He didn’t sound annoyed by the condition of the road, and I hoped he could keep his recklessness in check long enough for us to put a bullet in Kaprolov’s brain.
I looked down and groaned when I saw that he had his bat in his hand.
“What the fuck are you going to do with that?”
I’d known he’d brought it on the Kings plane, but after Capri, I’d hoped he’d forgotten about it.
He shoved the bat into his vest. “What the fuckaren’tI going to with it, is the question.”
“Stop fucking around,” Bram said, strapping his own kevlar. “This is serious shit.”
“I know it’s serious shit,” Vigo said. “Don’t worry, big g?— ”
He stopped himself just in the nick of time, and I reached into one of the duffels and pulled out one of the kevlar vests, then unzipped Cassie’s coat.
She shivered as the cold air hit her body.
“I’ll be quick,” I said, pulling the kevlar over her head and tightening the straps around her body.
I helped her back on with her coat.
“That okay?” I asked. “Can you move around?”
She moved her arms. “I think so.”
“Good.” I reached into one of the other duffels and removed a handgun, then held it out to her.
She shrank back. “I’m not carrying a gun.”
I lifted her hand and placed the gun in her palm. “You want to come? You’re carrying this motherfucking gun, Cass.”
She hesitated, then took it, and I spent a few minutes showing her how it worked.
When everyone was armed and ready, Jagger shut the SUV’s hatch. “Let’s go.”
I went first up the hillside leading to Kaprolov’s property, reaching back every minute or so to give Cassie a hand. She held her own, scrambling up the hill between me and the rest of our entourage, slipping and sliding but staying on her feet.
It wasn’t as hard as it looked from the road. Trees grew out of the hillside. Their roots gave our feet traction, and their trunks gave us something to grab onto when the ground slid under our feet.
I was breathing hard when we reached the top, but we’d managed it without any injures.
“You good?” I asked Cassie.
She nodded.
Her cheeks were flushed, her nose pink, and in any other situation I would have wanted to press her against one of the trees, slip my tongue in her mouth.
Now all I wanted to do was get her the fuck out of there.
At the tree line, I reached into my backpack and removed my Hunt mask, then watched as Vigo, Jagger, and Bram did the same.
Cassie look confused. “What…?”
“It’s best this way,” Bram said to her.
Bram was always menacing, but he was menacing as fuck in the bone mask he used to hunt, the long snout and horns making him look like a creature out of a dark and dangerous wood.
I reached back into my backpack and removed one more mask: the one we’d given Cassie for Halloween.
