Chapter 19
RUDY
“This should be sufficient,” I said, assessing the piles of meat we’d collected over the last few hours. The others were still trying to find game, but Que and I had a metal pail full of fish and downed two bucks on our own.
It was hard enough to hunt half sleep-deprived and waiting for a damn sniper to end us like the prey we chased. But we also had to fight the fact we didn’t have much winter gear at our disposal.
Que finished deboning the head of his buck.
We couldn’t properly drain them so we were covered in blood.
I stared at the lake in front of us. I considered jumping in, for no reason other than to wash off, but I didn’t want my nuts shriveled up into a couple of acorns so I continued to slice away at the meat, not having a choice but to leave the skin for lack of proper tools.
“What do you think they’re up to?” Que asked, bashing the fish in the head one by one with a sizable rock.
I thought about Nickie, tied up and docile for fucking once. “Fuck if I know… or care. They better keep their dicks to themselves, though, or I’ll cut them the fuck off.”
Que hissed between his teeth, closing his legs and wincing at the imagery I was painting for him. “Damn, what’s your damage against Red? So she puts the ho in holidays. I’m your whore every day of the year and you love me.”
I grunted in response, ignoring his batting eyelashes. “Already told you, I don’t trust the little shit.”
Something was off with her. She was using sex as a distraction and my crew was all too willing to join in.
“Oh, not this again, man. C’mon, Rue-Rue. Give her some slack. She did welcome nine convicts into her home out of the goodness of her heart.”
“Eight,” I corrected him, rubbing my chest at the mention of Prat. That dickhead better be okay. “And I don’t think her heart was the part of her that handled the decision-making when she let a bunch of dicks inside.”
Que snickered and stroked his cock with the back of his knuckles, trying to avoid the blood. He wasn’t as greased up in the shit as I was. But he did stink like fish after a few hours of splitting the labor.
“You’re still worried about Prat, aren’t you?” Que came up behind me and began working on my shoulders, likely using my jumper as a damn rag since he had a texture thing.
“Yes. It’s my fault. No man left behind. I didn’t look for him…”
Que grabbed under my chin, forcing me to twist my neck and look at him. “You aren’t responsible for the world, Rudolph. You gotta remember that.”
I sighed, ignoring the fact he was coddling me right now and instead leaned into his touch, feeling the warmth of his skin. I closed my eyes to breathe in his scent. It was fucking cold and just as fishy as I thought it would be but that was Que.
“I got you. You got me. Together we got the boys. We can take on anything, okay, killer? No red-headed horn dog will take us down.”
I felt his lips press into mine, and I opened my mouth instinctively like so many times before.
It felt so natural now. Guess it always did.
I’d just not been in the right headspace to admit it.
Que was my safe place. The one person I truly needed to protect.
He saved me all those years ago, when I was going to turn myself in for Holly’s death. He saved me, and it doomed us both.
Fucking hounds. I could still hear them, sniffing and growling like we were nothing but slabs of meat. Mutts needed to be piked like the fish.
Fucking Nickie too.
Que met my aggression, kissing me deeper.
“We have work to do… We can’t…” I protested against his ravaging lips, which kept wrenching groans from deep within my throat.
I was lost in the feel of him when all of a sudden he pulled away, and the light shone over my closed eyes with his absence.
“Wha..?” I mumbled, blinking when a large object smashed me over the head.
My eyes were open now but I could barely see out of the slits in front of them. The fucker had stuck a damn deer skull on me like a mask, complete with the fucking antlers and all. It was skinned down to the bone and smelled like snow and blood.
“Are you serious?” I grunted, picking up a fish from the bucket and flipping it around in my hand while Que continued to laugh his ass off. I pivoted on the spot and he took a couple of steps back, making a camera gesture with his finger and thumb.
“Aw, so pretty, Rue-Rue. Though I have to say I prefer you buck naked.” His cackles increased to a full-bellied wheeze, and I took another step forward and threw out a hand.
THWACK!
Que fell backwards, straight onto his tight little ass, holding his cheek while his glare bounced between me and the dead fish in my grip.
“Not so funny now, huh?” I asked from where I was towering above him, unable to stop my own laughter.
Que stared up at me, challenge dancing in his beautiful blue eyes, and I smirked back at him.
“Do I need to shove Christmas lights up your ass too?” I warned with a low chuckle.
His grin was wicked. “It’s not lights I want you to shove inside my asshole, Rue-Rue.”
I shook my head, smiling to myself when he sat up, tugged at my jumpsuit, and started to reach inside my underwear for exactly what he wanted inside that ass.
PLOOF!
What. The. Fuck.
I reached a hand to the back of the deer skull still mounted on my head and felt the melting snow before turning around to seek out its origin. It took me a second to find her when she darted back behind a tree, but there was no hiding the mop of red hair blowing in the wind.
The little shit peeked her head out and I spotted the ice balls loaded in her arms. She was bare-assed, her skin almost as white as the snow, in nothing but an apron and a pair of bulky boots that were way too big for her.
“Spreadin’ holiday cheer, boys?” she called out to us, and I narrowed my glare at her. My dick as hard as it was before, but now with a new target in mind. This girl needed to be taught a lesson that was slightly less forgiving than a tail of Christmas lights.
Que looked at me, and I nodded towards the pile of bones on the ground. He smirked and followed my unspoken directions, placing the second skull onto his head before cracking his neck.
Nickie eyed us with curiosity and excitement, her jittery figure bouncing up and down in the distance. “Aw, it’s my wittle reindeer! What toys can I get from your sacks?”
She giggled and twirled around like a deranged fucking moron, and I growled, gripping Que by the wrist and stalking towards her, shoulder to shoulder.
“Better run now, little girl. Because when we catch you, we’re going to rip your insides the fuck open.”