Page 88 of Till Death Do Us Part

Vera gripped her gun tighter. My stomach turned, seeing the way she looked at the other man—the one on the platform with Glenn, the one who still hadn’t moved a muscle the whole time.

I could never take Quayle in a fight.

The one person who could kill Vera.

Chapter 42

vera

Walked right into the trap. I was getting rusty.

No. I was getting emotional. Never would have cared before. If I got caught like this and died, it would have just been my debt catching up.

But not Elaine.

Never Elaine.

Glenn’s smile was predatory as he stood suspended over us. “I’ll give you to the count of three, Vera,” he said. “At which point—”

“Save your breath,” I said. “I’m never handing her to the likes of you.”

He smiled sadly. “It’s a shame to lose you, Farkas.”

“So you can feel shame after all. I guess I’m always learning something new.” I drew my gun, and in one quick motion, I fired—Glenn ducked, but I wasn’t aiming for him. With a crash, a window shattered outside of the lot, and a vat broke open, a heavy machinery alarm wailing deafeningly through the yard. Glenn grimaced.

“Dammit. Quayle! Kill them all, and be quick about it, before the authorities show!”

Quayle jumped down, landing smoothly in front of the three of us, his eyes fixed on me. If he felt anything about being ordered to kill me, it didn’t show on his face.

But I doubted that man had ever felt a thing in his life.

The crane groaned as it lifted Glenn away, and Elaine stepped back, her hands shaking. Petra and I closed rank to shield her.

“Finally time for you and me to dance, huh, Quayle?” I said.

Quayle spoke for what might have been the first time in months. “Change your mind at any point. Glenn wants her alive if possible.”

“Sure, let’s talk diplomacy,” I snorted. “Let’s put our guns down and be friendly. You first.”

“Vera, Petra, please,” Elaine whispered shakily. “I don’t want to see anything happen to either of you. I can go and talk…”

“Never,” Petra said.

“Not happening,” I agreed, gripping my gun tighter. “It’s two against one. Your move, Quayle.”

“Vera,” Elaine said, but Quayle moved—he fired a shot, and I shoved Elaine back and ducked out of the way, but the shot hit a pipe behind us, an eruption of thick black liquid gushing out over the yard, a plume of heavy gas spilling out over us.

Petra lunged for him, grappling, but he deflected the blow, twisted with her momentum, and threw her to the side, into a pile of boxes that collapsed. I dropped to one knee and took aim, firing a series of shots, but Quayle was faster than belief, and the bullets plinked off the wall behind him—I was getting sluggish. The gas in my lungs.

He was on me in an instant, and with a swift strike, he sent the gun out of my hands and grabbed my wrist, wrenching me off my feet with the cold steel of his gun barrel pressed into my stomach, but I twisted as he fired—not enough to get away, just enough for the bullet to graze off the protective vest under my shirt, a force like a punch to the stomach, and I hit him in the arm, twisting the gun out of his hand. He managed to get off another shot before I disarmed him, and I felt it tear like a knife across my arm, a grazing shot that seared on my skin, but his gun clattered out of his hand, and I kicked it away, into the caustic black flow.

Quayle twisted me around and shoved me back against the wall, and I dropped to the ground just as he swung with a metal hand guard and punched a hole in the wall behind me. Petra lunged at him from behind, but he moved faster, turning around and catching her hand as she swung at him, and with the sick crunch of bones breaking, he twisted her wrist around and threw her to the ground, where she hit hard with an anguished scream.

My head was spinning now, the caustic gas overloading my senses, and I felt like I was moving through water as I flipped a switchblade and attacked. Too slow still—he deflected it, and when I went in for a follow-up attack, he twisted the blade out of my hand and sent it to the floor, throwing me down after it, where I hit hard and rolled, jumping up to my feet.

Dammit. We couldn’t do a thing to him. We had to escape.

“Petra—take Elaine and go!” I shouted, and she grimaced, staggering to her feet.