Page 91 of Dark OZ

I felt the hot blood coat my face before I could fully process what had happened. A bullet from the gun tore through Melinda’s brow. The green glass at the back of the compartment exploded directly in the center between where Danny and I were standing. I raised my hands in shock, wiping the blood splatter from my cheek.

Nick grabbed Melinda’s now very dead body. Shoving me behind him, he used her corpse to shield us as we exited into the lobby.

Chapter 39

Icoughedheavilyagainstthe smoke and floating debris in the air. The scene was absolute chaos, like stepping out of a luxury elevator into a war zone. Where there once had been a beautiful dome, now stretches of the sky were visible. Half of the ceiling was blown apart, and a corner of the building was nothing more than rubble. Security guards were slain on the ground, laying awkwardly over patrons and tellers alike.

“Stay close.” Danny and Nick took up positions protectively on either side of me, popping off round after round. Gunmen were stationed everywhere, crawling over the wreckage like ants on a garbage pile. Whoever this was wasn’t taking any chances.

Crowe’s voice had gone eerily quiet, and I tried not to let that one unsettling fact distract me. A masked man in tactical gear lunged at us. Danny pulled a slender knife from his pocket. With a smooth motion, it flicked open. I drove my elbow into the man’s throat. Even Kevlar couldn’t protect you from a hard hit to the jugular. He stumbled back, and Danny sank the blade between the armored slats of the man’s vest.

The attacker fell to the ground, but like a hydra, two more leapt over him. The closest one sank his fingers into my tightly coiled hair, dragging me against his body. I screamed from the sharp pain, cursing myself for having pinned my hair so extensively. Twisting against his grip, I swung my elbows back. The plating in his vest was hard and rigid against my back, probably causing me more harm than him.

Danny lunged at the man. The knife sank into his neck, dousing my beautiful white blouse with crimson blood. The man behind me fell, the hand in my hair pulling the curls free of their pins.

Danny’s hand gripped mine. “This way, Firecracker. We’re fish in a barrel here. We need to get outside.”

As if in answer to his comment, a man on an upper balcony fired down several bullets. They peppered the pillar behind me, sending granite pebbles dusting across my cheeks.

Nick pushed forward, firing with quick, efficient motions and clearing a path. Then I noticed something else—they weren’t firing back, not a single gunman was shooting at Nick. I stopped, completely stunned. Nick’s mouthed apology from the elevator slapped me in the face.

Danny threw his body into mine just as the wall beside my head blew apart. They weren’t firing at the boys, there was only one target. Me.

This was a set-up.

Blood pumped in my ears, drowning out everything but the thump of my heart. I surveyed the carnage like time had slowed. A canister fell at our feet. Nick bent down and tossed it back where it came from, only seconds before light flashed and debris flew in the air. He looked back at me with so much concern, waving us on like he was an avenging angel and he wasn’t handing me over to the devil.

Pain sliced through my chest. I looked down expecting to see the blossoming flower of a gunshot wound and rubbed my hand against the burn, but it came away clean. No, this was so much worse than being shot. I was betrayed by the few people I’d ever allowed myself to trust. I’d almost prefer it had been a bullet.

Stupid, dumb, naive Thea. The only people who knew we were meeting here today were The Wizard and us. Which meant one of them must have tipped off whichever hit team had come to claim me.

Well, fuck that. I wasn’t going to wait for them to funnel me outside and into the hands of whoever was waiting for us. I pushed myself out of Danny’s grip.

He spun, reaching back to renew his hold, but I dodged him. “What are you doing?”

“I always knew you’d sell me out,” I kicked him in the groin with every ounce of force I could muster. Hurt, and possibly confusion, flared across his face.

“What the actual fuck, Thea.” Danny wheezed, buckling in half and pausing his agony long enough to fire his gun over my shoulder.

I didn’t stick around to explain myself, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to stay here and let him spin some more lies. Instead, I took off running at a full sprint for the back of the bank. Stray bullets pelted the ground around me, but I didn’t slow. There had to be an alley entrance, one they used to load and unload. Or perhaps where the employees entered from. Surely, everyone didn’t arrive by trekking up the grand staircase.

Crowe’s voice rattled back in my head. I tried not to let relief take root.“Sorry. I had to deal with some unwanted company. Thea, what in the name of Ozma are you doing?”

I ripped the comms device from my ear, throwing it to the ground. I didn’t need them. My entire life, it had been just me. I ignored the tiny voice that told me I hadn’t survived it entirely on my own and pushed through a door in the back wall.

Slamming it shut behind me, I twisted the deadbolt and threw a chair in front of it for good measure. A second later, a body slammed against the wood, rattling it in its frame.

“Thea, don’t do this!” Danny said with a muffled yell. “Ozdamn it, woman! Open the fucking door.” There was a resounding crack, the wood around the handle splintering apart.

Pushing open the far door, I locked that one behind me as well. I tore the slit in my skirt higher and kicked off my ridiculous heels. Women’s fashion was not meant for fleeing your impending doom.

The walls of the bank shook, a second tremor beneath my feet making me seriously worry about the integrity of the building. Insulation fell from the ceiling like snow.

A loud bang made me scream, gunshots just on the other side of the door. Danny must have decided he was done trying to break down doors and chose instead to blow it apart. Or worse, the attack team caught up to me.

I ran down hallway after hallway, taking turns at odd angles in the hopes that it would trip up Danny and Nick. These were considerably less ornate, making me think I’d entered the employee area of the bank. I passed a glass wall, revealing a room with cubicles sectioning off the space and another that looked like a small cafeteria and break room.

Finally, I approached a glass entrance. There was an unmanned security booth, along with a metal detector. When the explosion in the main bank happened, whoever was stationed here must have moved towards the lobby as back-up. Or they took off, not being paid enough to take a bullet for the company.

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