Page 51 of Baiting Kong

“Back there,” one guy said, jerking a finger in the direction of a hall to their left. “But most of them are gone now, if you’re pissed about losing money tonight.”

“Does that happen often?” Mark asked.

“Often enough that I’m not risking my neck trying to get in between you five and one of them.”

Nodding, Mark led them down the dimly lit hall, one light fizzling and going dimmer before blinking and roaring back to life for a moment or so before popping and growing dim again.

“They’re gonna fry in this place one of these nights,” Mark muttered. “Electrics have got to be decades out of date.”

Spreading out, they started opening doors until Axel opened one to reveal a woman’s tearful face as she sat beside a mansprawled on his side on the floor, his face swollen so bad Axel couldn’t make out any of his features.

“They didn’t call for the EMTs, did they?” She asked, her hand shaking as she rested it on the man’s shoulder.

“I didn’t see any,” Axel said. “But I’ll call you one as soon as we’re out of here. We’re looking for a friend and his brother. Have you seen anyone with a three-headed hound tattoo on the side of his neck or wearing a jacket with that same emblem?”

“Pretty sure I saw both,” the woman said. “Sent the one asking about the one with the jacket down the hall to where they dragged him, but that was a while ago.”

“Thank you.”

“Please, you’ll call the EMTs?”

“Yes, ma’am, just as soon as I’m somewhere with a cell phone signal. This place is emptying out fast. They’re probably waiting to call until the last one leaves.”

“That might be too late,” she said with a sob, folding over to press her head against the injured man’s chest.

He made a weak, groaning noise that reminded Axel of the sounds one of the robbers made after he got shot. It hadn’t taken long for him to fall silent altogether, but then, no one had been tending to that robber the way she was tending to him. The way he saw it, it took guts and loyalty to remain when who the fuck knew what went on around here once the lights went out. Was that why Scout had come here? Did he know something would happen to his brother if Sawyer wasn’t able to leave on his own?

Scrambling, he hurried to find the others, only to see them clumped together at the end of the hall. Racing to join them, Axel skittered to a stop when they all whirled at once and Kong pulled a gun on him. Axel hit the ground and immediately covered his head, babbling out what he’d been told.

“Put the fuckin’ piece away,” Creature growled, not that Axel looked up to see if Kong actually listened.

He didn’t even look up when a steel hand closed around his arm and started hauling him to his feet; he just pressed close to Creature’s leather jacket, trembling as he tried to shove the memories of the robbery from his head.

“Breathe and tell me what you just said,” Creature said, rubbing circles on the middle of his back until Axel remembered how to suck in a breath of air.

“There’s a lady back there with a hurt man, waiting for EMTs. Said she saw Scout looking for Sawyer and that he was hurt too.”

“Who was hurt?”

“Sawyer, I think,” Axel managed. “The guy she’s with sounds like he’s dying.”

“Yeah, well, it looks like someone else might be too,” Mark said. “We found Sawyer’s bag.”

Axel peered around Creature to see Mark holding an open gym bag with a black leather jacket hastily shoved inside, two of the three hound’s heads showing.

“And blood,” Kong said, finally tucking his piece back in his waistband.

“Looks like a trail of it,” Danger said.

“So we follow,” Mark said, shoving the bag into Axel’s arms.

He clutched it to his chest and stayed right by Creature’s side while they followed, his mouth going dry as his tongue started sticking to the roof of his mouth, panic setting in the deeper they got into the building. He wasn’t gonna run and hide, though. He’d asked to come, and now that he was here, he wasn’t about to chicken out and show them that he was unreliable, because he wasn’t. He could handle this the same as he’d been handling all the shit his old man had heaped on his shoulders over the years. If Scout was hurt, then he owed it to his new friend to be there for him and not make him face these four scary bastards alone.

In a single file line, they followed Danger, who wielded a flashlight and led them through a series of twists and turns to a rear exit that Axel, for all of the exploring he’d done in some of these old buildings, had never known existed.

Outside, there was once again nothing to see until Kong went left, back towards the road, and Danger went right, towards the back corner and old, dented-up dumpsters riddled with pockmarks from the pellets of countless BB guns.

“Got his bike!” Danger called out moments later. “Looks like there was another one here too. Got a smear of oil on the ground.”

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