He nodded and turned his face so he didn’t have to look. I smiled inwardly at that. Dillon might act tough, but it seemed he wasn’t too keen on the sight of his own blood.
Working quickly, aware of time running out, I wiped the wound clean. I applied gauze, packed it with cotton wool, then wrapped a bandage around his upper thigh. The back of my hand brushed his balls, and his dick jerked. Even after he’d been shot, it seemed Dillon still had the capacity to think about sex.
“Easy, tiger,” he smirked, though he was pale, “time and place.”
I resisted the urge to slap him, though it would only have been playful.
“You know,” he added thoughtfully, “you’re good at that.”
I assumed he was talking about me cleaning up the gunshot wound rather than me touching his balls. “When I was younger, I spent a lot of time patching up my mother when she came home drunk and injured. She used to fall down a lot, or she’d get in a fight and come home with a split lip or cut open forehead. She couldn’t ever remember how she got the injuries, so I assumed that was how she got them, anyway. There was no way we had money to pay for any hospital bills, so I always just ended up taking care of her myself.”
“You have a gentle touch,” he said. “Maybe you could have been a nurse or a doctor.”
“Yeah, maybe in a different life. I think I would have liked that. I enjoy helping people.”
“It’s not too late, you know,” he said softly.
I gave him a sad smile. “We’ve just been shot at in the middle of the night. People like you and me don’t go on to have good, normal careers and happy lives. I think we both know that.”
“That’s not true, Rue.”
“Dillon, I’ve never even been to school—not since I was too young to remember, anyway. I can barely read and write, never mind take the kind of exams that would put me into a profession like that. I appreciate what you’re trying to say, but I’m not so naïve as to believe it.”
Maybe I should have just smiled and run with the dream, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Life was fucking hard, and I wasn’t going to live in some dreamworld. Not facing up to reality could get you killed, and since the rest of the world seemed intent on seeing me dead, I didn’t plan on giving them a helping hand.
“There,” I said, finishing up. “You’re all done.”
“Good.” Kodee got to his feet. “Let’s get our stuff and get the hell out of here.”
“What are we going to do about Timmo?” Ryan asked.
“There isn’t much we can do.”
“You think he might follow us, or make a call to someone and tell them where we are?”
Kodee went to the front door, where a set of keys hung from a hook beside a coat rack. He unhooked them and put them in his pocket. “The keys to his truck,” he explained. “Timmo’s not going anywhere for a while.”
We were out in the middle of nowhere. He could probably walk to the nearest town, but it would take him the best part of a day, and we’d be long gone by then.
“What about the bodies of the men outside?” I asked.
Kodee shrugged. “I don’t think we can do much with them. There’s no point in hiding them. Someone knows they came here looking for us, and when they don’t hear back, they’re going to know things didn’t go to plan.”
“We should search them, and their car,” Ryan suggested. “There might be something on them or in the vehicle that’ll tell us who sent them.”
“I think that’ll just waste time. We know it’s either the Capellos or Joe Nettie’s men. It doesn’t make much difference which is which, does it?”
“I think it does,” I interrupted. “The Capellos want me alive, but Nettie’s men want me dead.”
“And they all want the rest of us dead,” Dillon finished.
Kodee pressed his lips together and nodded. “Okay, let’s just get out of here, then. There’s a good chance more people will be coming, and I don’t want us to still be here when they show up.”
He bent and hauled Dillon back to his feet. “I’m fine, I can walk,” Dillon muttered.
He released Dillon, and Dillon walked unaided, albeit with a limp.
“You two make a fine pair,” Kodee observed, looking between Dillon and Ryan. Both men flipped him the bird, and he chuckled.
We picked up the bags containing everything we’d brought from the apartment—the passports, money, some changes of clothes—and carried them out to the car. Timmo didn’t make any attempt to stop us leaving, and I figured that was a good thing. My emotions were mixed about him. I didn’t think he’d done what he had to get us in trouble, but he had still put us in a situation that might have gotten us killed. If Kodee hadn’t woken at the arrival of the car, those men would have sneaked into the house, and, if they were Nettie’s men, probably shot us in our beds, or if they belonged to the Capellos, they would have shot the others and grabbed me.
I thought I’d rather be dead as well than seeing all the guys shot, and me having to endure the pain of their loss. There wouldn’t be any point in continuing. I simply would lose the ability to care about a future.
Together, we left the cabin behind, stepping out into the front of the property, where we’d left the car. It was morning now, the pale light filtering through the branches. The dawn chorus of birds twittered and tweeted in the trees, and small clouds of midges danced in the air. The light at least meant we were able to see that there were no other men hiding in the bushes, ready to shoot us.
But instead it revealed something else.
“Shit.” Ryan stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at his car. “The sons of bitches slashed the tires of my car.”
My stomach dropped. What were we going to do now?
“It’s okay, we can take Timmo’s truck.” Kodee dangled the keys he’d taken from the hook on the inside of the door.
But Ryan shook his head. “Nope. They already thought of that.”
The truck tires were in the same state as ours, all deflated, with what appeared to be the slash of a blade through them.
