“Where is everybody?”he asked.“Are we the only ones back at the dock?”
“I’ll explain,” Michael said, “but we’ve got to get going.Stirling said he’d leave a map for you.Liam, you can manage comms, right?”
Liam grunted.He was proficient, but thanks to the dyslexia that had plagued him since childhood, nowhere near Josh or Stirling’s speed.
Josh isn’t the only one who hates having his weakness paraded about, he thought, hating himself for only getting it now.
“I’ll need Hunter’s help,” he admitted.“I’m slow on the read, mate.If somebody’s typing, you need to read it out loud.Everything on the keyboard I can do by touch.”
“Sure,” Hunter said.“I’ll get your ribs while you boot up.Chuck, get behind the wheel and aim for the road between the two that you see, and Michael, I wouldloveto know where my boyfriend is, but then, I’m pretty sure we’re all in the same exploding yacht there.”
“Well,” Michael said, “for starters, Josh and Grace arebothin the back of the town car now, and Danny’s in the front with Kadjic… wait, wait, wait… let me back up.”
They all groaned as Chuck slid on the dry clothes closest to his size (too small!) and then got behind the wheel.
And then he started putting events together in a way that seemed to make less sense the more he spoke.
“So let me get this straight,” Hunter said, after Michael had wrapped things up to a stunned and puzzled silence.As he spoke, Chuck was racing through a curvy mountain road, and Liam had to keepwillfullyforgetting that the man had admitted to not being able to see straight.
Aim for the road in the middle, indeed.
“Josh was in the back of the town car.Kadjic grabbed Grace at the museum, and Josh jumped in the back to follow him.Right?”
“Yes,” Michael said.“Josh was going to put trackers on the vehicle, but the thing with Grace happened instead.”
“Got it,” Hunter said.“So Kadjic pulls up to the upper lot, and Danny’s waiting for him because Stirling tracked the car.”
“Yes,” Michael said.
“Danny buys time and tries to exchange himself for Grace—it’s working, and Grace tries to sneak Josh out of the back of the town car when the ship goes boom and all hell breaks loose.”
“You’re doin’ fine,” Michael said soberly.“Woohee, Chuck, you ain’t getting’ any slower.”
“That middle road thing seems to be working,” Chuck confessed.“Is it just me, or is there a hideous drop off on the right of the other two roads?”
“Ain’t small,” Michael said, taking a deep breath, and Hunter ignored them and continued.Liam, following the directions Stirling had left on the laptop for him, logged in and started pulling up various screens.Julia,Carl,andKadjicall specified a different dot that seemed to be on the same curving path that they were on, moving through the same mountain range.Liam wanted to ask Hunter if he saw the wordsGreater Bohemian Mountain Rangeanywhere on the screen, because between the movement of the van—not inconsiderable—and his own jumpy vision, he could not fucking get a bead on anything longer than those names.
But Hunter was still getting the story.“Okay, so that’s the town car.Tell me about Carl’s van here?”he continued, still looking over Liam’s shoulder.
“Okay, then,” Michael said.“Leon had grabbed me, Lucius, and Molly by this time, and we were hauling ass for the upper parking lot.As we passed the comms van, he told Molly and Stirling to meet him by the SUV in the lower lot.Stirling stayed a minute to fix up the laptop for Liam, I stayed to tell you all what was going on, and Lucius followed Leon, and together they got up to the hill by the upper lot in time to keep Felix from going ballistic.At least that’s what was happening on comms—Stirling relayed it to me as we were running.We werestillrunning, ’cause there’s, like, an extra quarter-fucking-mile coming from our side of the dock when Carl, Julia, and Tienne show up in the comms van from the museum.Carl throws open the door, shouts, ‘Get in losers, we’re gonna fight,’ and Felix, Lucius, and Leon jump in and take off.”
“He did not say that,” Hunter said, and if Liam hadn’t been so busy tracking the three dots and trying to figure out how to call up people’s earbuds on comms, he might have joined him in his disbelief.
“Swear to fuckin’ God,” Michael said.“We heard him as we got near the lot.”
“Good line,” Chuck conceded, and Liam let out a pained chuckle, then a yelp.
“Fuck!Hunter!”
“You arebleedingall over the goddamned van,” Hunter snapped.“Soldier up and let me dress this.Are we heading in the right direction?”
“Yes,” Liam grudgingly admitted.
“Then stop staring at the screen.You can’t magic him here with your brain power, so fucking chill.We’reallworried.Have faith.”
Liam was about to snap at him that he couldn’t possibly know how worried Liam was, but then Liam remembered whom it was Hunter was worried about.
Hunter had resigned himself to feeling like this every minute of every damned day.
