Chapter 2 #2
I hesitated before putting my hands in his. Gently, he tilted them toward the headlight and leaned close to examine my shredded palms.
“Shit,” he said. “You did a number on these. You better take another drink, ’cause I’m gonna have to clean these cuts out.”
He glanced back up at my face. In the growing dark, everyone else faded away, even Griz, from where he stood at my shoulder.
His hold was gentle, but my skin still prickled with warning, and I tracked every shift of his fingers with growing dread.
Trey’s hands tightened on mine as his eyes shone with something like regret.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, and I knew he wasn’t talking about the cuts on my palms. “We had no idea the weapon was a person. We never would’ve taken the mission if we’d known.”
I jerked my hands away, a cold rush cutting through me. This was a trap—a trap with softness as bait.
“I can clean these myself,” I snapped, averting my gaze.
For the first time, he didn’t argue. He handed me the bottle.
I tipped it back, drank, then gritted my teeth and poured the alcohol over the slices, relishing the burn.
The pain was clean, simple, mine. My vision blurred, but I focused on the sting until my thoughts quieted.
As I set the bottle down, Trey moved in again, wrapping my hand in a clean bandage before I could protest. Then he paused for a moment, pushing my sleeve up to look at the welts on my wrists.
“Gods, those ties were tight,” he muttered, continuing the bandage up my forearm. As he pushed my sleeve up farther to tie it off, dark bruises came into view, and a muscle in his jaw flexed.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Griz asked.
“No.”
The two of them exchanged a look, but Trey only grabbed the bottle and held his hand out. “I’ll do your other hand.”
I gave it to him, swearing through my teeth as he poured the last of the alcohol over the exposed wounds.
By the time he finished, the camp had been set up.
Jax had cooked something in a small fire, and the savory smell made my mouth water.
Trey cleaned up the supplies and Griz brought me over to the fire, his grip a little gentler.
He gestured for me to sit and then took a seat on my left.
Across the fire, the woman from before still glared at me with hatred.
I dropped my eyes, my heart rate picking up.
I racked my brain, but I didn’t recognize her.
Griz handed me a tin plate of steaming meat and potatoes. I fumbled to grip it with my bandaged hands, and then nearly dropped the whole thing when the woman across the fire leapt to her feet.
“So that’s it?” she erupted, stabbing a finger in my direction. “We’re just gonna stitch her up and feed her like nothing happened?”
“Sit down, Lana,” Griz warned.
“Sit down, Lana?” she parroted, her voice rising. “My brother is dead and that’s all you have to say?”
Dread fell over me like a thick blanket.
“We’ll have time to grieve once we get home.” Griz’s voice softened. “Right now we gotta follow orders.”
“Our orders were not to save this bitch,” Lana raged. “We were supposed to bring back the weapon—”
“She is the weapon,” Trey interrupted from a few feet away.
In the silence, everyone stared at me, and I stared at the crackling fire.
“No,” Lana snarled, moving suddenly.
My gaze shot up to her. She’d drawn a gun and pointed it straight at me.
“We couldn’t even bring his body back! I had to leave my brother on the fuckin’ roof, with the fuckin’ mercs! I can’t even bury him. And it’s her fuckin’ fault.”
“Lana!” Trey held out a hand. “Put the gun down.”
“Blood for blood.” Lana’s hands didn’t shake, but her voice did.
My gaze locked on the gun, but I couldn’t deny that I felt as much relief as I did fear. Wolf snarled, but gods, I was so damn tired.
Mac appeared behind Lana like a ghost, his gun pressed against the back of her head.
“Put it down,” Mac ordered, all scary quiet as his eyes sparked in the firelight. “We’re seein’ this through.”
Lana bared her teeth at me like a wildcat. Tears shone in her eyes, but finally, she lowered the weapon. Mac took it from her, and then Trey joined him in marching her behind the rover. In the silence, I waited in resigned misery to hear the gunshot signaling her execution, but it never came.
“Eat,” Griz said next to me.
The meal smelled amazing, but it’d been a long time since I’d eaten actual food. I ate as much as I could, stopping when my stomach roiled. I set the plate on the ground and wrapped my arms around myself.
Mac, Trey, and Lana returned after the fire had died down.
Lana still radiated hatred, but she stayed silent.
Mac and Trey resumed eating like nothing had happened.
I eyed them, unwillingly curious. If anybody had challenged Juck like that, they’d have either been dead or close to it so Juck could have some fun.
The small bit of meat and potatoes I’d eaten turned to rocks in my stomach.
My fingers traced the scar under my shirt.
