Page 63 of Lawless
"Horus is helping you guys," Gunner nodded at his men. "He'll lead you to where they are."
Jandro once tried to drunkenly explain the type of bond Gunner and Reaper had with their animals, but I couldn't easily follow. Aside from what he and Reaper did for me, I never had any kind of bond with anyone.
The three of us ran up to Fischlin’s office doors a few seconds later. Jandro and Gunner both slammed their shoulders into the doors and bounced off like tennis balls.
"Move," I said.
They got out of the way just in time for my foot to crash through the heavy wood.
Gunner shook his head. "Fuck, I forget about how freakishly strong you are sometimes."
The doors were barricaded on the other side, but a few more kicks made a hole big enough for my arm to fit through. I reached through and pushed away the chairs and tables set up against the door so we could get through.
In seconds, we did.
To an empty office.
"Fucking shit!" Jandro ran to the open window, Gunner and I right on his heels.
In the distance, a motorcycle sped away, carrying two riders. My two brothers lifted their guns and started firing without another word. Behind them and over their heads, I fired off arrows from my bow, but they were already out of shooting range. The riders leaned down low from the onslaught of bullets and the driver accelerated as hard as the bike would go.
The person in the bitch seat was definitely the owner, dressed in the same loose, light-colored garb as the others who worked this outpost. The driver wore a leather cut, but it was impossible to see the patch on his back with the owner clinging to him.
"Fuck!" Jandro punched the windowsill when the riders became a mere speck on the horizon.
"We'll get 'em, bro," Gunner shouldered his weapon, looking determinedly out the window. "Maybe that prick Big G is babysitting can tell us something."
"Jandro! Captain Gunner!" One of Gunner's men came running into the office.
A screech followed him, and he ducked just in time to avoid getting clawed by Horus swooping in to land on his master's shoulder.
"Please tell me something good," Jandro sighed.
Gunner's man beamed with pride. "We found all of them, sir. Reaper, the medic, and Hades. They're stuck in a ravine and we need a rope."
It didn't take much looking to find a thick, nautical rope to drop into the ravine. Looking over the edge, I saw the woman huddled up against Reaper, shivering and barely wearing anything. Hades laid next to them, a crude bloodsoaked bandage wrapped around his rear leg.
"Fuckin' pitch black down there," one of Gunner's men mumbled as he came over with a torch.
"I can see them," I said but he tossed the torch down anyway. It bounced with a hiss over the streams of trickling water running through the cave.
"Tryin' to get us killed down here?" Reaper bellowed from down below.
"No, President," I called back. "The others can't see you that well."
"Shadow! I've never been so happy to see your ugly mug. Pull her up first."
I felt a slight weight on my rope a few seconds later and started hauling it up. The woman was covered in dirt and dried blood. Her arms and legs wrapped tightly around the rope like her life depended on it.
"Mariposa!" Jandro called from behind me, his footsteps approaching quickly.
"Baby girl!" Gunner called. "Are you all right?"
When I finished pulling her up to solid ground, I expected her to run straight to them. Women always ran to the handsome men. But to my surprise and confusion, it wasmyneck she wrapped arms around. Her feet dangled above the ground as she clung to me tightly.
"Thank you for saving us," she whispered in my ear.
Twenty-Two
