Page 120 of The Mech Who Loved Me
"By a small freight train by the feel of it," the duke rasped, sitting up andswaying.
"Better that than a Fireboltbullet."
Malloryn pressed tentative fingerprints to a dimple in the back plate of Kincaid's mech-suit. "They're not usingFirebolts."
"Aye," Kincaid panted, as gunfire sparked above them on the walkways that circled the factory. "Not yet." The filtration device under the vat was keeping them safe, but he could feel the metal of the suit pressing uncomfortably against his skin where bullets had impacted. "They're using those new armor-piercers." Designed to send shrapnel through a blue blood’s body so they caused as much damage as possible, clearly the bullets weren't quite strong enough to penetrate sheetmetal.
Or maybe he'd beenlucky.
"You saved my life," Malloryn blurted, and it was the first time Kincaid had ever seen the duke look close toruffled.
Kincaid hauled the duke onto his knees. "I'm going to hold it over your headforevertoo."
There was the duke again, that icy gaze locking on him. "I might just let you, if we get out of thisalive."
Holding his hands out, Malloryn ejected the pistols that were hidden inside his sleeves, and they swiveled into his palms. "Ulbricht'smine."
"That's the sort of thinking that gets people killed," Kincaid pointed out. "This isn't a duel, Your Grace, and we've got ladies in here. If I see him, I'llshoothim."
"Fair call." The duke pressed a pair of fingers to the auditory device in his ear. "Status,please."
Static buzzed in Kincaid's matchingearpiece.
"I've got Ava,"Charlie replied."We're hiding under the filtration device opposite you. There's a gunman pinningusdown."
Pistol fire bloomed above them, then Gemma strode along the mesh walkway, firing dramatically from two pistols. A man in black cried out, then tumbled off the walkway, slamming into the middle of the factory floor."One sniper down,"Gemma said, and then sprinted into the shadows above as return fire pinged off the mesh underherfeet.
"Jack here,"growled the taciturn man."I'mhit."
"Ingrid and I are keeping an eye on him,"Byrnes echoed. "Flesh wound only, but it will keep one of us out of action. He's not a blue blood, and Debney will wring my neck ifhedies."
Kincaid frowned, looking around. "What's thatsound?"
"What sound?" Malloryn murmured, focusing on the rest of thegroup.
What the hell was it? "It's almost like a... aclock—"
"Anytime you want to join my party, Malloryn," Ulbricht called, his voice echoing through the factory. Laughter followed his words. "I'm told the fireworks display is going to be theevent oftheyear."
Fireworks—?
Shit.
"Move!" Malloryn screamed at him, shoving him out intotheopen.
Muscles ached in Kincaid's thighs as he pushed himself into a sprint, following Malloryn. Every secondstretchedout—
—and then a massive roar went up behind him, the force punching him in the back and sending him head over heels. His knees jarred against his mech-suit as he hit the ground, heat searing across his back and something wet splattering all over him. His lungs sucked in dry air. Jaysus. He was frigging boiling insidethesuit.
Malloryn slapped at his back, and some part of Kincaid's mind distantly realized he'd beenonfire.
"Looks like we're even," Malloryn said, dragging him to his feet. "Canyoumove?"
"I'll have to," hecroaked.
There was blood spattered all over the duke's face, and ash darkened his coppery brown hair. Kincaid threw a glance over his shoulder. The vat was gone. Just gone. Smoke and flames boiled out from the ruined filtration device, and blood steamed in patches on thefloor.
"He must have some sort of remote detonator," Malloryn observed. "He's blowing them up, notpoisoningthem."
