Ruben looked from Johan to Tera, then lumbered toward her with the gun foremost. As he closed in, Tera drove her right leg backward in a hard, snapping kick. It connected with Ruben’s stomach (which wasn’t the wall of muscle it had been during his UFC days). He doubled over, giving Tera the window she needed to spring to her feet and strike more meaningfully.

She cracked his cheekbone with a whistling hammer punch, straight out of the kickboxing handbook, then tried to knock the pistol out of his hand. Ruben was no slouch, though. He slipped the move, rotating his body and countering with an elbow, which staggered her, then a side kick, which put her on her ass. Tera slid backward over the tiles. The weight difference was enormous.

“Zero!” Johan cried, holding up a blank fist. “Zero! Zero! Shoot that fucking bitch!”

Ruben got behind his pistol, steadying his aim, and Tera thought this was it, game over, baby, then a high-pitched battle cry sounded from behind her as Kitty entered the fight.

Nothing was over.

28
Mojave Green

Kitty had never seen the platinum-haired woman before. Tera, that’s what Johan had called her. She and Johan had spoken like they had an agreement, one that had evidently expired.

The distraction Tera presented was to Kitty’s advantage; she was able to stretch and twist the knot in Johan’s belt, finally working it loose enough to free her left hand. The rest of the belt unfurled, hanging from her right wrist. Its heavy buckle clinked against the tiles.

All eyes were on Tera and Ruben. Johan’s countdown reached zero and he ordered Ruben to open fire. That was when Kitty attacked. She used the belt, but she also used her son, bringing his perfect face to the front of her mind, fueling her resolve. She assembled her anger, fear, and frustration, her hopes and dreams, packing them together like components in a hand grenade.

She went for Johan, lifting the belt up over her shoulder, bringing it down in a humming arc. The first strike whipped across Johan’s chest. The second glanced off the left side of his face, but it was enough for the buckle to draw blood and drop him to one knee.

The ax dropped, too, and Kitty was on it in an instant. She grabbed it in both hands and rounded on Xander, who’d turned toward her with his pistol raised.