Okay, there was a clear trail to follow, she could easily—

No, Jason was the priority, and odds are that man was contacting his fellow assholes to regroup and either try to continue the job, or write it off as a bust after she killed… Fuck, she lost count how many it was now. Not important, Jason. Focus.

She turned, eyes falling on the body, and briefly the thought of looting him came to mind. There wasn’t enough time, even if she needed the ammo. She ejected her current magazine, swapping it with the one in her pocket just to be safe and hurried back to Jason.

“Come on, kid,” she said, holding out her hand. “Let’s get you out of here.” He looked up, his eyes barely focused, looking almost through her. He blinked, then nodded mutely and reached out, accepting her help. She knelt down and draped his arm over her shoulder; Jason’s legs were unstable to walk on, he was likely experiencing shock from shooting someone. “Probably won’t help much, but you didn’t kill him. He ran away.”

“Are you lying?” he asked, knowing his movie tropes well enough to guess at what she might be doing.

“Nope,” Ashe said, wishing her head wasn’t practically swimming from all the chaos and her now crashing adrenaline. “Part of why we need to move. After all that I am in no mood to fight more of his insane friends.”

Jason chuckled lightly, letting himself be helped up. He didn’t appear to be bleeding, but that was never a sure sign. Regardless, they needed to be moving thirty seconds ago. Once he was upright, Ashe patted his shoulder and moved, crossing the junction at speed, gun aimed down the path the mad had taken briefly before she came up to the sealed door.

As soon as Jason caught up, she released the latch and shoved it open, pulling him to the side of it with her. No gunshots followed, so she tentatively leaned around, and found the man who was supposed to be guarding it already detained by the man she had borrowed the ID from.

“Fuck are you a sight for sore eyes,” she said, letting out a breath that was part relief, and mostly disgust, only to have him pull his own gun on her. She immediately pulled herself back around the corner, and if anyone asked if she had actually squeaked, she would deny it to her dying breath. “I have Jason Ellington, he’s safe!”

“Prove it,” the man said.

“Prove to me you aren’t with those that tried to murder the both of us,” she countered.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” another said. “Jim, stop being a prick. Girl, get your ass out here before someone else does something stupid.”

Ashe hated that she was essentially having to trust a Patriot, but she didn’t have much choice and had the luxury of seeming to be one of their own. Tentatively, she poked her head out again, no longer finding a gun aimed her way, then stepped around the corner, gun still held in her hand, but loosely at her side instead.

True enough, the people around her were all generally recognizable as those that had helped her earlier in the day. Several of them were even eyeing her with what seemed to be concern. Oh, right. She had a bloodied bandage around her arm.

“Jason, I think it’s safe,” she said, waving her pistol slightly.

He stepped up behind her, almost sheepishly, and everyone present let out a collective breath at the sight of the Ellington heir safe and sound. Only then did she finally let herself relax. Even as the tension of the high stress situation left her body, she could feel the pounding of a headache setting in, and holy hell did her arm hurt.

“We have a first aid station outside,” the familiar man said.

Ashe chuckled, then winced. “I regret hitting up the taco truck for lunch. Not sure what was worse, the gunshot or what that burrito did to my guts.”

“That is completely fair,” he answered with a laugh. “Come on, Jason should be safe with the others and you look like hammered shit.”

“Ah, one second,” she said, turning back to Jason who was being fussed over by another of the security guys. She flicked the safety of her gun and tucked it into her belt before walking over to the kid, and pulled him into a hug which had him freeze in place. With her mouth that close to his ear, nobody else was likely to hear her whisper, “you’ve never met me, you don’t know my name, and call Crystal asap to let her know we’re both okay. Oh, and sorry for this next part.”

She then pulled back and kissed his cheek, winking at him. “You did damn good back there. A real badass. I’m sure your father is quite proud of you.”

Someone wolf whistled, and she figured that she had done her part to help get that homophobic bastard off his back for a bit, because there was no way that the gossip hounds that tended to work event security would be able to resist telling the headliner all about what they just saw. And besides, he had done a good job when the chips were down. She would probably be dead if he hadn’t taken those shots, even if they weren’t aimed to kill.

“Feeling sweet on the kid?” the man asked. She should probably learn his name, just to be safe, but that felt like it was taking things a step too far. “You’re probably going to be the subject of all his fantasies for months.”

Fat chance of that, but no need to voice it. “He’s what, sixteen?”

