Page 23 of Reese’s Protection

Bullet dragged his keys out of his pocket and passed them to Layton. “Take my girl and get out of here. The boys used Reese’s car and took him over to Walnut Creek Hospital. Don’t ask for Reese, ask for Grant Arthur, and he’ll take you to him. Don’t tell anyone Reese was shot. Don’t say the words gunshot wound.”

“Won’t they know? They will, right?” Layton was starting to sound a bit hysterical, and I hoped he would keep it together enough to drive an unfamiliar bike.

“Yeah, but we’re trying to keep the cops out of it, so we don’t want to go around saying as much.” Bullet shot Layton a shark’s scowl, all teeth, as if he thought Layton should know better.

“Okay.” My baby brother wavered on his feet, nodded once, and then ran toward the bike.

“Helmet!” I called after him, trying to keep my voice down.

He raised his hand to acknowledge me, and I decided to let it go. He knew how to ride a bike.

“Come on,” Bullet said, smacking my abs with the back of his hand. He went to Jeremy’s head and grabbed the soon-to-be corpse underneath his arms. With a shrug, I took his feet.

“What about the house?”

“Hopefully, someone robs it.” Bullet’s warm laughter filled the night air as we hefted Jeremy to my truck. The motorcycle roared as it took off, and I flinched, watching the taillight fade into the distance. I debated putting Jeremy in the bed, but on the off chance he came to enough to attract attention, that was a bad idea, so we dropped him on the floor of the back seat.

“Where’s the gun he used?”

“Why?” Bullet smacked my shoulder.

“I’m gonna make him fucking choke on it.”

He snorted. “Jester took it with him.”

“I should’ve done this earlier. Instead, I just let him walk away because of a few witnesses.” I slapped the side of the truck and the sound seemed to be amplified on the dark sleepy street. The fact that the cops hadn’t come blazing in here yet made it clear that Jeremy had sent the cops after me and Reese. The memory doubled my determination to put him in the ground.

Bullet shook his head. “I get that Reese is your man, but he made his choice to come over here and try to put this fucker in his place.”

“He got shot,” I said. The world shrank and expanded again. Was I going crazy?

“Yeah, the outcome wasn’t so hot, but it was still his right.” Bullet waggled his eyebrows. “We tried to talk him out of it.”

All I could bring myself to do was glare. If Bullet hadn’t been helping me out of this shitty situation, I might’ve taken a swing at him with the way I was feeling.

“Let me drive.” Bullet held out his hand.

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got a plan.” He sent me a lopsided grin that made him seem less scary.

I sighed and tossed him the keys before swinging up into the back of the truck. I rested my feet on Jeremy and didn’t make any attempt to be gentle about it.

We’d been on the road heading out of town for about ten minutes when Jeremy gurgled, and I glanced down to find his eyes open and staring vaguely up in my direction. He made another wet sucking sound, and absolute evil filled my heart. I hoped he was suffering.

“Guess what?” I grinned. I imagined this was what my old man must’ve felt like when he was torturing us, and damned if it didn’t feel fucking fantastic. Biting into a live wire would be less of a rush. “You’re off to die, you fucking asshole. Did you think you were gonna be able to beat pretty men who’re smaller than you forever and get away with it? The cards always turning up Jeremy?”

He coughed. “Lemme go. Y’don’ un’erstan’. He made me. Made me do it.” His words were slurred from missing teeth, blood, and maybe a broken jaw.

Pure fire burned in my belly as I lifted my heel, then ground it down on his nose. His screams hurt my ears, and I had no idea how long it went on before his voice was so ragged it was barely air leaving his chest.

Bullet didn’t say a thing.

I wouldn’t have stopped if he did.

“He dead?” Bullet glanced back over his shoulder with his eyebrows raised.

“Chest is still moving. Passed out,” I grumbled.