Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
HAVOC
I’m suddenly really glad the military trained me in navigation, and that we’d done exercises out in the desert.
I spot the tire tracks after half an hour of driving. “There,” I say, pointing. “Follow those.”
Vortex lets up on the gas, his eyes scanning our surroundings. “Those are fresh,” he says. “How many people did Caleb’s driver say there were?”
“He didn’t get a good look,” I answer. I pull out the binoculars I’d bought and try to get a better view. “At least two.”
Far in the distance, I spot something that looks like a shack. There’s a van and an SUV parked in front, with a rusty water collecting system next to the building. I lower the binoculars, but it’s hard to tell how far away anything is in the desert expanse. The clear air makes a lot of things look closer than they actually are.
“There’s a shack in that direction,” I say. “Two vehicles in front of it. I bet that’s where Caleb and Seven are.”
“It’s gotta be,” Vortex says with a grunt. “So we’re probably talking between three and eight. The odds aren’t bad.”
They could definitely be worse .
“They’re still going to see us coming,” he adds. “If not the tires, the dust. Fuck, I don’t like this at all.”
“Short of hiking, there’s no way to approach without alerting anyone,” I say. I clutch the knife Vortex had given me tighter. “If there are any Lockwoods there, I’m gutting them.”
“Not if I get to them first,” he says grimly. “Grab my gun. I’ll cover us while you get in to find them.”
I sheath the knife and take the extra gun, checking the bullets. It’s been a while since I used a firearm, but the weapon is familiar in my hands. Too bad it’s a simple glock and not a semi-automatic rifle.
I realize as we get closer that there are men right outside of the shack. Any element of surprise we might’ve had is going to be impossible to maintain.
“Get them!” a familiar voice shouts. “But don’t kill them!”
“Make up your fucking mind!” somebody else yells. “I should have listened to him when I had the chance.”
I don’t wait for Vortex to park the car before I open the door and get out. I duck down behind the door and assess the situation.
There are four men total, and one of them is Caleb’s dear old Uncle Earl. His eyes widen when he spots me and Vortex. “Wait! Kill those two! Kill them both!”
Vortex gets out, using the other car door as cover, and he shoots in their direction. One of the men cries out and staggers, though it looks like the injury is just in his shoulder.
“Fuck!” he yells, his gun dropping to the desert floor.
I spot Caleb ducking behind the van. It has a catering logo on its side, so this must be the one that had taken them.
No sign of Seven, though.
Vortex shoots again, and this time the man he’d shot before goes down. Bullets spray everywhere, though, and several embed themselves into the metal of Vortex’s SUV.
I notice Earl running toward the shack. I aim my gun at him, but before I can fire, a bullet dings against the door I’m hiding behind. I grimace. Any other angle, and that bullet would have gone straight into me.
“Stop shooting!” Caleb shouts. “All of you! If you give up now, I’ll even make it worth your trouble.”
Figures that he’d try to solve his problems with money.
Vortex huffs, probably having the same thought, but he holds his fire. I glance over at him, and he shakes his head. It’s risky to shoot blindly, especially when we don’t know where Seven is.
None of us would ever forgive ourselves if he got caught in friendly fire.
The other men stop shooting as well. I don’t know if it’s Caleb’s offer or something else that’s making them rethink their choices, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I dash toward the shack, ducking behind the wall right as another gunshot rings out.
“Fuck you, Caleb Spade!” a man shouts. “I’m not catering to you fucking Spades anymore!”
“You think Valentín Diamante is going to look kindly on your actions today?” Caleb calls back. “Your boss won’t appreciate you stepping out on your gang.”
A Diamante? Of fucking course they’re involved. Although it sounds like the man isn’t acting on his boss’s orders.
I grin. That means it’s fair game to beat him up, once I get my hands on him.
Seven is more important, I remind myself. While Caleb distracts them with his chatter, I duck inside the shack, ready to strangle Earl and rescue Seven…
But there’s nobody inside.
I curse and look around. There are two chairs in the middle, with rope coiled on the floor around them. I can guess who was tied up here.
The dust on the floor has an array of footprints and smears. Several lead to the window. When I peer out the window, I see more footprints on the ground outside, leading away from the shack.
