Elemental Assassin 03 - Venom

with as much force as he could muster. He probably thought the louder he sounded running after Finn, the more intimidated and scared Finn would be. He never considered the possibility that all the noise would make it that much easier for someone else, someone like me, to creep up behind him and stab him in the back. Which was exactly what I was going to do when he stopped long enough to catch his breath. Hopefully, Finn would just keep on running, instead of trying to trick more of the giants into coming into the woods.
    Up ahead of me, the giant slowed, as if he’d lost Finn’s trail. Wouldn’t be hard to do in the darkness. I stopped, slid behind a tree, and watched him. After a few seconds of studying the ground with a small flashlight, the giant pulled a walkie-talkie off a clip on his belt and pressed a red button on the side.
    “He’s heading in your direction.”
    “Roger that,” came the reply.
    So the giant had come after Finn to drive him in the direction that the giant wanted Finn to go—and straight into some kind of trap—
    Crack! Crack! Crack!
    Up ahead, three shots rang out and echoed around the mountaintop. The giant rushed forward. I slipped about fifteen feet off to the left and followed him parallel through the woods. Thirty seconds later, the giant stepped into a large clearing ringed with rocks.
    Crack!
    A bullet slammed into the giant’s chest, and he staggered back.
    Crack! Crack!
    Two more wounds blossomed—one in his shoulder, another one in his right knee. Not enough to kill him, but enough to hurt. The giant screamed and went down on his one good knee. I stayed where I was, searching the shadows for Finn. Ten seconds later, Finn stepped out from behind one of the rocks. Gun out, he headed for the giant.
    “Where’s your boss?” he demanded. “And where’s Roslyn Phillips?”
    The giant spat at him. Finn coldcocked him with the gun, then slammed his boot into the man’s blown-out knee. The giant screamed with pain.
    “Where is Elliot Slater?” Finn snarled again.
    A grim smile curved my lips. Finnegan Lane was never lacking for style, if nothing else—
    “Right here, you son of a bitch.”
    Click.
    Finn knew that sound as well as I did—the hammer being thumbed back on a revolver. He froze and slowly turned around.
    Elliot Slater stepped out from the shadows, flanked by two more giants. A large revolver glinted pale silver in Slater’s hand. The long barrel was exactly even with the bridge of Finn’s nose. Finn had lowered his gun to his side when he’d kicked the injured giant. No way he could raise it up in time to get a shot off before the giant pulled the trigger on his own weapon and killed him. Finn knew it as well as I did.
    “Drop it, pal,” Slater rumbled. “Or I’ll kill you where you stand.”
    Finn’s face tightened with rage, keeping up his act, and he slowly leaned forward and put the gun down on the leaf-strewn ground. Slater jerked his head, and one of the other two men rushed forward to pick it up. The fourth man lay moaning on the ground, clutching his shattered knee.
    Slater stepped forward, still keeping his gun up. “Well, well, Finnegan Lane. Didn’t expect you to show up here tonight.”
    Finn shrugged. “I love surprises, don’t you?”
    Slater eyed him. “I’m not going to ask you what the hell you’re doing on my mountain in the middle of the night. Not just yet. We’ll save that for when we get back to the mansion. You know, I’d already exhausted my previous entertainment for the evening. But you—you’ll do just fine as a replacement.”
    Replacement? My stomach tightened. Had the giant already killed Roslyn Phillips? Were we already too late? Had Finn put himself in danger for nothing? I didn’t know, and I didn’t have time to puzzle it out. Because Elliot Slater stepped forward and slammed his fist into Finn’s face. My foster brother crumpled to the ground and was still.
    Elliot Slater stood over Finn’s body a few seconds to make sure that he wasn’t faking his unconscious state. When he was satisfied that Finn was out, Slater crooked a finger at one of his giants.
    “Bob, you carry that son of a bitch back down to the mansion and chain him up in the main room. Phil, youstay here and help Henry,” he said. “Did you guys see anyone with Lane? Any kind of backup?”
    “No, sir,” the one named Phil replied. “We watched to make sure, but it looks like he’s alone.”
    They hadn’t watched quite well enough