The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) by Katharine Sadler

for an
excuse to stay in Briarton.”
    I swallowed the outrage I wanted to spew at
him, and forced myself to admit he might have a teeny-tiny little
point. “Can you blame me for wanting to avoid your psychopath
brother?”
    He winced at that and opened his mouth to
retort when a security guard stopped him with a hand on his
shoulder.
    “Sir. Ma’am. You’re going to have to come
with us,” he said in a low voice.
    A second security officer placed his hand on
my elbow, and steered me away from the ticket counter.
    “They’ve got reapers with ‘em,” Tucker said,
his voice breathy. I looked over my shoulder to see him and his two
buddies already in a fist fight with four beefy looking
reapers.
    “Reapers,” I hissed to Jed, but he didn’t
look my way.
    “Can you tell us what this is all about?” Jed
asked.
    “This is about us bagging two of our most
powerful enemies,” said the one holding my elbow. He must have been
a complete idiot. He should have waited until he’d gotten us
somewhere secure to start revealing his plans.
    Jed threw his first punch so fast I wasn’t
sure I really saw it happen. It didn’t seem to faze the thin, wiry
dude holding him. I froze for the briefest moment, but when my guy
started dragging me away I twisted in his grip, flattened my hand
and hit him in the throat with the side of it.
    The hit wasn’t as hard as I’d hoped it would
be, but it took his air and surprised him long enough for me to
wrench myself free and kick him in the balls with everything I had.
He shrieked like a little girl and doubled over, cupping himself.
Yeah, there was nothing honorable about the way I fought, but I
wasn’t trying to be the next MMA champion, I was trying to keep my
soul in my body, and I would do it anyway I could.
    Someone grabbed my arm. I shook him off and
spun, ready to fight again. I came face-to-face with Jed and
lowered my guard. “Come on, we need to get out of here, now,” he
said.
    I started toward the ticket counter, still
shaking a bit from the fight and the adrenaline, but he grabbed me
and pulled me back the other way. “No, we’ve just assaulted two
security guards. We need to go back to the car.”
    I let him take the lead. He still had the
suitcases and the carry-ons, but I didn’t waste time offering to
take one. I just tried to keep up.
    “Tucker?” I managed to gasp when we were
halfway through the parking lot.
    “He can take care of himself,” Jed said, not
even breathing heavy. I used to jog every day and I’d been training
with Cat for three weeks, but, next to Jed, I might as well have
been a couch potato with a smoking habit.
    We made it back to the car. Jed threw the
bags in the trunk, and we got in. It was then that we saw security
guards running after us. Jed got the car started and sped out of
long-term parking, throwing up bits of gravel as we took off.
Tucker sat in the back, alone and silent, and I didn’t have the
heart to ask what happened to his friends. At least, not until I
got my breath back.
    Jed drove and juggled his cell phone, calling
and re-calling Varius. “I can’t get anyone to pick up,” he said.
“We’re going to have to go back to the condo and regroup. I don’t
want to try a different airport until I know what’s going on out
there.”
     
    Once inside the condo, our bags in a pile on
the living room floor, I looked at Tucker. “What happened to your
friends?” I asked.
    He sighed, looking pale and spent. “We lost
one. The other headed to town to spread the word of what happened.
I’m guessing it was an unauthorized hit and whoever is running this
show is going to be pissed.”
    “Why would anyone care that they tried to
take us out? I’d think they’d be applauded.”
    Tucker shrugged. “Maybe, but if the reapers
running the show really wanted to take you out, they had plenty of
opportunities, yesterday.”
    I opened my mouth to mention the two guys
who’d hassled me and Jed, but Tucker shook his head before I