Page 25 of Harmless
“Need a gun, Torr?” I pulled my spare from the holster at the small of my back.
“Oh fuck yes, please. Loaded?”
“Yup.”
I fired a shot at one of the nearest guards, catching him square in the chest. His hand came away bloody as he collapsed. “They don’t have vests!” I called out. They must have never expected revolting gladiators to have guns.
Chaos erupted then, fighters running in all directions as they beat their chests and shouted war cries. I headed for a certain fighter wielding a pair of machetes, sidestepping and looking in all directions to make sure I wasn’t a target.
“You really came back.” Santos’ warmth shone clearly through his features, despite looking thin and more than a little haunted with dark shadows under his eyes.
“Told you I would.” I slid one arm around his back, only to get crushed into a full-body embrace against his chest. For a moment, the canyon, the battle, the whole outside world didn’t exist beyond me and him. “You okay?” My gaze scanned over him, immediately zeroing on the dark, wet stain running from his shoulder to his elbow. “That arm doesn’t look good.”
“I got nicked, but it’s not serious.” Santos lifted and swung both machetes, and I noticed his injured arm didn’t raise as high. “At least I got my babies back.”
Like I was just gonna let that stand. I grabbed his good arm and tore off a chunk of his sleeve. With no words, only his amused smile, I wrapped the strip of fabric around the wound at his shoulder and tied it off.
“We have medics with us,” I told him. “We’ll get that taken care of properly as soon as we’re out of here.”
“Look at you, always taking care of me,” he murmured.
I went to touch his face before remembering my fingers were now slick with his blood. “Somebody has to.” As much as I wanted to sink into the warmth and intimacy of this moment, the sight of his injury kept me grounded in reality. Peaceful, tender moments had to wait. “You and Torr both look like you’ve been through it.”
“We were. They kept us in the same cell.” Santos flipped his blade in his hand to caress my cheek with his knuckle. “You could say we’re best buds now.”
I laughed. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah, your man’s alright.”
A four-legged shadow encircled us, Tezca’s golden eyes gleaming as he stalked low to the ground, ready to hunt.
“Well hello, handsome.” I stroked a hand down the jaguar’s velvety back, and Tezca headbutted my hand in reply. “Was he with you?” I asked Santos.
“No. I think he was keeping watch over the Ghost.” Santos nodded ahead to where the tall Asian man fought against the canyon’s guards alongside the Hunter and the man with tattoos near his eyes. “Suppose we should help out.” Santos rolled out his wrists, circling his twin blades in figure-eight patterns.
“The sooner we do, the sooner we can get everyone out of here.”
Santos embraced me again, brushing a quick kiss on my forehead as he released me. “I owe you my life, paloma.”
He was jogging away, Tezca loping at his side, before I recovered from my mental swooning.
Behind you. Northwest side of the arena.
I turned without hesitating at the sound of Astarte’s voice, spotting one of the armed guards with his arm around a woman, holding her in front of him with his electric prod at her temple. The moment I recognized her terrified expression and that long, red braided hair, I sprinted up to that section of seats.
“Let her go!” I demanded, leveling my weapon at the guard’s head.
Paige’s eyes went even wider as she saw me. “Ma’am? Rori?”
“Stop the uprising or she gets 10,000 volts,” the guard hissed, his finger shaking over the trigger of his weapon. “These have been engineered to kill, and I won’t hesitate to use it on her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I remember you.”
“You will! I’ll kill this maid if you don’t stop everything right now.”
“No, you were the one who pointed a gun at me and forced me away from the canyon.”
“Yeah, and I told you not to come back. Now people are going to die, and everyone you love will be enslaved.”