There are two distinct sets. Seven and Earl, I bet .
I grimace and hop out the window myself, following the tracks. I should tell Vortex and Caleb where I’m going, but I don’t want to give myself away.
The footprints lead to the nearby cliff face, with brush all around. It seems empty at first glance, but all the rocks and bushes provide enough cover that somebody could easily hide here.
I glance back toward the shack. From this angle, the cars aren’t visible, although the gunshots still ring out loudly.
I keep moving, following the trails. I lose them in the brush for a bit, before picking up the trail again a few feet later. The sun is getting lower in the sky, but it’s still sweltering hot. I’m glad for the hat and sunglasses, and the water bottle I have clipped to my belt.
The trail leads me to a crevice in the rocks, barely large enough for somebody to slip through. I can’t see what’s on the other side—but I do see a blood smear along the rock.
Fuck.
I suck in my breath and squeeze in. The temperature immediately drops in the shaded path. I can see somebody hiding in here to escape the heat. Seven probably thought he’d be well hidden in here. He would have been, if not for his footprints on the dusty desert rock.
“I’m not going to hurt you!” Earl’s voice echoes. “I just want to reunite you with your family!”
There’s no response, but anger flares within me.
Reunite him .
Like it wouldn’t be tantamount to torture.
I would wonder if Earl even knows what he’d be returning Seven to, but I don’t think he’d care. He has dollar signs in his eyes — and desperation driving him. Men like that don’t care about the well-being of others.
My mother’s terrified expression fills my vision. She still hasn’t been able to leave the Step Asshole. Seven did what she couldn’t. Seven got out.
I’m not going to let Earl send Seven back to that .
The path widens, and I tread lightly as I approach Earl. He has his back turned to me, and he’s looking up.
I follow his gaze. My eyes widen when I see Seven desperately scrambling up the steep cliffside path. His arm is scraped up.
Earl is following at a much slower pace, probably scared of stepping wrong.
If I shoot and miss, the bullet might ricochet off the rock. I can’t risk hitting Seven. I holster the gun, approaching slowly.
“Where are you going, anyway?” Earl shouts. “It’s nothing but desert out there! You’ll die!”
Seven lets out a hysterical laugh, but he keeps stumbling along the path.
For all that he’s bleakly told us again and again that he’s going to end up going back — hell, he’d told us we should send him back — I’ve never been more sure that it would break him.
He’d rather die in the desert than go back to the family that abused him.
Earl reaches up for another handhold.
I rush forward and grab his foot.
“What the f—” Earl yells, and I pull him hard. He crashes down against me, but I breathe through the pain of the impact.
“You aren’t touching him,” I growl.
“You!” Earl starts blubbering incoherently. He remembers the beating I gave him last time. He tries to scramble away, but I punch him in the face before flinging him hard against the rock wall.
“You didn’t get enough of this last time?” I punch him again.
He moans, dazed, and shakes his head. “M-my father—He?—”
I don’t give a fuck what Leon Spade wants. I kick Earl in the gut, then punch his face again. His nose cracks and blood gushes out.
Seven cries out, and I hear movement on the desert rock. “Havoc!” His voice is high with panic. “Don’t! You’ll kill him!”
It shouldn’t matter. This piece of shit deserves to die.
But I don’t want to make things worse .
I make a frustrated sound and back off, letting Earl drop to the ground.
My fists still tight with anger, I glance up at Seven. “Are you—” My voice is heavy and aggressive. I swallow and try again. “Are you all right? Do you need help?”
He shakes his head, carefully descending back down the path. He’s shaking, and sweat is dripping down his face. “Where’s Caleb?” he asks as he approaches, looking down at Earl with a strange expression I can’t quite read. “Is he okay?”
“He was alive when I left,” I say. I reach out for him, and he lets me help him down the remainder of the rocky path. As soon as we’re on the same mostly-solid ground, he wraps his arms around me.
I don’t even care that his sweat soaks through my shirt. I hug him back, then lift his chin so I can kiss him.
Seven kisses back, and after a brief hesitation, he hugs me back. His front is soaked with sweat, too, but he doesn’t pull away even as he pleads, “We have to help Caleb. Vortex?”
