Page 62 of Lawless
"Holy shit, dude! You're bleeding bad." Big G's brow narrowed in concern at the arrow in my leg, which I'd forgotten all about.
"It'll stop." I reached down and snapped the shaft in half before yanking it out, which only prompted more blood to dribble onto the floor.
"Jesus fuck," Big G's face paled. "I dunno how you can do that without flinching."
I tossed the broken arrow pieces, unsure how to respond. I didn't feel pain. I hadn't felt anything remotely painful in years.
"Listen up, Demons!" Jandro raised a fist in the air once everyone was freed. "We have two priorities now—one, finding Reaper and Mariposa. Two, finding Fischlin and questioning him. Donotkill him, that's an order." He looked pointedly at me. "We need to question him and find out whose pocket he's really in. Anyone else we run into, feel free to kill them."
The men let out a collective cry of victory while shooting their fists in the air.
"Let's head to the armory," Gunner practically skipped out the door. "They must have stashed all of our shit there, plus extra toys that'll be fun to play with."
My brothers followed his lead while I retreated to my usual station at the back. Jandro stayed with me, looking at me with an expression I couldn't read. Not that I knew how to read many expressions.
"You all right, man?" He practically stood on tiptoes to clap me on the shoulder.
"Yes. Reaching you was easy."
"Good. Just making sure." He clapped my shoulder two more times. "You seriously saved our asses, you know. We overheard them talking about publicly executing us. I'll make sure Reaper knows what you've done."
"I didn't do it for recognition or reward. Aiding my brothers is my duty."
"I know, big guy, but still," he began jogging ahead of me to catch up with the others, "you're valuable and you shouldn't forget that."
I knew exactly what my value was—covering the others' weak spots. Aside from that, no one had any use for me. I didn't feel one way or another about that. I fully accepted my role and felt no need for anything else.
The men excitedly emptied the armory, with Gunner complaining over and over how he should have hitched an extra compartment onto his bike to bring everything home.
"Grab everything you can carry!" he instructed, stacking cases of ammo outside the door. "This'll be a much sweeter payout than our first so-called deal."
"Will you hurry the fuck up? We need to be searching, not looting," Jandro growled. "Reaper can handle himself but if they caught Mari—“
"Someone's coming." I spotted the first flicker of a shadow at the end of the corridor and drew a knife.
Six other men pointed weapons toward the guard, his face pale and his empty hands raised as he approached us.
"Don't shoot, please! I surrender!" He fell to his knees. "I'll cooperate. I'll tell you anything you want, just let me live."
"You're full of shit," Gunner spat, shooting off one round that went wild. It hit a column and sent the man's arms wrapping around his head.
"I'm not, I swear!"
"Where’s our president and our medic?" Jandro demanded.
"I don't know, we never found them! But Fischlin,” he raised a hand, palm up. "He's in his office right now, gathering up valuables and documents. He's about to ride off with someone, I don't know who. But if you hurry, you might stop him!"
A beat of silence passed before Jandro sprang into action. "Big G, you stay with him. But don't kill him yet. Everyone else with me!"
He broke into a sprint, dashing down the corridor with the rest of us trailing after him. Night had fallen and the only lights were torches mounted to the columns, making it feel like were in some ancient dungeon. My chest tightened in a way that had nothing to do with my running. My scar felt hot and I could almost feel liquid dripping down the side of my face.
I knew more about dungeons than I cared to admit.
"Whoa, holy shit!"
Jandro skidded to a stop right in front of a pile of debris in our path. To our left, a massive hole in the wall looked like it wasn't supposed to be there. To the right, a dark smear on the tile floor trailed off into the wild brush of the landscape.
"This had to be the explosion!" Jandro cried. "You guys, follow that blood trail and find our fucking president. Gunner and Shadow, with me."
