For My Master by Suz deMello Read Free Book Online Page B

her. He flung aside bales of marijuana and knelt. “Okay, I
found it.”
    The way out was a dwarf’s door, some three feet high.
“Kathie, go first.” Ross picked up his shotgun. “Then you two. We’ll have you
covered, so no bullshit, okay?”
    Kathie knelt to slither through the low door and came out in
a muddy area behind the house, shadowed by a clump of palms. The trees swayed
back and forth in front of shifting light, for the wind had come up. She
slipped to the right of the low doorway and waited, using handfuls of mud to
darken her skin, pale in the moonlight, while using her gun hand to cover the
door.
    Using her elbows, Reina dragged herself out of the dark
opening into the mud. She hitched her body into a curl, reaching for her boot,
and came out of her crouch with something in her hand.
    It was thin and shiny…
    Reina threw her blade before Kathie could react.
    The knife hit between Kathie’s breasts. She screamed and her
hand clenched around the handgun. A bullet struck a glancing blow against the
house’s stucco wall. She clutched the knife’s hilt with one hand and continued
to fire with the other.
    Her fourth shot hit Reina, drilling her through the neck.
Blood spurted and Reina’s slave tumbled out of the doorway, screaming as Ross
poked him from behind with the shotgun’s barrel.
    The slave knelt on Reina’s body, sobbing, “Mistress!
Mistress!” He leaped to his feet and launched himself at Kathie. Evading, she
jerked to one side. Ross jumped up and wrapped his elbow around the slave’s
neck in a chokehold.
    Kathie tugged at the knife, which had pierced the horizontal
strap of her leather bra and struck her in the sternum. It hurt, but she’d bet
that it wasn’t bad. Half an inch lower and she would have been in serious
trouble. To stop the bloody flow, she pressed her hand to the cut.
    Ross whacked the slave over the head with the shotgun’s
butt, taking him down. Kathie grabbed Ross and they squeezed each other in a
tight embrace. His breath sounded ragged in her ears. “Are you all right?” He
yanked off his jacket and wrapped it around her shaking body.
    “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”
    “I have to go back in.”
    “Back in? Why?” She clutched his sleeve with desperate
hands.
    “There’s enough explosive in there to blow up L.A. It ends,
here and now. Killing them isn’t enough, remember, Kathie? We have to destroy
the drugs, too.”
    He was right, damn him. “Okay, I’ll take cover at the next
clump of trees.” She pointed. “Meet me there, and don’t be late.”
    * * * * *
    Ross pushed the bodies aside and squirmed back through the
door into the drug lord’s basement.
    Some guys become second-story men, but I ended up in the
cellar. He chuckled.
    “What’s so funny?” Kathie’s whisper was soft, but he’d
respond to it anytime, anywhere.
    “Get going. I’ll tell ya later.” If there is a later. He
told himself that they were almost home free, that this phase of the mission
would be the easiest. Just about everyone in the house was dead, apparently
killed by El Silencio ’s son in a turf war.
    But when Ross straightened to his full height in the
basement, he wasn’t alone.
    In the middle of the room stood an unnaturally skinny young
man juggling four grenades. His eyes glittered and sweat stood out on his
forehead. Reveal decayed teeth, he murmured a tuneless, random song.
    Meth freak , Ross thought. An addict.
    The mad juggler dropped a grenade. When it hit the floor,
Ross heard a ping as the firing pin fell out and clattered on the
concrete. He dived headfirst for the escape hatch, counting. Two…three…four…five…
    And he was out in the cool night air, screaming Kathie’s
name, chasing her as she sprinted for the nearest clump of trees. An explosion
shook the ground and fire spurted from the doorway. He tumbled her onto the
soft grass, using his body to protect her from the next explosion, bigger even
than the first. When the ground stopped quaking he