Page 19 of The Red Rider
Dice and Aeron flanked me on either side.
“Did you think we would let you smash heads without us?” Aeron said.
“It feels like I haven’t beaten someone up in ages,” Dice sighed.
Five men were pushing their way through the line. I could see knives and guns strapped to their waists, but they hadn’t drawn them yet.
“Is there a problem, boys?” I asked.
One of the men who must have been the leader started speaking in rapid-fire Spanish to another man, who stepped forward to address me.
“The pretty girl needs to step aside. We don’t want to hurt you.”
“Well, you see now, I don’t want to hurtyou.There’s a line, and you’re cutting. We aren’t leaving until everyone has had their vaccination. If you go back to the end of the line, we won’t have a problem.”
Dice stepped forward and cracked his knuckles.
“But I wouldn’t mind hurting you,”
Aeron drew his sword from behind his back.
“Me either. Are we going to have a problem here?”
Two of the men reached for their guns. Dice’s sword was out in an instance. Aeron and Dice made slashing motions, and both men’s holsters fell to the ground. The other men started shouting and drew their weapons. We had three guns trained on us.
“Go ahead. Make my day,” Aeron said.
I groaned. This wasnotthe time for movie quotes. Dice darted between them and addressed the man that spoke English.
“Tell your friends we can make all of them dead before they can fire a shot. Just go to the back of the line!”
He tried screaming over his friends, but they were all shouting in Spanish and waving guns in our faces. They finally decided to listen.
“You can get vaccinated, or you can get dead,” Dice warned.
The man relayed his message, and that seemed to get through to them. They put their guns away and grumbled as they went to the back of the line. They were one of the few groups that brought drama instead of gifts, but they got their vaccinations.
The sun was coming up by the time we got home, but everyone who came got vaccinated. Leif had been talking into an earpiece the entire time. When we finally fell into bed, he nuzzled my neck.
“It was a success. All my contacts said we vaccinated everyone who came, and California got the vaccines they needed. We gave them enough to share, and we have an understanding with Jade to spread the word and hand them off to people at the gate who ask for them.”
“Excellent. I’m exhausted,” Aeron said.
I finally had to say it. We were going to leave for Florida soon. I had no idea what the sleeping arrangements were going to be there, but it seriously felt like we were excluding Dice, and we had the room.
“Dice, get your ass in here and sleep with us,” I hollered.
I didn’t have to ask him twice. He came bounding in and dove under the covers. Aeron didn’t say a damned thing. He seemed pretty pleased I finally asked.
Chapter 12
T
he angels beat me awake, but they usually did. They were going through Leif’s loot and eating breakfast. I joined them on the couch and started eating. We would be leaving this place soon, and I was seriously going to miss it. San Quintin had become like a second home to me.
Leif handed me a pretty red necklace with red beads on it.
“She said it was for the pretty girl who helped me. This is for you.”
