Page 35 of Guarded By Them

We’d taken two men out, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more.

“Stay here,” I hissed at the others. “I need to check the rest of the grounds.”

“I’ll come with you,” Ryan offered, but I shook my head.

Though it was safer if there were two of us covering each other’s backs, I didn’t like leaving Dillon and Rue here without protection.

“No, stay here. Keep them safe.”

I ran, light-footed, around the rest of the building, checking for signs of anyone else. It appeared the two men were working alone.

I returned to find Ryan and Rue still huddled around Dillon.

“How are you doing?” I asked him.

“It’s nothing,” he said through gritted teeth. “He practically missed.”

“You’re bleeding,” Rue cried. “He didn’t miss.”

“The bullet just grazed me.”

Ryan checked. “You’re right. It did just graze you. You’ll be fine.”

“Hurts like a bitch, though.”

“Don’t worry,” Ryan said with a smirk. “I don’t think you’ll lose the leg.”

“Har har,” Dillon deadpanned at him.

I bent to help Dillon to his feet. “Come on. Let’s get back into the house and pick up our stuff and get the hell out of here. But first I need to find out who Timmo has been speaking to. See if anyone else is coming.”

“It has to be either the Capello brothers or Joe Nettie’s men, right?” Rue asked, looking between us. “I mean, it’s not like we have any other enemies.”

“I hope not.”

Ryan and I got Dillon between us, and we helped him back into the cabin. We took him into the living room and deposited him on the couch. I was past caring about whether he got blood on the upholstery.

Movement came from the back of the cabin, and I looked up to find Timmo standing there. He held his shotgun at his side, but he wasn’t aiming it at us.

Not hesitating, I strode straight up to him and wrenched the shotgun out of his grip, then I jammed the barrel of my gun under his chin. “Who the fuck have you been talking to? Who did you tell we were here?”

“No—no one,” he stuttered. “I—I just made some calls. Ordered in what we needed.”

“Bullshit. You told someone.”

“Not your names. I just said I had some visitors—three guys and a young woman. That’s all. I swear.”

“Shit.”

I turned back to the others. “That info must have been enough to match the description of us. They sent someone local to track us down.”

“Who did?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t know. Either Joe Nettie’s men or the Capello brothers. Since the men who came here are dead, it’s not as though I can ask them.”

“Fuck. So now someone knows where we are,” Dillon said.

Ryan looked between us. “And we still don’t have a passport for Rue.”

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