Page 43 of Dark OZ

My hands raised high where the Monkeys with the guns could see them, I walked slowly to the center of the lot. The men flanking the perimeter, who I had mislabeled as incompetent, all had rifles trained on me, painting my chest with red laser dots. I had a gun in the holster under my arm and another behind my belt, but I might as well have left them in the car for as much good as they would do me. If I so much as sneezed, it would be the last movement I ever made.

“Isn’t this a little below your pay grade, Orin?” I gave Crowe a solid look over. He seemed to be okay and was only held to the rod in one location. Not impossible, but first, we had to get past being fish in the center of a barrel. What I needed was a distraction. “I thought Winged Monkeys didn’t fly out of their nests for less than a million.”

“Yeah, well, Westin called in a favor. It would seem she’s rather attached to a particular family heirloom, one your girl took the liberty of stealing.” Orin looked down at his nails, buffing them on his lapel. He let out a low groan of disgust. “Vincent, your face got blood all over my nails.”

Crowe spit on Orin’s shoes. “Come closer, Berret. I’ll paint you in so much blood your vision will turn red. I don’t need my hands free to kill a spineless motherfucker like you.”

“Cute.” The leader of the Monkeys shifted to address me, noting the number of steps left between us. Orin smiled and waved offhandedly towards the northern wall. “As a bonus, I get to deliver one very pretty head to Emily Rosen. Seems that little minx has a talent for making enemies all over Oz. Who knows, maybe other pieces of her will be worth something too.”

As if they could hear the threat, there was the pop of gunfire over the hillside.

“Ah, here she comes now. Right on time.” Orin’s final words were drowned out by the roaring of an engine. A headlight cut through the darkness seconds before Danny’s Superleggera flew over the wall—with no rider. I had a millisecond to process this information before the power was cut to the yard, and we were blanketed in total darkness.

Shouting broke out around us, and the lasers that were focused on me shifted toward where the bike had been a moment ago. I pulled the gun from my holster and fired off three bullets in quick succession directly where Orin had just been standing.

I dove for the ground. Heat from a passing bullet buzzed by my cheek, followed by a spray of dirt.

A tracer round streaked through the darkness. It exploded like a firework the moment it pierced the tank of the motorcycle. The bike burst into a giant fireball, the spray of light illuminating the yard.

Orin disappeared, somehow managing to miss each of my bullets. There was no sign of Danny or Thea, so I decided to make a move for Crowe. He was also frantically scanning the yard for a sign of the rest of our team.

“The trailer!” he shouted, but his words were cut off when a booming explosion rocked the ground. Behind me, the trailer roared with flames. Three barrels of fuel rolled toward the row of construction vehicles. I followed their path backwards.

Thea stood draped in shadows. She flicked a lighter, shining just enough light to see the determination in her expression. There was a ferocity to her stance, power behind the way she stared down the scene. For a moment, I could perfectly imagine what Crowe must have seen that day on the video monitor. It was a vision of the woman who bashed in the Queen of the East’s face.

Thea dropped the lighter with a smile. The trailing lines of igniting fuel hissed, writhing like snakes over the gravel, illuminating her killer form. Death was never a rider on a pale horse. It was a woman bathed in firelight, her hair glowing a brutal shade of red that reminded me of the poppy fields of my childhood. Not the rainbow flowers of Oz, but the crimson ones of home.

Thea dove behind a stack of pipes. I’d been foolish staring at her and drawing unnecessary attention in her direction. Moments later, the barrels exploded, taking the line of vehicles with them one after another. Bits of metal shrapnel flew in all directions.

I’d wished for a distraction, and Thea delivered. Not wasting a minute of it, I sprinted for Crowe, sliding into the ground beside him with a spray of gravel.

“Took you long enough.”

“Took me? You literally were sleeping half this time.”

I pulled a pocket knife from my boot and quickly cut his hands free.

“I was drugged,” he said with a laugh. A feminine scream from the other side of the yard made my blood ice over.

Crowe pulled the spare gun free of my belt. He fired off two quick shots over my back at where Thea had disappeared.

I spun quickly. His shots went wide, hitting the concrete wall behind Orin.

Crowe cursed. “It’s the sedatives.”

I wanted to make a joke, but I couldn’t get past the scene unfolding before me. Orin had a gun to Danny’s back, but that wasn’t what made my eyes go wide.

Thea hadDanny’sgun pointed at Orin. “How in the hell?”

Mirroring my shock, Crowe added, “Is that Danny’s gun…fuck, that’s hot.”

Orin was too quiet to hear what he said, but it made Thea look like a ghost in the firelight. While the blood may have drained from her beautiful face, none of her ferocity did. Thea shouted a battle cry, “Never! Never Again.”

I tightened my fists, feeling the inked letters stretch. We all had our demons, and Thea’s were raging. Sirens echoed off the hills, and the lights of many approaching vehicles flickered in the distance.

Thea glanced at the advancing police, and Orin followed her eyes to the horizon. Taking advantage of the distraction, Danny spun, attempting to disarm the gun at his back. A shot echoed around the yard. I held my breath and waited to see my brother fall to the ground. Instead, Orin stumbled back, blood soaking the arm of his fancy sportscoat. He looked as shocked as the rest of us.

Thea had shot him. She’d fired past Danny’s shoulder and shot him. Grabbing the wound, Orin ran for the shadows.

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