The other dregs all nodded their agreement. Logan put an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me against his side. “Be strong,” he whispered in my ear. “As soon as this is over, I will find you and we can be together, okay?”
My chest squeezed. I wanted to be with him so badly. But what if one of us died? What if once we separated, I never saw him again?
My mother, who had been silent so far, spoke up. “I was once a kunoichi. I have not forgotten my training. I will fight beside my daughter.”
Luke nodded at her. “Good. We’re going to need every single one of us if we don’t want to die.”
Ryan and Luke turned from the room. “We’ll get the explosives ready,” Ryan said. “It should take them a while to find their way through the maze. We’ll try to block off the tunnel before they get too close. If we encounter anyone in there, we’ll take them out.”
Noah shoved his chair back and rose from his work station. His gaze locked on Logan’s. “Let’s go.”
My mother and I followed them down the corridor to their “weapons” room, which was an impressive display of various types of guns, ammo, grenades, knives, fancy crossbows, even a rocket launcher. Everyone donned Kevlar vests. My mother snatched up a couple of knives, tucking them into her clothes. Then she gathered up a crossbow. It was almost as large as she was, but she figured it out after Noah gave her quick instructions on how to use it. As a former kunoichi, she was best at hand-to-hand combat, but she had once also been an archer, so the crossbow was a good weapon for her. I gathered up a couple of knives, too. I was not an archer, but I was trained in various types of martial arts. I knew how to throw and thrust knives. I knew exactly where to strike to hurt someone.
Logan handed each of us a handgun. “You’ll need these too, ladies.” He pulled a box of bullets off a shelf and held it out to me. “You’re probably going to need to reload, so take these.”
I accepted the ammo.
Loaded down with weapons and ammo, we all turned from the room. Then they lead us to the back of the workout room where the escape hatch was. Noah pulled on a lever and a fold-out ladder rolled down into the room. “Remember, ladies,” Noah said quietly. “You’re going to have to fight to the death tonight. Take no prisoners.”
My mother and I exchanged a long glance. A sudden wave of fear washed over me. This was serious. All the training my father had forced upon me would be put to the test now. This wasn’t just fighting for my freedom at an unwanted wedding. This was life or death. I would have to kill if I didn’t want to become Malik’s prisoner again.
I drew in a deep breath and nodded at my mother. She smiled gently and nodded back. “Let’s do this, Nishi. I will fight beside you. I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you.”
“And I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you, Mama.”
Logan cleared his throat. “We hope you won’t run into too much resistance out there, because most of them are heading into the maze. As soon as we help Ryan and Luke take care of things in the tunnels, we will hurry above to help you. Your job is to keep them from discovering the escape hatch. Take out anyone who gets too close to the building. Just be careful out there.” Logan pulled me in for a quick hug, then set me away. “If it gets too dangerous, then hurry back down the escape hatch and lock the door. No one will blame you if you run. Sometimes, if you’re outnumbered, it’s better to run and hide. Once we blow up the maze, they won’t be able to get in here from the maze. If something happens to me, Noah and the others will take care of you.”
If something happens to me…
No. I refused to believe something would happen to Logan. He would be fine. Fine.
My mother squeezed Logan’s hand. “Thank you, Logan. I hope to see you again soon.” Logan and Noah left the workout room, heading toward the maze, while my mother and I climbed up the ladder into the mansion above. It opened into a small closet. We crept out, moving quietly through the dark mansion.
A dark, ghostly presence hovered around, invisible, yet still threatening. A chill crept down my spine. Was it real or a figment of my imagination?
I turned to my mother, my gaze seeking hers in the dark. “Yes,” she whispered. “I feel it, too. But it can’t harm us. It’s dead.”
She was right. Dead things were just that—dead. Ignoring the unfriendly ghost, we made our way through the decrepit mansion and out into the forest.
