“Ten-four, boss man.”
Omar and I sneak onto the porch and approach the door. He grabs the picking tools from his pocket, making quick work of the lock.
Guns drawn, we steal into the dark cabin, where there are snores in the main room but a whimper from the bathroom. It’s pitch-black save for a few strips of light from the gap in the curtains, and he lays two fingers on my forearm. Two men in the room. One finger further up my forearm. One person in the bathroom.
Omar takes the man on the bed, and I take the man on the couch. We’re not trying to ruin the property owners’ things, so we keep it as bloodless as possible. Omar puts a .22 into his guy’s temple, no exit wound, and a tiny, nearly bloodless entry wound. I also have a suppressed .22, but I’ve got the younger guy in my hands and a likely victim whimpering in the bathroom. I wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze, breaking the hyoid bone almost immediately.
He wakes with a start, grabbing at my hands. I lean forward with my knee in his stomach and squeeze, watching the petechial hemorrhaging develop around his eyeballs. Fuck this motherfucker.
He’s fighting me, but I think I’ve got a good hold on him. That is, until the moment he gets just enough leverage under his feet to thrust his hips up. The move tosses me back from the couch, and I crash down onto the coffee table, landing on my hip.
“Anders!” Omar shouts, clearing the bed in one leap
The guy is scrambling for the door when Omar bashes him in the temple with the butt of his gun. It’s a clean hit, but the guy still has some fight left in him and rears back, catching Omar in the chin, opening up the skin.
Omar cups his chin to prevent blood transfer, and I take over, putting the gun to this asshole’s head and finally pulling the trigger.
Fuck, it’s what I should’ve done in the first place.
I grab my aluminum case, and Omar stares me down as I inject the serum around the wound. Yeah, I know I fucked up. The serum quickly stops the bleeding, and I grab a few Steri-Strips from my pack to keep the skin together.
Once I’ve got him taken care of, he bats away my hands and pulls down my waistband to inspect the hip I landed on. The bruises I got from the incredible dicking down he gave me are starting to merge with the beginnings of a bruise from landing on the coffee table. His jaw tightens, and he pins me with a glare.
“You could’ve been hurt.”
I’m about to protest, but we are interrupted by another moan from the bathroom. The immediate threats taken care of, he and I make our way over and rip open the door.
“Samuel, holy shit.”
I only recognize our rest stop friend from the dotwork bluebonnet on his wrist. He’s naked and beat to hell, and a deep cut mars his beautiful face. He’s tied to the showerhead, barely able to hold himself.
“I think you might’ve been right,” he says, his strained voice rich with sarcasm. “Picking up men at the rest stop turned out to be pretty fucking dangerous. Why are you here?”
“This is what we do,” I answer, cursing myself for not forcing him to come with us, for not realizing that even an hour out, he was in danger of these assholes.
Omar runs his blade through the bindings, and Samuel collapses in my arms. I hug him to me, whispering an apology in his ear. After a moment he can stand on his own, and Omar finds a cleanish robe for him to wear.
“Can you make it to our car?”
He nods, and we support him as we walk out to the SUV. I lay down towels and support him as he carefully climbs in the back seat.
“Why does it smell like poppers and burnt leather in here?”
Omar raises his eyebrow at me, and I bite off a laugh.
“Mistakes were made.”
Omar snorts. “I’ll say.”
We leave Samuel in the car and, one by one, stack the bodies in the back of the Land Rover.
Omar scratches his beard. “You sure you want to leave bodies on your family’s property?”
I chuckle, soooo looking forward to the body disposal. “Yep. One hundred percent.”
His suspicious look is making it hard for me to avoid laughing.
I grab my go kit with the medical supplies, then sit next to Samuel’s head, holding his shoulder. “Let me just make sure you’re stable so we can get you to the hospital.”
