Truehearts & The Escape From Pirate Moon by Jake Macklem (ebook audio reader TXT) 📕

“Look kid, these people won’t be able to hurt you anymore, okay,” he asked as he stepped forward. “We’re here to help.” The officer reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

That was a mistake. Mick had already been training me, for years.

Ace half turned, lifted her leg, and snapped the officer’s kneecap in the wrong direction. He screamed as he fell onto her bed. She slipped her hand over his belt as she walked by, effortlessly lifting a small cylinder from one of his belt compartments. Standing in the doorway she flicked her wrist, extending the collapsible stun baton. Leaning out of the room, she glanced around.

Down the hallway, Ace saw the club’s patrons scrambling to escape as the police marched through, arresting everyone they could catch. Patrons and professionals were rushing the exits and service areas, while the music continued to pump through the sound system, setting a beat to the madness. Ace hurried deeper into the club. “There’s one here!” An officer shouted as he stepped into the hallway.

Ace tapped his leg with the baton; the crackling electric charge snapped and the man convulsed, dropping to a knee. She clubbed him on the helmet with the pommel and he collapsed back into the room. Glancing in she saw more cops.

“I got her.” Another officer, larger than the last, rushed forward.

Ace did not wait. She ran, took a sharp corner, then hurried up the stairs, pushing past wayward patrons. She heard the lumbering officer behind her and she knew he would not be able to keep up. At the top of the stairs, she rushed down the hallway to the second level landing. Below her, she saw customers and girls alike getting arrested, bound, and dragged out the door. Police were dragging more people into the bar, some clothed and others not. She sprinted across the room and down the hall toward Mick and Shonda’s room.

An officer was flung from their room, hit the wall on the other side, and fell to the floor. Shouts came from the room.

“Damn it, hold him!”

“Don’t let him attach the metal arm!”

“Who is this guy!”

“Hit him with the stun again!”

Shonda stumbled out of the room followed by an officer, makeup running down her swollen and bruised face, her arms handcuffed behind her back.

Ace swiped the stun baton behind the officer’s knees, the shock instantly taking out his legs. Shonda looked over, surprised, while Ace found the keys for the handcuffs. Grabbing her wrist, Ace undid one cuff, leaving the key in it. “Get out of here!” she hissed.

Shonda glanced back at her room, where Mick fought half a dozen police. “Help him, Ace.”

“I am.” Reaching down to the officer at her feet, Ace pulled a second stun baton. Flicking it open she walked into the room. Mick spared no expense in her education and training. Ballet, gymnastics, even back alley brawling; all lessons she had learned. Confident and serene, she strode into the room.

The chaos stormed around her, a vortex of shouting, fury, and fists. Officers rushed her, tried to hold her back, but she wove past them all, a hummingbird in a meadow. Dual batons twirled around her as she struck without looking. Her focus was reserved for Mick. She fought to his side, heedless of the officers around her.

In a blur of motion and violence, Mick and Ace worked together as a single fighting force. Where Mick would create an opening, Ace would take down the officer. Together they cleared the room in a moment. He looked at her and winked. She smiled and nodded.

I actually thought we were going to make it.

The doorway filled again and even more officers flooded the room. Mick fought and kicked as several men grabbed Ace. They pulled, lifted her off her feet, and began dragging her away. “Mick!” she screamed, reaching out toward him, her fingers extended.

Mick spun toward her. His face slackened and for the first time, he showed fear. “Ace!” With a fierce kick, he sent a man flying to crash to the floor. Stepping forward he grabbed another officer by his throat, lifted him into the air, and slammed him to the floor, a snapping sound ringing out from the man’s back. “I’m coming, Ace!”

Mick charged across the room as officers threw themselves in his way. A half dozen men fought to hold him and drag him away from Ace. He reached out his hand and found hers. They interwove their fingers and held on. Tears streamed down her face as she screamed. They fought, trying to stay together, even when Ace thought her fingers would break, but eventually, the officers won the tug of war, breaking their grip.

“Mick!” She cried out.

“It’s okay Ace. It’s okay. I love you!” Mick shouted. An officer stepped in front of him and brought down his baton, cracking Mick’s head with a sickening thud, knocking him out.

&

The raft rocked. Ace opened her eyes and saw Cam looking around. He felt it too. Carefully, she sat up and scanned the surroundings, they still floated along the three-hundred-foot wide river. The sky was turning pink. We made it through the night at least. The only thing visible to the south was the massive rock plateau. Maybe sixty meters away, it was closer now than it had been before. To the north, about thirty meters away, walking along the water's edge in a long line, was a herd of three-legged animals. Five meters tall, covered in thick red-brown fur, with a tentacle-like appendage protruding from their chests. She pointed and whispered. “Not-buffalo.”

Cam turned to look and nodded. Then his eyes widened and he pointed. The water rippled in a “V” shape, approaching the shore and quickly building speed. Covering ten meters in a blink of an eye, one of the leviathans erupted from the water