paused when he heard a gurgle from the man on the floor. Surprised Jimmy was still alive, he turned and looked down.
Jimmy’s eyes were still open, staring up at him. Pleading for help. Roach looked around until he spotted the corkscrew and came back to stand over the dying man. With a smile he bent down and drove the steel into Jimmy’s right eye until his knuckles came to a stop against his face. Still smiling, he stood up and headed for the door to finish his business with Katie.
46
Rachel and Dog dashed past the dead guard to the heavy glass door of the room as John and Zemeck disappeared into the kitchen. Pulling the door open carefully, she waved Dog inside, followed him and quietly closed the door. The six women were all asleep, and even though they all needed to be awakened she rushed to Katie first.
As soon as she touched her shoulder, Katie’s eyes flew open and she turned to sit up.
“It’s OK,” Rachel said. “I’m here with John to get you out.”
Katie’s eyes went wide and shifted to the windows, looking for him.
“Rachel?” She asked when she didn’t see her husband.
“How do you know my name?” Rachel was surprised.
“Roach told me about you,” Katie said. “Said you and my husband were a couple.”
“Don’t believe anything that little shit told you. Here. Present from your husband,” Rachel said in a rush, pressing the pistol John had given her into Katie’s hand. “Help me wake everyone. We’re leaving now.”
Rachel didn’t wait for an answer, dashing to the far side of the room and shaking two of the women awake. Katie was on her feet by now, pistol in her hand as she began waking the others. They quickly had all the women up and ready to move and Rachel went to the door, pausing before she pulled it open.
“No noise,” she said, making sure everyone understood.
Exiting the room Katie was right behind her, Dog moving out ahead of them into the first row of slot machines. Rachel glanced around but John and Zemeck hadn’t come out of the kitchen yet. Where the hell were they? Turning to the front she checked on Dog, then glanced over her shoulder to make sure the women were all still following.
Movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye and Rachel turned her head, expecting to see John. She froze for a heartbeat when she recognized Roach, walking towards her with a weapon in his right hand coming up to target them.
Katie looked to her left when the tall woman paused, her breath catching in her throat. Roach was walking directly towards them, raising a pistol. The woman was trying to bring an M4 rifle around but she could tell Roach had the drop on them and would start firing well before the rifle could come into the fight.
Reaching out, Katie shoved the woman in the middle of her back as she spun to bring her pistol up. Before she could raise the muzzle high enough to fire, Roach pulled the trigger and the small Uzi began spitting bullets. Time slowed and Katie heard two of them zip past her head before something slammed into her chest and she was falling.
Martinez cursed when she heard the burst of automatic weapon’s fire. They’d been found and someone was in trouble. None of them were carrying an unsuppressed full auto weapon so she knew this was someone from the group occupying the casino.
Knowing what she had to do, she flipped the fire selector on her rifle to burst and aimed for the glass wall of the room to the right. Pulling the trigger twice she shifted aim and sent six more rounds into the windows on her left. The bullets shattered the heavy glass that crashed to the floor and left a wide opening into each space.
Dropping the rifle, Martinez picked up the first of four fragmentation grenades she had already lined up on the carpet. Pulling the pin she threw it hard at the right hand room, watching it sail through the opening she’d just created as she reached for the second one.
People in the two rooms were shouting and screaming now, struggling to get out of their sleeping bags. One enterprising soul didn’t bother to do anything other than pick up his rifle and start firing blindly. Martinez ignored the bullets that were sailing wide around her location and threw the second grenade into the left room, quickly following with one more to