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“It’s alright.” I held his other leg, but it was Victor’s soothing words in his ear that instantly calmed him. Panic faded from his eyes, replaced by confusion, then skepticism.

“Easy there, friend,” Hooper said, his deep voice comforting. “Just a little ol’ fashioned antiseptic.” He rocked back on his heels. “Now then, anyone else got some unwanted hitchhikers you want seein’ to?”

CHAPTER 6

After checking each other over for leeches and cleaning up Victor’s arm, we began to feel half way to normal again. Normal for us, anyway. The shack was cozy, although it did feel as though we’d stumbled into bookclub night, with fewer books and more pickup trucks.

The people chatted like old friends or family members. They didn’t seem to mind us, but didn’t go out of their way to introduce themselves either. We were obviously outsiders.

Hooper vanished into a kitchen area at the back of the shack, then returned with tumblers on a tray, offering the drinks to everyone. When he got around to us, Victor took a glass and discreetly sniffed it while Hooper was offering one to me. Victor’s slight nod said it was okay to drink.

After our last stop on the road had us encountering drugged lollipops and sandwiches, we’d become a bit suspicious of freebies.

“Do uh . . . do you have a phone we can maybe use?” I asked, after setting my glass down.

“No signal out here,” Hooper replied, then nodded at the small TV mounted high on the wall. “Barely get a signal for that.”

A baseball game showed on screen, but the interference blurred out most of the details.

“May I ask . . . where are we exactly?” Victor spoke up.

“South of Gator Park.”

Zee gulped and whispered, “Gators have a whole fuckin’ park?”

“I see,” Victor continued. “And how far is the nearest town where we might find a phone?”

“A few hours’ drive in that direction.” He thumbed over his shoulder, then blinked oddly out of order, one eye blinking at a slightly different time to the other.

“Is anyone leaving later? Someone we might get a lift with?” Victor asked.

“Apologies friends, but not tonight. Wait till morning, then maybe.” Hooper headed back to the kitchen, leaving me, Victor, and Zee to huddle closer. We really did need to get to a phone, and waiting until morning wasn’t an option if we wanted to get ahead of the massacre we’d left behind.

“A few hours’ drive is likely a day’s walk,” Victor said. “I’d rather do so at night, for obvious reasons.”

“Yeah, okay. Zee, you up to it?”

Zee looked up from fishing a speck of something out of his glass. “Huh? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Uhm, your leg⁠—”

“You fainted,” Victor pointed out.

Zee’s expression blew wide with disbelief. “The fuck? I did not.”

“I was there, and you did.” Victor blinked slowly, hiding his smugness. “Into my arms, precisely.”

Zee snorted a laugh. “Fuck off, that did not happen. I would know if I’d fainted, and nope, don’t remember that.”

Victor arched an eyebrow, but left it at that. We all knew it had happened, including Zee. “Are you up for a several-mile trek?” Victor asked him.

Zee rolled his eyes. “You guys do know I have these amazing things on my back called wings, right?”

“Okay, so we walk out of here, find a phone, call Leomaris, and hopefully they send some help. We can explain the whole Toby incident then, and get this all cleared up.”

“You mean explain how Victor murdered a mafia don’s family?” Zee said. “Igniting a blood feud that’ll last for generations? Netflix gonna love it.”

“It was an accident,” Victor grumbled. “I was not expecting the shotgun blast to my back. It was an easy mistake to make.”