“Seventeen,” he corrected. She knew his age, but it would further obfuscate her identity if she acted as though she didn’t know. “Thinking about robbing the cradle a bit there?”

She shrugged. “I turned eighteen a few months back, so it wouldn’t be that bad.”

He turned, giving Ashe a look that sent a shiver of revulsion down her spine. “Don’t be surprised if the Senator doesn’t reach out to you then. There’s been a few unsavory rumors about the kid that he would love to see dispelled.”

“Hadn’t heard any of those,” she said. No need to add fuel to the fire. “I wasn’t lying, he saved my ass back there, and it’s rare to find a guy that isn’t a little chicken shit when bullets start flying.”

The look she got from that statement was much more calculating. “You seem remarkably composed for someone who was almost killed moments ago.”

“Not the first time I’ve been shot at,” she admitted. “Though it was the first time it was by my own people.”

Playing the part was exhausting, but she had to do what was necessary.

“Maybe keep that part to yourself,” he said quietly. “We don’t need that getting out when we’re already struggling to get good press on the national stage.”

“I can do that,” Ashe said, lying through her teeth.

She followed the man outside, and paused in her steps at the sight of dozens of flashing lights in the distance. Suddenly slipping away felt like a much more daunting task than she anticipated, especially after just attending the picnic and reminding most of the officers what she looked like. Sure, her makeup work would help, but that only went so far.

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“Oh good, the ambulances are already here,” he said, stopping just ahead of her on the edge of the half full parking lot. “We can get you looked at before the media hounds descend on you. Luckily for us, those present were all vetted by Ellington himself, we can trust them to actually tell the truth.”

She swallowed heavily, her throat dry at the thought of someone figuring out who she was, and the mess that would come from that. Her being trans wasn’t even the most damning secret she had, if Alejandro saw her being championed as a savior to the Ellingtons, he wouldn’t hesitate to blow the lid on everything. That or use it to blackmail her into his services, for as much as he played at being insane, he was anything but.

Which might make him the most dangerous player in the city, and that was including Ellington and his presidential aspirations.

Her escort started walking again, cutting through the rows of cars and failing to confirm she was keeping up. Ashe pounced on the opening, turning down a different row of cars and ducked down so she would be harder to spot. She had maybe minutes, more likely seconds, to get away before the police established a proper cordon and secured the scene. She needed to be as far as possible before that happened.

For the moment, they didn’t seem to be aware of the situation, which meant the Patriots were playing things close at the moment. That gave her a slight edge, and she was going to take advantage. Her vision was starting to waver, which didn’t suggest good things for her general health. Between the blood loss and adrenaline crash, she was on borrowed time before she just dropped. She took a moment to pull out her phone and sent a message that she needed immediate extraction. Jessica should have done so already, but she didn’t want to take the chance.

Then, dogs started to bark and Ashe’s heart dropped into her stomach.

So much for having time. She legged it, moving as quickly as her weary limbs would carry her, each step being matched by a dull throb in her skull and a darkening in the corners of her vision. She doubled back towards the convention center, circling away from the police on the scene and towards one of the ponds nearby. It was all artfully decorated, the landscape carefully sculpted to look pleasing to the eye.

She hoped that it would also shield her from prying ones.

The shrubs weren’t native, that much was obvious up close, the small pond even had a little fountain in the middle of it, spraying water up into the air in basic patterns. Ashe took a moment to catch her breath, shielded as she was. She wobbled in place, and braced against a tree, hating every second of it all.

Maybe she should rethink her current career path, maybe venture into something safer, like professional wingsuit jumps, off of cliffs. Ashe knew she was taking a risk, she didn’t have the luxury of an extended break. She pushed off the tree, then froze as something rustled nearby. She muttered a curse to herself as she grew her pilfered gun, then began to back away from the noise.

“Think we’re safe?” a man grumbled, voice deep.

Ashe’s breath caught in her throat and she clutched the gun tighter, her numb fingers tingling as her heart thundered in the back of her skull and out her ears. She was dimly aware of a tremor in her injured arm as she focused her building anger on the new threat that had just fallen in her lap.

“Fuck no,” another said, grunting in pain. “Damn that bitch and twink did a number on me. I thought he was a pussy ass nobsucker.”

“He was,” the first said. “It was the cunt that did the heavy lifting. Where the hell did they even find her?”

“No clue,” the second answered. “We can deal with her later, there’s no way she doesn’t bask in the praise of saving the brat, we can off her after the heat dies down.”

