Page 2 of Us Defiant Few

A barstool slammed on top of Takeshi’s head.

He stumbled, losing focus as Winnie stood behind him, chest heaving, her eyes bulging wide. Brock immediately took advantage and grabbed the stool from Winnie and brought it crashing over his head again.

They all jumped as Takeshi slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Brock’s hands trembled as he dropped the stool. The chair clattered to the ground, the piercing sound echoing throughout the decrepit alley.

No one moved, like the slightest shift might wake Takeshi and send him into another murderous rampage. But Khalani rubbed her aching chest, feeling like she was about to topple over.

Emptiness would’ve been a reprieve.

In fact, anything would’ve been preferable to the bellowing grief inside her.

“How do you know my name?”

That’s what Takeshi had kept repeating.

Did he truly not remember her?

Khalani shook her head, wanting—no, needing—to deny it.

Maybe he couldn’t recognize her in the dark alley and was simply confused?

She searched for any other explanation, but Doctor Strauss’s smiling face flashed in her mind.

She remembered him sawing her leg open like a bloody slice of cake. Flaying her arms. Amputating her limbs. He’d used a special medicine to heal her wounds at a remarkable rate.

And the last time she saw Takeshi, he’d been shot trying to escape the prison camp with her. They could’ve used the same medicine to heal his wounds.

But would that make him forget her?

No. It had to be something else.

The only thing she kept coming back to was the chip. The one Doctor Strauss had wanted to insert into her brain.

He’d said torture was necessary to induce memory loss and make the chip function. In the lab, she’d felt her mind begin to splinter. Her memories. Her poems. Everything was slowly slipping away. The only thing Khalani could do was repeat her own name over and over, so she wouldn’t lose everything.

But Takeshi had been gone for days. Alone. Suffering. Waiting for her to return.

A tear rolled down her cheek as her regrets piled higher and higher.

She’d left him behind. Takeshi had put his life on the line to save her, and in return, she’d abandoned him.

She gazed at him on the ground, wanting to lie down beside him and say how sorry she was.

“Where did the chair come from?” Serene’s numb voice broke the silence.

“Winnie didn’t really think.” Winnie ran her trembling hand through her gray, frayed hair. “She ran back into the bar and grabbed the first thing she could. The men inside were too busy fighting to notice.”

Khalani’s eyes flickered to the Black Heart. One second, they were in the Aces’ headquarters, discussing plans, and the next, the Dealers had barged in, hunting for the prisoners who’d escaped the camp.

The clamor of fighting had faded. The alleyway they stood in was eerily quiet. But they had no idea who’d won.

The Aces might all be dead.

The Dealers could burst into the back alley, searching for survivors, at any moment.

“We have to move.” Khalani spoke rapidly, her thoughts going haywire. “Brock, can you help me grab Takeshi? We need to hide.”