I licked the tip of my knife to mask the pounding pulse in my temples. “We’re outnumbered one-to-three here, yet you’re afraid of us. Scared like a child of a monster in their closet.”
Kali snickered. “Little boys.”
“We won’t seem so little when we take our reward for capturing you.” The leader lessened the distance between us, stopping between two soldiers, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind him. “You tricked the system. Found a loophole.”
His cold tone raised my hackles. Instinctively, I touched Kali’s hip to check if she was still there. Her back muscles grew rigid against my own.
“You see, I also discovered one. It’s calledtaking you on a trial run.” He twirled his wrist, drawing our attention to thegreen band. “Right now, you’re common goods. No wristband, no claim,” he told her. “So before we throw you in with the others, I will determine if your medical records were truly falsified.”
Kali’s laugh boomed across the roof, and the sound of her bitter amusement wormed its way into my heart.
“I’ll peel your face off and wear it to your funeral for so much as daring to fantasize about me lying on your bed,” she sneered.
“What she said.” I crouched to free my second knife from the confines of my left boot. “I’ll even help her to embellish it by drawing some lovely patterns on it. Did you know that your blood has different shades? It all depends on where it comes from: an artery or a vein.”
The commander wiped his blade on his pants, erasing any evidence of how the weapon had ensured Rowan’s end. “I can’t say that I did. But I’d be down to put the theory into practice. What do you say? Give her over to us, and I’ll choose either the vein in your elbow or the artery in your neck. You’ll lose consciousness quickly. Barely any pain. Or”—his voice dropped—“I’ll force her to kill you herself.”
Warily, I bumped my fists against Kali’s. Her blades nicked my knuckles, and I eased at having found her holding the knives as Eli and I had drilled into her—blade pointing backward. This type of grip allowed you to slit throats, stab between ribs, twist and rip the wounds apart, all while keeping your adversary at bay without much effort.
I whispered to her, “Remember when Ryder and I gave you the tour of our schools? The reversed tag game the children played?”
“Yes.” She tapped her blade against my hip, indicating the direction of the spin we were about to take. “You want to beIt?”
“Always,” I confirmed, and then wished her luck. “Go get your mask.”
But my pulse quickened at the probability of us leaving unscathed. They were low. Too low.
“Unfortunately, I’m not in the mood to entertain you today. So why don’t we get this over with? I don’t want my dinner to get cold.” I grinned at the nameless crew leader. “My girl is not properly dressed for the weather.”
I nudged Kali’s right heel. She moved right as the commander lunged at us. We danced the three steps required to switch our positions, leaving me to deal with the six soldiers and her to handle the chatty leader.
Ducking the fist flying toward me, I kneed the tallest soldier in his groin. My knife sliced the inside of his thigh, and I savored the spurt of warmth. If the man wished to blame someone for his death, he could fault his commander, the voicer of ideas. He should’ve kept some to himself.
The soldier collapsed?—
Something hard collided with my spine. Air whooshed out of my lungs, and I stumbled forward. Before I could fully straighten, a punch grazed my cheek, and my chin flew toward my shoulder.
My knees buckled. Ignoring the dark spots dotting my vision, I rolled away, my motions fueled by pure muscle memory. Rough concrete abraded my knuckles as I pushed off and threw one of my knives into the eye of my opponent.
The lucky-to-have-hit-me bastard froze, then sagged to the ground.
I licked my gums, tasting iron. “Who’s next?”
The remaining four soldiers split into two pairs, one of slender and tall bodies, their physiques forged for speed, and the other of shorter and stockier builds, brute force their choice of a weapon.
If you didn’t count the knives they all held at the ready.
At least no holsters marked their thighs, increasing our chances of a successful escape.
“Aww, are you too scared to go on a ride with me?” I taunted. Tracking their approach to my front and back, I risked a quick glance to the other side of the roof.
Kali was backing away, toward the building’s edge. The heavily limping commander advanced on her, the steel of his weapons mottled in red specks.
She must’ve torn a ligament in his knee. A move I’d taught her a month ago. Pride swelled beneath my ribs.
“For what you’ve done, I’d pull your guts out and hang you from them if I didn’t have orders to bring you in alive,” he fumed.
“That’s such a nice offer,” she hissed, halting a few feet away from the roof’s end. “But I’ll have to decli?—”
