“I said pick it up,” Roxy snarled. “Right fucking now.”

   “Okay, okay,” I said. “You want your high-noon showdown, Sheriff Roxy? Fine by me.”

   Keeping one eye on Roxy, I limped over to where the gun was and slowly bent down, trying to pick it up without collapsing to the ground. I stretched out my fingers toward the gun—

   Crack!

   A bullet hit the butt of the gun, making the weapon skitter out of my reach and elemental Fire explode under my fingertips. I snarled and slapped my hand against my thigh, once again snuffing out the flames, although not the continued searing burn they left behind.

   Laughter rang out, sounding almost as loud as the gunshots, as Roxy, Tucker, and the guards yukked it up at my expense. I looked up. Roxy grinned, a cruel light flashing in her eyes, and gestured for me to try again.

   So I sighed and limped forward, realizing that I had no choice but to play her sick game. The only good thing about it was that everyone was focused on me now, including the giants guarding Finn, Bria, and Owen, who’d lowered their weapons from my friends’ sides. I hoped my suffering would give Silvio and the others a chance to finally make their move.

   But right now, I had another round of torture to endure, so I gritted my teeth and stretched my hand out toward Brody’s gun again, knowing what was coming next—

   Crack!

   More Fire, more burns on my skin, more laughter from Roxy, Tucker, and all the guards.

   I smothered the latest round of Fire, slowly straightened up, and glared at her. “No wonder you have all those stuffed animal heads in your office. You are one sadistic bitch.”

   Roxy crooked an eyebrow at me. “Well, Gin, if you don’t want to play along, I guess I’ll just have to use you for target practice after all.”

   Before I could snipe back at her, the bitch snapped up her gun and shot me again.

   Crack!

   This bullet punched into the meaty part of my left thigh. More of that damn elemental Fire exploded and seared my skin, adding to the agony of the wound. Roxy hadn’t grazed me this time, but she wasn’t done playing with me either, since the bullet hadn’t hit anything vital. A painful, through-and-through wound, but not debilitating.

   Still, I screamed louder than I had before, staggered forward, and crumpled in a heap in the middle of the mud, as if I were done for. I thought it was pretty convincing, as far as pratfalls went.

   “Mmm! Mmm!” My friends’ muffled shouts filled the air, but they could do nothing to help me.

   Roxy grinned and strutted over to me, spinning her gun around and around in her hand, making the pearl handle and silver barrel flash, and doing all sorts of fancy trick moves with the weapon. I did my own trick move, digging my hand down into the mud, and curling my fingers around the hilt of my knife that was still buried there. I also reached for the last remaining scraps of my Stone magic, getting ready to pour the power out to harden my skin one final time. I’d only get one shot at this, and I had to make it count.

   This time, Roxy kept coming until she was within arm’s reach, looming over me. “You know, I don’t have a human head in my office, but I think that I’ll make an exception for you, Gin.” Her eyes gleamed with sly satisfaction.

   “Never going to happen, sugar—”

   Before I could finish, she snapped up her gun and shot me in the face.

27

   At least, Roxy tried to shoot me in the face.

   At the last second, I lunged out of the way, slithering forward through the mud. But the bullet from the close-range shot still punched into my left shoulder. I grunted at the hard, bruising impact and flash of Fire, but my Stone magic kept the bullet from actually tearing through my body. Roxy snarled and started to pull the trigger again, but I didn’t give her the chance.

   I gritted my teeth, raised my knife up out of the mud, and stabbed her booted foot. This time, Roxy was the one who screamed.

   Such a sweet, sweet sound.

   She tried to shoot me again, but I ripped my knife out of her foot and swiped it across her wrist, making her drop her trusty revolver. She staggered back, trying to get away from me and desperately reaching for the second revolver on her belt, but I threw myself forward, tackled her around the knees, and knocked her ass down in the mud. She tried to kick me away, but I grabbed hold of her shiny rhinestone belt buckle and used it to pull myself up on top of her.

   Then I raised up my knife again and slammed it into her chest, right next to that shiny silver sheriff’s star pinned over her heart.

   And I didn’t stop.

   I stabbed her once, twice, three times, each wound as deep, brutal, and deadly as I could make it. Her blood spattered against my face and hand, but I didn’t mind the warm sensation. Not at all.

   Roxy screamed and screamed, clawing for her gun all the while. She managed to get her fingertips on the pearl handle, so I raised up my knife a final time and snapped it down, driving it all the way through her hand and into the squishy mud below.

   “Never bring a gun to a knife fight,” I hissed.

   Roxy gurgled once, as if agreeing with me, then her body went slack and still under mine.

   As much as I would have liked to slump down in the mud next to her, Tucker and the guards were still here, still alive, so I yanked my knife out of her hand, rolled off her body, and staggered to my feet.

   Tucker was already stabbing his finger at me. “Kill her, right fucking now—”

   Crack!

   Crack! Crack!

   Crack!

   More shots rang out, but this time, the Blanco gang were the ones firing.

   With all the guards’ attention on me, Silvio, Phillip, Lorelei, and Ira had finally decided to strike. Somehow, Silvio and Ira had managed to sneak up onto the second-floor balcony of one of the storefronts and were firing down at the giants, while Phillip and Lorelei were doing the same thing from their position behind a food cart down here on street level.