Page 46 of Clay

“He uncuffed me and ticketed her for filing a false police report. It was awesome.”

She chuckled and Clay joined her. He leaned his head back against the rock wall. What was happening further in the mine? Was Cali all right?

Then he stiffened, looked down at his foot. Something was happening. He could feel—movement?—beneath the skin, like a thousand ants crawling. And the pain was gone. Completely gone. Did it look straighter, more aligned than when he’d pulled it out of the hole? He must be hallucinating, or the NVG light was making him see things, because his ankle seemed to be repairing itself before his very eyes.

“What’s wrong? You got all quiet and tense,” she asked, concern in her voice.

“I don’t know, something’s going on with my foot and ankle,” he replied, then went still as he heard a scrape coming from further in the mine. Cali returning, or Hamilton circling back? Or another player altogether?

“Someone’s coming,” he said. “Get between me and the wall.”

She did so with minimal noise and no argument, and he trained his weapon on the darkness beyond.

Chapter Twelve

Ivy held her breath. She’d heard the sound as well, and her heart thumped so loudly in her chest she thought for sure Clay could hear it.

She hated this, hated being completely blind. It helped that Clay could see, that he was so cool under pressure. But the pain he was in had to be astronomical. He’d reinjured his foot, and even if she couldn’t see it, she’d heard the agony in his voice.

The seconds seemed to stretch into hours before a voice cut through the stygian darkness.

“Well, looks like we’ve got quite the stalemate here, don’t we?”

It was Hamilton.

“Not from where I’m sitting. You don’t have your hacker friends to distract my team,” Clay responded, his voice like a glacier.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Hamilton sounded truly confused and Ivy knew Dev had been right about Hamilton's level of computer expertise. Or lack thereof. It didn't help in the here and now, though.

“Never mind,” Clay said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m between you and the entrance, and I’m armed and can see you as soon as you come around the corner.”

“Ditto,” said the disembodied voice. “But I’m not fucked up.” He sounded almost jolly now. “So I think I’ll shoot you and take your little girlfriend hostage again, just like before. Except now they’ll have the chopper inbound.”

Where had Cali gone? Had he killed her? Fear soured Ivy’s stomach as she tried to think of something, anything she could do to help. But she was, quite literally, in the dark.

There was really only one thing… “Do you need me to distract him?” she whispered, so low it was almost inaudible. But Clay heard her. She felt his nod.

“Think again, asshole,” she said, her voice so loud it echoed off the walls. “You surprised me once. You won’t again.” She moved away from Clay, widening the distance between them so Hamilton had to split his attention, even with his night vision goggles.

She felt Clay moving incrementally in the other direction.

“The things I’m going to do to that mouth,” Hamilton said, his voice so slimy she fought a shudder. “Here’s the thing honey, the zoomie is down for the count and we both know it. He can see me, and he can try to shoot me, but he’s not getting up off the ground. I saw him go down before his fucking partner flushed me out. I heard the bones snapping. He’s in so much pain right now his aim is going to be for shit. Come with me willingly and I won’t put a bullet in his brain.”

God, he was completely logical, and likely right. But she knew he was lying. He’d kill Clay the second he had a chance, just like he’d probably killed Cali.

“I was a Marine, back in the day,” he said his voice still full of so much ick it made her skin crawl. “The flyboy may have seencombat, but nothing like I’m trained for. So come along, girlie, and make this easy on all of us.”

Clay was quiet through his speech, and Ivy wondered if he thought she’d actually do it.

“Fat fucking chance,” she replied, and inched further to the right, closer to what she hoped was safety for her and enough space for Clay to work.

Hamilton laughed at her reply, and then the cave echoed with a cacophony of noise that deafened her. She curled into a ball and closed her eyes, ready to lash out if Hamilton touched her. She’d go down fighting, dammit.

The gunfire ceased, though her ears rang with the aftershocks of it. Then Hamilton’s laugh cut through the ringing.

“You’re a shit shot, zoomie.”

Clay still said nothing, and now they’d moved far enough away from each other that she couldn’t feel him. Was he even still alive?

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