The loud shot missed him but he spun away, slamming into a bush, falling. She almost went down too but caught her balance. The river noises drew her, the only way to make sure she wasn’t running in circles. She broke from the trees and nearly fell into the moving water.

She spun, looking for escape, but there was nowhere to go. Motion to her left made her whimper. Another man dressed in fatigues barreled at her. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. A third man rushed her way. She was trapped as they slowed, knowing they had her.

“Put down the gun.” The one she’d almost shot trained a gun at her.

“I can’t swim,” she warned them. “You shoot me and I fall in.” She aimed the gun, shifting it to point at each of them in turn, keeping the barrel moving. “Master wants me alive, doesn’t he? I’ll purposely stay under until I drown. I’d rather die than go back to him.”

Uneasiness skidded across their features. They believed her and the drop into the water had to be eight feet. She stood at a curve in the river where the earth had eroded the bank. It looked deep too.

“I’ll be gone once I hit the water. The current is strong. You blink, I’m gone.”

They froze but two more of them pointed guns at her.

“Drop the gun,” one of them demanded. “We’re not going to hurt you. Our boss wants you alive. Drowning is a horrible way to go.”

She laughed bitterly. “And being returned to Master is better?” Her heart rate began to slow now that she wasn’t running for her life. “I’d rather die.”

They glanced at each other, obviously not expecting that.

“Do you not get paid if I’m dead?” She could guess money was the only reason they’d come after her. It would have to be a lot for them to enter NSO lands, beyond suicidal to attempt such a thing. Species weren’t known for being kind to trespassers. “Back away from me.”

“She will struggle when she hits the water. It’s instinct,” one of them muttered. “She’ll surface and we’ll grab her.”

Beauty twisted her wrist, pointing the gun at her chest. “Will I survive a bullet to the heart? One shot and it’s over. You’ll have done all of this for nothing. I’m not going back.” She hoped they believed her bluff. “Get away from me.”

“Goddamn crazy bitch,” one of them swore. “You won’t shoot yourself.” He looked unsure though.

“I was caged and chained, kept in the dark and only brought out when Master wanted to see me.” She raised her chin as she inched a little closer to the edge near the water, her gaze darting around for an escape. There wasn’t one. “They kept me weak from lack of food and water, bathed only when Master decided I should be clean when he put his hands on me.” Rage deepened her voice into a soft growl. “Do you think I won’t prefer to die before being sent back to him?” She paused. “A bullet is kinder and faster than suffering that fate.”

A low branch kept drawing her attention. She kicked off her shoes and the men frowned.

“What are you doing?” One of them stepped closer.

She reacted by jerking the gun away from her chest and firing at him. It didn’t matter if she hit them or not. He dived out of the way but so did the other two, the way she’d hoped. She shoved the warm gun into her pants and jumped at the branch, her feet hitting the tree trunk. She was a primate and hoped instinct gave her a strong ability to climb.

She scrambled faster than she’d thought possible, getting higher as her hands curled around the branches, moving as fast as she could. The bottoms of her feet burned a little from the rough bark but she didn’t care. She was in a tree!

“Get down here,” one of them yelled. “Fuck! Climb after her, Bob.”

“She moves fast,” he complained. “Damn, look how high she’s going.”

“I don’t give a f**k,” the first one snapped. “Go after her!”

“What is she? A monkey?”

“She kinda looks like a chimp,” one of them stated. “Did you see her eyes and nose? She’s small for a woman too.”

She kept climbing until she couldn’t get any higher without fear of the thinning branches snapping from her weight. The one she hugged swayed when the wind blew. A sick feeling gripped her stomach as she looked down. She had to be fifty or so feet in the air. All three men stared up at her.

“Get down!” The one in charge pointed a finger at her. “Right now! We don’t have time for this.”

“The chopper is incoming,” Bob announced. “It’s about to land.”

She looked out to see if she could spot it but too many trees blocked her view even from that height. She listened and heard the noise then, probably too focused on the men to notice before. She turned her head and spotted it. It was flying low, just over the treetops, and coming closer.

She climbed down the trunk slightly until she sat on a lower limb and hugged it tightly, fearful they would try to snatch her from above. She glanced down, instantly sorry. Bob had started climbing after her.

She pulled out the gun, her belly aching from where she was sure she’d been burned from the warm barrel after firing it, and she aimed. He looked up and froze.

“Stay away from me.”

“How many bullets are left?” The one in charge spoke softly but she heard.

“I don’t know, Dillon.” Bob answered. “She’s discharged three but that’s a Glock 9. I don’t know how many were fired off before she stole it and it might have big mag. Could be a lot left.”