Dillon nudged my side. “Penny for them?”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been sitting there daydreaming. I wanted to know what was on your mind. I hope I played a part.”
“Of course.” I smiled at him. “You’re always on my mind, Dillon.”
He hooked an arm around my neck and kissed my temple. “Good to know.” Then he pressed his lips to my ear and whispered, “You’re always on mine, too.”
We grinned at each other.
Kodee got to his feet. “Come on. Let’s clear up and then get some rest.”
“Yes, Dad,” Dillon teased.
Kodee tapped him around the back of the head as he passed.
“That was amazing, Timmo,” I told the older man. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
“You’re more than welcome, young lady. Now, if you’ll excuse an old man, I think I’ll retire for the night. That beer has gone straight to my head.”
We said our goodnights, and he left us alone.
I stifled a yawn against the back of my hand. Despite the naps I’d taken during the day, all the fresh air and traveling had left me exhausted.
“Come on.” Dillon pulled me to my feet. “Time for us to get some sleep, too.”
“We can’t all sleep in that same bedroom,” I pointed out.
“We’ll take the room next door.”
I hugged and kissed both Kodee and Ryan goodnight, and followed Dillon into the spare bedroom. After the antics of that afternoon, I sensed we were both far too worn out to attempt anything else, and anyway, it felt weird knowing Timmo was only across the hall.
Instead, we curled up in each other’s arms and gave in to sleep.
Chapter Eleven
Kodee
I WOKE TO THE DISTANT, low purr of an engine and the crunch of tires on dirt.
I bolted upright, instantly alert, and reached for the bag down the side of the bed, where I’d left my gun. My fingers closed around the cool metal, and I picked it up, already feeling safer with the weight of the weapon in my hand.
Who the fuck was here?
“Ryan,” I hissed, jabbing him in the side with my elbow. “Put your leg on. Someone’s here.”
Like me, he was instantly awake. “What?”
“A car has pulled up somewhere outside. I heard the engine right before whoever is driving turned it off.”
“Shit.”
He worked quickly, pulling the sleeve up over his stump and then clicking on his prosthesis.
“We’ve got to tell Dillon and Rue.” I worried about them sleeping deeply in the room next door, completely unaware of the danger—assuming whoever had arrived in the middle of the night meant us harm.
Ryan picked up his gun. “Go. I’ll cover you.”
With my weapon in my hand, I ducked low, in case someone started shooting through the window, and ran out into the hallway.
Did Timmo know someone was here? There was a chance whoever had turned up had nothing to do with us, and was here because of his counterfeit money business, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. I cracked opened the door of the bedroom Dillon and Rue had taken. In the dim light, I could make out their sleeping forms curled around each other. Staying low, I ran over to the bed.
“Wake up,” I whispered, shaking Dillon’s shoulder and then Rue’s. “You gotta wake up. Someone’s here.”
“What?” Rue’s voice was blurry with sleep.
“Get dressed and stay down,” I snapped.
“Jesus Christ,” Dillon cursed, and then did what I’d done, and swung his legs out of bed and grabbed his gun. He worked quickly, yanking on his jeans and a t-shirt, and jamming his feet into shoes.
We might have to run, assuming we didn’t get shot before we’d even made it out the door.
Rue hurriedly got dressed as well.
Movement came behind me, and I swung around, my gun pointed, ready to shoot.
“Lower the weapon,” Ryan hissed. “It’s me.”
He crossed the room and checked out the window, looking left and right, trying to see down the sides of the cabin. He turned back to me and shook his head. There was no one there.
I headed back out of the bedroom. “Come on.”
The four of us stepped into the hallway. There was one thing I needed to check before we made any rash moves. Timmo’s bedroom was across the corridor. I signaled for the others to stay where they were and then ran for the bedroom, pushing open the door.
The older man sat up in bed, looking around at my sudden entrance in confusion.
“You expecting company?” I asked, not even giving him the chance to question what I was doing in his bedroom in the early hours of the morning.
“What? No.”
I wanted to grill him, to find out what he’d been saying and to who, but we didn’t have time for that. If whoever was here wasn’t here to do business with Timmo, then they were here for us, and that wasn’t going to be a good thing.
“Well, there’s someone here.”
He lifted both hands in a gesture of futility, telling me he had no idea who they were. I didn’t have time to stand there and argue with him. I hoped there would be time for me to question him later. Right now, I just wanted to get back to the others and make sure they were safe. The thought of something bad happening to any of them made me sick with fear.
I left Timmo still sitting in bed and turned and hurried back out into the corridor where the others were waiting. There were no windows in the corridor, only the back door which led onto the yard and the building housing the printer. Though they couldn’t get shot through any windows, someone could easily barge through the back door and start firing. Ryan and Dillon were both armed, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t get hurt.
I was met with questions in their eyes. I shook my head, indicating that whoever was here wasn’t for Timmo.
Moving as one, we went out into the living area. Where the hell were these fuckers, and what were they doing out there?
