1 | No Holds Barred [Among Thieves]

One

Chapter One | A Rock and a Hard Place

COLD. THAT'S THE FIRST thing you felt as you started to regain consciousness. Pain erupted above your right eyebrow and you place your hand to try and ease the pain, immediately regretting it as your dirty hand encountered raw skin. The wound stung as your hand touched the exposed wound.

        Well, that's going to be a bitch later . . .

        All you could focus on was the flickering light fixture above you swinging. Having no idea how long you've been out, you tried to make sense of what happened, but it all seemed a mess in your mind.

        "What the hell happened?"

        Looking at your surroundings, you noticed you were on a train. Curtains lining the shattered windows had been ripped and torn. You tilted your head to the left, feeling a strong breeze blow past you, and spotted a snowy cliff outside. That's weird, you thought, observing the oddly shaped rock. The cliff looks like it's—

        Suddenly, everything came back to you at once. Lazarević. The mercenaries. Chloe. Lieutenant Draza. The Phurba dagger. Harry shooting Nathan. Setting off an explosion that caused several carriages of the train to derail and crash down a cliff, with you and him inside.

        "Ah shit."

        The train wasn't on its side; it was hanging off a cliff. And at any moment the train could plummet down into the mountains below, bringing you with it.

        Your heart started pounding at an increasingly rapid pace and you tried to move up, but your seatbelt wouldn't budge. Frantically, you jiggled the buckle, hoping for it to unlock, but the damn thing wouldn't come off.

        "Dammit!" You leaned your head back in frustration and looked to your right, eyes landing on the familiar figure sitting in the seat next to you. "Nathan!"

        Turning to him, you reached out to shake his shoulder. "Nate, wake up."

        Nathan slowly woke up groggy, disoriented and confused as he stared at you. He held his head and groaned, "What's going on?" He looked down and noticed his hands were covered in blood and he's wounded in the stomach, "That's my blood . . . That's my blood, that's a lot of my blood . . ."

        A cracking sound echoed through the train. Tearing your gaze away from him, you searched for the sound and saw an emergency kit dangling a few seats away from you and Nathan. It broke away from its handle and headed straight for Nathan. "Watch out!"

        He quickly ducked to the side as the kit and an oil drum flew past the both of you. You looked over your shoulder, seeing the oil drum falling out the back of the train behind you.

        "Oh God," Nathan shouted as his chair started to break away. He jumped out of his seat and grabbed hold of the edge of your seat as his seat fell.