Page 54 of Coup De Grâce
“Well, get used to it. That’s what happens when you continue to defy the odds.”
I agreed with Thumper and kept walking. There was only so much one man could take of the insanity before he just shrugged his shoulders and walked off.
“How the hell did that guy find us?” I muttered to myself.
“Well, it’s not that hard to figure out. If you assume that the Shadowy guy knew you pulled the trigger on Al-ahmar, then calculate how long it would take you to reach the border, factor in all suspected movements to get out, it’s really not that hard toconceive that he was as smart as me and figured out your route,” FNG grinned.
“God, this body suit is so fucking hot,” Thumper grumbled. “I look like some sort of freaky drag queen.”
“Not even,” FNG snorted. “Drag queens don’t have deflated boobs.”
“I only did this because I wasn’t crazy enough to blow myself up.”
My boots scraped along the rough terrain. If only I could get a vehicle. I could drive away from my insane comrades and finish the mission on my own.
Then again, I wasn’t entirely certain what my mission was anymore. I needed to get to the rally point and take it from there. This wandering around the desert was doing very little to help me achieve my goals.
“Ah! There!” FNG shouted, walking backward as he waved at a vehicle coming toward us. “Help! We’re stranded! We have an injured woman with us!”
“FNG!” Thumper hissed.
“Quick, cover up your deflated boob. You’re going to scare them away.”
“We are not?—”
“Hey!” He shouted, flagging them down as he stepped in front of the vehicle. It came to a screeching halt, dust floating all around us and making us choke on the horrible particles. But the vehicle did stop and wait for FNG to walk around to the driver’s side.
“Do you speak English, amigo?”
The man said something in a hushed tone that I couldn’t understand, but FNG continued.
“We have an injured lady,” FNG said loudly, enunciating each word. “Deflated boob! Broken leg! She’s ugly, but she still needs help!”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Thumper. “Broken leg, huh?”
“I am not an ugly lady,” Thumper grumbled. “Where does he get off saying that shit? I was the only one who volunteered for the job.”
“You volunteered for this?” I chuckled.
Sighing, he wiped the sweat from his brow. “Voluntold.”
“Yeah, I believe that,” I said, not really believing a word out of his mouth. Thumper didn’t let anyone voluntold him anything. It just didn’t work that way. But he would definitely volunteer for a job like this under the right circumstances.
“It’s Bree, isn’t it?” I asked, keeping my eyes trained on the vehicle and the driver FNG was still attempting to negotiate with.
“What?”
“The reason you came out here. What did she do this time?”
“You’re crazy. She had nothing to do with this.”
“Right. That’s why you’re dressed like a woman,” I snorted.
“I’m telling you, I was voluntold for this job. And even though I didn’t want to dress up as a lady, I was willing to go the distance. Unlike you, some of us trust our fellow teammates and want to help. That’s me. I knew you were innocent and would do anything to get you out of the shit situation you were in. Because I’m fucking loyal. Because I fucking knew that if you didn’t get out, Eva would be devastated for the rest of her life, along with your kids. Some things you just don’t have to think about, and that was one of them. So yeah, I fucking put on the fake boobs and dress like a woman because I’m loyal and I wanted to make sure that Eva never felt an ounce of pain if she lost you.”
It was a nice speech. Fucking beautiful, if you believed that kind of shit. But I knew Thumper too well. It would take a hell of a lot to get him to wear that fucking body suit, and the only logical reason was death.
Or Bree getting knocked up again.
