Charity rolled over with a soft groan and blinked up at the swaying play of shadows on the roof. ‘What the hell happened, Echo?’ She kept her voice soft, aware of the guards below.
‘Warned you.’ Her answer was a croak.
‘You gave us up.’
Echo’s laugh edged close to a sob. ‘I like breathing, Charity.’
Yeah, so did she. The ringing in her ears started to recede, and her headache stayed bearable if she didn’t move. She stared blindly up at the ceiling wondering how long their two guards would stay away. Worry for Ruin clawed at her, shredding the calm she relied on to tatters. The stupid, thickheaded idiot. Giving himself up like that! Dammit. River Man would turn Ruin over to Reznik. The sleazy ass crime lord would take great pleasure in making an example out of one of the infamous Vultures. Granted he’d do worse to Lilith’s top ‘Hound, but it didn’t soothe her worry or erase one iota of her guilt.
‘Think we got time before he gets back?’ The question drifted up from the bottom floor courtesy of one of their guard dogs and snapped her out of her pity party.
‘Maybe,’ drawled a second one. ‘We can wait a bit, jus’ to be sure he ain’t coming back any time soon.’
Next to her, she felt Echo stiffen. Before the other woman could do much more, Charity shifted her leg and kicked Echo’s ankle in warning. Echo needed to stay still and quiet. No need to cue the moron twins on the fact the two women were listening. She kept her breathing shallow and didn’t move, grateful when Echo did the same.
‘I need a piss.’
‘Yeah, I need a damn drink.’
‘We can’t both leave at once,’ the first one whined.
‘Where the hell they gonna go?’ sneered the second. ‘Only way out is through us.’
It wasn’t hard to figure out what was coming next. Charity let her lashes drift almost closed. Sure enough feet thudded up the steps and over to her, accompanied by the stench of body odour. ‘Bitches are out, they ain’t going anywhere.’
‘You sure?’
It took everything she had not to brace for the kick that landed in her stomach. Instead, she doubled over the foot with a stifled groan, mentally ripping him a new one.
Clueless motherfucker spat, ‘See? Out.’
‘Fine,’ the first one snivelled. Then the two idiots clomped down the stairs. She waited until they started a conversation with the others downstairs before whispering, ‘Echo?’
‘What?’
Hearing the snap of Echo’s temper reassured Charity. ‘You up to fighting?’
‘There’s like two of them, maybe more, and I’m beat to shit if you haven’t noticed.’
So was she, but it wouldn’t stop her from getting to Ruin. ‘Doesn’t matter. They just sent one out to run sentry. If we do this right, they won’t catch on until it’s too late.’
‘I’m going to regret this,’ Echo muttered, but she turned over to face Charity. ‘Now what?’
Doing a quick inventory of Echo’s battered body, she sent up a fervent ‘thank you’ when she noticed Echo’s swollen hands were bound in front of her.
‘I need you to get the blade out of my boot so we can cut these damn ropes.’
Echo’s bruised eyes drifted down Charity’s legs. A glimpse of her normal irreverence appeared. ‘It took getting beaten near death to finally get my hands on your body.’
Catching the fear under the false confidence, Charity didn’t hide her tiny grin. ‘Cheeky bitch.’
Carefully the two shifted their positions until Echo was at Charity’s feet, her fumbling fingers at her pant leg. Seconds ticked by, each one another lost moment.
When a soft, frustrated sob broke, Charity murmured, ‘It’s okay, Echo, deep breath, you can do this.’
Finally, Charity felt her blade slide free. ‘Okay, got it.’ Echo’s voice was a mere whisper.
Charity forced her battered body to turn so Echo could cut the rope binding her hands. The harsh bark of male laughter brought their movements to a stop, neither one daring to breathe until they were certain no-one was coming back in. Charity knew their luck wouldn’t hold much longer. She strained her arms and kept tension on the rope. When the last strand snapped, and blood rushed through reigniting nerve endings, she bit her lip to keep her painful yelp quiet. As soon as she could, she turned back, took the blade from Echo and sawed through her bindings.
With their hands free, they both sat up, their attention focused on the stairs, ears straining to catch what was happening below.
Echo leant in and rasped, ‘Now what?’
‘Now we get our clueless duo back up here. Maybe draw the others out while we’re at it.’
Echo looked at her. ‘How do you plan to do that?’
‘Give them every man’s fantasy.’
Her answer left Echo blinking. ‘Honey, I’m really not in the mood.’
Charity snorted. ‘Not that, a cat fight.’
Understanding lit Echo’s eyes. ‘Got it.’
And with that, they rose stiffly to their feet. Charity shook out her arms, the hand crushed under the boot was slow to respond, but it worked. The world dipped, then steadied. Her chest ached like a bitch, but overall she could work with it. She waited until Echo did her own inventory and gave her a nod.
Dragging in air, she yelled, ‘You stupid bitch! I’ll gut you for giving us up!’
‘Giving you up?’ Echo screamed back. ‘You still fucking owe me for the information. I’m not willing to die for you and your bastard boyfriend.’
A shout from outside drifted upstairs, soon followed by pounding feet rushing inside on the bottom floor. One of the guards shouted, ‘What the fuck is going on up there?’
Ignoring the demands from below, Charity kept on. ‘That bastard will hang your ass high.’