I didn’t like that I had no idea how many people we were dealing with. Were there two or more? Did they already have the cabin surrounded? Were they at the front of the property, or had they moved around to the back? One advantage we had was that, because of the moon, it was lighter outside than it was inside. We’d all been sleeping, and the cabin was in darkness. It meant we were able to see outside better than they’d be able to see inside to locate our positions.
But going near the windows was a danger in itself.
My mouth ran dry, my heartbeat hammering with frustrating loudness. I needed to be able to hear any movement outside, not the sound of the blood rushing through my ears.
Ryan pointed toward himself and then to the window. He was thinking in the same way as me—probably better than me. After all, he’d come from a military background. I could handle myself, but nothing like him, or Dillon, who was strong when it came to hand-to-hand fighting.
Ryan checked the living room window, keeping his body against the wall as much as possible. He turned to look over his shoulder and shook his head. No one was there.
Rue looked understandably worried. Not only that, helpless. I didn’t like her looking that way. She was capable, and should be given the chance to defend herself and not have to rely on us. We’d let her down in that respect, and if we made it out of this situation, I’d rectify that.
Timmo hadn’t made an appearance, though I suspected he’d be grabbing his shotgun. He didn’t seem like the type to hide away. Unless, of course, he knew exactly who’d come to the cabin, and he’d been instructed to stay out of the way.
Shit, I’d messed up. I’d thought we could trust him but, clearly, I’d been wrong. He must have told someone about our location.
I went to the window on the other side of the house and peered out.
A figure was crouched beside the bushes. Son of a bitch. Who was that? Were there more of them? They appeared to be covering the front door, perhaps expecting us to make an escape. That was wh
ere the car was parked, and we were miles from anywhere. We could take off on foot, but it was dark, and none of us knew these forests. Getting lost among the trees could kill us as surely as a bullet, though our deaths would take a lot longer.
It was better that we were on the offensive rather than the defensive. I wasn’t going to hide away inside the cabin and wait for them to come to us. Right now, they didn’t even know that we were all awake, and probably thought we were still sleeping in our beds. That gave us an advantage, and we needed to take it before it was too late.
“Let’s try the back,” I whispered to the others.
“You should stay in the house,” I hissed at Rue. “It’s safer.”
She shook her head. “No way. I’m staying with you guys.”
If we left her here while we all went outside, there was a chance someone might sneak in and just snatch her while we weren’t looking. “Okay, fine,” I relented. “But stay close.”
She stared up at me, her blue eyes wide and frightened, and she nodded. I didn’t think she was planning on going anywhere alone.
Even though he was the least mobile out of all of us, Ryan was by far the best shot, and he led the way. I was right behind him, ready to cover him. Rue’s small frame was pressed to my back, and Dillon covered her from behind.
Our vehicle was right out front. That was another sloppy mistake. We should have parked the car around the back or side of the cabin, hiding it from the view from the road, but also giving us access to it from both the front and back.
We paused just before the back door, our spines pressed against the wall.
Ryan counted us down, ready to move.
One... two... three... he mouthed and then pointed forward.
I leaned past him and threw open the door.
We stepped out into the night air. The sky was growing pale above us, signaling the start of sunrise. Insects fluttered around a light positioned beside the back door. An owl hooted mournfully somewhere in the distance.
The crack of a gunshot shattered through the stillness.
We ducked back down, each of us instinctively covering Rue as much as possible.
Movement darted through the moonlit bushes near the other building.
“There!” I pointed.
Ryan fired back. I heard an ouff and a thud as someone fell.
But that didn’t mean the man was dead, and I was sure there were at least two of them, if not more.
Whoever the guy Ryan had just shot was with would have heard the gunshots. He’d know we were armed, though he’d probably assume that anyway. Who were these men? Who had they been sent by, and were there more coming? I needed to grill Timmo and find out who he’d been talking to, but there wasn’t time now.
Moving as one, we crept around the side of the house.
A bullet hit the wood right beside my head. “Fuck!”
Rue let out a scream.
That had been close.
I returned fire in the direction the gunfire had come from. There were flashes of light in the darkness as whoever it was shot back.
Beside me, Dillon gave a yell. He jerked backward, hit the wall of the cabin behind us, and slumped to the ground.
“Dillon!” Rue cried.
I spotted movement, darting between the cover of the bushes, and lifted the gun and fired. A cry and a heavy thud followed. I’d hit the son of a bitch.
Shit, Dillon had been hurt. Blood oozed from a gunshot wound on his thigh, a black smear in the poor light.
We’d taken two men out, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more.
“Stay here,” I hissed at the others. “I need to check the rest of the grounds.”
“I’ll come with you,” Ryan offered, but I shook my head.
Though it was safer if there were two of us covering each other’s backs, I didn’t like leaving Dillon and Rue here without protection.
“No, stay here. Keep them safe.”
I ran, light-footed, around the rest of the building, checking for signs of anyone else. It appeared the two men were working alone.
I returned to find Ryan and Rue still huddled around Dillon.
