Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run #4)(76)
Author: Abigail Roux

He grabbed the ticking bomb, yanking it from its duct tape, and ran. People and tombstones alike created an obstacle course as Zane tried to get away from the gravesite, weaving through the gathered, shoving some aside, almost ramming into a monument taller and wider than he was as he dodged a small child. There, maybe thirty yards away, stood an ancient mausoleum, its stone walls heavy and thick, hopefully enough to contain the blast from the welded and duct tapewrapped box he clutched against his chest. Finally he broke free of the crowd and, distantly aware of people calling after him, charged the mausoleum doors, ramming into one with his shoulder. He practically slid inside on the pavers smoothed by almost two centuries of foot traffic.

Zane didnt know how much time he had. But as he ran through the deeply shadowed building, past marble crypts and statues, he spared a prayer of thanks that he had at least gotten away from the families and children.

He skidded to a stop and turned into a small room at the back of the mausoleum. Without any traction, he thudded painfully into a wall, but he shoved the box behind the last stone coffin and turned on his heel, his heart thundering in his ears as he slung himself through the doorway and ran.

The dim gray light seeping in from the front doors beckoned to him, and he was a few rooms away—a bare thirty yards—when a shadow rammed into him from the side, sending him sprawling painfully hard into a marble sarcophagus and down to the floor.

Ty grunted his name and held up the flashing red device, then began dragging Zane by his collar across the smooth stone floor until they huddled behind a substantial stone vault. Ty shook against him, adrenaline obviously fueling him, and he held the flashing thing up again.

0:01.

0:00.

Zane covered his head and Tys as the explosion echoed through the mausoleum. It wasnt a loud, crashing cacophony. It was more a thud deep in their chests and a rush of fetid air from the depths of the mausoleum. The air reverberated with the blast; then all was silent.

Ty raised his head and looked around. “That wasnt so bad,” he gasped out. A deep rumbling answered his words. From the back of the mausoleum came another rush of air, and all around them, the structure trembled and groaned. A stone lintel crashed to the floor, followed by another. Then another.

Zane grabbed Tys arm and pulled him down again, covering their heads as the collapse sent broken stone flying and blew out the archways, showering them with a hard rain of driving sand and jagged chunks of marble. The light was snuffed out as the ancient building foundered and collapsed around them.

TY KEPT his eyes closed for a long time after the deafening roar of collapsing stone had ended. It was stiflingly silent, the only sounds being Zanes harsh breaths and the occasional shift and trickle of rocks.

Ty opened his eyes and lifted his head. Hed expected pitch black, or at least a pretty angel with a harp telling him he was in the wrong place. But there was light coming from somewhere, and the stone vault theyd hidden behind had provided some reprieve from the fallen stone walls that hemmed them in. He looked down at his partner.

“You okay?” Zane groaned and pushed himself up, but there wasnt much room for him to move. Part of a stone wall had fallen right next to him, shifted to the side by the vault that sheltered them. Otherwise Zane might have been under that wall. “Yeah, I think so.”

Ty jabbed him hard in the stomach, unable to put any more force behind it due to the confined space. “Stupid jackass!”

Zane yelped, hissed in pain, and swatted at his hand. “What the hell?” “Exactly, what the hell! You see a ticking bomb, so your first instinct is grab it and f**king run?” A miniature avalanche of pebbles and rocky debris slid down the shelf of stone above them.

“It was me run or try to get a hundred people to run,” Zane bit off as he held up a hand to protect his face. There was already a thin dark line of blood wending down his cheek from a cut below his eye.

Ty continued to mutter and curse under his breath, trying to move his body off Zanes in the tight space. “Youre a dick, you know that? Scared the shit out of me. Made me run. Got me dirty. I lost my cover! Now Im trapped in a crypt with a dumbass.”

“Im sorry,” Zane muttered. He even sounded sincere. Ty could only manage to slide off him and sit in the rubble next to him, legs drawn up against his chest. He had to hunch his shoulders and duck his head. He could still hear the rock shifting and groaning ominously as it settled. One thing was obvious: Zane never would have made it out alive if hed still been running for the door. The entire structure had collapsed in on itself, save for the areas where stone slabs from the ceilings and walls had fallen against the stone sarcophagi in the corners.

“Fuck, Garrett.”

“Maybe later.”

Ty looked around at the heavy stone bearing down on them both. He swallowed hard as he recognized a cold panic beginning to form in his gut. The stone was too close, too thick. “Might be our last chance,” he replied, trying to sound wry but falling flat.

Zane shifted, turning enough to put his back to the fallen wall so he faced Ty. “Well get out of here. Too many people saw me—us— run in for them not to dig us out.”

Ty shook his head as he peered at Zane in the dim light. He could just make out Zanes outline, and he was only three feet away. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking… get the bomb away from the kids.” Ty sighed heavily. He couldnt bitch at Zane for that. He could feel the stone brushing the top of his head as he sat, and he could only just stretch his legs out in front of him. If he turned the other way, he could lie flat, which didnt go a long way toward calming him. He could feel the stone looming overhead, feel the press of the darkness and the swell of burgeoning panic. His chest tightened, making it hard to breathe, and his fingers still trembled from the adrenaline of his headlong flight across the cemetery after his partner.

Hed watched Zane take off, understanding taking a few seconds to settle in, and hed grabbed the device from the dead kids hand, recognizing it for what it was. It was counting down the seconds until that bomb went off. Then hed run after his stupid f**king partner so he could save his sorry ass before he got blown up. Again.

“Well. What now?”

Zane dug into his jacket pocket, pulled out his cell phone, then cursed under his breath. “Screens busted. Maybe if we—” Without warning, the stone groaned again, and Ty pushed himself back against the shelter of the vault as another wall fell toward them and shattered, sending stone fragments cascading across them. Ty heard a last, loud crunch, and when he carefully opened his eyes, it was to complete darkness.