The man went cross-eyed before his gun fell from his hand. It hit the deck, clattering around before settling onto its side, and the damn thing was still cocked. I kicked it with my foot, being careful not to set off the trigger as I watched it slide right into the ocean. Then, I turned back toward the man with the unfocused eyes and blew a puff of air in his face.
Before I watched him fall right onto his back.
“Oof,” Bender said as he approached my side.
I peered down at the man and watched as his breathing slowed to a complete stop. “Hey, Viper?”
“Yeah?”
I looked up and turned my head, as if it were on a swivel. “Got another body for you.”
“Where?”
“In front of me on the dock.”
Bender patted my shoulder. “I’ll wait for Viper. We need to start offloading these girls, though.”
I shook my head. “Not until that body is discarded. Angel?”
“I still don’t have the bus in my scopes, but she should still be ten minutes out from that point.”
I drew in the smoke-tainted air around us before I turned on my heels and made my way back to the container. “Ladies?”
They all looked up at me with fear in their eyes, but none of them said anything.
“Listen up,” I said as I raised my hand, “my name is Fangs, and there’s a woman by the name of Nadia that is headed here with a bus. There are going to be two mean-looking men with her, but they’re on our side. They’re coming to keep you safe while we get you transported from the docks to a shelter where you’ll be showered, fed, clothed, and given a bed to sleep on until further notice.”
“Really?” a small voice asked.
Despite the girls—32 of them, to be exact—being crammed into that small-ass container, they parted without a second thought, and I watched as a very young woman, possibly no older than twenty, walked bravely to the forefront. She had her head held high and her back straight, even though she had such stark ligature marks around her neck that I longed to resurrect Bullet just so I could kill the motherfucker myself.
And as she came to stand in front of me, she cleared her throat. “Are you really taking us to safety? Or are you just telling us that so you can shove us off elsewhere to be crammed into yet another container?”
My eyebrows raised. “Is that what those men did to you? Promised you safety?”
“Among other things.”
I bent down and placed my hands on my knees so that my gaze was level with hers. “Read my face as I speak: we are actually taking you to safety. All of you are going to get a hot shower, a hot meal, and a warm bed until you guys can figure out what comes next. The women’s shelter in town has many resources that—mmph.”
The young woman threw her arms around my neck and sobbed. She cried into my shoulder, trembling against me as her fingertips curled into the meat of my back. I looked around, searching for Bender or someone else I could pass her off to. But instead, I heard Reaper’s voice in my ear with another shred of advice from the most amazing woman that couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
“Julia says to hug the girl, for fuck’s sake.”
So, I gave both of the women what they wanted.
“I’ve got Nadia in my sights,” Angel said.
“Thank fuck,” Bender murmured.
“All right, everyone,” I said as I released the young, crying woman, “your ride is here. File off safely, okay? There’s room for everyone on the bus.”
I expected chaos. I expected round two the second those women funneled their way onto the docks. But instead, there was nothing. There were no men lurking in the shadows, ready to kill all of us to cover up their tracks. There were no bikes revving off in the distance, signaling people trying to get away. As quickly as the fighting had started, it had ceased, and I watched as Angel appeared at Nadia’s side.
Before he took her into his arms and kissed her.
“All right, already,” I said as I approached them with a grin spread across my cheeks, “let’s get these women to safety, shall we?”
Nadia peeked over Angel’s shoulder and giggled as she spoke. “You leave them to me. I’ll see to it that they get to where they want to be going.”