“That must be why it took them so long to get around the side of the house,” Kodee mused. “They were busy out here first, taking care of our means of escape.”
“Where’s the vehicle the men had arrived in?” I asked.
“It must be parked farther down the driveway,” Kodee said. “I heard them arrive, so it can’t be far. They must have underestimated how much sound travels at night out here.”
Ryan nodded. “They wouldn’t have wanted to leave the car too far away in case they needed to make a quick escape.”
We exchanged glances, each of us with the same thing on our minds.
Dillon shrugged. “We don’t have much choice. It’s not like we can walk out of here.”
He had a point. He was injured, and even if he wasn’t, Ryan wouldn’t be able to cover the miles needed to get to the nearest town.
We didn’t want to be in the enemy’s car, but what choice did we have?
Kodee jogged down the track, heading toward the road. He slowed to a stop and lifted his hand. “It’s over here!” He stepped off the track, going to the car, which had been partly hidden off the road. “We’re in luck” he called out. “The keys are here, so at least we won’t have to search the bodies.”
Dillon shrugged. “What are we waiting for, then?”
Chapter Thirteen
Kodee
I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT they’d be waiting for.
Me.
With Dillon shot, Ryan needing to rest his leg, and Rue unable to drive, it only made sense that I was the one who got behind the wheel.
The thought filled me with dread, but I needed to deal with this. We were on the run, with some seriously bad guys after us, and I had to get over my fear and do what was needed.
The others left the front of the cabin to join me just off the track where the car had been partly obscured.
I looked to Dillon and the bandage around his
leg. What if he’d been hurt even worse, or killed? What if Ryan was unable to wear his prosthesis? What if I was Rue’s only hope of us getting out of here?
I hadn’t been driving because I was afraid of hurting someone I loved, but what if it was that fear that ended up getting Rue or one of the guys killed? I’d reached a point where my fear of hurting someone while I was behind the wheel was being outweighed by my fear of them getting hurt if I didn’t.
“You don’t have to drive if it’s too hard,” Ryan said, knowing exactly what was on my mind without me even having to say a word. “I’m better today. I can do it.”
I shook my head. “No, this car isn’t modified. I need to do this.”
Sucking in a breath, I slid behind the wheel. The seat was soft leather, the scent filling my nostrils. My heart galloped, and I did my best to push away the tidal wave of memories threatening to sweep me away.
Doors slammed around me as Dillon and Rue climbed into the back and Ryan took shotgun. They all sat there, waiting for me. We needed to get away from the cabin; I knew that. We didn’t know who else might show up at any minute, or even if Timmo would change his mind and come after us with the shotgun.
With a trembling hand, I reached out and started the engine. The car hummed to life around me.
My palms were coated with sweat, my heart pounding. I could feel myself pulling away from the world, tunneling into myself. I gripped the steering wheel tighter, trying to prevent my hands from shaking—or at least enough to not let the others see. I was so used to them depending on me. I hated the idea of letting them down.
Come on, Kodee. It’s just driving a fucking car. You’ve done it a thousand times before.
Yes, I had. But not since that day.
“You okay, Kodee?” Rue’s sweet voice came from behind my shoulder.
“Yeah, Rue. I’m fine. Just getting used to the vehicle.”
She sat back in her seat. “Sure.”
The other two didn’t say anything. They knew the turmoil I was going through, and that I just needed a moment. Maybe that was one thing men understood better than women—that need for space. Just a second to take a breath. A pregnant pause of silence. They were always encouraged to talk—a problem shared was a problem halved. Only sometimes the problem didn’t come from anywhere outside of us, and it was simply something we had no choice but to deal with ourselves.
Come on, come on. You can do this.
I blinked, forcing the world around me to grow solid again.
I’d just been shot at by unknown men, had jammed the muzzle of my gun under a man’s throat, yet it was the simple act of driving that was sending me into a blind panic.
I understood what it meant to find something triggering. All those feelings from the moment of the crash had come back to me. It was like being hit full force in the chest, every internal organ dropping out of my body, my blood stopping in my veins. It was being filled with the utter horror and certainty that the same thing was going to happen again.
I remembered how it had been when I’d learned both my wife and son had died, and yet, somehow, I’d survived. Deep down, underneath the disbelief and grief, and the desperation of wanting to go back in time and change things, to wake up for a second time that morning and make different decisions that would have led to a different outcome, I’d known my life had flipped. There was a line drawn down the middle now, dividing me in two. I was the person I’d been before, and the person I was after.
Now, sitting behind the wheel of this car, I felt like I had to blur that line. I’d never be the man I was before that loss, but I could start to leave some of the blame behind.
Taking another deep breath, I put the car into gear, reversed it out of the bushes, and onto the road.
Chapter Fourteen
Dillon
THE GUNSHOT WOUND IN my thigh hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t want to say anything. Ryan was missing an entire leg, and he barely liked to even mention it. The injury I’d sustained was merely a scratch in comparison.
It felt strange being in this car. Too conspicuous, as though everyone who saw us would know it didn’t belong to us, and that the people it did belong to were now lying dead in a bush.