‘He doesn’t stand a chance against River Man. Besides, it’ll be hard to do from the grave, you dimwitted twit.’
Their screaming match drew the footsteps up the stairs. Since she had their only weapon, Charity motioned Echo back to the side, took a position at the top of the stairs, and dropped into a crouch. The first guard hit the top few steps. She closed in, using her blade to slice her way up the torso before she shoved her shoulder into his gut, sending him barrelling back. The one behind him got his hands up fast enough to stop being shoved backwards, but it didn’t help the one Charity sliced. The instinctive move shoved the wounded guard off the stairs and careening to the floor below. His scream ended in a dull thud.
Was that the only word these idiots knew? Charity bared her teeth and let the second guard advance to the floor. Like the stairs, there was no railing at the edge of the cutaway floor. She just needed to make sure he took the express exit. As he moved in, she wasn’t surprised to find another chain wielding asswipe right behind him. Good, one less to hunt down later.
First, she needed to take the guard who wanted to play out of the equation. She backed up, aiming towards the centre of the room. Thinking he was getting the advantage, the man grinned, his intent to hurt clear in his expression. Except Charity had other plans for him.
The ring of heavy links hitting the floor echoed through the space. The clamour grew as Chain Man prepared his metal whip, dragging the links across the floor as he watched. Both men were focused on Charity, and seemed to have forgotten Echo. Thankfully it wasn’t taking much to keep the guard between her and Chain Man. The hardest part of this was right about … now.
Guard guy rushed her. Instead of going low, Charity held her position until the last minute, keeping her blade low and hidden. He closed in. She slipped under his outstretched arm and spun away. Staying close to his side, she used her knife to open a wicked line across his stomach and along his side. Blocking his wild hit with her free hand, she trapped his wrist and jerked back. His spine arched. With a quick reverse, she slammed the blade into his kidney and then yanked the knife free. Bracing her back against his, she lifted her feet as she rolled out of the way of the snapping chain. Instead of curling around her legs, it hit the injured moron, wrapped around and sent him slamming face down on the floor.
Charity landed in a crouch and gave a fierce grin to Chain Man desperately trying to free his tangled length of metal. Seeing it, he dropped his weapon and charged her with a bellow. If he closed in on her, she was in trouble. She danced back coming perilously close to the floor’s edge. Intent on her, he never saw Echo. She slammed into his back with a shrill scream. Charity threw herself to the side as the big man lost his balance. Echo slid down his back, her hands clawing at his legs. He kicked but missed Echo’s head by a hair. The movement was enough to send him over the edge.
When his body hit the ground the entire structure shook. Echo remained on all fours, her shoulders heaving. Charity rolled over and looked down. The guard lay face down in a widening pool of blood. Chain Man managed to twist mid-fall and landed on his back. If his spine survived the impact, the unnatural angle of his leg would help keep him in place. She needed to make sure he was breathing since she had some questions to ask.
Gathering her quickly waning strength, she shoved to her feet and stumbled towards the stairs.
Echo lifted her head. ‘Where you going?’
‘Got to find out where Ruin is.’ She braced a hand against the wall. No sense in tempting fate and repeating the previous exits. She got halfway down when Echo started to follow her. When Charity’s feet hit the bottom floor, she blew out a relieved breath. She made her way to the crumpled heap, part of her thrilled to see the massive chest rise and fall. One thick arm was caught behind his back, and based on the angle, no doubt ripped from the socket. A wispy groan escaped and the lashes fluttered up. When the other arm flopped around, she brought her boot down on his wrist, pinning it to the ground. Fear seeped through the pain and his mouth opened as he continued to twist.
‘Uh-huh, think again.’ Keeping her foot in place, she sank into a crouch and laid her knife against his throat. ‘Don’t.’
His gaze flicked to Echo, then back to her. Under her foot his hand flexed, but not with the strength that should be there. Panic widened his eyes and whimpers starting falling from his mouth.
‘Yeah, you took quite a little tumble there.’ Keeping her blade in place, she turned her attention to Echo. ‘Echo, need you to head to the Guardian Lodge with a message.’
Echo looked to the door and then back to her. ‘Did you forget about the sentry?’
Charity shook her head. ‘You telling me you can’t slip by one measly little shit for brains?’
Echo waved a hand over her battered body. ‘Normally, piece of cake. Like this?’
Feeling minutes slip by, minutes she didn’t know where Ruin was or what was happening to him, her patience died a quick death. ‘Do it, Echo.’
The icy command had Echo checking her attitude. ‘Fine. What message?’
‘Guard there, named Kayvao, knows Ruin. Tell him he’s got Vultures incoming. Then you stick around and wait for those Vultures to land and bring them back here.’
Echo narrowed her eyes. ‘You’ll owe me.’
Charity held her resentful gaze with lethal certainty. ‘No, you owe me.’
Echo swallowed, her gaze skittering away and then coming back. ‘When this is done, we’re even.’
Charity studied her and considered. Finally, she nodded. With that, Echo made tracks and slipped out the door, leaving Charity with her very own chew toy. Time was tight, but not so tight for getting answers. Turning back to the man spread out before her, she looked down and let the ruthless ‘Hound free. He paled as she smiled. ‘Playtime.’