“They’ve probably got it covered. Caleb was trying to sweet talk his way out of things.” I kiss Seven one more time, then reluctantly pull away and turn toward Earl.
“I guess we can’t leave him here,” I say.
Earl shakes his head. “P-please. I’ll pay you. Anything,” he sobs. Tears stream out of his eyes to join all the blood.
“I just want to be left alone,” Seven tells him, his voice weirdly tight. “I don’t understand why no one will leave me alone.” He glances at me. “What are we doing?”
I grab Earl by the collar and force him onto his feet. “We’re going back, and if Vortex and Caleb haven’t solved shit yet, we’re going to bail them out, and then we’re going to find a motel or something and have a long hot shower.”
I push Earl ahead of me, and he sobs as he stumbles along.
Seven is close behind me, his hand clutching the hem of my shirt.
I pause at the narrow crevice .
“Earl, can you get out through here? If you can’t, I have to leave you in here to die,” I say with dark cheer.
Earl stands up straighter. “I can! I can!”
He’s slow to move, but the exhaustion is getting to me, so I don’t mind this chance for a breather. I take a quick drink from the water bottle then hand it to Seven.
Seven takes it, drinking greedily from it. He must realize it’s in limited supply, though, because he stops. “Sorry,” he says. He eyes Earl. “He’s probably thirsty, too…”
“He can wait until we’re back at the shack,” I say. “I’ve got more in the car, too.” I rake my dirty hand through my hair. “Unless Caleb drank it all, I guess.”
Seven shivers despite the heat, starting to speak but cutting himself off instead. “We should keep going,” he says urgently. He slips through the crevice before I can stop him, leaving another smear of blood behind.
I follow close behind. Earl’s in no state to do anything to Seven anymore, but I’m not risking it.
The temperature difference inside the cool cliffside versus out in the sun is stark. I spot Earl trying to run, but his steps are uneven and he stumbles every few feet.
I roll my eyes and close the distance between us, easily grabbing his shoulder.
He cries out and shakes his head. “Please! Please, no more!”
“You were running in the wrong direction, dumbass,” I hiss at him. “Unless you want to die out here in the sun.”
Earl sobs harder. I look over my shoulder at Seven, who is standing stock still.
“That way,” I say, pointing in the direction of the sun. It’s hard to tell from here, but I spot the small shack in the distance. The shape is barely distinguishable from a boulder at this distance, and it’s hard to believe how far we’d walked.
Seven grabs my hand with his own, which is sweaty, but I don’t have the heart to push him away despite how hot it is .
I’m too grateful he’s okay.
I take my hat and put it on Seven’s head to save him from heat stroke.
We walk for at least half an hour, and I don’t remember it taking that long for me to find them. Adrenaline and fear had made time contract. I’d been rushing, too, but we’re all too exhausted now for even a light jog. We have to stop to catch our breath and have water a few times too.
As we approach the shack, I spot Vortex—wearing the hat I’d forced him to buy—running our way.
“Seven!” he shouts. His cheeks are flushed red, and he’s as sweaty as we are. He envelops Seven in his arms, and Seven lets out a surprised huff. “Fuck, you’re okay.”
“Caleb?” Seven asks, squirming and trying to look past him. “Is Caleb okay?”
Vortex nods. “Yeah, we’re both okay. Are you?” He glances from Seven to me, then his eyes narrow when he sees Earl. “What’s this fucker doing here?”
“Seven didn’t think I should kill him,” I say, giving Earl a shove.
He cries out and stumbles forward, but manages to keep himself from falling to the ground.
We circle around the front of the shack. Caleb is sitting half inside the SUV, wearing a pair of shades and a strange sunhat. As soon as he spots us, he gets up and walks over, his arms spread out.
Seven dashes to him and wraps his arms tightly around Caleb. “You’re okay,” he says, looking him over. There’s a spot of blood through his shirt, though, and Seven freezes. “Caleb?” His voice wobbles, and he looks back at Vortex in accusation. “You said he was okay!”
“I’m fine,” Caleb says, stroking Seven’s hair. “It’s a shallow cut. And the other guy is very dead now.”
