Page 120 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

“Shit, yeah, alright.” He spun the wheel, gave the boat as much gas as he dared, and wished like hell he’d bothered to learn how to work one of these things properly.

Someone on the shore hailed them with a flashlight. Alex threw up a wave, prayed it was someone friendly, and kept going, chugging them along at Reese’s direction.

“Stop,” Reese commanded after a few minutes, and he went back and to the side of the boat.

Alex laid off the gas, but of course the boat didn’tstop. Boats were neverstillon top of the water.

He got it as still as it would go, though, and twisted around in his seat in time to see Gray join Reese at the side. Both of them leaned so far over he thought they might topple head-first into the water, but then they pulled back – and pulled Tenny with them. He had an arm across each of their shoulders, and rather than his usual lithe movements, one of his legs draggedawkwardly up over the edge of the boat, and he hissed a curse as they laid him down on the vinyl bench at the stern.

Though his jeans were dark and waterlogged, Alex could clearly see the darker splash of blood.

He jolted up out of his seat. “Shit! Where are you hit?”

Tenny’s face resembled that of a wax doll, bloodless and clammy, his lips tinged blue despite the warmth of the water.

“Thigh,” he gritted out through bared teeth. “It didn’t hit the femoral, it’s fine,” he tacked on.

“Shut up,” Reese said, and his voice cracked again, but in the other direction this time, soft and vulnerable. He knelt down in the bottom of the boat, produced a knife seemingly from nowhere, and cut Tenny’s jeans open with a few deft wrist flicks.

There was alotof blood.

Alex said, “Shit,” before he could catch himself, and then thought,no, screw that. Gray was standing there observing passionlessly, and Reese’s hands were as deft and steady as a paramedic’s; Tenny had his jaw tensed, but looked down at his own wounded leg without any undue concern.

Reese mopped the leg with the sleeve of his own hoodie, then reached up and Gray placed the first aid kit in his palm without further prompt.

Alex turned and lunged for wheel. “Hold on. We’ll get to–” Well, not the dock, because if the damn thing wasn’t on fire yet, it likely soon would be, the way the boat was blazing. “We’ll get to shore.”

“No,” Tenny snapped, and he glanced back over his shoulder, incredulous.

The tendons in Tenny’s throat stuck out stark and tensed as Reese dumped half a bottle of alcohol on the bullet wound and then started swaddling it up tight. But despite his pallor and the amount of blood slicked over the bench and the floor of the boat,his gaze was stern when it met Alex’s. “We need to find Remy, and Mercy’s still out here, somewhere.”

“You’re bleeding out!”

“I’m not.” He glanced toward Reese. “I’m not, right?”

“No. But it was close.”

“See? Close isn’t dead,” Tenny said. He pointed with one bloodied hand, dictatorial as ever. “Head over toward that shoreline. I told Remy to swim for it.”

“Fine.” Alex turned back around, heart hammering. “But if you die, don’t blame me.”

Not that he would admit it, but Alex was impressed as hell. He’d never worked a case in which someone was shot, but every tale he’d heard firsthand had resulted in ambulances and lots of shouts of “agent down!” Tenny’s stoicism was incredible, but Alex really was going to blame himself if the idiot died.

He pushed the throttle, and sent the boat toward the far shoreline. Mercy had stashed a bag there earlier, “just in case,” and Alex knew there were more first aid supplies in it; hopefully, they could use them on Tenny, and they wouldn’t find Remy injured or…

No. He swallowed hard, and wouldn’t let himself think it.

Gray came up to stand beside him, high-powered flashlight aimed out at the water ahead of them.

“Is he really gonna be okay?” Alex leaned in to ask.

“He won’t die of blood loss,” Gray said, without emotion, “but infection’s likely, given he was in the water.”

Speaking of the water…it was flat, dull, and tea-colored in the flashlight’s beam. Alex could see nothing but clumps of duckweed bobbing along the surface. He slowed, images of Remy hiding below flashing through his mind, holding his breath, watching their shadow pass overhead.

“Remy!” he shouted, and didn’t know if he could be heard over the drone of the engines. “Remy!”

They slowed further, as they neared the shallows, and Alex swung wide, afraid of getting too close and being grounded.

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