“How are you doing?” I asked him.
“It’s nothing,” he said through gritted teeth. “He practically missed.”
“You’re bleeding,” Rue cried. “He didn’t miss.”
“The bullet just grazed me.”
Ryan checked. “You’re right. It did just graze you. You’ll be fine.”
“Hurts like a bitch, though.”
“Don’t worry,” Ryan said with a smirk. “I don’t think you’ll lose the leg.”
“Har har,” Dillon deadpanned at him.
I bent to help Dillon to his feet. “Come on. Let’s get back into the house and pick up our stuff and get the hell out of here. But first I need to find out who Timmo has been speaking to. See if anyone else is coming.”
“It has to be either the Capello brothers or Joe Nettie’s men, right?” Rue asked, looking between us. “I mean, it’s not like we have any other enemies.”
“I hope not.”
Ryan and I got Dillon between us, and we helped him back into the cabin. We took him into the living room and deposited him on the couch. I was past caring about whether he got blood on the upholstery.
Movement came from the back of the cabin, and I looked up to find Timmo standing there. He held his shotgun at his side, but he wasn’t aiming it at us.
Not hesitating, I strode straight up to him and wrenched the shotgun out of his grip, then I jammed the barrel of my gun under his chin. “Who the fuck have you been talking to? Who did you tell we were here?”
“No—no one,” he stuttered. “I—I just made some calls. Ordered in what we needed.”
“Bullshit. You told someone.”
“Not your names. I just said I had some visitors—three guys and a young woman. That’s all. I swear.”
“Shit.”
I turned back to the others. “That info must have been enough to match the description of us. They sent someone local to track us down.”
“Who did?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t know. Either Joe Nettie’s men or the Capello brothers. Since the men who came here are dead, it’s not as though I can ask them.”
“Fuck. So now someone knows where we are,” Dillon said.
Ryan looked between us. “And we still don’t have a passport for Rue.”
I rubbed my hand across my mouth. “We can’t worry about that. There are going to be more men coming, and they might prove to be a lot harder to deal with. Staying alive is the most important thing right now. Leaving the country is going to have to come second.”
Ryan cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t the two things come hand in hand?”
“Not right now, they don’t. We need to put some distance between us and this place.”
Dillon jerked his chin. “What are we going to do about him?”
We all looked to Timmo.
Rue stepped in, placing herself between us and the older man. “Please, don’t kill him. He did something stupid, but he doesn’t deserve to die for it.”
I wasn’t so sure. “He could easily have told them where we were deliberately. We can’t trust him.”
“The damage is done now,” she insisted. “They’re coming for us anyway.” She caught my eye. “Please, Kodee. Don’t do this. Don’t become like them.”
Like them. The men she’d been with before. Merciless men without a heart. Like the Joe Netties or the Capello brothers of this world.
“What if I need to become like them to survive?” I asked.
“Then it’s not worth living.”
I exhaled a sigh and slowly lowered the gun.
“I’m sorry,” Timmo jabbered. “I am. I never meant it. I just got talking.”
“Shut up. I don’t want to hear another word.”
Chapter Twelve
Rue
WE NEEDED TO GET OUT of here, but first we needed to pa
tch up Dillon’s leg. We couldn’t have him sitting in the car, bleeding everywhere. Even though the bullet had only nicked him, it was still enough blood loss to make him ill if we didn’t get it to stop.
“Have you got a first aid box?” I asked Timmo.
I wasn’t sure what to make of the man. He’d put us in this position, but had he done it intentionally? My gut told me no. He’d been armed as well, and he could easily have held us at gunpoint, or conspired to let those other men into the cabin while we were sleeping, but he hadn’t. I was relieved Kodee hadn’t shot him.
“Sure. I’ll get it.”
“I’m coming,” Kodee said, clearly not wanting to leave him alone.
Timmo twisted his lips but nodded. He went into the main bathroom and checked the medicine cabinet and produced a small green plastic box with a red cross on the front.
Dillon was sitting on the couch, his leg elevated.
“You’re going to have to take down the pants,” I said.
“Now isn’t really the time, Rue,” he teased, though his expression was pinched with pain.
“Just take them off.”
He undid the button and zipper and lifted his butt up enough to wrestle them down on one side, exposing the injured thigh. He wasn’t wearing any underwear, and I did my best not to get distracted by the sight of his cock peeping at me from beneath the jeans.
A spatter of dark hairs and the bright red smears of fresh blood stood out against the pale skin of his thigh. The bullet had taken a chunk of flesh out of him, but it didn’t look as though it had entered his body. I assumed, if we were to search, we’d find the bullet lodged into the cabin wall where we’d been standing.
I tore open one of the antiseptic wipes. “This is going to sting.”
I was still shaking and lightheaded from the adrenaline after being shot at, and my hands trembled. But it wasn’t as though I was putting stitches in, so I guessed it didn’t matter.
Guarded by Them (Dirty Twisted Love, #2) Page 8
