it to bash his attackers in the face. When they stumbled back far enough to allow him clear, clean shots, he took them.
Maya stuck close to the shelter of the truck, gun in hand. No one could get close to her without going through Dani, anyway. Dani took every punch with stoic aplomb before lashing out in response. She was a veritable blur as she kicked and whirled, and Nina thought she was only punching the raiders until they started to fall, bleeding and wailing. Only then did she catch the sharp glint of the knives in Dani’s hands.
Rafe favored hand-to-hand, as well, but his style was dirtier. He swept one raider’s feet out from under him, then followed him to the ground, pausing only to activate the laser saw. It whirred to life as Rafe shoved his opponent’s head directly into the deadly beam’s path.
Nina turned away before it made contact.
Knox was at the center of it all, blocking attacks and dodging shots with absent-minded and enviable efficiency. As with her, half of his attention was on the bigger picture, on making sure his people were safe.
He was better at it. While Nina was distracted, watching Knox easily toss aside his attackers, a pair of heavy arms locked around her from behind, lifting her off her feet. Another raider rushed at them, head on, his eyes gleaming with murderous rage. Knox yelled something, and Dani pivoted, but there was nothing either of them could do to reach her.
Time contracted, slowing as Nina’s focus narrowed. There was one mine left that hadn’t been disabled yet, behind and just a little to the left of the man running at her. The one holding her had his face close to hers, close enough for his fetid breath to gust against her cheek. He still had both arms around her, his hands free of weapons.
She could work with that.
The world snapped back into place. Nina lifted her legs and kicked the raider in front of her hard in the chest. He sprawled back, landing on the last active mine, and his body arched as the current surged through it.
At the same time, she slammed her head back against her captor’s face. Bone crunched as his nose shattered, and his arms tightened painfully for a breathless moment.
Then he dropped her.
As she braced herself to hit the asphalt on bent legs instead of her face, Knox passed by in a blur. He crashed into her attacker, carrying the man back with one hand locked around his throat. With a roar, he heaved the man off the ground and flung him at the reinforcements rushing toward them. All three men went down in a tangle of limbs, and Knox finished them off with six precise shots.
“Heads up.” Gray took cover behind the fallen tree. “Their friends are here.”
A personnel truck rumbled around the next bend in the road, headed their way. It barely slowed before men began spilling out of it and firing on their position. Nina dove for cover as well, sliding across the asphalt as bullets whizzed overhead.
“Now aren’t you sad I didn’t bring the C-4?” Dani muttered.
A little, though that rocket launcher Maya had teased her about might have come in handy, too. Nina tried to peek over the log, but the fresh wave of raiders was laying down too much suppressive fire. All she caught was a glimpse of piecemeal armor, better than what the last guys had been equipped with. And these attackers had proper weapons, ones they actually carried like soldiers.
So the first group had all been expendable grunts, cannon fodder, and these raiders were the real deal. Too bad, because it would only take them moments to reach the tree, and then Nina and all her friends would be in a world of trouble. “Ideas?”
Knox ended up on Nina’s other side. He pressed his back to the tree and closed his eyes. “Those are Mark 15s,” he said, his eyes popping open again. “Older military issue. The first models to use biometric access. They’re battery operated.”
“On it.” Conall dragged a heavy duffel toward him and pulled out a squat black gun with copper wire twisted around the barrel. He flipped a switch on the side, turned it on the advancing raiders … and waited.
“Any day now, Con,” Gray muttered.
“The pulse has to charge,” he hissed back.
Oh, none of this was funny anymore. Nina tensed as bullets pinged off the trucks, and the hair on her arms stood on end