Beside me, Rue trembled, her hands clutched tightly in her lap, her face pale. I hated that she was going through all of this. I’d have given anything to take her out of this situation and deposit her in some wholesome, happy environment, but instead she was stuck with us, and with even worse men after her. I ached with my need to keep her safe, but there was nothing more any of us could do for the moment.
Kodee put the car in reverse, did a three-point turn to get us out of the bushes, and drove back down the lane that led to the road. I twisted back to see if there was any sign of Timmo following us out, but the old man had stayed quiet. Wisely so. We’d outnumbered him four to one, and he probably figured he was better off staying out of it. Even with his shotgun, we’d be far more likely to shoot him before he got the chance to shoot one of us. Besides, he hadn’t struck me as a bad guy, just someone who’d said a little more than he should. Perhaps that was— in part, at least—our fault too. We hadn’t told him that there were certain people he wasn’t allowed to contact. We hadn’t told him who we were running from. We’d thought we were protecting ourselves by keeping our mouths shut, but right now it seemed the more secrets we had, the more we were getting ourselves in trouble.
Ryan leaned forward in the passenger seat and clicked open the glovebox. He rifled through the contents. “Completely clean,” he announced. “Not even a service history.”
“They’ve been careful not to leave a trail,” I said. “Nothing that would link them to anyone if things went wrong, which they clearly did.”
Ryan pursed his lips and exhaled a sigh through his nose. “We’re going to have to do something about this car, though. We don’t know what else it’s been used for. The cops might even be looking for it, and we won’t want to be found inside it if they are.”
Kodee shook his head. “I don’t think either gang is sloppy enough to use a car that might get them in trouble.”
I leaned forward, in the gap between the driver and passenger seats. “But we don’t know where these men came from. They might not be directly linked to either gang. They could just be guns for hire, for all we know.”
Not having a vehicle was going to make things even harder. If we leased a car through normal means, we’d have to show ID, which might then flag up our location. But stealing a car was also going to cause us problems. The last thing we wanted was to get arrested for grand theft auto.
“Where are we even going?” Rue’s voice was small.
Kodee’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “We’ll head north for the moment, and then we’ll figure it out. We need to put some miles between us and the cabin.”
She looked between us all, hope and desperation in her eyes. “Have you got any other contacts? Ones we can trust this time?”
Kodee gritted his jaw. “Honestly, I’m not sure who to trust.”
“Fuck.” I clenched my fists. I hated running. I preferred to stay and fight. But this wasn’t all about me and what I wanted. I had to think of the others; I had to think of Rue. But if we didn’t turn and fight, would we be running forever? Would we go to bed each night, afraid to close our eyes because there was a good chance we’d wake up with a gun pointed at our heads? I didn’t like feeling afraid. Fear was something you couldn’t escape. It made you question every little thing you did in your life, never being certain that the move you made was the right one. It had the power to paralyze you.
Beside me, Rue let out a sigh and placed the side of her head against the window closest to her. We all carried guilt inside us, but for her, it was the worst. She blamed herself for our current position, even though I was the one who’d gotten us involved with the Capellos.
“Hey,” I reached for her, slipping my arm around her shoulders, “we’ll figure this out, okay?”
&
nbsp; She lifted her head from the glass and leaned into me instead. She was still shaking, though not quite as violently as she’d been back at the cabin. It was understandable, considering she’d seen men killed right in front of her. It had shaken me up as well, and I was a hard son of a bitch.
I pulled her closer and placed my lips against the top of her head, her soft hair tickling my nose. I didn’t care. It was all worth it to be this close to her.
She let out a long sigh. “I just wish I could turn back the clock.”
I stiffened. “To when? To a time before you’d met us? How would you have done anything differently?”
“Maybe I should never have accepted the Capello brothers’ offer of protecting me from Joe Nettie’s men. Maybe I should have just allowed them to kill me.”
Her words shocked me. “Hey, don’t say that.”
“Well, you’d all be safe right now, wouldn’t you? And you always had each other. You were happy before I came along. I screwed everything up for you all.”
Her shoulders shook, and she buried her face against my chest. I wasn’t good with crying women, but I couldn’t stand to see Rue cry. I looked helplessly to the other guys, wanting them to do something.
“Rue,” Ryan said from the front, “we can’t go back and change things, and even if we could, we wouldn’t. We’d all rather be here, taking care of you and making sure you’re safe than living our lives without you in it.”
She sniffed and lifted her face from my chest. “But Dillon’s been shot. And you’re miles away from your doctors. There was a very good chance one of us could have been killed back there. How could I live with myself if that had happened?”
Kodee spoke, his voice stern. “Stop it, Rue. You’re acting as though we’re innocent men you’ve corrupted. We’re criminals. We get mixed up with dangerous people—we did long before you came along. We know what we signed up for. We’re all grown-ass men capable of making our own decisions, okay? Now, I don’t want to hear another word about how this is your fault.”
Guarded by Them (Dirty Twisted Love, #2) Page 9
