothes and glimpse an unfamiliar face.

In time for the gunshot to echo like the sharp crack of thunder.

The stranger let out a lowoofand toppled. He didn’t break his fall. Landed in a tangle and started twitching, blood surging out across the floor in a tide.

Tenny limped into view, clutching his IV pole in one hand, a gun in the other. “He came in through a window,” he said, eyes on the man he’d just killed. Then he slumped back against the wall and let out a tired-sounding breath.

Fifty-Six

It seemed to take Axelle forever to loosen the nut holding her cuff closed. Thank God their asshole captor liked to hear himself talk. He’d been rambling – lots of nonsense about power that she’d tuned out; it sounded like Michelle was volleying with him nicely, though how she’d managed to keep her voice level Axelle had no idea.

She herself no longer had any delusions about being a badass. She could wear all the boots she wanted to, and drive a car like a pro, but this here, now, had shaken her to her bones. She wasn’t equipped for it, no way, no how.

But she could loosen this wingnut. Half-turn by half-turn. Finally, the cuff sagged. One more twist would do it – but if the cuff fell, the chain would rattle, and Luis would hear, and that stupid, massive golden gun would get shoved in her face instead.

A phone rang.

She managed to peek from the corner of her eye and watched Luis balance the gun on his thigh with one hand and fish out his iPhone with the other. His face was smoothly pleased as he thumbed the screen and pressed it to his ear. “Is it done?”

A moment later, his brows flew up. “What?” He stood, hand tightening on the gun. “Youwhat?” He whirled, robe flaring, and stormed from the room.

Axelle rolled her head toward Michelle. “I’ve almost got one hand loose.”

Beyond the room, Luis’s footfalls and his low, furious voice receded down the hallway.

“The chain’s gonna make noise.”

Michelle bit her lip, debating. “Something must have happened with the guys – something that’s pissed him off,” she said, gaze darting toward the door, briefly. “We could wait for them.”

Axelle’s heart throbbed in her chest. “Should we?” Every instinct screamedgo now!This might be their best shot. To waste it, to lie here…

“That gun’s bloody stupid,” Michelle continued, voice hushed. “But it’s a fifty-caliber.”

Axelle shuddered, and didn’t need further explanation on that front.

“But I guess if he’s going to shoot us from point blank range, it’ll kill us no matter the caliber.” She took a breath that betrayed her first outward signs of unsteadiness. “Get loose. Do it.”

Axelle listened a moment longer, struggling to hear over the staccato beating of her heart. But she heard the unmistakable shift and creak of a flight of stairs – of Luis going down them, voice still low and furious.

She gave the last twist, the cuff loosened, and she slipped out of it with a fleeting, feverish burst of joy. One that evaporated when she listened to the slither and clink of the chain falling down against the bed post – but there was nothing for it. She sat up, dizzy, the room spinning, and started on her other wrist.

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