Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

48

THERON

SIXTEEN MONTHS CAPTIVE

The weeks turned into months and Nyx slowly came back to us. A week before the next game, he’d pulled me aside and told me what Vetticus had done to him. By the time he was done, he had to physically grab me to stop me from attacking the guards who had just dropped off dinner. I had every intention of storming that god forsaken mansion and beating Vetticus to death.

“Hey, whoa, T—stop,”

he’d said. “I told you all this because you told me not to hide. I know how dangerous someone who isn’t all mentally there is out in the field and I refuse to be the liability because my mind isn’t clear.”

I’d grabbed him by the shoulder and watched his shadows rise to meet mine. “I am going to get us out of this and then we will spend however long it takes getting our revenge.”

The sneer on Nyx’s lips and the dangerous glint in his eyes made my words all the more potent.

“I like the sound of that, boss.”

Now, I stood staring at the double doors about to step foot into another game and the stakes were higher than ever. I could feel Nyx’s nervous energy vibrating next to me but when I looked over at him, he was focused. The doors opened, and we stepped out into the awaiting arena. I immediately went to stare at the map on the wall. Atlas passed me a comms unit while I studied the crude drawing.

“This is going to be a close quarters game,” I said.

Nearly the entire map was a low-lying forest area with a few platforms concealed in trees. There was a large stream that ran diagonally through the map and a cluster of buildings scattered here and there. A road wound through the trees with no visible destination.

“What’s the play?”

One of the newbies asked.

I’d stopped trying to remember their names. Two of them looked young, but the other was eyeing me critically. He was older than me, maybe in his forties, bald, with a gruesome scar cutting through his eye and across the side of his mouth, drawing it down into a perpetual frown.

“First priority is always fire power and ammo,”

I said. “You three take up the rear guard. Target will most likely be in one of these platforms. No heroics—we work together—we all get back alive.”

The two young soldiers nodded but I could see the fire in their eyes for adventure and blood and knew we probably wouldn’t be coming back with them in tow. The other one I wasn’t sure about. He looked like he’d seen some shit and possibly had potential to not be an idiot.

I led the way quickly through the forest and we picked up a few .45s, a sniper rifle and an AR. Once we’d finally outfitted everyone with firepower, we’d made it deep into the map and were coming up on the first platform. When it came into view, I had the team spread out and drop behind cover.

“You and you—”

I said, pointing to the kids. “Up top.”

They eagerly jumped up and hurried to the ladder built into the trunk of the tree.

“Ammo cache,”

one reported over comms.

“Load up,” I said.

They returned to the ground, and we distributed the ammo then continued on. When we got to the second tree house, the kids went up again.

“There’s a cage, but it’s empty,”

one of them said.

I motioned for the group to hold and climbed up into the perch. I walked over to the cage and noticed a set of bloody handcuffs, a piece of duct tape and a blindfold sitting nearby.

“Did someone take her already?”

I’d already briefed them about how the target was a woman. Apparently, Vetticus found it amusing not to tell anyone what we were hunting for. Shock value for the viewers no doubt.

“No—the lock is picked, not shot.”

I pulled a strand of red hair sitting on the cage door. The target was Red again from the looks of it. I looked around the ground and saw a few drops of blood leading back to the door.

“Come on,” I said.

I dropped to the ground and looked around the base.

“Our target is on foot this time,” I said.

“She escaped?”

Preacher asked.

“Appears so.”

“She went that way,”

the scarred man said.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Kane.”

“Are you a tracker?”

“Something like that,” he said.

He wasn’t paying attention to me but looking through the foliage at the trail Red had left.

Before anyone else could comment, he walked off. “This way.”

Preacher looked at me but I motioned for us to follow Kane and we headed after him. We formed up around him and headed deeper into the map. A few minutes later we heard the first sounds of gunfire but it didn’t sound close. We crossed the stream, and it took Kane a moment to find where the trail picked up again. The woman had followed the water for a bit. We saw a building through the trees and Kane paused and motioned for us to hold.

“You three check out the building. We’ll do a perimeter sweep,”

I said. “Meet back here.”

Once they ran off, Preacher looked at me.

“Do you think she’s in there?”

“No—she got free herself, knew to follow the stream to hide her trail—she’s too smart to use the buildings as cover. She knows that’s where the teams will think she is being caged.”

I led the men through the trees to sweep wide around the building. We spread out a few yards apart, looking for any signs of her. I saw a flash of red hair then bullets tore into the trees near us, making us dive for cover. I strained to see the shooters and instead saw Red make a run for it away from the building and back towards the stream. I jumped up and sprinted to cut her off.

We both heard the voices and dropped for cover. I saw a small team of three walking through the trees straight towards Red’s hiding place. I pulled a grenade and threw it in the opposite direction. When it went off, Red shot off, but I reached out an arm and snagged her as she ran by, wrapping a hand around her mouth to cut off her yelp of surprise.

“Quiet—”

I demanded in her ear, pulling her hard against me as I shoved my back into a tree.

She went limp in my arms when she heard the voices of the enemy walking nearby. As soon as they were out of earshot, I let go of her mouth. She whirled around, fire in her eyes but it dimmed slightly when she saw it was me. I pulled Red into a crouch with me and looked around at the trees before looking her over.

“Target acquired,”

I said, keeping a firm grip on her upper arm. “About a hundred yards from the structure—near the stream—”

“Following the stream was a good call,”

I said to her. “But next time, make sure your wrists aren’t dripping blood everywhere.”

She held up her wrists and cursed quietly.

