Page 100 of Static/Cling

They stopped at the threshold. Bjorn’s face was pale, drawn in lines of pain, and that’s when Kassian realized he was shoeless. A trail of bloody footprints trailed back along the hallway behind him.

“Dude,” Kassian said.

“I know. I’ll bring sneakers for the next time I have to ditch the boots,” Bjorn said. “Lesson learned.”

“It was the glass wall that asshole tried to shoot him through,” Leif said. He turned his face up to Bjorn. “Then like a dummy, you walked through broken glass.”

“To get to you.”

Leif shook his head. “I can’t carry you.”

“I can.” The huge man stepped forward, but glanced back questioningly at Roger.

“Yeah.” Roger smiled at him. “Of course, Tony. Thanks. You also.” He looked at the squirming dog. “You could have been hurt, dumbass. You were supposed to get the ball.”

“He got the baddie,” Leif said tiredly and scritched his ears. “Didn’t ya, buddy?”

The dog yipped as Roger let him back to the ground. He danced round them as Bjorn got situated in Antony’s arms for the trek around the building. A micro bus waited on the roadside just outside the tall gates where they had first entered.

The side door of the bus opened and a head popped out.

“Ger.” Kassian lurched from Rufus’s support to clench a fist around the front of his eldest brother’s shirt.

Gerome gripped Kassian’s chin, turning his face this way and that, lifting it to find out where the blood had come from.

Kassian pulled free. “Not mine.”

“Asshole,” Gerome whispered as he pulled him into a bear hug.

“Blame Rufus.”

“I fucking will. Get in.”

“You have to help.”

Gerome all but lifted him into the van and deposited him on the long bench seat at the back. Leif clambered in next, joining him, and then Bjorn, crawling across the floor of the van to haul himself onto the seat as well, sandwiching Leif between them.

The dog scrambled in, wedged himself between Leif’s legs and laid a head on his thigh.

“Hey.” Leif patted him. “Thanks, yeah. This is good.”

Roger and Antony took the seat directly in front of them, while Gerome took one behind the front passenger, and Rufus took the passenger seat, next to his mirror image.

“Hey,” Rufus said.

“Hey.” Randolph gripped the back of his neck and pulled him close, touching their foreheads together.

“I’m good,” Rufus told his twin.

Randolph pulled in a deep breath, nodded, and turned to his task, pulling the van away from what was now chaos behind the tall metal walls.

CHAPTER 12

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

Sal directed them to a small house on the outskirts of town where two off-duty EMTs waited to treat Bjorn’s cuts and burns, poke at Leif’s many bruises to make sure nothing had been broken, wrap up the burns on his wrists from the cuffs, and check over the rest of them.

Bjorn expected them to insist on a hospital, but they didn’t.

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