Page 29 of Harmless
Santos tightened his grip on his machetes. “What should we do?”
“Find Rori,” I decided. “If only one person makes it out of here, it has to be her.”
The fighter gave a solemn nod, and we headed for the door together, only to be met by Tezca, his jaguar, on the other side.
Follow.
If the disembodied voice running over my brain wasn’t enough, my feet trailed after the big cat like they were puppeteered by him.
“Here, you go.” I pushed Santos in front of me so I could guard his back. From what he’d told me of the jaguar’s kill streak, I figured the teeth and claws provided adequate cover in the front.
Tezca let us through all kinds of doorways and corridors, some of which were as pitch black as the cell Santos and I had been in together.
“Did you know all this was here?” I asked him as we made our way through a particularly twisty tunnel.
“None. I was only allowed in the pit, my sleeping room, and the chow hall.” He paused. “And the sex room, I guess.”
The tunnel stopped short, and the black jaguar sat on his haunches in front of a door. On the other side, we could hear shouts and commotion. And…was that Rori’s voice?
“Let me open it.” I slid past Santos and felt for a knob. When the door pushed open, it reminded me of when they’d shine bright lights into the prison cell to blind us. Spotlights were now positioned at the top of the canyon, shining down on the open area below.
“Torr?”
I looked to my left to see Rori, Carter, and a cluster of gladiators and service staff pressed against the wall.
“Oh, thank fuck.”
“Oh, thank fuck.”
We didn’t laugh about speaking in unison, just wrapped each other in a tight embrace. “Santos and Tezca are here too.”
“Have you seen Devin? The Ghost?” Santos scanned the faces of those pressed against the wall, shielded from the guns looming above. His jaw clenched tight when he didn’t see his friend.
“I’m sorry, I haven’t.” Rori looked at him with a mix of determination and sympathy. “We’ll find him, though.”
“Maybe in an afterlife,” Carter muttered. A barrage of shots came down from below, kicking up dirt and gravel while everyone pressed against the wall tried to make themselves flatter. “Because I don’t see how we’re getting out of here like this.”
“They have to come down here at some point,” Rori said.
“Do they?” Carter challenged. “And even if they do, can we wait them out? Because they can run for supplies whenever they want.”
Santos pointed across the canyon. “Hey, is that—”
“Don’t expose your arm!” Rori slapped his hand down against his thigh. “I did the same thing and almost lost my hand. Those assholes are actually decent shots.”
The guy jerked his chin instead. “Is that the Hunter?”
“Yeah, and Paige.” Rori’s mouth tightened. “We had them go ahead of us just before the gunfire started coming down. They’re trapped out there.”
The couple were huddled together under a picnic table in a clearing smack in the middle of the canyon. Craters littered the table’s surface, hundreds of small indents made from gunfire. For once, I was thankful to the resort for having top-of-line, cream-of-the-crop quality everything. Who knew a damn picnic table would be bulletproof?
“She keeps trying to run out there.” Carter shot Rori an annoyed look.
“I can’t just leave them!” she cried.
“He’s right,” I said. “We can’t have you filled with bullet holes either.”
“Fuck.” Santos rubbed his mouth, his eyes narrowed on that table. “It’s only a matter of time before a round makes it through.”
