“What do you mean?” I looked down at her jean clad legs in confusion and then felt along them with my hands. I didn’t need to search for the answer very long. Halfway up both shins, my hands ran across the reason for her claim. They were no longer straight bones, but each had an unnatural angle. They’d been broken intentionally, in the same place and the exact same way.
I forced my lips together to keep from crying out at what they’d done to her. I shouldn’t have been shocked but was anyway. Who knew what else they’d put her through? Pity was what I felt, but I couldn’t let it show. Pity could be a death sentence, right now.
Another crash against the door jarred me back into the immediacy of the moment. I leaned over to see what the status of the lobby doors were. There were five people, two women and three men, trying desperately to get in, and it wasn’t to seek shelter. They seemed crazed.
Crawling underneath the counter, I dragged Kitty to the cramped place beside me. “There are people that are going to break in at any moment. We need to stay quiet.”
Once they passed, I’d get us out. I needed to get to the next block over. We had a contingency plan; if anything went wrong, we’d meet at a small diner there. I just hoped if we made it, the others would too.
Glass shattering on the marble proceeded feet trampling in, as three sets ran past and two ran right towards us.
I held a finger over my lips to Kitty, who nodded. A knife in hand, I was prepared to fight our way out of here, if necessary.
Two pairs of feet came to stand in front of us. When they paused, I had no choice but to jump out. I couldn’t wait until they found us. With so little maneuvering room, we’d be sitting ducks.
It was two of the men, and they appeared even crazier up close. They both lunged at me at the same time. I didn’t think they even knew what they were doing, but if it came to them or me, I wasn’t planning on waiting until the bloodlust left their eyes to ask if they’d had a bad day.
It wasn’t just me, either. The idea of what Kitty had been through enraged me, and I wasn’t letting her die now, after all she’d been through. I used the rage I felt for her—for what they’d done to me—to make short work of the two threats. I lashed out at the one on my right, slicing his stomach open, and spun immediately to my left, opening up the other man’s neck.
I turned back to Kitty. The woman who’d just been traumatized by monsters was looking at me like I was the scary one.
“Kitty, I had to kill them. I couldn’t take the chance of not getting you out of here. If you’d seen their eyes, it was us or them.” Standing in a puddle of my victims’ blood as I spoke wasn’t any great help toward calming her down. Everything I said was true, though. There had been something deadly when I’d met their stare.
“We’ve got to go,” I continued, too nervous to reach for her yet.
When she reached out a hand to me, I choked up but tried to hide it. She was going to be okay. If I could get us out of here, she’d be the Kitty I knew again, one day.
With my help, she crawled out from under the desk, but she still couldn’t stand. No one had come into the lobby in the last few minutes, but a steady stream of looters and people were passing by the door. It looked like a war zone out there. If they were all like the two I’d just encountered, I’d have to fight our way out of here, and I’d never be able to do it carrying her. I’d have to go alone and get help.
“It might be safer to hide you somewhere and come back.”
“No,” her grip, even as malformed as it was now, was tight on my arm. “Kill me then but don’t leave me here.”
Where Malokin might still be close by. I knew it was what she was thinking, but I didn’t say it either.
“Okay. We’ll go together.” I should’ve probably said die together. It was the epitome of stupid to try and get us both out of here like this, but I couldn’t leave her, either. “Wrap your arms around my neck and—”
“Hey, chickie! Looks like you need a little help.” I heard Bobby and spun around to see the other two Jinxes with him as well.
If I hadn’t been so busy holding up Kitty, I would’ve kissed every little devilish face. “How—”
“We’ve been watching you,” Billy offered. The three of them stood in front of us, skateboards in one hand and guns in the other.
“You’ve been watching me? Why? For how long?” And how did I never notice them there?
“Ever since we saw you with that loser,” Bobby explained, as Billy and Buddy alternated between watching the entrance and taking in the situation inside.
“But why?”
“First we were just nosey, but man you’ve got some interesting shit going on. It’s like your life was made to order for our own amusement.” Bobby’s little blond eyebrows hiked up his forehead. “I mean, that mental breakdown thing you did the other night? Whew, that was a real show. Oscar worthy, is all I can say.”
“Yeah, your life is like our ultimate inspiration,” Billy said. “You’re so jinxed, and we didn’t even touch you. Really, you’re like textbook screwed, these days.”
“Whoa,” Buddy said, from where he’d stopped to stand near Bobby. “Kitty, you look like shit. If this is what retirement looks like, fuck that.”
She was leaning against my back so I couldn’t see her face, but I felt the shudders go through her, shaking her too-thin frame. I started throwing the Jinxes the evil eye, but then I heard her laughter. The sound had me torn between laughing and crying in relief, to hear something other than despair coming from her.
“Come on,” Bobby said. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Buddy, you take Kitty’s legs and…”
When Bobby’s voice trailed off, I looked up to see what was wrong, but it was something right. Fate was walking into the building with his men. Their clothes were black and sooty, like they’d just walked through the fires of hell.
Fate didn’t stop until he was less than a foot from me, his eyes roving every inch of my frame until they settled on mine again. His hand reached out and smoothed a piece of hair away from my forehead, and then dropped quickly, as if he was surprised he’d done it.
“You look okay,” he said.
“I am. What happened?” I asked.
“Malokin bombed half the buildings within a two mile radius, including the one we were in,” Fate explained, as he lifted Kitty from my grasp and handed her to Lars, who was next to him.
I caught a glimpse of Lars’s gloriously long black hair, now partially singed.
Noticing where my attention had gone, he said like the diva I hadn’t known he had in him, “Don’t ask. I’m not ready to talk about it, yet.” Then he bestowed the brightest smile I’d ever seen on Kitty.
“I thought you retired?” Kitty asked, once in Lars’s arms.
I’d forgotten that they might know each other. Lars, Bic, Angus and Cutty had all once been employees. If we got out of here, I was going to have to pick Kitty’s brain. Maybe I’d get to finally find out what they’d done in their previous employment.
“You ready?” Fate asked me.
“To get the hell away from here? You have no idea.” I scanned the lobby, but one face was missing. “Where’s Paddy?”
“When it started going bad, we made him leave, just in case.”
I nodded.
“Everyone ready?” Fate called to the group and received various acknowledgements.
When he moved to the front of the group, preparing to head into the fray, I stepped up beside him. Fate’s hand tugged me backward, pulling me behind him, instead.
“What are you doing?” I pulled my hand out of his grasp and moved forward again.
“I want you to stay behind me, in the center.” His hand darted out to push me backward again.
I jumped out of his reach. “Did you notice the dead bodies? I’m perfectly capable.”
I thought he was going to fight me, but he didn’t even look upset when he said, “Promise to stay by my side?”
“Promise,” I replied quickly, thinking this was too easy. Maybe he was trying to fight his controlling ways.
“Cutty, you’re taking the lead,” Fate said, then looked at me. “Don’t forget, you promised.”
“You tricked me!” The knife in my hand wasn’t going to see much action, buffered on every side as I was.