Dance with the Devil--A Mercenary Librarians Novel by Kit Rocha

Author:Kit Rocha
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

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If you had to get into a knock-down, drag-out fight, there were worse places to do it than in an industrial kitchen.

For one thing, they tended to be wide-open spaces above the waist, which was good for visibility, while the countertops funneled movement into makeshift corridors. Plus, there were weapons everywhere. Knives, hot surfaces and liquids—hell, even a kitchen towel could be repurposed as a garrote, in a pinch.

Not to mention the crowds.

A handful of the kitchen staff hit the deck as soon as they saw the squad enter with weapons drawn. The rest started screaming. Some ran and some stood, stock-still, as the Protectorate commander waved his assault rifle and shouted for them to move.

Yeah, good luck with that, Dani thought ruefully.

The rest of the squad surged forward. Rafe pushed Tessa behind him, and Dani ran ahead to meet the brunt of the attack. One soldier launched a punch at her midsection. She took the blow, then leaned back, out of range, when he tried to follow it with an elbow to her face. Instead, she grabbed his arm and pushed it up, knocking him off balance.

He fell back, arms flailing to break his fall, and landed on a lit stove.

One of the chefs who’d been frozen with fear began screaming. The noise was quickly eclipsed by the Protectorate soldier as he wrenched himself up off the stove, the back and sleeve of his uniform engulfed by fire.

There was a pot rack above the long steel counter beside the stove. Dani jumped up, grabbed its edge, and kicked out hard, driving the screeching man into one of his comrades. They both went down, kicking and batting at the flames, while a third member of the squad broke off his attack to help them.

They weren’t even looking at Dani when she shot them.

A fourth member of the Red Eagles—Dani had just enough time to discern the insignia patch on the first soldier’s uniform before it burned away—pulled a handful of throwing knives from his tactical pants. He hurled them all at once, straight at Rafe’s head.

Rafe saw it coming. He snatched up a baking sheet and used it as a shield to deflect the wickedly sharp blades. Then he flung it so hard Dani could hear it whistle through the air. It caught the man in the throat, and he went down with a grunt and a wheeze.

“Look out!” Tessa yelled.

A bullet zipped by her head as the commander lunged for Dani, his rifle raised. She sidestepped his attack and kicked him in the back. He stumbled toward Rafe, who grabbed him by the collar and slammed his head into the counter with a hollow thud. He jerked back, reaching for the pistol in the holster at his side.

Tessa got to him first. She’d snatched up a heavy cast-iron skillet, and she swung it with a heave and a grunt. She hit the commander so hard that bone crunched, and he collapsed to the floor. The skillet fell from Tessa’s shaking hands, and Rafe hauled her close, checking her for injuries.

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