Darkness surrounded us as we stepped out onto the porch. My mother slowly surveyed the area. Mama had experience doing this type of thing. She’d done this before I was born. Twenty-four years might be a long time ago, but I had faith in her. I believed in her. I too had the training, but not the actual experience that she had. Tonight, that was about to change. Tonight, I would become a true shadow warrior. Possibly even an assassin.
You can do this, Nishi.
Silently, we slipped off into the trees, our weapons ready. We stayed close together, pausing every so often to listen and wait. Then Mama lifted her hand and motioned into the trees. I froze as a group of men crept forward, heading toward the mansion. I counted eight of them in all. If they made their way inside the decrepit building and found the escape hatch, they could easily get inside the dregs’ lair.
We have to stop them. We can’t let them inside.
My mother nodded at me. We waited as they grew closer. Closer.
My heart thumped wildly. The blood roared in my ears.
Then we attacked.
Mama shot off arrows. Slam. Slam. Slam.
I threw a knife, hitting a man in his neck. He went down with a grunt.
And we launched ourselves at the ones who didn’t go down. Thwack. Smack. Crunch. Thud.
We fought, and we fought hard. Us against them. Mama was good, even after twenty-four years. She kicked some serious ass. Between the two of us, we knocked their guns aside and took the rest of them out as silently as possible, not wanting to draw attention to ourselves. We didn’t use our guns. Not yet. Though we might need them later. Mama slit the throats of the two men who were still alive, quickly silencing them.
I had just witnessed my mother taking the lives of other people. Bad people. A few years ago, seeing such a thing would not only have shocked me, but probably traumatized me. But not now. Strangely, I didn’t find this disturbing. Instead, I was awed. My mother was amazing. I wanted to be just like her. A true shadow warrior.
This was only the beginning. The night had just begun.
The sounds of our combat hadn’t gone unnoticed. Moments later, more men scurried forward across the dark forest. Mama grabbed my hand and dragged me deeper into the woods with her. We hunkered down behind a tree and waited.
The thugs moved closer. Four of them.
Mama and I leapt out from behind the tree and attacked, one of us on either side, using the knives.
Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab.
The four men dropped. Mama quickly slit the throats of the ones still breathing. Then she looked into my eyes, her gaze searching. Was she checking to make sure I was okay? I nodded, letting her know I was fine.
We wiped the blood from our knives and slipped back behind the trees.
It was at that moment that an explosion rocked the ground beneath us.
The dregs had blown up the maze.
Mama grabbed my hand and we raced back toward the mansion and the escape hatch below.
She came to an abrupt halt, and I slammed into her, gasping as more of Malik’s thugs surrounded us. Six of them this time, their guns trained on us.
Mama and I stood together, back to back, and lifted our own guns. In a shootout, they would probably kill us first. But we would take down as many as we could before we died.
Mama reached back and grabbed my hand. My throat tightened with emotion. I squeezed her hand back. This was it, then. We were about to die.
No! We weren’t supposed to die this way. Shot down by thugs. Mama and I were supposed to have years and years ahead of us.
I don’t want to die yet.
<
br /> Logan. I want to be with Logan.
So much for stealth.
All we could do now was bravely face our death.
Pray that it was quick.
And painless.
A huge, frightening monster stepped forward out of the dark, his eyes gleaming at me.
Malik.
“Don’t kill the girl,” he told his men. “I need Nishi alive.”
I shivered in terror. No! I wasn’t going back with him. I’d rather die!
I lifted my chin, glaring at Malik. “How did you find this place?”
He snickered. “My men told me you were rescued by a red Camaro. So I had my guys here in Eatonton watching for a red Camaro, and when it drove through town, they saw it head into the woods. We came and searched the woods until we found this place.”
I glared at him. This was all my fault. I’d brought danger to Logan’s door.
“Kill me,” I demanded. “Just do it. I would rather die than be with you. You disgust me.”
