Page 57 of One
“What the hell happened?” I asked my voice a little gruff.
“Someone found our trail,” King said on the other side of me.
I slowly looked over to him. He looked just as worried and exhausted as Boogie.
“They shot me in the chest,” I said, rubbing lightly remembering the pain. “And I fell back on something.”
“An end table,” Boogie said.
I nodded, wincing at the pain. “How long have I been out?”
“Fifteen minutes,” Boogie said, sitting down on the bed but hissing in pain before he stood up.
“You still haven’t patched him up?” I glared at King, but it wasn’t very stern since anything I did hurt my head.
“He wouldn’t let me look at him,” King glared at him.
“Wait, did you get shot in the ass?” I tried not to smile.
Boogie did not appreciate the smile. “It grazed my ass.”
“Lay on your stomach,” I ordered. “That was too much blood for just a graze, and if it was, you got a big ass so it might have taken?—”
“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Boogie glared at me.
“Let King take a look at you, and we can see what the damage is,” I said, trying to sit up, but decided that was too hard. “If we leave, we need both of you to be good.Ineed you to be ok.”
He looked conflicted before he huffed, unbuttoning his pants, pulling them down and laying on his stomach. A bullet had grazed his ass, but he had a bullet in his upper shoulder, and that was where most of the blood came from.
“God dammit, Boogie,” King snarled, inspecting his wound. “You should have said something.”
Boogie just grunted as King laid out a very intense kit. I grunted, moving myself to lay next to Boogie, which earned myself a growl and a glare from them. They could kiss my ass; I needed to be close to them as everything hit me. I grabbed Boogie’s hand as King worked on him. Tears fell out of my eyes, as Boogie's expression softened.
“Little One,” he whispered.
“I’m ok,” I said, wiping my tears. “I think everything is just hitting me and I’m finally realizing people actually want me dead. They might succeed and hurt you at the same time too.”
“They can try, Doll, but they won’t get a chance and if they do, well, dying for you would be a fucking honor, and in death we will be together,” King said leaning towards me. “There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for you and that includes dying.”
“Theres a reason people fear us, Little One,” Boogie said. “We won’t go quietly into the good night, they know that, and that's why they sent vans and vans of people. You don’t just send someone to kill us. You send a fucking army and pray you kill us, because if you don’t well let’s just say I hope they know how to hide well because hide and seek is our favorite game.”
I shivered.
“We protect what's ours, Ally.” King kissed me softly, leaning back and allowing Boogie to do the same. “Expect someone's head on a platter or a necklace of bones. You will get a souvenir.”
This shouldn’t be romantic but dammit it was. The sound of a phone ringing broke our moment, and King answered the phone. Boogie and I held hands as we heard the one-sided call that sounded like he was talking to Mars. Boogie stared at me intently as we laid together. King hung up and his shoulders finally relaxed.
“They are twenty minutes away and they have a crew cleaning the highway and two will be going through the woods,” he said, looking relieved. “Doc will meet us at Halloween Town to check on you guys.”
“Ok, then finish up so we can check on the perimeter and get the fuck out of here,” Boogie said, never taking his eyes off of me.
I think he felt like if he looked away, he was afraid I might disappear. His expression grew darker as the minutes passed. My chest grew tight with discomfort, the tense silence made me feel worse.Was I breaking us apart?
Once Mars arrived, one of the guys was always with me. At least twenty men were with us, and that was me just counting who was in our immediate vicinity. Boogie and King were on the phone speaking with several people, and I suddenly realized how little I knew of their network.
“How are you doing, Noelle?” Roman sat on the bed with me, handing me a Gatorade bottle.
“OK,” I said, looking out of our bedroom to the living room to see if anyone was listening or about to come in. “Can I ask for a favor?”