Earl whimpers. “Caleb! Nephew! Call off your goons. We’re family.”
Caleb glares at him. “You accused me of conning you. You’ve been trying to siphon funds from the casino. You kidnapped my lover . Excuse me if I’m not feeling particularly familial.”
Seven presses close to Caleb, though he keeps looking from him to me and Vortex like he expects one of us to disappear.
“I think he’s out of chances,” Vortex mutters. “He’s had plenty, and he keeps fucking them up.”
I groan. “If we’re going to kill him, why’d I drag him back here?” I let go of Earl and head for the SUV for more water. I’m glad to see that most of the water reserves are still full.
“We aren’t going to kill him,” Caleb says. He peers at Earl. “But we aren’t helping him either.”
Earl looks at Caleb with wide, fearful eyes. “What?”
Caleb chuckles. “You were going to leave Seven out here overnight, right? You can stay instead.” He glances in my direction. “How much water do we have? I’ll be nice and spare him a bottle.”
I finish my gulp, then assess our supplies. “We can give him a few protein bars and one jug of water. That’ll last him until tomorrow for sure. Possibly even two days.”
I pull out one jug and two of the protein bars and set them on the ground a few feet away.
Caleb nods. “Vortex, you have all the car keys, right?”
Vortex walks over to Earl and starts patting his slacks. Earl protests, but Vortex pulls out a set of keys. “Yep. He’s not driving away from here.”
“Please,” Earl begs. “Caleb, please don’t do this.”
Caleb glances down at Seven. “Is this all right, pet?”
Seven looks at Earl and rubs his wrists, which I notice are red. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “You could’ve gotten hurt. Really, really badly hurt.”
“So could you,” Vortex says harshly.
Seven shakes his head. “No one would’ve hurt me.” His smile is bitter as it flits across his lips. “But they’d have hurt Caleb.” He pauses, then he goes to Vortex, touching his arm as he says urgently, “Connie. They?— ”
“Connie is fine,” Vortex says firmly. “She was on the way to the hospital when we left. She told me to get you back. I’ll go visit her as soon as we’re back in Calamity.”
Seven nods, and he steals a desperate kiss from Vortex. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. The fuckheads responsible for hurting her are dead,” he says.
Seven looks down at the desert floor. “I dragged her to the garage. I?—”
“And we’ll talk about that when we’re back home,” Vortex interrupts. “Let’s get out of this heat.”
I pull my sweat-soaked shirt off and move toward the driver side door. Vortex glares at me, but I hold out my hand to him.
“It’s going to get dark, and we have no directions. I’m our best shot at finding the road again,” I say.
Vortex grumbles and passes his keys to me.
“Do you want to sit next to Vortex or Caleb?” I ask Seven. “Or you can take the passenger seat and make the two of them squeeze into the back.”
“I, um…” Seven looks between the two of them.
“I’ll sit in the front so you can sit by Caleb,” Vortex says firmly, kissing Seven again. “I’ll help Havoc navigate.”
I almost snap that I don’t need his help, but then I realize what he’s doing. For all that we share Seven, there’s a bond between Seven and Caleb that none of us can ignore.
“Okay,” Seven says, and I can’t tell if he’s relieved or not.
“Take me with you,” Earl begs, but Vortex pushes him away when he approaches the SUV.
“Nope. You made your bed, now you lie in it,” Vortex says.
Caleb and Seven get into the SUV, the door shutting on them. I get into the driver’s seat and start it up, glad that it’s still in working condition despite the damage it took. Earl desperately tries to go for the passenger door, but Vortex shoves him once more before climbing in .
As soon as all the doors are closed, I lock them.
“Okay. Hand me the compass,” I say to Vortex as I adjust the seat and mirrors. “We got here by driving north, so let’s hope south will get us back. Keep an eye on your phone, too. As soon as we’ve got signal again, we want to make use of it.”
I see Seven leaning against Caleb in the rearview mirror.
I smile when I see how gently Caleb kisses the top of his head.
I might not always see eye to eye with Caleb, but we’re on the same page when it comes to Seven.
I’m glad Seven didn’t have to do any of this alone.