Page 47 of Text Me, Take Me

“If blood is spilled, that won’t be why.”

“I thought you were against bloodshed.”

“Not if it stops Mason coming after Evie.”

We keep going across the rugged terrain, heading toward the coordinates that Bobby the prisoner pointed out on the map.

“You weren’t keen on hurting the kid,” Rafe says.

“To kill the snake, you cut off the head. You don’t mess with the tail. It’s a waste of energy.”

“If he lied to us, I might have something to say about that.”

I look grimly at him. “You’re not hurting the kid.”

After thirty minutes of tough hiking, we crest a small dusty hill and stop opposite the mouth of a cave. I shoulder my rifle, then double-check my bulletproof vest. Gesturing to the men, they pan out, getting ready to advance into the cave.

I’m about to give the order when I hear athrum-thrumnoise. Like an engine.

“Do you hear that?” Rafe asks.

A moment later, three off-road bikes explode from the mouth of the cave, followed by four more. They bounce over the terrain and take a sharp turn, heading in the opposite direction.

“Aim for the tires!”I roar, hefting my rifle and aiming at the bikes

I let a round of bullets fly, buckling one of the bikes, and then switch my aim to another. But by then, it’s too late. They’ve shot over the opposite hill and out of sight. They chose this cave well. I jump over the hill and slide down it, then run to the opposite side. By the time I get to a firing position, the bikes have taken another turn.

“Fuck,” I growl, turning back to Rafe and the others.

“Maybe they had cameras watching the perimeter,” Rafe muses.

“Fuck.”

“At least we stopped one of them.”

“Mr. Russo,” one man says, gesturing to the man on the ground.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and when he fell from the bike, his unprotected head slammed against a rock. I’ve seen enough dead bodies in my time; I don’t need to check if he’s breathing. But I rush over, hoping it’s Mason, but I don’t recognize the man. He’s shirtless and covered in biker tattoos.

Somebody calls from the mouth of the cave, “Mr. Russo!”

I jog to the cave. They left fast, abandoning several weapons and crates of supplies. Sleeping bags and stinking buckets litter the cave… and, further on, lit by oil lamps, several women crouch with their hands over their eyes. I recognize one of them from the video Mason showed me when he visited my office.

“Crystal?” I say, shouldering my rifle and offering my hand. “It’s okay–you’re safe. The Vultures are gone. They can’t hurt you anymore.”

It takes a while for the women to slowly stand and leave the cave. When they do, they wince in the sunlight. They look thin, as if The Vultures have been hoarding all the food for themselves, and several of them have bruises and wear torn clothing, leaving no question about what those sick fucks have been doing to them.

One of them, a young girl with dyed red hair, sees the corpse on the ground and runs over to him, letting out a wild scream. She kicks him in the side.“I told you, you’d pay for what you did! I told you God would make you pay, you rapist fuck!”

Rafe walks up beside me. “Chin up, Dom. At least you didn’t kill an evil man.”

“We’ve got no goddamn clue where they’re going now. This is FUBAR.”

“Fucked up beyond all recognition. Do I get a gold star?”

“Can it, Rafe.”

“We could question the kid again.”

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