The first guy grunted, stepping out into view for a brief moment, and Ashe recognized him as the bastard that killed Lily. “Seems a waste, to kill someone that dedicated to the cause that they would risk life and limb for their leader’s family. He might even hire her for security.”

“She saw our faces,” the man that got away said, joining his buddy behind a hedge out of view. “Plus, none of the other boys made it here, so I’m thinking she got them too. Bitch dies slow for that, loyal or not.”

A snarl crept onto Ashe’s lips, the audacity galled her. They were there to kill Jason for being gay, they wanted her dead because she had impeded their goal, and planned to hunt her down for it. Worse, the fucker that had killed one of her girls had survived their encounter.

And to top it off, they didn’t know she was right there, ready to tie off a few loose ends.

Her breath slowly let out, and she stepped forward, gun held close to her chest for close quarters. She made sure there was no debris that might make a noise that might alert them as she walked around the hedge. She couldn’t see them through it, and she wasn’t about to fire blind and give them a chance to flee.

Ashe reached the edge, taking steady breaths, letting it flow through her just as her instructors had taught, then she let it out and moved. She spun quickly, sand kicking up as she brought the gun up, aimed, and snapped off two shots. Lily’s killer went down like a rock, an undignified end to an honorless bastard.

Or he would have if the second hadn’t ducked behind his collapsing form and began to push himself, and his meat shield towards her. Ashe kept firing, trying to hit the man, but the corpse just soaked it up, and then barreled her over, the full weight of the grown man slamming her to the ground and her breath was driven out of her lungs by the impact.

The injured man looked down at her, grinning in a rictus of a smile as he drew back his fist. Ashe bucked her hips, shifting the weight of the entire pile, the man stumbled to the side and she brought the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

It didn’t fire.

She had just enough time to realize it had misfired in the tumble, a casing jammed in the chamber. There was a single beat of a moment where they both looked blankly into each other’s eyes, then flew into motion. He punched her rib just as she cracked the gun over his head. She wheezed, while he grunted and rolled away.

Ashe pushed the body off her, now thoroughly drenched in blood, and tried to push herself up. A sharp crack against her gut sent her tumbling, the man now upright. She let the tumble turn into a recovery, or tried her best to. She came up on one knee off balance, the man stomping towards her. She was panting, each breath aching as though she were dying.

Maybe she was.

He went for another kick, Ashe moved aside, wrapping her arms around his extended leg and dropped, twisting with the motion and brought him down to the sand with her in a squawking cry. She was gasping, everything burning with each desperate breath as Ashe forced herself to move.

He too was getting up, far faster than she was, so she reached back into her pouch, drawing the second gun and didn’t waste time aiming. She fired, hitting him somewhere near his hip, and her gun was out of ammunition. Snarling, Ashe forced herself upright, grimacing as her whole body trembled with raw nerves.

Just this once, she might dip into her oxy stash.

Which was in her room, at home, with her police officer parents that would ask way too many damn questions. Well, Crystal probably had something she could take, hopefully not too addictive. Ashe gripped her arm as she hobbled towards him, she ejected the magazine, fumbling for the partial one in her pocket, which was missing.

God fucking dammit.

He staggered forward, and she barely saw the glint of the knife before it pierced her stomach. Her elbow lashed out, catching him above the eye. She thanked whoever was listening that he hadn’t pulled the knife out with the motion, then kicked the man hard enough that he rolled, and he kept rolling to put some distance between them.

She tried to stagger after him, but she didn’t have the energy, instead she tumbled forward and splayed in the loose sands as she watched the man clutching at his hip, his hair brushing the water behind him.

Her vision was pulsing, the black encroaching just a bit more with each beat of her heart. She was spent, her limits long behind her and bleeding out in a ditch somewhere. Worse, the fucker still didn’t seem to be done, rolling off his back and beginning to force himself up. He didn’t seem to be much better off than she was, but given her current state, Ashe knew she had lost this one.

He got an arm under his chin, pushing himself upright. Water churned violently, something lunging forth and snapping over the man’s leg. Ashe could only blink, watching in disbelief as a fucking alligator thrashed and pulled him into the water even as he frantically tried to stab at the gator. It was over, and all she could do was watch as the gator pulled the man back into the water.

Ashe could only laugh at the incredulity of the situation as she tumbled over and stared up into the clear blue skies. It was oddly peaceful, even though she could hear the gator thrashing with its meal just feet away. The pain was barely there anymore, which she was thankful for as the darkness took her.