Page 8 of Slay Tricksters and Silent Skeletons
“I will, too,” Gunner said. “I’ll call Jax, and he can meet us there.” Jax was also a member of the Ghost Born MC. He’d gotten arrested at eighteen and spent nine years in a prison cell. When he got out, he’d never been the same man. I was pretty sure he was an undiagnosed psychopath like me. We could usually sense each other. But he was loyal, and I trusted him. And I knew Rico did, too. They were practically brothers at this point. Jax was family, even if he wasn’t part of the Martinez family like the rest of us.
Gunner looked at Ace. “You stay here with him and keep him protected, understand?”
“I will, Papa,” Ace promised. “Nothing will happen to him.”
Gunner leaned in and kissed him. “Good boy. I’ll be back soon.”
“You better,” Ace teased, but there was a glint in his eyes that promised if Gunner got hurt, he’d make him regret it, along with anyone else who’d tried taking his husband from him.
Rico leaned down and brushed a light kiss to Anurak’s slightly parted lips. Then he looked at Ace, his fingers cupping the boy’s chin. I sighed, getting impatient. I didn’t have time for this bullshit. Alfonzo shot me a look, but when I just stared right back at him, his eyebrow quirked.
I knew right then that he knew I had a personal stake in getting Bento back home. But he didn’t say a word. Just focused back on the scene in front of us.
“I’m trusting you with him, Ace. Do not take that lightly.”
Ace scowled at him. “I would fucking never.”
Rico nodded, then stood back up to his full height. “Let’s roll. Niran, we’ll follow you, and we’ll discuss tactics on the way there through secure lines.”
Nodding once, I turned and headed for the garage, impatient to get on the fucking road and rescue my man before these mother fuckers killed him.
7
Bento
Iclenched my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering as I stared at the two men in front of me. They stepped inside, and immediately, several guards followed in behind them. If I hadn’t been so fucking cold and clearly outnumbered, I’d have laughed. Did they see me as that big a threat that these two dimwits felt the need to have—I did a quick count—ten guards with them?Christ.
“Do you know who we are?” the older man asked.
Not trusting myself to speak without accidentally biting my tongue off since I knew my teeth would immediately start chattering, I shook my head. The man scoffed. “Surely, you do.”
“I don’t,” I told him, my voice deadpan. I immediately clenched my teeth back together so they wouldn’t start snapping together. It was so goddamn cold, though there was warmer air flowing in from the open door. It was helping ease some of the achefrom my bones that the freezing temperatures of the cooler had caused.
A punch came from my left. And damn me for being so cold because it made me slow. I dodged the worst of the hit, but the son of a bitch’s fist still clocked me across the jaw instead of my cheek. I spit out blood on the floor, then glared at the guard. He only stoically met my gaze.
“I find it fucking hard to believe that a man with as many resources as my son hasn’t discovered he has a father and a brother,” the older man snapped.
“Maybe Rico just doesn’t give a fuck,” I bit back at him, getting fucking pissed. Had I really been fucking kidnapped over some petty family bullshit and by two men Rico definitely couldn’t give two fucks about? His family was the one he’d formed with all of us—me, Alfonzo, Niran, Anurak, Ace, Gunner, and Jax. His family was the men he took off the streets and turned into soldiers. These two? It was laughable, really. If Rico hadeverconsidered them family, they would have been back at the compound.
Not here kidnapping one of Rico’s men.
One of the guards made to hit me again, but I managed to dodge it. However, another one quickly stepped forward and caught me in the nose. I cursed becausefuckwhat was it with people and my fucking nose? Blood spurted from my nostrils and sent throbbing pain through my eyeballs. Gritting my teeth since my nose hadalmostbeen healed from when Alfonzo caught me there with his fist, I kept myself from shouting another expletive. Did my nose really bother people that fucking much? Goddamn.
“Watch your mouth with me, boy,” the man growled at me. “Or I’ll let my son begin fileting the skin from your fucking bones, dissect your body, and we’ll begin delivering you back to Rico one piece at a fucking time.”
In any other situation, I’d have taunted him. But I kept my mouth shut. I was outnumbered and unarmed. If I wanted any chance of escaping, I needed to play this smart. If I died, I feared Rico would bring me back from the dead just to kill me even more brutally for making his husband go through the pain of losing someone close to him.
“Rico owes me, and you fucked up my whole plan of kidnapping his husband to get what I want from him?—”
My abrupt laugh cut him off. Unable to help myself, I began clapping, applauding him for his fucking stupidity. “You really fucking think you’ll get what you want from Rico by kidnappingme?” I asked. His glare said it all. My laughter only grew louder. “You really are fucking stupid, huh? He must’ve gotten all his smarts from his ma considering he definitely didn’t get them from you. News flash, dumbass—” his eyes darkened with rage, and his son stepped forward, but I was on a fucking roll and not heeding the warning— “I’m nothing more than a street rat that Rico rescued. He couldn’t give two fucks about whether I live or die.” And that was honestly the sad fucking truth. I was a soldier who was easily replaceable.
“He’ll come looking,” his father growled.
I shrugged. “To get revenge for the hell you put his husband through, probably. But to rescue me? Nah. He’s not coming for that.” I held my arms out, already knowing this was end game for me and apologizing to Anurak in my mind. Even if none of this was his fault, he was going to feel guilty for the rest of hislife, regardless. I only hoped Rico and Anurak’s other man, Ace, could save him from spiraling. “So, come on. Put an end to it, old fuck. Rico’snotcoming for me.”
“Even if he didn’t, I fuckingalwayswill,” Niran said from the entrance to the cooler, his voice eerily calm.
I swung my gaze to him in surprise right as Rico’s brother grabbed me and held a knife to my throat, putting me between Niran’s automatic rifle and his body, using me as a shield.
