Page 60 of Brother In Arms

“Kill him,” I said matter-of-factly. Bailey inhaled sharply and I rubbed her back.

“Relax, baby. The man asked me what I wanted to do with him, he didn’t tell me what we were gonna do.” I murmured.

“Right, think he’ll be missed?” Dragon wanted to know.

“Yes,” Bailey said, then swallowed and asked, “shouldn’t we call an ambulance for him?”

“Nope.” Dray said, and put his hands under the dude’s armpits. Dragon took his ankles.

“Where are you taking him?” Bailey asked.

“Hospital, have Doc patch him up and then when he wakes up, we’re gonna have a conversation,” Dragon said.

“I’ll fix the door in the morning.”

“Right, see you two later and thanks for all the fish,” Dragon said then he looked at his son and said, “One, two, three, lift!”

Bailey’s mouth fell open as they carried the injured man out and put him in the back of Dragon’s old pickup. Bailey and I had kind of naturally just followed them and we stood in the ruin of her open doorway.

She hugged to me tightly and shuddered and I sighed, “Well, that’s it then…” I murmured. “You’ve seen the worst of me.”

“Would you have really killed him?” she asked quietly, “If I’d said so, would you have shot him?”

“Without hesitation.”

She closed her mouth and had a faraway look on her face for what seemed like a long time. She let her arms slip from around my body and took a step back and my heart sank.

“I think I need another drink,” she said and her tone was brittle and empty… soulless.

“We can do that, then I’ll clean up this mess.”

She nodded and we went back into the kitchen, our boots crunching over broken glass, the dinner she’d been preparing left forgotten where its components lay. I looked it over and she uncorked her bourbon bottle and took a drink directly from it, her dark eyes never leaving mine. She coughed a little and passed me the bottle saying, “Man up, we’re drinking dinner tonight.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the brass pair she was sporting, my hope rising a bit that I hadn’t just killed it completely, but I could see she had questions. I took a swig out of the bottle and waited for her to ask them.

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