Looking over my shoulder, I saw him standing there, arms crossed. Warrant, Scythe, and Demo were all but dragging Owen out from underneath the bridge. I was relieved they’d found him. I needed to get over there to look him over. He was on his feet, though he looked unsteady as hell.
“Has to be the Ecstasy,” Rotor said, pulling my attention back to the conversation.
The guy’s glassy eyes fixed on Rotor. “H-how do you know about the Ecstasy?” he asked with a sob. The pain was really setting in for him now.
Cypher cut Rotor a look that had our brother shutting his mouth in a hurry. “What about the Ecstasy?”
The guy swallowed, giving me a nervous look. He motioned to a vehicle with a dead guy inside it. “Dan there was supposed to take it to Idaho. Get it into the hands of the distributor. Dolan needed the funds to…” He broke off his eyes darting around to each of us.
“To come after us,” Jury answered.
“Too late now,” Cypher said with a malicious smile. “We’re finishing this tonight. You don’t take one of our own and get away with it. How many men does Dolan have with him?”
“T-twenty, maybe. You guys have taken out a lot of the forces. That’s why he needed the money.” He started to shake.
I grabbed a needle and a bottle from my bag, loaded the syringe, and jabbed him before depressing the plunger.
“Pain meds?” Jury asked.
“Adrenaline.” I looked over at Cypher. “You have about eight minutes to get your information before his heart explodes.”
“Shit, Pyre. You could’ve given me more time,” Cypher replied with a scowl.
“His body’s wearing out faster than I expected.” I shrugged. “He must be hyped up on amphetamines of some sort.” Stuffing his foot in my bag, I shoved to my feet and went over to check on Owen. If this guy was giving us all this information, then he probably hadn’t lied about the old mill after all. Cypher would find out either way. No one was better at dragging information out of people. Half the time you didn’t even know you were spilling your guts to him until it was over and you were left wondering what the hell had just happened. He was that good.
“He seems mostly okay,” Warrant said as I walked up. “He’s been awake for a bit, but said he couldn’t get up. Tried a couple of times and ended up on his ass. He wanted to go look for Rae.”
I knelt down and shone my small pen light back and forth in front of his eyes. “He’s got a pretty severe concussion. Quit moving around,” I told him as he shifted as though he was going to stand. “Pretty sure that bullet fractured your temporal bone.”
He looked at me with shock. “What the hell does that mean?”
“That you’re one lucky motherfucker. The fact that you’re alive is nothing short of a miracle…and bad aim.” I probed gently at the gash on the side of his head. The graze was deep enough to have hit bone, but must have rebounded off rather than digging in, resulting in his confusion and disorientation.
“I don’t even know how I ended up under that bridge,” he admitted. “I woke up under a pile of branches and leaves.”
“Rae,” Scythe said, looking over at me. “She must’ve been trying to hide him.”
“Is she okay?” Owen asked, sitting up straighter, then swaying as the motion caught up to him.
“Sit back,” I said, shoving him until he was supported by the tire of the cage once more. “Last thing we need is you falling and hitting your head with a fucking fracture already in that thickskull of yours.” Speaking to the others, I said, “He needs to go to the hospital.”
The men were quiet so I looked over my shoulder. They were all staring at Ainsley. She sighed. “Fine. I’ll take him.” She met my gaze. “You’ll find Rae?”
I nodded. “I won’t let anything happen to her.” It was one thing to say the words, but I was just hoping I wasn’t too fucking late.
“Cynic, Torque, go with Ainsley and Owen,” Cypher said from somewhere off to the side.
“Where are the deputies?” Jury asked.
“Still dealing with all the dead bodies we left up the road. They’re going to be here any minute though to look for Owen,” Scythe responded. “We should get going.”
“Take it slow on the road,” I told Ainsley. “He doesn’t need to be jostled a lot right now. Could make shit worse.”
She nodded as Cynic and Torque helped Owen into the vehicle. “Let me know once you find her. Please.”
It wasn’t hard to see that she loved Rae. I was glad my woman had a group of great friends. I frowned thinking of the rest of their group. If they knew Rae was out here I’d never hear the end of it. Hell, they’d show up at the old mill to try to rescue her themselves. “Don’t tell anyone where we’re going,” I warned her.
She rolled her eyes. “I know better than to tell the deputies that you’re about to go kill a bunch more people. Although after you just plowed through a horde of people they might be able to piece that together on their own.”
