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“Got it!” Lucas said in an excited whisper. He pulled the picks free and stood. Both he and Jude got their guns ready. There had been no sounds from the room as Lucas worked, but that didn’t mean it was empty.
Lucas entered the room first, but Jude was following as quickly as possible. His heart skipped at the sight of the bed. He knew that damn bed and it made him sick. But before he could empty the contents of his stomach, his eyes caught on Snow chained to the far wall. His lover was kneeling on the ground, his arms pulled above his head.
There was no stopping the pained cry that leaped from Jude’s lips. Snow’s head popped up at the sound and he blinked weary eyes several times as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Jude!” he cried out, his voice rough.
Stepping around Lucas, Jude rushed across the room as Snow slowly rose to his feet. He winced and moaned in pain, but there was still a look of intense relief on his face as his eyes never left Jude’s face. Cupping Snow’s face carefully with both hands, Jude kissed him again and again between desperate gasps for air. He’d never felt such relief as that moment. Each ragged breath he could draw in was nearly choked by the lump in his throat. He didn’t want to live without his general, didn’t want to face another day without this man right beside him.
“Shhh…baby, I’m okay. I’m okay, I promise,” Snow repeated over and over again as they kissed. It was only when those words finally permeated his brain that Jude even realized that he was crying.
“Sorry,” Jude mumbled against Snow’s lips. “Just so relieved.”
“We both are,” Lucas said. Jude looked up, a little surprised to find Lucas standing on the other side of Snow, his arm wrapped around the back of Snow’s waist. A streak of tears ran down Lucas’s cheeks as well, and the man did nothing to wipe them away. He just bent his head and pressed a long kiss to Snow’s temple.
Stepping back, Lucas cleared his throat and quickly swiped at his cheeks. “We’ve got Thing,” Lucas announced in a slightly louder voice before turning his attention to the iron manacles around Snow’s wrists.
“Thing?” Snow repeated, looking from Lucas to Jude.
“Your code name. I’m Cousin Itt, and that’s Lurch,” he explained, nodding at Lucas.
Snow threw his head back and laughed. Probably the first pure and genuine sound of amusement that room had ever heard. Jude smiled, but his attention was on the one eye that was nearly swollen shut and the crust of dried blood he could see on the back of Snow’s neck. He desperately needed to get Snow to the hospital so he could be thoroughly checked over. And then, he was thinking that maybe he wouldn’t let him out of their bed for at least a week. Yes, he needed a week alone with Snow to at least start the progress of purging this room and Snow’s disappearance from his brain.
“Our company has parked in the rear,” Dominic suddenly announced. “There’s…fuck…there are five of them. Repeat. Five.”
“Take out the tires and guard the exit,” Rowe barked. “We’re heading down to the first floor.”
“We’ve got company,” Jude said. He looked over at Lucas. “Can you pick the lock?”
“No.” Lucas shoved a hand through his hair in frustration as he glared at the manacle. “Doesn’t look like it takes a normal key.” He then looked over at Snow. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the key is, would you?”
“I haven’t even seen a key yet. I woke up like this.”
“We need a fucking bolt cutter,” Lucas muttered.
“The fifth floor!” Jude said. “There were a bunch of tools up on the fifth floor in all the construction. I think there might have been a bolt cutter with all the tools.”
Lucas frowned for several seconds at Jude in indecision before he finally sighed. “I’ll go. Watch your fucking back, and don’t shoot me when I return.” Before Jude could say anything, Lucas darted out of the room, his heavy footsteps echoing down the hall as he ran.
“I’m so sorry, Jude,” Snow murmured.
Jude turned to his lover. “What are you talking about?”
“I should have been more careful. If I’d just been able to hold those fuckers off for another minute, the cops would have been there.”
Jude carefully pressed his lips against Snow’s, silencing his apology. There was nothing for Snow to apologize for. He’d tried to save Jude, pull him free of the overturned Jeep, and then protected him from the men who’d run them off the road in the first place.
“No apologies. But I think we’re both going to be fired from our jobs.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m not letting you out of my sight or out of my bed for a long, long time.”
