Wanted

#13 | Breaking Hearts and Making Promises

Sly sat still in the rain with his back against the soil bags. Payton lied motionless at her vantage point and watched the pile through her scope. She waited patiently for any movement whatsoever from Sly and hovered her finger just off the trigger. Her hands were steady and her attention so focused that she had to remind herself to breathe and blink. Then, she flinched. She thought she heard something in the hallways just outside the room she was in.

The whole building was empty by order of Armani to prevent any civilians from getting hurt, as with the rest of the buildings around the branch outpost. Payton looked away from her scope for a moment and listened, though the rain outside the open window troubled her hearing of soft sounds. After a few more seconds in silence, she turned back to her scope. She must have been paranoid after the last time she was in this position with Dawn, Sly, and Mabel, she thought. She calmed her nerves and refocused on the task at hand, but suddenly a large hand covered her nose and mouth while another grabbed one of her wrists and forced her arm behind her back.

In the yard, Sly heard the sound of Payton's gun firing again, but didn't see where the bullet impacted. Then, a few moments later, he heard the sound of glass shattering followed by a heavy thud that echoed from across the street even through the rain. What was that? he thought. He waited a minute longer, then took a deep breath and very carefully looked out from behind his cover. He looked across the street at the building he thought Payton was hiding in and saw something on the ground right in front of it.

He squinted to try and focus his view through the dark and the rain. He could see just outside the radius of a street light what looked like a person lying on the ground, but was it the Hunter? His breathing grew shakier and his heartrate began to accelerate. Looking upward, he noticed a window on the third floor of the building was shattered and Payton's rifle dangling by its strap from the broken window frame. He looked back at the body on the ground and noticed the damp, light-colored hair sticking to Payton's unmoving back and shoulders as the rain flooded the ground around her.

Sly swallowed and looked frantically for any sign of movement in the window. What had happened to Payton just then? Was she attacked by someone? If so, who? And what were their intentions now that Payton wasn't pinning Sly? He fell back behind the soil bags and thought. This was his chance to run into the building, but what if whoever threw Payton out the window wanted Sly's bounty for themselves? Who would be crazy enough to interfere with a conflict between Outlaws and a Doyenne's personal entourage?

Sly closed his eyes and made a final decision. He positioned himself to run for the front door of the building. He knew his foot would slow him down, but he had to try. At worst, Sly could take another bullet if it wasn't a fatal shot. It would be better than anything Payton would have shot, anyway.

***

Mabel scoured the bedside tables and search under the bed for anything sturdy with which she could break the rung she was shackled to, but there was nothing within reach. She sat for a few minutes racking her brain for a solution, then ultimately returning to the second drawer of the first bedside table. She opened the drawer to find the revolver still inside. She hesitantly picked up the gun. It was heavier than she remembered from when she held Payton at gunpoint on the tor between Coyote Run and Onyxlanding.

Despite the feeling, she looked at the back of the cylinder to find it empty. She sighed, honestly relieved. She had never fired a gun before and the thought of doing so—even when not aiming at a person—terrified her. The noise would have been too loud and attracted whoever was standing guard, anyway, she rationalized to herself. Her brow furrowed as she looked at the wooden rung, then at the gun in her hand again. She flipped the weapon around so she held onto the barrel and used the handle to strike the rung three times.