Page 86 of A Brother At My Back

Dragon rose his eyebrows and Nik laid his palm on my lower back, kneading with his fingertips along either side of my spine, a silent urge to caution. It both calmed me and tempered my resolve into steel.

I’d done nothing but be cautious and self-centered about it, too. Now Zeke had been hurt and Delia had been killed and by God, I wouldn’t let him get away with it. I would look this monster in the eyes. I would slay this dragon of mine and know, for a fact, that he would never hurt another person ever again. I had to, I needed to, and Delia needed someone to speak for her who loved her.

I said all of it, spilled my truth into the air and punctuated it by punching the mattress by my hip. Dragon stared at me, expression shuttered, and took a deep breath, letting it out in a rush.

“Now you really do remind me of my wife.”

“Well, if your wife’s answer to this particular problem would be to kick you in the balls and climb over your body to get to the motherfucker who killed her friend, then yeah. I’m with her.”

He laughed, a rich, loud booming thing that bounced from the ceiling and dripped down the walls, coating the room with rich sound. He thumbed a tear out of the corner of his eye and nodded, “Yeah. That would have been Tilly’s answer. She either went over me, under me or damn near through me if she wanted it bad enough. I gotta tell you, girl. This is the kind of thing you don’t come back from. You should let us handle it, trust us that it’s done, get on with yer life.”

“If Lia were still here, that’d be an option, but not anymore.”

“I don’t see you trying to talk her out of this shit,” he remarked to Nik, who was leaned up against the headboard behind me.

“She knows what she wants. I’m here for her. I honestly think she’s right. I may not like it, but I get it.”

It was less than a rousing endorsement but I’d take it. Dragon hung his head and sighed, looked up at Nik and said, “Well, ain’t you stuck between the past and the future?”

“Just taking it minute by minute here, Boss… but yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“Put some fuckin’ clothes on, I’m goin’ out to have a smoke and think about it.”

He went out the door and closed it behind him. I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding.

“Do you think -?”

Nik cut me off, “I don’t know, but it’s a good chance, eh. Find some clothes.”

We dressed, quickly and for warmth, and headed out of the building. Dragon’s old truck was idling on the track and he turned around, sucking on a cigarette.

“Get in the truck before I change my mind,” he grated and I nodded and slid into the middle, feet on either side of the hump, my nerves on fire for a completely different reason now.

Dragon got behind the wheel and Nik got in beside me, taking my hand closest to him and rubbing it between his own. The gesture was both reassuring and appreciated as he worked out the chill in my fingers. I got cold so easily, I swear but the kind of cold I was now? Frozen down to my very soul? It wasn’t a chill that could be rubbed away or cured with a blanket. No hot shower, no cup of tea was going to fix it, and I’m afraid it only grew worse, my stomach knotted with dread, the closer we got to the place Nik took me shooting the first time.

Why they called it Point Nowhere I didn’t know and it didn’t seem like a question I should ask. I’d learned in my line of work since Silas fucked up my face that ignorance really was bliss. That there were just certain things you didn’t ask or talk about and that it really was better to just go with the flow. It was amazing what you learned when you kept your mouth shut and your ears and eyes open.

The snow was falling, and it was making it slow going. We made it up the long driveway to the lot outside the metal outbuilding with its rusting wrecks of cars, so blanketed with white they were unrecognizable, like hunkered hulking creatures poised to wake and leap out. Sleeping sentinels.

Dragon cut the engine and sighed. He looked over at me, the cold creeping in slowly, wafting in off the glass and said, “Last chance to spare yourself, Sweetheart. You don’t have to go in. You can stay right here and just let us handle this for you.”

I shook my head. “Not how it works,” I replied simply and he nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. I wasn’t sure how he got it, that I needed to do this, but he did, and I wasn’t going to poke at it. I just needed to finish it. Suck it up, get my ass in there and throw the closet door wide, lift the proverbial blankets and confront the monster under my bed. Except this was a waking nightmare and all too real, and it was one I was sick and tired of living in. I understood now, it was him or me, and the police? Law enforcement? The system? It was a joke. An illusion. A construct to make people feel better but that didn’t really do shit when it counted.

These guys had it right, forming their own society. If you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself and they were just as sick and disillusioned with the lies as I was. I looked over at Nik and he hooked a hand behind my neck and dragged my forehead to his lips. My eyes dropped closed and I took the comfort. I felt grounded by the gesture and I was honestly as ready as I would ever be.

“Right, let’s do this,” Dragon said. “Get your closure or whatever and get this waste of fucking space out of yer life.”

“Here, here,” I murmured.

I followed Dragon out of the truck on his side and Nik slid over and out behind me. It was a better option than trudging around in the front of it in the damn near knee-deep drifts of snow that showed no sign of stopping.

“At least the weather is on our side, yeah?” Nik commented as we went past a black SUV with deeply tinted back windows.

“Ah, yeah,” Dragon agreed.

I didn’t ask, even though the question of what that was supposed to mean was on the tip of my tongue.

The side door to the building opened and Reaver stuck his head out. He spotted me and frowned, saying, “You don’t honestly think this is a good idea, do you?”

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