Wow. I looked at Relay with appreciation. “So you pretty muchcouldfix this yourself.”
“He could,” Drifter said, “but patching people up is my job now.”
“You’re doing a shit job,” Relay muttered. He had his head tilted back and his eyes were closed, as though he was going to take a little nap in the middle of this.
“Everyone’s a fucking critic,” Drifter grumbled. “This doesn’t look too bad. Apparently you’re just a bleeder.”
“Fuck off.”
“Let’s use the strips,” I suggested, handing over a sterile cloth so he could wipe away some of the blood.
“Yeah. I’ll sew him up once we get him back to the compound.”
My eyebrows rose. “Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?”
“No hospitals,” Relay snapped.
“No,” both OD and Drifter said in unison.
I looked between the three of them. “Why not?”
“Too many questions,” OD replied. “If we came in for every scrape and bruise we couldn’t utilize the hospitals for the really urgent stuff.”
I considered a bullet going through a thigh pretty urgent, but no one here seemed to agree, so I closed my mouth and helpedDrifter patch Relay up enough to get him out of here. We’d agreed before leaving the clubhouse that we’d bring my bag of supplies, and that I would carry it, leaving Drifter free to ‘engage the threat’, his words, not mine.
“Let me know when he’s ready to transport,” OD told Drifter.
“We didn’t need to fucking stop to begin with,” Relay snapped. “I told you both that.”
“We’re not dragging you out of here bleeding everywhere,” OD told him, patient as ever with the grumpy man on the ground.
I realized then that I had no idea what OD had done in the military. I needed to ask him later. Now wasn’t the time.
Drifter snapped off a glove. “We can go. He’s stable and can move.”
“Merc can carry him,” Overdrive said with a malicious grin in Relay’s direction.
“Try it and see what happens,” Relay warned, baring his teeth at his brothers.
“Is The Collective still out there?” I asked.
“The guys back here with us are dead,” Relay answered.
“We’re not sure what’s waiting out front for us,” OD explained. “We need to take this slow and easy.”
Slow seemed to be their motto. Only they didn’t really move slow. They just moved fluidly. They flowed out the doors and around obstacles as though they were water cutting a path to the sea.
“Fuckers locked us in here,” Code said from ahead of us.
I had one of Relay’s arms around my shoulders. He wasn’t complaining that a woman was helping him walk. Probably because his brothers were busy making sure no one got the drop on us.
He was right. The lights were all off except the emergency lights that needed to remain on and the front doors weren’topening. “This is a franchise,” I said in disgust. “They don’t even close for another three hours.”
“Can’t exactly have people shooting up your warehouse while customers shop,” OD said with an amused grin. “They must’ve shut it down right after we came through the doors.”
“Stupid fucking plan,” Hype said with a roll of his eyes.
“Why’s that?” Code asked.
