“Why not?”
“Because his driver has been looking up stops for petrol in the village—you don’t usually do that when you’re home.I think he’s got a cabin tucked into the South Bohemian mountains somewhere, but if so, it’s off the main mountain road, which is pretty curvy.”There was a pause.“I hope you’re not queasy, Josh.”
Josh grunted.No, thank God, that hadnotbeen one of his problems.But he felt like he had to be honest.“Weakness, Stirling.Just… exhaustion.I may have to sleep soon.And I don’t know if I can walk when it’s time to get out.”
“Fair.I’ll tell the others.”
Oh God.Josh was a minute away from passing out, but he had to know.“Liam…?”he whispered.“Chuck and Hunter and—”
“They’re fine,” Stirling said.“In fact the timing was like we’d planned it!”
Josh chuckled rustily.“You’ll have to tell me sometime,” he mumbled.“Talk to Grace now.”
And then he fell asleep or passed out or whatever it was that took over his body these days.
But Liam was safe, and that was all he needed to know.
“FUCK!” LIAMswore as he surfaced from the oily water, lungs aching and a suspicious burning in his side.“Fuckingballs,that’s cold!”
Hunter surfaced about ten feet from him with a sharp gasp.“Bracing,” he wheezed, while Chuck popped up next to him.
“Somebody call search and rescue,” he gasped.“My balls are in my throat!”
There was lots of swearing then, as they made their way to the slip where Leon’s yacht had been.None of them talked about it, but they’d had a hell of a time not getting sucked into the rotor wash as the great bloody machine had passed by them, because they were alive now, and that’s all that fucking mattered.
Finally they were wet, chafing,freezing, and piling into the comms van where Michael was waiting with clothes and—shockingly enough—coffee.
“Would you believe there’s a coffee maker and an outlet?”he asked, pointing to the thing on the small counter under a cupboard.“I found it when I was tossing the place for clothes.”
“Needed,” Chuck said, gulping his coffee.He’d shucked his wet things and was huddling naked under a blanket while Hunter and Liam did the same.“Where are we going?”
“Let me get kitted,” Liam said, and then, “Wait a minute—which one of us is bleeding?”
He’d seen the traces of blood on the floor of the comms van, as well as some of the clothes.
“You,” Chuck said, at the same time Hunter said, “Chuck,” and Michael said, “Hunter.”
“Wait, me?Where?”And that was all three of them.
“Oh Jesus,” Michael muttered.“It’sallof you.Carl is not gonna be okay with all three of you bleeding!”
“Head,” Chuck admitted, the blood smearing on his hand now that it had stopped mixing with the water sopping from his hair.“Fuck.Ouch.That makes sense.I keep seeing two of everybody.”
“Bicep,” Hunter grunted, lifting his own blanket to check.“Nasty.Anybody have gauze?”
Liam grunted, and now that they were out of the cold and nobody was trying to kill them, he let his endorphins flow back a little and took stock.
“Ribs,” he said, suddenly worried.“Oh dear.”
“Fuck,” Hunter said.“Liam, stand up.Michael, do we have gauze, or am I ripping T-shirts?This is bad.You can actuallyseehis rib!”
Liam hadn’t been the only thug with a knife, but thanks to growing up poof in a rough neighborhood, he was thetoughestthug with a knife in every fight he’d been in.
But that didn’t mean someone else hadn’t gotten one in.
As though someone had touched a live match on latent gasoline, pain swept up his side, obliterating the ache he’d been suppressing, and his vision dimmed.“Oh, hey,” he muttered.“There we go.”For a moment he fought nausea and thought dimly that this must be what Josh felt like after chemo or before a wave of weakness took him out at the knees.
The thought of Josh shored him up.They could not afford to give in to their injuries now.
