“Do you think these guys were pros, or opportunists?” he asks.
I move over to the next guy. “Honestly, I’m thinking opportunists. Snatching us from the rave out in the open like that was risky, even with us drugged and helpless. And it doesn’t make sense that only one of them had a weapon when we found other guns in the cabin. Pros would have had weapons on them, even if they expected us to be zip-tied. And they didn’t bother tying us up again before taking us out of there. Those are rookie mistakes. But whatever. It made my job easier only having to deal with one armed asshat instead of three.”
Damon watches silently as I riffle through the guy’s wallet, then check to make sure his ID and face match. I find his phone and use his fingerprint to unlock it.
“Definitely an opportunist,” I say after checking a few things on the phone, including his map app so I can see where the fuck we are. “This isn’t a burner. He’s got a full gallery, contact list, texts, apps. No professional would do a job like this with their actual phone on them.”
“What are you doing?” he asks as I turn off the phone.
“Shutting it down so no one can ping their locations when we start moving.” I pull a set of keys out of his pocket and give them a little jingle. “Bingo.” I shove the keys in my pocket and do one more sweep of the body to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
“Do you know why they grabbed you?” he asks as I move over to the last guy and start patting him down. “I was a bit distracted with having a gun in my face while they were questioning us, but it didn’t sound like they knew who you really are. So it’s not like they knew they could get a ransom for you or anything like that.”
“From what I gathered from their questions, I think I made them suspicious by not acting like everyone else. They probably thought I was your bodyguard or security or something like that. I’m guessing they weren’t even planning on grabbing me and drugged me so I wouldn’t be a problem, but it probably trippedtheir Spidey sense when we went into the back room together, and they panicked.” My hand closes around another set of keys.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad my high ass decided to hit on you,” he says ruefully as I tuck the keys in my pocket. “I’m pretty sure they would have killed me the second I transferred them the money. So if you weren’t here, I’d be dead right now.”
“They probably would have,” I say as I stand and wipe my hands off on my pants. “But the good news is I don’t think they know who you are either.”
“What do you mean?”
“They only asked for your fee from the gig. If they knew how much you’re really worth, they would have asked for a hell of a lot more. They snatched you because you’re Helix, not because you’re Damon.”
He huffs out a soft laugh. “Yeah, that’s true. Although I’m not sure they would have been happy with the results if they tried to ransom me.” He glances at the ground and the bodies. “What are we going to do about them?”
“We’ll leave them here until we can get back to civilization. I know some people who’ll clean up the scene for us.”
“You know some people?” He arches one dark eyebrow as a hint of a smile ghosts over his lips. “And here I thought you were just a jock with an inflated rep.”
I grin and motion for him to follow me to where the cars are parked. “The best advantage you can have is people underestimating you.”
He falls into step beside me. “Isn’t that the truth.”
The parking area isn’t more than a cleared space big enough for three small vehicles off the dirt road that leads from the main road to the cabin. Crammed into it are an older model Toyota and a newer F150.
“Which one are we taking?” he asks, surveying the vehicles.
“That one.” I point to the Toyota. “A truck is more likely to get pulled over, and that’s a complication I don’t want to deal with right now.”
He watches as I walk up to the car and test the handle. It’s unlocked, and I pull the door open. Before I toss the bag in, I pop the glove box.
“Huh.”
“What?” Damon asks, coming up behind me.
“They cleared it.” I snap the box closed. “But that’s fine. They didn’t scratch out their VINs, so it’s not like we won’t be able to track them.” I nod to the truck. “Do you want to check the glove box and bed?”
He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and nods. I can tell he’s feeling unsure, but he also needs to feel useful so he doesn’t have time to think about what happened.
While he goes over to the truck, I pop the trunk of the car. I’m expecting it to be empty, but it’s full of black canvas bags.
“Damon?” I call.
“Yeah?”
“Come check this out.”
“What is it?” he asks as he comes to stand beside me. “Wait.” Carefully, he unzips one of the bags and looks inside, then huffs out a laugh. “Son of a bitch.”
