My gaze rockets to Pri, who’s standing in the hallway, staring at me, her face pale, stricken. She’s looking at me like I’m a killer and she’s not wrong, but it still burns the fuck out of me.
“He didn’t come alone,” I tell her. “Which means we have a few options here. We let his men come and kill us, I shoot him and kill him, or you grab me the rope under the kitchen sink so I can tie him up and you do it quickly.”
Deleon quakes under my foot, trying to break free, and Pri darts for the kitchen. I stab Deleon again, just inside the shoulder blade, though I’d like to puncture his fucking lung. Then he’d be dead and that I’d enjoy, but it would also look like I did it to shut him up. I’d never come back from that with Pri. I’m not sure I can now anyway.
By the time Deleon gasps and collapses on the ground, Pri’s handing me the rope. I glance at her pale features, but she’s not looking at me. I guess she can’t bear the sight of me, and it’s starting to piss me off. I grab the rope.
“You stabbed him again?” she asks staring at the knife in Deleon’s back and then gaping at me. “You stabbed him again?” she asks again.
Sure, I think, now she’s looking at me and with accusations aplenty.
“He’s alive,” I say, unrolling the rope. “Check Pitt for a pulse. “
She draws in a breath and gives a choppy nod, rushing away. I knot the hell out of Deleon’s wrists and make damn sure he’s not going anywhere.
I rotate, grab my gun, and shove it in my pants. Pri’s presently using tape and one of my T-shirts from the overnight bag to stop Pitt’s bleeding, which tells me what I need to know. He’s alive. He’s also in the doorway. “I have to move him,” I say. “We need to shut the door.” I don’t wait for her reply. “Call Savage. Tell him Pitt’s condition. Now.”
“I have to finish wrapping—”
“Now, Pri, or someone is walking through the door and killing us.” I grab her arm and pull her to her feet, pressing the cell into her hand. “On speaker,” I add.
She nods and I grab Pitt’s feet, dragging him further into the cabin, blood pooling around his body as Pri punches in the call. Savage answers on ring number one. “We’re ten minutes out,” he announces.
“It’s Pri,” she says, kneeling next to Pitt again, and setting the phone on the ground. “Pitt showed up here at the cabin,” she adds, applying pressure to his wound. “Deleon stabbed him. He’s bleeding badly.”
“Pitt?” Savage snaps. “And fucking Deleon? What the hell? Where’s Adrian?”
I shut the front door and lock it. “I’m here,” I say, kneeling next to Pri and taping up Pitt’s wound. “We’re going underground, so listen up because I’m leaving you a shit show.”
“I love a good shit show,” Savage jokes. “Bring it.”
“I stabbed Deleon and tied him up,” I say. “I saved his vital organs. We need to save him and turn him against Waters.”
“He’s alive?” Savage wonders. “I thought you wanted him dead?”
My eyes meet Pri’s as I respond with, “You have no idea how fucking much I want him dead.”
Pri cuts her gaze, a rejection in the action I feel like a blade in my heart. I stabbed Deleon, it’s true, but there is no question he struck first, cutting me via Pri, and he knew it.
“All righty then,” Savage says. “He’s alive. We want him dead. What else?”
“That wasn’t an invitation to kill him,” Pri snaps. “I need him alive.”
“No one needs that bastard alive,” Savage grumbles, but he says, “Note to self: keep the piece of shit alive. Got it. What else?”
The alarm at the right side of the house sounds and I disconnect the call, launching myself to my feet while Pri, now covered in blood, smartly scrambles for her weapon.
“What’s happening?” she calls out, gripping it and scanning the rear of the cabin.
“We need to go,” I say. “That’s what’s happening.”
Pri hesitates on the “we.” It’s in her face, her body language, her damn energy. “Adrian—”
“I will pick you up and carry you out of here if I have to,” I promise her, not leaving room for her questions or contempt when I’m trying to save her life. “You decide.” Another alarm sounds and this one is trouble, this one tells me how close trouble runs, which is too close. There’s an explosion, a tripwire booby trap has been set off, which has Pri yelping while our enemy is waylaid at least for now. I grab her hand and start walking.
She doesn’t fight me, at least not now, but thanks to Deleon, I know she will.Chapter Two