"Easy. That was the rough bit." Not counting the fact that he's sitting on a chair packed with explosives. While I loosen the leads, I keep him engaged with questions. "You alright? Hurt anywhere?"
"No. I don't—I don't think so." He shakes his head, then swallows. "Jesus, they shot Travis in the face." He nods his head backwards and to the side, showing me the body.
Fuck, that's a shame. I would’ve made it more painful.
The last leash falls to the floor. "Alright, let's get you outta here. Don't look back, okay? We're just gonna walk through the next room and out the front door. Cool?"
He nods eagerly, not looking any more interested in looking behind him than I'm interested in him seeing it. Fuck, this kid'sgonna need a shrink after this. His legs wobble as he gets up, but I keep him steady.
"You're gonna be okay. Is Sandra here?"
"No—no, they took her. In case you didn't take the bait, they didn't—fuck—they didn't want to lose their leverage. I don't know where they took her, though. They just decided that they didn't need me and figured the place was going to blow up anyway. At least from what I overheard." He's starting to ramble a little. "Oh God, they took her, and—Wait! There was another guy. Travis shot him I think."
“Shit. Where?”
Carl points to one of the kennels where the door is partly open. “There.”
“Okay, buddy. I’m going to go look. Just focus on breathing.” I’m imagining the worst, and I find it.
Spike is on the ground face down in a pool of his own blood. It looks like he got shot somewhere high in his shoulder or neck. In the right spot it’s easy to recover, half an inch in either direction though…
I put my hand on Spike’s neck looking for a pulse. He makes a weak, pained noise at my touch and a little bit of anxiety unspools. “Hey. Shitty day so far isn’t it? But you’re not dead yet, so things might still look up.” He either laughs, or is choking on his own blood. Could be both. “I’m gonna have to pick you up, man. Sorry if it hurts like a bitch but the whole place is rigged with C4 and that’s harder to heal than a bullet wound.”
There’s no response this time, but I can still feel his pulse so the kid’s got a chance. As carefully as I can, I swing him into a fireman’s carry and get back to Carl.
“Is he…?”
“Still breathing. For the moment at least. But you’re going to have to walk out on your own two feet. You good?”
Carl nods.
Together we reach the front door. I push it open and immediately Beast and Piston spin to face us, ready to draw. "Just me," I call out. "I’ve got Carl and Spike. The whole shelter is rigged with C4, but I got the detonator. Couple bodies in the back, two goons behind the shelter and Travis inside. They got Sandra."
Beast nods. "C4, huh? Not fucking around. Do we know who it is?"
I help Spike lean against the side of Jerry's car, but I’m asking Carl. "Did you hear anything?"
"I don't know. They said something about you guys killing some guy named Zeke and that they were after revenge." He closes his eyes and slides down the side of the car until he's crouched against it. "Jesus," he whimpers. "Jesus fucking Christ."
Poor kid. This isn't his scene. Shouldn't be anyone's scene. I look at the others. "The Bloodmoney boys then. Fuck, we should've iced the whole bunch of them, instead of stopping with Zeke. Now at least one more of them is dead, and on the bright side they did us a favor and made a fucking mess of Travis's head."
Piston points at the road. "Well, we got a clue as to where to go. Someone was parked here with an oil leak and the drops go thatway. No idea if it's gonna be enough to catch up to them, but they hang out here in the Ditch. As long as they haven't gone too far, we might have a chance."
“I might be able to do one better. I enabled location sharing on her phone the other night." I turn to Jerry. “Alright. It’s your time to shine. I’ve got one shell-shocked college student and a biker who may or may not bleed out before you can get him back to the compound. I’m going to call ahead so there’s someone waiting to take him. Just bring both of them to the compound and they’ll get taken care of.
Jerry nods. "Sure. Of course. How you doing, Carl? Let’s get everyone in the car and then you can tell me all about whatever it is you study. Sandy mentioned you’re really passionate about it." He pats Carl gently on the shoulder.
They pull out a minute later.
I check my map. Sure enough, there’s a dot for Sandra and it’s not that far. “Gotcha.”
34
SANDRA
There's little moreterrifying than not being able to see a thing. Especially when you know that your captors have no compunctions about killing you if things don't go their way. I won't have a chance.
As far as I can tell, I'm in the back of a van. No seats, just hard floor, and every turn I get tossed around since I don't even know it's coming with the blindfold on. I wedged myself into the corner as best as possible and all I can do is try to minimize turning into a pinball.
