Choosing Riley: Sarafin Warriors Book 1 by S. E. Smith Page B

position.
    *.*.*
    Riley screamed as two more guards fell. This
time not from her but from one of the escaped prisoners who decided
he wanted to take her with him. She raised her arm and fired on the
huge orange man again. He grunted but continued to creep toward her
even though he was bleeding from several places including where she
had just shot him in the shoulder.
    “Oh for crying out loud!” Riley snarled as
she aimed the pistol between his eyes. “Will you just fucking die
already!” She snapped out as she fired again. The huge orange
figured flew backwards landing on the growing pile of bodies
outside the door. This time, he didn’t get back up.
    Who the hell needs a door when I can just
make one out of dead bodies, she thought in disgust.
    Riley turned to slam her hand down on the
last button in frustration and anger. This one had been hidden
under a huge clear lid. The little nagging thought in her head that
maybe it was covered for a reason didn’t go off until the voice of
the automated system announced that the self-destruct had been
activated.
    “Well Shit-a-Brick!” Riley groaned in
despair.
    Tears filled her eyes as she watched as
another spaceship departed. There was only one left and it looked
like it had been left behind for a reason. She wasn’t even sure if
it could fly. Her hand pressed against the glass, her fingers
spread as she watched Cross, Banu, Bob, and Fred hurrying across
the landing bay toward the last spaceship. A moment later, she saw
Adur and Titus making their way up the tube as well. She must have
missed Vox, Tor, and Lodar. She was sure they had already escaped
in all the confusion.
    “Good luck, my strange friends,” Riley
whispered sadly as she watched them disappear. “I’m glad you are
getting away.”
    She pulled away from the glass. The sounds in
the background of the countdown seemed to match her heartbeat.
Riley stepped away pulling her purse and big, pink suitcase with
her as she moved over to the wall where she slid down until she was
sitting on the floor. She pulled her knees up to her chest and
smoothed her huge purse down against her side.
    Riley rolled the laser pistol in her hands
absently before taking a deep breath. She wasn’t going to wait
until the place exploded around her. If she was going to die, it
wasn’t going to be by having her head explode from decompressing in
space. No, she would take her own life in the last few seconds. A
quick blast to the heart and she wouldn’t feel the dark emptiness
that would become her tomb.
    “Hell Riley girl,” she whispered as tears
coursed down her cheeks. “You are really getting morbid. At least
it is better than being buried in concrete under the shed in
Righteous, New Mexico,” she giggled on the verge of hysteria. “Here
floats the body of Riley St. Claire from Denver, Colorado. She
forgot that the self-destruct button is always covered, the idiot!
So much for twenty-four years of good B-rated movies. This totally
sucks!” Riley groaned as she pulled the pistol so it was pressed
tightly against her chest. “I can’t believe with my family history
that I am probably the only female in the history of the St.
Claire’s to die a frigging virgin!” She sniffled sadly.
    She closed her eyes and drew in a shuddering
sob. She could do this, just don’t think about it. Instead, she
thought about the things that brought a warmth to her heart and
calmed her. Images shimmered into her mind as she thought back to
the things that really mattered to her. A wobbly smile curved her
lips as she remembered her Grandma Pearl laughing as she listened
to Riley telling her about her latest retorts to the bullies at
school while her Grandma wiped down the counter at the bar. She
thought about her sainted sister Tina rolling her big blue eyes at
her when their Grandma got called to school again because of Riley
fighting or mouthing off. She thought of Vox’s beautiful tawny eyes
glaring at her with hot desire as he tried to