The Death Match by Christa Faust Page B

been all defense, not wanting to hurt Tanya. Whatever Tanya had just said to her obviously changed that.
    The fish-pale guy with lank, dust-colored hair on the far left was reaching for a holstered pistol. Matt flinched, grip going sweaty on the ax handle, knowing that if they all pulled guns he was fucked. He was starting to feel a little light-headed, and there was a fierce hissing sound like a hundred snakes so close to his ear that he almost thought he might be imagining it. And a smell, a thick, sulfurous stink, like…
    Like gas.
    Matt turned toward the skinny, busted pipe and then back to the pale guy with the gun. The armed guy was about to shoot when his fat buddy noticed the pipe and the horrified look on Matt’s face and knocked the gun out of the pale thug’s hand.
    “Are you crazy?” the pale guy spat.
    His fat buddy smacked him in the back of the head and gestured at the pipe.
    “Gas, asshole!”
    The pale guy realized what had almost happened and went white.
    Matt took that moment of distraction to attack. He lunged at the pale guy and cracked him in the temple with the flat back of the ax head. The pale guy went down but not out, and the fat guy grabbed the ax handle, struggling with Matt over possession of the weapon.
    In the pit, Stacy had the upper hand and Tanya seemed to have completely changed her attitude, as if all her aggressive evil had drained away. She lay almost passive beneath Stacy, not defending, not covering up. Unconscious, maybe, but from Matt’s angle it was hard to tell.
    The pale guy got his feet back under him and grabbed Matt from behind, wrenching his arms back and allowing the fat guy to gain control of the ax. Mattresponded instinctively by raising both feet up off the floor and mule-kicking the fat guy in the center of his padded chest, causing him to drop the ax and stagger back, gasping. Matt planted his feet back on the stone floor and slammed the back of his head into the pale guy’s face, breaking his grip.
    As Matt dove for the ax, an awful, keening wail spiraled up out of the pit. It was Stacy. She was cradling Tanya’s lifeless body in her arms, Tanya’s head lolling too far backward on a broken neck.
    Matt grabbed the ax and backed up and away, surrounded by more of Long’s corrupt henchmen. There was no way out and no way he could take on all five guys alone, but Stacy was in no shape to help him.
    They were fucked.
    As the circle of thugs closed in around Matt, he gripped the ax handle tighter, determined not to go down without a fight. Between the broad backs of the advancing henchmen, he could see Long get up from the couch and come up behind Stacy. He leaned over her, sliding his hands over her bare, bloody breasts and whispering to her.
    She stayed tense and frozen for a moment, then exploded into action, turning on Long and taking him down like a speeding truck. He let out a comical yelp that quickly cranked up into a shriek of pain, turning the heads of the thugs surrounding Matt.
    “Boss is down!” the guy on the far left hollered, gesturing with his chin toward the pit.
    Four of the five fell back and ran to their boss’s aid, while a single man stood his ground with Matt.
    Matt faked a high swing with the ax, then swiftly reversed it, ducking low and shattering a kneecap. The thug howled and dropped to the stone floor, but Matt didn’t stick around to watch his reaction. He had to save Stacy.
    When Matt made it to the edge of the pit, Stacy was fighting like a trapped wildcat, far too much white visible around the irises of her eyes. Two men had her arms, but her feet were loose and kicking, preventing anyone from getting close enough to hit her. Matt didn’t hesitate to let the guy holding Stacy’s right arm have it in the back of the head with the ax. As soon as he let go of her arm, Stacy used it to knock out the guy on the left. Free now, she lunged at the man on the right, locking him up in a vicious choke hold. The last man standing tried to