There’d been a fusillade of sound from the lobby—screaming, gunshots—but it was all silent now. Tera had no idea what had happened, and couldn’t spend time thinking about it. Her initial objective—to disarm Ruben—had not been completed. Tera heard him shuffling in the darkness, but couldn’t place him. Maybe if she had a little more blood in her body, and greater clarity in her brain. What she did know: his muzzle flash would give him away.

Tera reached a hand into the front left pocket of her jeans—it was warm with blood—and pulled out her car keys. She clutched them tightly to keep them from jingling like little bells, then tossed them into the darkness ahead of her. They landed some fifteen feet away, striking something solid before falling to the floor.

Ruben gasped and immediately opened fire. Four bright, jumpy shots toward the keys. Tera was ready, bracing herself against the wall, but otherwise holding her Beretta like she would at the range. She aimed just beyond Ruben’s muzzle flash and squeezed off a succession of rapid-fire shots. The reports were bone-shaking. The silence that followed was deep and clear.

Tera got to her feet, using the wall for support. She staggered a little way, clutching her left side, her shooting hand still extended. The silence continued.

“Did I get you, motherfucker?” she hissed.

Ruben replied with a bullet. It grooved the top of her shoulder, tearing through her jacket and scoring the skin beneath. Tera reeled backward. Another shot rang out, higher and wider than the first.

He materialized in the gloom, lurching heavily toward her. His face was a hurting scrawl—everything drawn big. There was a map of blood across the front of his T-shirt. Tera had hit him, and more than once, by the look of it.

She lifted her gun, pulled the trigger twice. Both shots found their target, but momentum carried him forward. He fell on her and they both spilled to the ground, Ruben on top.

“Fughaa,” he drooled. Blood bubbled from his mouth. He gurgled something else. Tera screamed from beneath him. She managed to free her gun hand and jam the muzzle into his left eye.

“You big bastard,” she said, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing in the chamber. A gutless click, that was all.

Ruben clonked a fat fist down between Tera’s eyes. The back of her head bounced off the tiles, and stars appeared in a glittering spread. She blinked hard, squirming beneath Ruben. He steadied himself on one elbow, dragged his right arm into position, and locked the PPQ to her throat.

“Fugghhhaaa.”