AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Justin looks older than I imagined. Receding hairline, and what hair he has left is pulled into a thin, greasy ponytail. He’s sleeping buck-ass naked, with his legs sprawled and the covers tossed on the floor. A thick trail of drool runs down his pimply chin. How did this guy get into the Vipers’ club? On a normal day, a nerd like him wouldn’t make it past the bouncer. This just cements our theory that he’s in with Ramsey and his crew.
“You sleep pretty soundly for a fucking rat,” I say, projecting my voice enough to startle him. He jerks awake and mumbles something incoherent.
Before Justin can reach for a hidden weapon, unlikely as that is, I grab him by the throat and haul his scrawny ass out of bed. He tries to scream, but I’m too fast for him. I stuff a gross, skid marked pair of tighty whities I took off the floor in his mouth to muffle him. His gagging on the gag is enough to tell me he knows how disgusting his underwear is. No way I stuffed it deep enough to actually choke the dude.
I pull him close and give him my best, scariest sneer. “You even think about running or fighting back, and I’ll do more than choke you on your own shit stains.”
Justin whimpers and nods, or at least he nods as much as I give him leave to. I’m not about to loosen my grip on his neck.
Well, I wasn’t going to loosen my grip … until the little freak got a hard-on from it.
Instead of recoiling, I slam his head against the wall. “Listen here, you fucking pervert, if you come on this outfit with your tainted jizz, I’ll make a eunuch out of you. Those are some teensy little grapes you got dangling there, but I reckon you’d miss your balls eventually.”
His Adam’s apple bobs under my hand as he swallows hard. “S-sorry,” he mumbles around the gag.
“Yeah, you’re a sorry motherfucker, all right. Now …” I pull my switchblade out and snap it open “… I have some questions for you.”
Just my luck; Justin turns out to be a fainter. And a pisser. I sidestep but end up with a warm stream running down my leg. Gross.
A quick check of his room reveals a large knapsack, one of those hiking bags you could totally stuff a body in. It’s heavy when I try to lift it, and I find it full of weird costumes and props. Dude must be a LARPer.
I’ve never understood LARPing. Who wants to play make-believe in the woods all damn day, living in some crazy fantasy world? I may be on the nutty side of the mental spectrum, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t be caught dead waving around one of these cardboard axes. I prefer the real thing, thank you very much.
Once I dump the LARP gear, I confirm that the bag is big enough for a body. Namely, Justin’s body. It takes some folding and stuffing, and I think I dislocated one of his shoulders in the process, but I finally get the naked man in there and pull the drawstring shut. He’s not gonna suffocate in there, not even with the underwear gag still in his mouth, but more importantly he’s not gonna give me any trouble while I cross town back to the Burrow.
I debate calling Kendrick for a ride back. He’ll be pissed that I snuck out, but Doc might be mad at me if he finds out I not only beat up a guy without my immobilizer on, I also hurt the dude while he was unconscious. If I add carrying him back to the Burrow to the mix, I might lose some bedroom privileges with Doc … maybe Kendrick, too.
With a sigh, I pull out one of the burner phones we keep handy at the Burrow and dial Kendrick. He picks up on the second ring, and from the gravelly snarl in his voice, he’s noticed I’m gone.
“Bun, where the fuck are you?”
I rattle off the address.
“Jesus Christ, Bun, you wandered pretty far off. I hope you have a good excuse.”
I kick the knapsack with the toe of my boot. “I had to ask Justin some questions, but the little jerk passed out on me before I could get any information from him. I need you to help me get him back home so we can get serious.”
That will help him forget he’s mad. Kendrick loves it when I get serious.
“I would’ve come with, Bunny.”
His soft tone surprises me. I don’t expect softness from Kendrick. Kendrick is all muscle and tough guy, not a soft bone in his body—and yes, that’s a double entendre. I really should take the time to find out what’s bothering him, but instead, in true Bunny style, I poke the bear a little harder instead.
“Are you picking me up or not, ‘cause if you don’t, I have a hundred- and forty-pound man to lug across town.”
“Bunny Anne Kincaid,” he says, using a made-up middle name, “if you try to haul that body any farther than to the front door of the apartment building, I swear to Doc I’m gonna whip you so hard you can’t sit for a solid week!”
A smile spreads my lips as my rough-and-tumble Kendrick reappears. “Is that a promise, babe?”
He hangs up without answering, and I set to work getting Justin downstairs to the front door. Before that, though, I snatch a familiar-looking laptop off his desk and stuff it in a pocket on the knapsack.
Some things about stuffing a grown man in a knapsack: first off, it’s harder than it sounds, even when he’s unconscious. Secondly, I realize in hindsight that I probably should have stuffed him in with his head at the top of the bag instead of down at the bottom, because the trip down the stairwell isn’t the smoothest. I can’t lift the bag properly with my injured shoulder, so I wind up wincing with each step as his head bounces off the stairs, one by one.
I probably should be worried that he hasn’t woken up yet, but I shrug it off as I get out the door and wait in the alley for Kendrick to show up with the van.
Chapter 15
Doc
