Page 105 of Ricochet

Next room stood empty. Rounding the corner, I touched my ear, bringing back a small splotch of blood.

Fucker.

Another door separated me from whatever hell lay on the other side. I clutched the AK and kicked it in, jumping to the side as gunfire sprayed bullets through the entrance. At its pause, I crouched low, kept tight against the adjacent wall and peeked around the corner. Four men stood with guns aimed at the door. I showered the interior of the room with return fire and slipped just inside.

Two men lay dead. Two more ducked behind rusted metal benches.

I slid behind a large steel cabinet, directed the gun at the men through the scope of my twenty-four, and capped them.

Sticking to my hiding spot, I waited. Three more men, toting rifles, padded into the room from the adjoining hallway.

One. Two. Three. Boom. Down.

I kept on through the maze of empty, abandoned rooms that looked to be empty offices. It was on the first floor of the west side of the building that I heard Lauren’s screams.

Muscles tense, I prepared myself for more fire, but before I could draw my gun, a fist collided with my cheek, knocking my head to the side.

I shook it off and slid the guns from my shoulder to the ground. Stretching my jaw, which damn near felt unhinged, I dodged the next punch, coming back with a shoulder pop, followed by a counterpunch that knocked the asshole’s head back.

On wavering feet, the brutish redhead with a beard to match, maybe six feet tall, stood with his fists up. Dodging two missed punches, I gripped the back of his head and took him to the ground with an upward elbow strike that left his head lolling.

I spat blood on him and continued on toward the sounds I’d heard.

Down a hall, through another door, Christ, did the fucking place ever end? I reached a much wider opening and, slowing my steps, stalked toward the entrance. Inside a break room, with empty vending machines lined against the wall, four males stood around a steel table.

Amid them, a further two took a girl who looked no older than eighteen.

Through the scope, I steadied my hand and systematically took each one of them out before any of them could do more than spin to me in surprise.

Lauren’s screams reached my ears once again, kicking up my adrenaline. The girl the men had been on whimpered as she scrambled for scattered clothes on the floor, and passing her, I headed for a stairwell across the room.

Through another door, the loading dock of the building sat below, where they stored most of the machinery. A balcony connected the two walls of the vast staging area, with a short staircase at either end.

In the center of the room, a large man in an oversized white T-shirt and sagging jeans, stood with his back to me, blocking my view of what lay on the other side of him. Only black curls dangling over the edge of a long wooden workbench, and the familiar sound of her voice, gave any clue that I’d found Lauren.

My lip curled, and I shot a bullet in his ear. One more in his throat for good measure. I made my way down the staircase, and as he dropped, Lauren’s bloodied body came into view.

Gunfire erupted from my right, and I slid the AK forward, taking out the man below the staircase. I leapt the remaining half dozen stairs and tugged the AK across my chest, capping two approaching men in leather vests with biker patches, the pair of them toting guns.

Swinging left then right, gun cocked and ready to fire, I backed myself toward the workbench, kicking the fucker who lay beside it, oozing blood from his ear and throat.

Seconds passed. No one else arrived.

I spun around and lifted my mask. Lauren’s beautiful model-worthy face had been cut to shit, left bruised, swollen and seeping pus. I choked back tears.

“Nick.” A sob thumped her chest as she lifted a trembling hand to my face. “Th-th-ey asked … me.”

“Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart. I came here for you. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

“I’m … sorry.” The breath she sucked rattled behind her ribs. “I know … you said don’t come ‘round … I just … wanted to tell you … I got my letter.” Her lip downturned and tears pooled beneath her head. “I got … accepted … full ride.”

Fuck! Panic twisted in my gut. I couldn’t let her die. Not there. Not like that. Her whole fucking life slipped behind my eyes, and I could see her one day in her graduation gown, accepting honors, because Lauren wouldn’t allow herself to become anything less than the best. “I’m gonna get you out of here. Just hang on.”

“I … I … I have to tell … you something. P-P-Please.”

I could barely see past the tears welling in my eyes, as thoughts of Culling burned holes in my head while my gaze roved Lauren’s mutilated body. The cuts and gaping wounds told me she might not make the ride to the hospital. Seconds ticked inside my head, not knowing what to do. Let her talk, because I might not otherwise hear her last spoken words, or face the possibility that I wouldn’t get far with her in the backseat of my car.

Steeling my muscles, I steadied my trembling hands and blinked away the tears. “You have to hurry, sweetheart. We don’t have time.” My gaze scanned downward and my blood froze. Her abuser had cut her abdomen open, spilling blood onto the floor. “Oh, fuck, Lauren. We have to go now!”