“Was that…?” Ollie trails off, her lips parted in surprise.
“He’s alive,” Rhys answers, his gaze turning calculating.
Alex is the first to move, stepping over the unconscious man to grab the front of his jacket and yank him upright. The guy groans again, and his eyelids flutter but don’t open.
“Hey!” Alex barks, shaking him. “Wake up, you piece of shit. We have questions to ask you.”
He still doesn’t wake.
Rhys crouches beside Alex and frowns down at the unconscious man. “He could be faking,” he says after a moment of contemplation. Reaching out, he slaps the side of the man’s face a few times, but he only groans. His head rolls to the side, showing the side of his head to the moonlight and a nasty head wound.
I sigh. “He’s not. The side of his head got bashed in. Probably got a wicked concussion and probably won’t wake for a good few hours.” I glance up at the night sky. It’s difficult to tell what time it is, but even if dawn was close, we don’t have the time to linger and wait for him to wake up to question him.
But we need those answers.
Alex huffs and lets the man go. The body flops back into the mud with a loud squelch that has the big guy smirking.
Rhys arches a brow at him. “You do realise you’ll be carrying him with us, right?”
The smirk disappears from Alex’s face. “Shit.”
I snort out a laugh and shake my head. “Didn’t think that one through, did you?”
Ollie glances between us with a frown. “Why are we taking him with us?”
“To question him when he wakes up,” Rhys explains as Alex grimaces and sets about picking up the muddy body. “If he’s from the Lodge, then he might give us intel on their movements and any plans the gangs might have to cut us off.”
Her eyes widen and her face pales as the implication of what Rhys is saying sinks in. He doesn’t just meanquestion, butinterrogate. Maybe torture. She swallows hard but doesn’t object as Alex finally slings the man over his shoulders, flinging wads of grass and muck all over the place.
“We should get moving,” he says, wrinkling his nose in disgust as a glop of muddy gore drips onto his chest. “The sooner I get this fucker off my back, the better.”
The four of us, along with a silent Harlow shadowing us and a chattering Ketchup flying overhead, trudge to the southern hedgerow where the rest of the group wait. The mood is sombre, everyone coming to terms with what just happened, as we silently follow Rhys across the fields and onto a nearby country road.
The tension from before may have gone, but at what cost?
Friendzone
Rhys
After everything that’s happenedtoday, it’s time I stopped being a coward.
As soon as I get the chance to be alone with Ollie, I’m going to man up and apologise to her. Even if she refuses to forgive me, it’s the right thing to do.
But first, I have a Lodge scumbag to interrogate.
The thought sends a thrill of violent excitement down my spine as I round the side of the cottage we’re sleeping in for the night and into the backyard. Bean is happily grazing in the corner with a chirping Ketchup keeping her company. They both ignore me as I pass, heading for the summerhouse at the end of the garden.
The sun barely peeks over the horizon, reminding me we only have about an hour to get as much information as we can outof this fucker before darkness descends. I don’t want to be stuck in this flimsy-ass building when the infected come out to play.
The wooden floor of the little porch area groans beneath my boots as I step onto it. Through the glass door, I can see Theo and Alex silently watching over our captive.
They both incline their heads in greeting to me as I open the door and step inside. The temperature is barely above freezing outside and isn’t much better in here either. The scumbag is shivering on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. His eyes are black and swollen from the fight earlier, and blood crusts the side of his jaw and neck from the nasty head wound.
“Has he said anything yet?” I ask as I shut the door behind me.
Theo stands in front of him, arms crossed over his chest as he gazes down at him with feigned disinterest. Although I can see the feral glee in his eyes when he glances over his shoulder at me. “Nothing yet, but I’m willing to stand out here all night until he does.”
I bite back a grimace.I’m not. The idea of being trapped in this wood and glass shoebox with this fucker while infected run around outside is the least appealing thing I can think of. But I can’t show that to the scumbag, otherwise he’ll resist until nightfall and then I’dactuallyhave to stay out here with him.
