Page 16 of Her Righteous Protector

“Are you two okay?” Ezio gasped. He sounded like shit.

“Ezio, what’s wrong with you?” Max asked.

“Hit my head against one of the bars. I’m bleeding. I passed out for a second.”

“Raiden?” Max asked the man to report about himself.

“Hit my elbow against one of the bars. It was nothing, shouldn’t have shouted out like a dumbass,” he said disgustedly. “Ezio, move over here so I can check out your head wound. Lieutenant, what’s your status?”

Raiden was one hundred percent into his medic mode, but Max wasn’t listening. He was feeling around for the plastic pipe; he had a bad feeling that this potential wreck might not be an accident. When he touched the pipe he found that it had come loose, so he shoved it back in so that he could hear the outside world. Nothing. He heard nothing. That meant they didn’t have a lot of other traffic close in front of them or behind them mulling around like they did at the checkpoint, so they were probably on the side of the road. But what was really frustrating as fuck was that Leo was not talking to them. When something like this happened, Leo should have been talking to them. This was bad. Very, very bad.

Where was his ChemLight? Every man had one thanks to Cullen talking about sparklers. Fuck, he couldn’t reach his.

Max pushed the pipe further up so that it penetrated past the top layer of the plaster bags. It was risky, but he desperately needed to hear whatever the hell was going on out there. He also put his phone up near the pipe to see if it could get any kind of signal since there was an opening. One bar.

“Max, what are you doing?” Raiden asked.

“Take care of Ezio,” Max responded.

“Okay.”

Max heard the sound of two truck doors slamming shut. Dammit, why wasn’t Leo talking? His man knew enough to talk so that they could stay informed. There was a problem. He couldn’t call Leo because Max would bet his bottom dollar that he was in trouble. Max sent out a group text.

What’s going on?

Immediately he got something back from Zed.

YOUR TRUCK SHOT, LEO FORCED TO PULL OVER. TWO MEN HAVE BOARDED, SITUATION UNKNOWN.

Leo’s phone better have been locked; the last thing he needed was some hijacker seeing an English text. The truck started but it was tilting to the left. The bags of plaster were harnessed in pretty tightly, so Max thought they shouldn’t fall off.

“How’s Ezio?” Max asked Raiden quietly.

“I’m fine,” Ezio answered.

“I can’t get the bleeding to stop,” Raiden contradicted Ezio. “In other words, you’re not fine.”

Max shifted and took a shallow breath. He wasn’t fine either, but he wasn’t going to say anything. A broken rib he could live with, but a punctured lung was a bit of a problem. “What do you have to stop the bleeding?” Max asked.

“I could use some help,” Raiden admitted. “I’m jammed in here pretty tight. Do you have some wiggle room to grab your undershirt?” he asked Max.

“Move Ezio my way, then you take yours off,” Max instructed Raiden. He found his ChemLight then twisted it and the cage took on a weird neon green glow.

“Why?” both men asked simultaneously. They both knew that something was up with Max.

“I have a problem with a rib,” he admitted reluctantly. “Someone’s rifle caught me between my armor plates.”

“Goddammit,” Raiden hissed. “How’s your lung? Is it punctured?”

“Breathing’s not what it should be, but I could just be winded. I’m monitoring the situation,” Max told him. “Ezio, crawl over to me.” Max watched Ezio shift over to him, then there was a lot of rustling noises as Raiden started getting out of all of his gear.

The truck took a sharp turn and they all slid up against the right of the cage. Max heard Ezio suck in a deep breath and he felt warm liquid hit his wrist. “Hurry up with that shirt, we’ve got to get the bleeding stopped.”

“Hell, Max, you know head wounds always bleed a lot, it never means anything,” Ezio scoffed.

Ezio’s face was covered in blood. He was in trouble.

Max tried to take a deep breath but failed. Max looked down at the incoming text from Zed.