We watched in silent horror as blood began to seep over the pavement. The brushes had knocked him down to the ground and he’d been pulled into the conveyor belt that moved the cars along on the track. I honestly had no idea whether the brushes were responsible for the blood, or the belt. Either had enough force to crush the guy. I couldn’t help but laugh as it was a self-cleaning murder.
“Wow.” We looked over as everything slowed and stopped. Kilo’s eyebrows were up as he walked toward us and at the gruesome sight in front of us. “That was a great hit, Rue,” he said with a grin. Then he looked down at the kid on the ground and offered him a hand up. “I take it you’re Ryan?”
Rue was in my arms before I had a chance to say anything. I had a lot of fucking questions. Like how had she found Ryan? Why were they running loose out here? Where is Carrick? Butthey all died in my chest as I held my Light close and reveled in the fact that she was alive.
“Fuck,” I muttered after a minute. “Thank God you’re okay.”
She said something. I could feel the vibrations of her voice. “What?”
“You’re going to have to yell,” Kilo said. And that was when I realized he was also yelling. Which meant I had been too. All our hearing was probably fucked at this point.
“I was so scared that they were going to ambush you,” she repeated. Louder this time.
“They tried!” I said with a grin.
“One more question,” Rue said. I arched a brow at her. “Why do you smell so bad?”
“We should find the others,” Kilo pointed out, laughing at me as we ignored Rue’s question. There wasn’t time to explain.
I shook my head. “I need you to get them out of here.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m not fucking leaving you here alone-”
“Kilo!” I barked. “I can’t do this until they’re somewhere safe-”
I didn’t so much as hear the gunshot as I felt Rue’s scream against my body and saw the sparks from where the bullet bounced off some of the equipment around us.
As one we all ducked behind one of the scrubbers. Guess we’d found where Carrick was.
“You stupid bitch!” he shouted, voice echoing in the bay.
She gave me a sheepish smile. “When you came busting through that fencing he ran out to where they were holding us. He wanted some of his men to cut us loose and move us to a more secure location.”
“And?” I asked, amused. My ears were starting to clear a little. Well, one of them. The one that hadn’t had a gun go off near it. The other still sounded like I was at the bottom of the ocean.
“I may have broken loose and stabbed him with a rusty…thing…sitting nearby,” she admitted.
“Right in the thigh,” Ryan interjected. He had a wide smile on his face. “It was fucking awesome!”
“Language,” Rue snapped at him in only the way an older sister could. “We managed to run off into the darkness while they all tried to figure out what to do.”
“Why didn’t they just grab you?” Kilo asked, confused.
“Because Relay and Bolo showed up,” Rue told him. “They may fight a lot, but when they join forces?” She blew out a breath.
“Impressive right?” Kilo commented.
“Really-”
“Okay, enough,” I said, keeping my voice down because I knew I was still yelling if I didn’t lower it. “Let’s get moving. Kilo…”
“Still not leaving, brother. Couldn’t now even if I wanted to. We’d be sitting ducks.”
“No shit,” I said, tone dry as I gave him an unamused glare. “I was going to say see if you can get around behind him.” I pulled my knife out of my pocket and gave it to Rue. “Keep that on you. Find a spot to hide and you two stay there until we tell you to come out.”
She opened her mouth to argue, took one look at my face, then nodded and they slipped off into the darkness.
Kilo motioned to me that he was taking the left flank.
