Chuckling, I snatched the last screw while balancing the tabletop with my hand. “Well, that sounds like a fantastic offer.”
I moved fast, sliding out of the booth and whipping the screws at the man in the door while dragging the table top up, protecting myself as the man a few booths down pulled his weapon and shot at me.
All the bullets pierced the aluminum tabletop, one missing me by just a scant inch. I was too fucking tired for this shit. Charging forward, I rammed the table into the man, knocking him to the ground, but the aisle was too narrow for me to smash him into the floor with the table.
Spinning it vertically, I rammed the edge of the table into his stomach first, catching his hand in the process and breaking it. He screamed as bones shattered, and I lifted the table for another devastating blow.
But before I could bring the table down on his face, I was attacked from behind. Rope pulled against my neck and I was yanked back, flush against the second man. Choking, I had no choice but to release the table and dig my fingers under the rope burning against my skin as it moved and scraped my flesh.
“Where is she?” he hissed in my ear.
I gasped, struggling for air as this fucker cut off my oxygen. Ramming my elbow back, I landed a solid blow, but it wasn’tenough to get him to back off. Bracing my foot against the booth, I shoved backward, knocking him against the wall of the diner car. He jolted just enough that I wiggled my fingers under the rope and tore it forward. I rammed my elbow into his stomach hard, this time gaining the upper hand and spinning to land a solid fist to his face before I was attacked for a second time from behind.
A hit to my kidneys had me dropping to my knees. Rolling my eyes, I ducked just as I felt a whoosh of air by my head. I spotted a fork on the ground under the counter and snatched it, then turned and rammed it upward, right into the fucker’s eye.
Screaming, he backed away, yanking the fork out of his face. His eyeball came out, along with the muscles still attached. Tripping over the tabletop on the ground, he fell to his back, the fork stabbing his eyeball back in place for the second time.
I jumped to my feet and grabbed the glass on the counter, smashing it against the second attacker’s face, but it didn’t break. “Fucking plastic!”
I smashed it over his head again and again until he fell to the ground. Breathing hard, I leaned against the stool by the counter, wincing at the roughness in my throat.
“Fucking prick,” I muttered.
The man rolled over, pulling an oval object from his pocket.
“Really?” I shouted, turning and jumping over the booth, throwing myself as far from the man as possible. I dove under the table just as I heard the rattle of the grenade bouncing around the diner, and the subsequent explosion that sent shocks through my body and clanked around my head a few times.
Coughing at the dust lingering in the air, I climbed out from under the now mangled table, waving away the debris. No one moved, not even the woman who was once behind the counter, but now laid slumped over the top with a bubble of gum poppedover her face as blood dripped down her wide eyes that stared sightlessly in the distance.
I stumbled over the debris, climbing over body parts as I fought my way to the door. I could have just walked out the gigantic hole in the side, but somehow, taking the door seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do.
Once out in the cool air, I glanced back at the diner as a single bulb buzzed on the busted sign. It swung precariously in the air before crashing to the ground just in front of the diner.
Turning with a sigh, I hobbled away from the diner, back across the street to my motel. Staying there tonight was out of the question.
And deep down, I was grateful for that.
There were bound to be bedbugs in that mattress.
6
KRISTA
Startingthe dryer in the guest house, I moved on to the final task of the day—washing the floors. I really despised the task, especially when I was already feeling like shit. Whatever had knocked me out and left me basically with amnesia for a whole day had also done a number on my stomach.
The lingering effects of my missing days were wreaking havoc on every molecule in my body. It couldn’t have been alcohol. I had never in my life drunk so much that I woke up not remembering a single thing. And that was surprising, considering the number of times I had drunk myself under the table.
“Krissy!” Jeff called out, slamming the door in the other room.
He only called me that when he really needed something, when he thought he could butter me up for whatever massive request he was gonna throw my way. Well, I wasn’t having it today. I wasn’t in the mood for whatever he had up his sleeve.
I rounded the corner of the laundry room and headed through the kitchen to the open living room where he stood, looking around as if he could find me under a table or a coaster.
“What do you want?”
His lips spread in a wide smile as he took a few long strides to reach me. “My favorite sister?—”
“No,” I said just as he spread his arms wide to wrap me in a hug.