Malik snickered. “That’s too bad. I’m not going to kill you, little Nishi. That would be no fun. But your mother…” He jerked his gaze toward Mama, sizing her up. “She’s worthless to me.”
He motioned to his men. “Kill her.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Logan
The explosion blasted through the tunnels, shaking the ground all around us. Concrete crumbled and fell, the walls collapsing, the roof caving in. Noah and I shot off several more rounds at the thugs who’d been approaching us, taking them out before they disappeared beneath the rubble.
“Run!” Noah shouted.
We both spun and raced back toward the corridor where our apartments were located. We had no idea where Ryan and Luke were. We hadn’t yet reached them in the maze. I hoped they hadn’t gotten buried in the rubble.
Nishi.
My heart pinched. My biggest fear was for Nishi. We shouldn’t have let her and her mother fight up there alone. What if Malik’s thugs killed them? What if I lost her?
She is a shadow warrior. She is tough. Brave. She can take care of herself.
But she’s so tiny. A mere wisp of a girl. Malik and his thugs can easily overpower her.
“Quickly!” Noah and I barely reached the end of the tunnel before the ceiling collapsed, blocking off the maze behind us. It was several moments before the dust settled. We paused and glanced back at the destruction.
Malik’s thugs certainly weren’t getting past that. Assuming they were still alive in there somewhere.
But what about Ryan and Luke? There were in the maze somewhere. Probably trapped.
Noah and I exchanged a glance. We couldn’t go back the way we’d just come because the tunnel had collapsed. But we could take a different tunnel the other way through the maze and come back around to the intersecting area where Ryan and Luke had gone. We might have to dig through the rubble to find them. But we couldn’t just leave them in there.
What about Nishi and Reena? What if they needed our help?
I was torn. My first loyalty was always to my dreg brothers. But I had Nishi now. I couldn’t just ignore her.
I couldn’t let Ryan and Luke die in the maze. We had to go search for them.
“Let’s take the far tunnel back into the maze,” Noah suggested. “It should have withstood the blast. We can dig through any rubble we encounter and see if we can find Ryan and Luke. If they’re trapped, they will run out of oxygen quickly.”
He was right. We needed to save them first.
Be strong, my Nishi. Be brave. I will come for you soon.
Noah and I took the long way back through the maze. As we neared the intersecting area where Ryan and Luke had been, we encountered piles of fallen concrete and dirt. We immediately began pulling the chunks of concrete out of the way, piece by piece, making a passage way to the area where Ryan and Luke had gone. We worked tirelessly for several minutes, my bullet wounds aching at the strain. We had to save our dreg brothers. There was no other option. A soldier never left one of his own behind. So I plowed onward, ignoring the pain, desperate to find my brothers.
About a fifteen minutes later, we’d made our way about twenty feet past the intersection, passing some of Malik’s dead thugs, when we heard shouts.
“Over here guys!” It was Luke’s voice. “Ryan’s trapped!”
We pulled more chunks of heavy concrete aside, tunneling our way through the rubble, until we finally found them.
Ryan was smashed beneath a pile of concrete, his face white with strain.
Shit.
Noah and I rushed forward, and the three of us shoved and heaved and pulled and finally managed to lift the giant chunk of concrete off Ryan.
“Thanks,” he whispered. “It was mostly my arm that was pinned. I’m going to need a new prosthetic. And I think my elbow has been shattered.”
Together, the three of us gently helped Ryan to his feet. His arm was a bloody mess, his prosthetic hanging on by a thread, and his elbow swollen. He gasped in pain and I could tell he was hurt more than he let on. We slowly maneuvered our way back through the maze toward our living quarters, taking turns helping Ryan along.
“Are there any thugs back there?” Noah asked after several minutes had passed.
“Yeah. They were buried in the rubble,” Luke answered. “They’re not getting out.”
That was good news. Now we just needed to get Ryan to safety so we could check his injuries. Then we could head to the surface to see if Nishi and Reena needed our help.
