Page 11 of Guarded By Them

I was never going to fully escape the horror of my time at war.

Getting behind the wheel of my car in the parking garage had taken me back to when I’d been sitting in the truck in Iraq. Just for the briefest of moments, it had all come back to me. The heat, and dust, the stink of oil, the sound of the men I’d been with, laughing and ribbing each other. We hadn’t been expecting anything that day. It had just been a routine patrol.

Even though I hadn’t really thought there had been enough time for anyone to rig my car with a bomb, there had been the fraction of a second where I wondered if I’d relive the whole thing again, only this time it would kill me.

Those days after the bombing in Iraq were a blur, looking back. I remembered the explosion, and being thrown from the vehicle, but that was all. Everything had gone black, then I’d woken in a military hospital and discovered my leg had been amputated. They hadn’t even tried to save it—too much had been destroyed. If someone had told me to predict my reaction in that moment, I would have said pain, and panic, and grief, but the reality was very different. I was high on the amount of pain meds I’d been given, and I’d felt detached from the whole experience. The doctor explained about my leg, and I remembered just feeling very calm, as though a part of me had already known.

“There’s a sign for a motel up ahead,” Kodee said from the passenger seat, pulling me from my thoughts. “Think it will do?”

I didn’t even bother asking any more questions about the place. “Yeah, it’ll do.”

I wanted to get my leg elevated, in the hope some of the fluid would drain.

“We’re going to need two rooms,” Dillon pointed out.

My guts twisted. He meant because Rue wasn’t safe with me.

“I don’t like us being separated,” she said, her voice small.

Kodee twisted to give her a reassuring smile. “It’s for the best.”

“I’ll share with you, Rue,” Dillon said. “You won’t be on your own.”

I bet he wanted to share with her. I knew exactly what he would have on his mind. I couldn’t do or say anything to change this, though. My jealousy had nothing on Rue’s safety, and I wasn’t going to fight him about it. Dillon and Rue could have some alone time, if they wanted. I still had Kodee.

I signaled and took the exit for the motel.

The parking lot contained a handful of vehicles, mainly trucks and SUVs. The place looked a little rundown, paint peeling from the sign above the door, and one of the LED letters was no longer lit. But it was far away from the city, and no one knew us here, which was all that mattered.

I pulled the car into an empty spot, and we all climbed out.

Kodee went to the trunk. “I don’t want to leave any of the gear in the car. It’s safer if we take it with us.”

Dillon went to join him, and the two men dragged out the bags containing our money and passports and slung them over their shoulders. If someone were to break into the car overnight and steal our stuff, we’d be in even deeper shit than we were now.

Kodee slammed the trunk back down, and I hit the key fob to lock the doors. Together, we went into the building that housed the reception desk.

A man in his late forties sat behind the desk. His heavy jowls completely covered his neck, and his nose and cheeks were spider-webbed with red lines. His eyes were small and sunken, and he peered at us in suspicion as we pushed through the door.

“How many rooms?” the guy asked.

His gaze darted between us, trying to figure us out. Three guys and one girl. Rue had pulled her long dark hair around her neck, hiding the worst of the bruises. I didn’t want anyone calling the cops on us, thinking we were the kind of men who’d abduct and beat a woman.

“Two,” Dillon said, stepping to the desk. “Just the one night.”

He handed over cash and ID.

The guy took them both, his lips pressed together, his nostrils flared. Some people didn’t take kindly to two men together, and we had enough trouble to deal with without adding a homophobic asshole to the pot. He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead reached behind him and plucked two keys off the board.

“Rooms twenty-six and twenty-seven. Check out is no later than ten.”

I was sure we’d be long gone well before then.

Dillon took the keys. “Thanks.”

We turned and left the way we’d come in, relieved to be out of there. Our rooms were positioned a little farther around the other side of the parking lot, and we walked over to them and stopped outside of the doors.

“You guys going to be all right?” Kodee asked Dillon and Rue.

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