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“No. You don’t want to know me.” Something dangerous and hard flashed in the dark depths of Echo’s eyes and Ice wondered what kind of hell the man had lived through to make him so closed off from humanity.
“Don’t you want a friend?” Ice kept his voice light even though his throat was closing around a lump of pain.
“I don’t need a friend.” Echo ran his eyes over Ice, from his blond hair to his blue eyes. His gaze drifted to the blood growing on the man’s shirt and his lips tightened. He clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached. He gave a jerk of his chin to the knife wound. “You’re going to need stitches.”
“This?” Ice glanced down. “It’s nothing…” he said, looking up and then swayed.
Echo was now several yards away from him.
Ice stayed where he was. Mainly, because he didn’t want to die, but also, he didn’t want to fall.
Echo took a few steps away and then darted a look over one shoulder.
“Echo.” He said the man’s name on a breath and took one step forward.
“Don’t follow me. Don’t contact me, and for fuck’s sake, don’t think I’m your friend.”
The killer disappeared into the shadows and Ice immediately pressed harder against his side. He jostled with his cell phone to his ear and almost dropped it from his slippery grip. Blood coated his cheek and he knew he was getting it everywhere, but he was running out of time.
“What’s up, Iceman?” Seven said, answering on the first ring.
Ice had to smile at his best friend’s greeting. “Can you come pick me up and take me to Harbor General?” He rattled off the address.
“What the fuck happened?” Seven snarled.
“I’ll tell you on the way,” he promised and sank to his ass on the ground. Grit pressed close with a constant whine.
Seven and Hunter were among the few people he’d ever share any of this stuff with.
Echo made it back to where he’d been and leaned into the deepest part of the shadows.
Pulling one of his daggers, he toyed with it, flipping it over and over in his fingers. He spotted blood and wiped it away. Several of his daggers had Ice’s blood on them.
Damn that man. What the fuck did he want from him? He liked him? How many times did he have to shove a knife in Ice for the guy to get the hint?
That wound had been bad, but he’d been desperate. There wasn’t anything he could think of to do to keep Ice away from him. He gritted his teeth to keep silent and watched as a limo pulled up in front of the marina. Two men in suits got out and one opened the back door to pull out a young, scantily dressed girl.
She couldn’t have been more than sixteen, if that. Struggling, the girl pulled at the man’s grip and he slapped her a few times.
“Showtime,” Echo whispered, tugging down his hooded mask and pulling out his knives. One in each gloved hand, he moved with speed through the dark, sticking to the shadows until he reached the dock. He’d already taken out most of the lights to provide shadows here and there. That was all he would need to get close enough.
The first man he came up on didn’t see him, so when his Doran dagger hit the fucker in the chest, the look of surprise was comical. As he ran, Echo pulled another dagger and hit the same man in the throat.
The other man pulled the girl around to use as a shield, but Echo was already there. He swiped the razor-sharp edge of his Ulu blade at the man’s neck and opened it wide. The spray of blood covered the girl’s head and back.
Flying past the two dead men, Echo returned to the shadows, whirled, and crouched. Waiting and watching the car for any signs of additional perps.
The girl had fallen to her ass on the dock, staring at her bloody hands. Echo lifted his burner, took a small video of the scene, and shot it to Solomon along with a text.
“Like hell this was a job gone wrong. Get your fucking facts straight.”
Realizing she was free, the girl scrambled to her feet and fled. Echo waited until she was gone before he moved in and retrieved his daggers. He took the keys from one man’s pocket and then kicked the bodies into the water. Getting into the car, he drove it to the other side of the marina and left it there with no trace of fingerprints. All in all, it had taken him eight minutes.
He wondered how Ice was doing. And then made a sound of annoyance in his throat.
Why the fuck would you think of him?
Ice woke up in the ICU.
