“Yeah?”
“Fuck off,” he murmured before he disappeared around the corner.
Yeah, I had to go find Brutus.
Pronto.
I doubled-downed my search, going so far as to check the room off at the back of the safehouse that he claimed for himself. Not that they spent much time here, anyway. Part of me wondered if they were going to have to leave soon. If they were still entrusting the care of this safehouse and the women inside of it to me and my brother and his crew. But when I didn’t find Brutus in his room, or in the bathroom, or in the living room with the woman he saved, I searched the only other place I knew he might be.
Standing at the picture window that looked out over the backyard of the safehouse.
“Already done the patrol around the house?” I asked as I stepped up beside him.
“You better not have pickles,” he grumbled.
I had to bite down onto the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “Nope. No pickles. Ran out.”
“Good,” he grumbled. But then after a bit of a pause, he nodded. “Yeah, patrol’s done.”
I nodded as I gazed out the window, still trying to bury my grin. “Not much space to patrol here. Not like Doc’s fancy mansion or whatever.”
I watched his reflection in the window as he shrugged.
“So…” I sighed as I continued watching out the window, “Cap not a fan of the rescue?”
His gaze flickered over to me in the reflection before he cleared his throat. “Not a fan of the fact that I didn’t consider that she could have been a plant.”
I nodded slowly. “Aaahhh.”
I tilted my head as I continued gazing out the window. The safehouses my brother and his crew used were always out in the middle of nowhere but backed up enough that it would take time to scout out the area thoroughly enough without getting caught. For instance, this safehouse. While it backed up to a thicket of forestry that surrounded two sides of the damned place, the other side had an abandoned building next to it. Together, it created a sort of funnel that would be easy to take advantage of.
Which meant it was easy to watch.
“I’m glad you made it back safely,” I blurted out.
Not sure why the fuck I blurted it out, but there it was.
I watched his reflection in the window turn toward me, his gaze casting down toward the top of my head.
“What?” I asked with a shrug as I pulled my stare away from the scenery and looked up at him. “Would you rather me say, ‘too bad you’re not dead’?”
The sound that escaped his lips was something between a grunt and a chuckled huff. I wanted to believe it was a dry little chuckle. That I managed to get the big boy to breathe easier for a second. But that could’ve also been me stroking my own ego.
Hey, someone had to do it.
“Remember, we still aren’t done!” Doc exclaimed through the safehouse. “When she’s clean, we need to continue with her appointment!”
I heard my brother’s heavy footfalls storming down the hallway toward us. “Got it, Doc! Now shut up so I can think!”
The woman’s whimper hit my ears as my brother broached the T-intersection of the hallway. He looked down to the leftand then swept his gaze to the right before he paused. His eyes landed on me, then volleyed to Brutus.
Me.
Brutus.
Me.
Brutus.
