Truehearts & The Escape From Pirate Moon Jake Macklem (classic romance novels TXT) 📖

He suddenly recognized the sound. “They shot the ships mag guns! Why would they do that?” Cam asked as he casually picked up his rifle.

“Cause they’re pirates. They like to shoot and kill stuff. It’s what pirates do.” Ace picked up two backpacks. One was jammed full, bulging at the seams. The other was only half-full but she was very careful about moving it.

Cam strolled across the chamber to the small back-entrance, opposite where Ace had just arrived. “That’s just wasteful and cruel.”

Ace hurried to the stacked circle in the middle of the chamber. “Yeah, ‘cause pirates are usually so conscientious and kind.”

“The Not-buffalo aren’t gonna hurt them. It’s just… It’s evil.” Cam stopped and stashed a backpack in the shooting blind he had set up near the smaller opening. He set his coffee down on his shooting bench. “That really burns my backside.”

“Whoa, Cowboy, you don’t want your boys hearing you talk like that,” Ace jabbed.

He set his gun down and looked at her. “You’re right, the boys shouldn’t hear me talk like that, but sometimes I just get so angry, I…” He paused. “You were making fun of me, weren’t you?”

Ace turned so he could not see her grin. “No. I don’t know if I could survive the verbal abuse that would incur.”

They heard the ship land, the ramp drop, and shouting. Ace took her position behind the metal crates, hidden from the main entrance where the pirates would enter but still in Cam’s line of sight.

He took position behind his rigged shooting bench, chambered a round, and checked his line of fire through the scope of his rifle. “You sure you want to do this, Red? I mean… you don’t have to be the bait.” He took a sip of coffee.

Ace looked thoughtfully at her metal spike. “It’s a good plan. Just stick to it and we’ll get off this rock right now.”

Ain’t never met someone like her. She knows this is it. If we don’t get off this moon right now, it ain’t gonna happen. Cam ran his tongue along his teeth. “Well then, see you on the ship, Red.”

Ace locked eyes with him from her cover and gave a single nod. “See you on the ship, Cowboy.”

Cam watched the pirates shuffle down the tunnel. They were armed with a selection of small sidearms and a couple of combat rifles. Entering the chamber, they let loose with whistles and sounds of awe.

“What a haul.”

“We’ll be set for a while.”

“Captain done good.”

The ten men chattered and spread out into the chamber, examining the corners and ceiling. “Captain said to watch for the spider-things.”

One of the crewmen looked at a group of boxes. “Some of these are opened.”

“Aye, some here too,” another barked. “Someone check out that circle of crates. I don’t remember that.”

Two of the crewmen with laser pistols up, ready to fire, veered toward the center of the chamber. Creeping closer, they scanned for danger. One walked around the outside of the circle while the other moved through the small opening near the pillars.

Through the scope, Cam watched Ace grab the pirate’s gun hand at the wrist and chop the edge of her other palm into his throat.

Ouch. I know how much that hurts.

Grabbing the pirate by his head, Ace spun his head around and tossed the falling body behind the crates. Damn. One down, nine to go.

The other crewman turned toward the sounds. “What was that? You okay?”

Taking a few steps forward, Ace grabbed the next pirate’s shooting arm. Using his body as a set of stairs and his arm for balance, she flipped over him, ripping his arm out of the socket. The crewman fell backward screaming as Ace landed, holding his laser pistol.

Unbelievable. Dislocated that arm for sure.

The remaining pirates turned to see Ace charging toward a group on the west side of the chamber while firing the laser pistol at the pirates on the east side, the beams taking them low, piercing their legs but not killing. One of the east side pirates opened fire while she sprinted. She focused her fire at him and a beam of light seared through his kneecap. He cried out and as he fell, kept firing his gun, bullets tearing through his nearby comrades, splattering blood and brain across the cave. The last east side pirate stared at his dead friends that he killed; his anger boiled as he aimed at Ace. “You tart!”

Language son! Cam’s rifle cracked and the pirate’s gun hand exploded, his auto-pistol spinning across the floor of the cavern. Aghast and in agony the wounded man stared at his bloody stump and wailed.

Ace had closed the distance to the other trio of goons. They spun around and fired, but she slid across the ground, the beams and bullets flying over her. Grabbing a leg of the nearest pirate, she yanked and he fell forward, instinctively reaching out, his pistol still firing. The bullets bounced off the iron ground in sparks. He landed on his face and did not move.

You might have to get your nose fixed.

Still moving, she grappled the arms of the closest scallywag, pinning his weapon arm behind him and pulling him off balance. Adding his weight and momentum to her own, she hurled him sidelong into another thug.

As both men crashed to the ground, Ace was already launching herself off a nearby crate. Gliding through the air, she led with her elbow and felt his sternum crack, a scream gurgling from his throat. More shots rang out as the last two crewmen still on their feet, opened fire. Bullets ricocheted, spitting dirt and iron fragments into the air.

The pirate she had knocked down with his own mate stood again, shaking his head and raising his pistol. Ace darted behind