“Was he shot by the mercs?” I asked Griz.
He glanced at me, surprised. “Yeah.”
I let the weight of that sink over me. If I hadn’t run, her brother would probably still be alive. Blood for blood. I thought of Wolf, and a chill ran down my spine.
“That’s Raven on Lana’s left,” Griz added, nodding toward the other woman on their crew. She had long black hair and one side of her head shaved. She continued to ignore me, and I didn’t mind.
“Sam is the one over by the kid.” Sam had close-cut blond hair and a short beard. He appeared to be teasing Jax, who scowled at him.
I gave a brief nod, and Griz lapsed into silence again. He cleaned his plate and then glanced at my still-full one.
“You should eat more.”
I shook my head. “I’m done. You can have the rest.”
He eyed me for a few seconds, then shrugged and dug into my plate.
I studied him. He wore a light jacket, but the bulky muscles in his arms showed through the fabric.
The dark brown of his skin glowed in the firelight.
There was a soothing calmness to his quiet, steady presence that annoyed me.
I didn’t want to feel calm; nothing about this should make me feel calm.
Once Mac and Trey finished eating, everyone moved to their bedrolls. Griz led me behind a tree to relieve my bladder. I fumbled with my pants, but Griz kept his gaze elsewhere. When we returned to camp, he paused, looking at Mac.
“She can use Exo’s bedroll,” Mac said.
Rage flashed across Lana’s face. Exo must’ve been her brother. She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, I blurted, “No. I don’t need…no.”
Mac stared at me hard, then shrugged. Lana turned her back and climbed into her bedroll next to Raven, who put her arm around Lana’s shoulders.
Mac took my arm from Griz, his grip painfully tight, and brought me to the rover.
After I settled into the back seat, he zip-tied my bandaged wrist to a metal grab handle bolted to the back of the passenger seat.
Trey came up and watched him, a frown on his face.
“This really necessary?” Trey asked, low.
“I’m not taking any more chances,” Mac snapped. “And you aren’t, either.”
Pain and guilt flashed across Trey’s face, and he didn’t argue.
I tried to pretend I wasn’t paying careful attention.
The tension between the two of them pulsed like a live wire.
Trey was the weak link, the one who cared a little too much.
If I could use that, maybe I still had a chance.
Mac finished tightening the zip tie, tight enough that I couldn’t slip my bandaged hand free, and strode back toward the fire.
The welts on my wrist burned. Trey seemed to hesitate.
“Trey?” I whispered, letting a tremor into my voice. He moved closer, eyeing me warily. “I—I’m sorry. About Exo.”
Trey stayed silent, and I willed my eyes to fill with tears and let them fall. He put a hand on my knee, and I managed to keep from flinching. When I glanced up through my wet eyelashes, his face had softened.
“It’s not your fault,” he said.
Careful. I heard Wolf’s stern voice. Don’t overdo it.
The alcohol warming my blood gave me courage, so I started mumbling, too quiet for him to hear. His brow furrowed. I let out a small sob and kept going. He stepped closer and leaned into the rover, trying to hear me.
“—should have let her shoot me. Why—”
His fingers snaked around my free wrist, catching my hand as I was attempting to pull the knife out of the holster on his belt.
My gaze snapped to his face, fear tightening in my gut. His eyes were sharp, but he looked amused.
“Like I said, I owe you my life,” he said, refusing to release my wrist, even as I tried to jerk free. “So I’m gonna pretend you weren’t trying to steal my knife.”
I dropped the act, swearing at him through my teeth. He quirked a half smile and let go of me, stepping back out of reach. I glared at him, wishing again I’d left him to die on the rooftop.
“Night, Bones,” he called as he walked away, leaving me alone in the dark.
—
The night was cold and long. I tried to get my hand free for hours, debating dislocating my thumb to see if I could slip out of the zip tie, but I didn’t think the angle would work.
So, all I accomplished was fucking up the bandage and more of the skin on my wrist. I didn’t dare sleep.
Even with a rotating guard, I didn’t trust these people.
Sure, they needed me alive, but I knew what sort of pain could be inflicted without killing.
By the time the sun rose, my teeth were chattering, and my eyelids felt impossibly heavy. When Griz came, he noted my bloodied wrist and glared at me. I glared right back.
“C’mon,” he snapped after he cut the tie, “climb out.”
My numb, stiff legs gave out as I tried to obey. He saved me from falling on my face, swearing under his breath. The camp bustled with activity, everyone packing up to leave, but Griz stuck me by the dying fire.
“Gimme your wrist. I’ll fix the bandage.”