Page 4 of Property of Mercury

“Lovely,” I mutter. “I always wanted to be someone’s loose end.”

“She’s a smartass, she and Sutton should get along splendidly,” Pisces jests.

“Don’t borrow trouble, brother,” Gemini says out of the side of his mouth as if he was trying to keep that between the two of them, but he messed up, because I heard every word.

“Skippy’s the same,” Orion muses. I see a sad look cross his face and wonder what has the goofy clown reacting that way. I guess if I’m going to be staying with them, I’ll soon figure it out.

“They’re gonna need a nickname,” Pisces says, grinning. “The Terrible Trio, The Gruesome Threesome.”

“The three musketeers?” I ask. “I mean, I don’t know either of these two people as it is, so giving us our own nickname is kind of counterproductive, don’t you think?”

“She has one of those word of the day calendars, I just know it,” Orion teases.

“Most people improve their vocabulary through reading, Orion,” Pisces jeers. “You’re the only one I know who gets one of those fucking calendars every year.”

“Makes me sound smart,” Orion retorts shrugging.

I’m about to say something to keep their bickering going when I feel a coolness go through my IV. Before I can open my mouth, it’s lights out once again, Finley.

CHAPTER

TWO

Mercury

I roll my eyes at Pisces and Orion. This business is serious and we don’t have time to insert jokes and come up with pseudonyms for the girls, especially since they haven’t even met yet. We don’t know if they’re going to get along or if there’ll be some cat fights in the future.

“Y’all, enough,” Gemini states, noticing the way my eyes are twitching from their banter.

I’m not impressed and wish that they’d know when it’s time to be serious and when it’s time to play. Finley’s not out of the woods by a long shot, and just because we helped get her to the surgical clinic, it doesn’t mean she’s going to become part of what we’re building here. For all we know, she could flee the area after she’s released; fuck knows I would if I was a woman who was so horribly attacked and treated.

“We were just trying to lighten the mood,” Orion says. “Didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Yeah, and there’s a time and a place to be the class clown. Newsflash, dumbass, that’s not here and definitely not today after she’s just had surgery to remove bullets and arrows from her body!” I chastise. “Y’all were dropped on your heads, I swear to God.”

“I wasn’t but the jury’s out on Orion,” Pisces states. Seeing my glare, he holds up his hands in a ‘calm down’ motion. “I hear ya. Gotta say, it’s a fucking good thing you found her, Merc.”

“No shit.” Glancing over at the woman in the bed, I realize her pain meds have knocked her out, which is good. I don’t want her to hear me tell them my suspicions about the whole situation. I still need to go back out there and see if I can locate this cabin, but considering that they hunted her, I can’t go alone. This whole shitshow is bad enough she’ll likely have nightmares for a long time without me compounding them by reiterating some of the things she shared with me to the guys.

It doesn’t take me long to fill them in and the consensus is I’ll go back out to where we found her and nose around some more to see if I can find any evidence of the place she was being held. Gemini is calling Hercules in and leaving him on her door for the time being since we don’t trust that news will get out about the fact she was found alive. No reason to give whoever the fucker is that’s backing this a reason to try and finish what they started. Granted, I know based on what I’ve previously found that Jeffries is undoubtedly involved, but outside of that, I don’t know who else could be hunting women like they were prey.

“I’m going to head out to see what I can find,” I say. “May be out of pocket because we have no clue what kind of acreage we’re dealing with, y’know? Is it a contained area, or are they spread out?”

“All questions we’ll find the answers for, brother,” Gemini replies. “Got Orbit running some searches on missing women in this area for the past decade. But I think you need to take someone just in case they’re out there looking for her or even hunting someone else.”

“Could be longer than that if it’s been kept in the family as far as who is orchestrating it all,” I interject. “Also, if this is something they offer to other sick fuckers, they probably have other areas in the state they use for their hunting grounds.”

“What if it’s not just women?” Pisces asks, adding a new layer to this fucked up bullshit.

“Let’s start with women and go from there,” Gemini suggests. “I’ll have Orbit expand his search to encompass all of Montana, but for the time being, we’re going to focus on our neck of the woods once we get some results back from him.”

“It’s as good a place as any to start,” I reply, adding my stamp of approval.

“I’m heading back to our hospital to see Skippy,” Orion announces. At my surprised look, he shrugs. “She’s Sutton’s best friend, but outside of her, she’s alone. If nothing else, I’ll be a familiar face for her to wake up to since Sutton still has to work, even if it’s at the house. Y’all can relieve me later to grab something to eat, then I’ll come back and guard her. I know she’s in ICU, but I can sit in the waiting room and keep an eye on everyone who comes through there. Can Orbit get me a schedule of the nurses on duty do you think?” he asks.

“Don’t see why not. I’ll give him a call when I leave,” Gemini says.

Orion said something that sparked an idea in my head. “What if they’re looking for victims who have no familial ties? Look at the facts as we know them so far… new to town or have no family members looking for them. Check and check. So far, the victims we’ve recovered, as well as Sutton, are either fresh to the state or have nobody that’ll call in their absences when they go missing outside of work associates.”