“Why’d you escape the cage?”

“I’m not going back to Kai’s group,”

she said bitterly. “I can’t risk them finding me first.”

“T—coming up on your location,” Nyx said.

“Hey, Red,”

Nyx said, as soon as they appeared through the trees. Kane and the two kids had rejoined us and were eyeing the naked woman with varying degrees of interest and surprise.

“You know her?”

Kane asked.

“She’s been the target in the last couple games,”

Nyx said. “Gave me this to remember her by.”

He pointed to the healed wound on his neck. Her mouth thinned, but she didn’t say anything.

“Alright, it looks like we’re going to be heading into the action…”

I sent Kane and the kid up front. I gave Red to Preacher, and Nyx, Atlas and I took up the rear.

We were spread out when all of a sudden one of the kids went down with a cry that was abruptly cut off as he disappeared from view. Nyx and Atlas approached the edge of the pit.

“Looks like an old hunting pit—or Vetticus decided to add in some surprises,”

Preacher said.

Nyx peered over the edge. “He’s gone.”

Kane was careful of where he led us after that. We’d only gone a few more yards when I glimpsed movement through the trees.

“Contact—”

Kane shouted.

A grenade exploded nearby, cutting him off and sending us all diving for cover. I dove against a tree and braced for the attack I knew was next. The first two men reached us. Nyx and I took them out quickly. I dodged away to avoid getting shot in the head from his partner behind him. I slammed the man into a nearby tree where I hit his hand repeatedly until he dropped his pistol.

He pushed me off, only to come at me with a knife in his hand. I knocked away his quick attack, sacrificing a hit to my ribs to avoid the blade. We clashed again and fire blazed across my chest as he slashed at me before I could block.

Another hit and the knife dug into my side.

With a grunt of pain, I went down on one knee. He yanked the knife out and came at me again, hoping to finish me but I lunged up with a growl and tackled him into the bushes. We crashed through the underbrush and rolled down a slope. He was on top of me as we plunged into the creek.

We’d both lost our guns at this point. All I had was a knife in my boot that I couldn’t reach. He punched me in the face and I inhaled water before I hit him several times. I shoved him off me and scrambled to my knees in the shallows. We both saw the gun on the bank at the same time and lunged for it.

I grabbed his leg and yanked him back into the water. He came up with a rock and tried to take my knee out with it as I passed him. I slipped avoiding it and he went for the gun again.

He came up with it, turned and pulled the trigger.

There were only feet between us and I couldn’t stop in time. The gunshot was deafening and made my ears ring. The only thing that saved me from certain death was at the last second I twisted away, and the bullet cut deeply into my bicep as it grazed me. My momentum took us back into the water as I collided with him.

I heard the gun go off again near my head as we fell.

We thrashed in the water, each attempting to gain the upper hand. He dug his fingers into my side and I folded to my knees where he quickly shoved me onto my back and leveled the gun at my face. There was no way I could move in time and everything slowed as I watched him squeeze the trigger.

The gun clicked. Empty.

I didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief. He growled a curse and clubbed me across the face with the gun before tossing it away and shoved my head under the water, holding me there with his hands around my neck. I struggled in an attempt to get him off but my hips were wedged between two larger rocks and I couldn’t get purchase with him sitting on my chest.

My hands closed around a rock and I slashed it across his face, which eased his grip enough for me to break the surface for air. He recovered and shoved me down again. Black started to crowd my vision, and I inhaled a bit of water, making me sputter.

I wasn’t going to go out like this though—on my back in this fucking hellhole. I reached down, fumbling for the knife I’d seen in the man’s boot sheath. Just when I thought I was going to black out, my fingers closed around the hilt.

I yanked it out and blindly stabbed up into his chest under his ribs. I knew I’d missed his heart, so I pulled it out and stabbed him again. He pulled away, and I exploded to the surface.

I didn’t bother with trying to catch my breath. Wheezing and sputtering water, I watched the man crawl towards the shore, blood tinting the water red. I lunged for him, shoving his face into the mud. I straddled his back, grabbed the knife I had in my boot and jammed it with excessive force into the back of his neck.

His body went limp under me and I retched up water. Each cough and gasp of breath was a stab to my chest. I heard static in my ear and yanked out my comms, realizing it was useless now.

I climbed off the body and knelt in the sand on the bank, taking deep breaths to steady my adrenaline and to get my brain to think straight again. My hand went to my side where blood was pouring from the knife wound. My vest was restricting, and I tore it off, tossing it aside so I could breathe easier. My shirt was next, and I looked down at the stab wound.

It seemed deep, and I quickly ripped my shirt and did a quick bandage to slow the bleeding. I used the rest to awkwardly wrap my arm, gripping the fabric in my teeth to tighten the knot.

Shirtless and in only a pair of standard camo pants and boots, I headed up the bank, pausing carefully at the top. The gunfire was off further in the trees and there wasn’t any movement around me so I stood up and did a quick recon of the area. Bodies littered the ground, most of them were the enemy but I came upon the other kid on our team, a bullet through his neck.

I knelt next to him and gently extracted his comms unit and weapons. There were only a few rounds left in the current clip and after looking around the area, I only found one full clip leaving me frustratingly low on ammo. None of the handguns left at the scene had any rounds left in them so I didn’t bother. I shoved my knife back in my boot and put the comms unit in my ear.

Chatter instantly assaulted me from my team and I stumbled to my feet with a growl of pain as I clutched my side. I wiped the rest of the water from my face and took off carefully through the trees.