A few minutes later we reached the corridor where we lived. We helped Ryan into his apartment and onto his bed. Luke and I assessed the injury, removing Ryan’s damaged prosthetic, and cleaning and wrapping the inflamed elbow joint. Ryan would need a new prosthetic, and his arm might need surgery, not that he was able to use the joint anyway without his forearm. But that was a decision he would have to make.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked. “We can take you to the hospital in Eatonton and have an orthopedic surgeon check it out.”
Ryan shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t use the joint anyway. I’ll just have to be fitted for a new prosthetic once my arm heals.”
I pulled some pain meds out of Nate’s medical bag and handed a couple to Ryan. “Thanks,” he murmured, before laying back against the pillow. “Once these kick in, I should be able to help you guys.”
Luke scoffed. “Just stay put, brother. We’ll handle it.” He nodded at Noah and I, and we all left the room.
Several minutes later, we climbed up the escape hatch. Then we headed through the dark mansion, and moments later, we quietly stepped out onto the porch.
An eerie silence surrounded us. Where was Nishi? Where was Reena?
Then sounds of a battle floated across the forest, not more than thirty feet away. Quietly, stealthily, we crept forward.
Malik had Nishi by the throat, and her mother lay unmoving on the ground at their feet, blood pooling around her head. Six guards surrounded them, waiting for Malik’s instructions.
My heart rocked to a screeching halt. He’d killed Reena. Son-of-a-bitch!
He was not taking my Nishi away, too. I would kill him for this.
Malik was going to die tonight.
And I vowed to be the one who killed him.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Nishi
Mama and I lifted our weapons and fired. We were not going down without a fight. Oh no. We fought hard. A bullet from one of Malik’s thugs struck Mama in the arm, knocking her gun from her hand. She raised the crossbow with the other arm and shot off two arrows with her injured arm, wounding one of the thugs and killing another, before one of Malik’s thugs shot her in the neck.
I gasped. My heart stopped.
Mama!
She crumbled to the ground next to me, blood pooling around her. A sob worked its way up my throat.
Noooo! Mama! Noooo!
Malik knocked the gun from my hand, sending it flying into the shrubs. Anger
surged through me. How dare he kill Mama!
Fight, Nishi! You must fight! Kill him!
I yanked a knife from my belt and threw it at Malik. The knife pierced his upper arm, imbedding deep in the muscle. Malik let out a snarl and yanked the knife free, blood dripping down his arm. I launched an attack, kicking and striking, using every move I’d ever been taught.
Smack! Crack! Thwack!
Spin. Thrust.
Bounce back.
Smack! Crack! Thwack!
Malik growled like the beast that he was, tackling me down onto the ground. The breath whooshed out of my lungs when I hit the earth beneath his bulk. I fought and squirmed beneath him, but he was too big. Too strong. He wrapped a thick hand around my throat and lifted me up, yanking me to my feet. I kicked and flailed, smacking his face, gouging his eyes, pummeling his ears, nailing him in the abdomen, then aiming for his groin, but he turned sideways before I could deliver a debilitating blow. It was as if he had no feeling whatsoever. Each strike, punch, hit—no matter how hard I threw it—didn’t seem to faze him at all. He just withstood my assault with a sneer on his face. He was an animal. A beast. A true monster. I hated him.
Mama moaned from the ground, my name gurgling from her lips. “Nishi…”
My breath caught. I stopped struggling and stared down at her, my heart caving in. “Mama?” A sob burst out. I’d failed Mama. I’d failed her.
And now I was about to become Malik’s slave. His whore.
Mama made another gurgling sound, then grew still. No! No, no, no! Not Mama! I had just barely found her. This wasn’t fair. I wasn’t ready to let her go. We were supposed to have more time together.
Mama!
Get up, Mama! Come back to life. Please, don’t leave me! I need you. Please, Mama.
The Trainer (military romantic suspense) (The Dregs Book 5) Page 20