Page 78 of The Dire Legacy

“Nope!” We both answer.

The answering growl is the last we hear before screams shatter through the falling night.

“I’ll go first.” Michael steps in front of me, his pistol drawn. When the door flings open, the doctor leaps from his desk and backs into the corner.

“What are you doing here?” His brown hair flies around his head.

He must have saved a couple of doses for himself.

“Where’s the boy?” Michael points the barrel at the leech’s chest.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The doc says with a smug look.

A single shot through the forehead drops him without a twitch.

We push through to the room where they had held me, searching all the beds.

Empty.

“Shit. They were trying to move me to a more secure place. Maybe that’s where they took him?” I grab Michael’s hand and go back through the center door, past the body of the doctor.

Just as I reach for the handle, it moves within my grasp and pulls away from me.

JD’s eyes widen as he stumbles backward. “What the f—”

Michael raises his gun so it sits between the eyes of the short man.

“Where’s Connor?” I love seeing the look of shock and confusion on his bearded face. When the moment of recognition hits as he stares at Michael.

“What? How?” The sausage shaped fingers raise, his ruddy palms face us. “How are you alive?”

I catch a smirk tugging up Michael’s cheek.

“I came back from the dead for my woman. That’s what she means to me.” He gives me a soft touch to the elbow, indicating for me to step to the side. “Why don’t you come on in here so we can have a little chat?”

JD stands frozen. Sweat percolates from his forehead as he glances at the running people nearby.

My hand finds Michael’s chest and I raise onto my toes to loudly whisper. I want JD to hear me. “I think you should shoot him. We can find Connor ourselves.”

Michael’s palm finds my hip and he smiles. “Anything for you, dear.” He drops the barrel and pulls the trigger, putting a hole in JD’s fat thigh just above his knee.

The scream reminds me of the lullabies at the Institute. Relaxing at someone else’s pain.

He crumples to the ground with an audible thud.

Michael wraps his fingers around the collar of the crying man and drags his heavy body into the door, kicking it closed behind him.

Handcuffs catch the dim light from their holder on his stretched belt.

“Maybe he does know.” I squat down and yank the shiny restraints free of the writhing man. “You want to live? Tell us where the boy is, and I’ll make sure you heal.”

JD digs his heel into the smooth floor and props himself against the doctor’s desk. “I’m not telling you. If you take him, we’re all dead.”

Michael strides to the corner and yanks the body of the dead old man from behind the furniture. “You’re all going to die anyway. You just get to choose if it’s a bullet or I let my dogs tear you limb from limb.”

“Oh, Mikey. You’re so sexy when you’re threatening.” I straddle JD’s injured leg, bumping the wound with my toe. “Makes me think that JD here wants a touch of your sweet, sweet loving, too.”

The groan from the stocky man tells me he doesn’t quite understand the full weight of my threat. His thick fingers press into his oozing knee as he wheezes short gasps. “You can’t have him.”

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