Brain (23 page)

“Take your clothes off.” His sneer was just as disgusting as my memory of it. Ignoring the fact it was straight out of my nightmares, I took a few steps towards him, acted like I was going to play the temptress as I took my pants off, and grabbed my home made taser and shot it at him. I fired at his shoulder, in case he was wearing a vest, and hit him dead center, so he jerked and writhed on his way to the floor. I yanked the wires loose from the taser and crammed it back in my pocket as I pulled my knife and put my back to a row of seats and faced the other five guys. Duke took two of them out with no trouble, and I engaged the one closest to me.

I needed to get to Brain and cut the tape on his wrists, so he could shift and heal. Duke was already mostly in his beast form, and two guys ran out of the airplane, but I knew Ranger would take care of them. I fought my guy nearly a minute before Duke swiped the asshole’s face and took him to the ground, and I rushed to Brain, cut his wrists loose, and then his ankles.

“Shift,” I told him. “Ivankov’s mine, but
everyone
has to die. They’ve seen Duke, I know the rules.”

They were going to die, anyway, but it was nice the decision was out of my hands.

I was on my way back to Ivankov when one of the guys managed to get a knife in my leg, through the thigh muscle until it hit and then scraped across bone. I fell to my knees, and used my knife — already in my right hand — to stab him in the thigh as well, since it was right in front of me. I sliced through his femoral, and deep red heart-blood came out in spurts as I pulled my knife from the wound. On his way down, I buried my knife in his gut, and cut him worse as a yanked it back out. Brain swiped him from behind and knocked him most of the way across the airplane.

“I’m good for now,” I told Brain. “Take the rest of them out, but Ivankov’s
mine
.”

A quick inventory of the anatomy around my wound told me it hadn’t likely hit a major artery. He’d angled in from the side enough, he was inches from the femoral. I couldn’t be certain he hadn’t hit one of the perforating arteries, but my instincts told me he hadn’t. I pressed the dull side of the knife into my flesh so I wouldn’t cut myself worse when I pulled the knife from my thigh, and I gave a short scream as it came out. I kept it in my left hand as I knee-walked four steps and landed on my butt beside Ivankov. His eyes were open, and he was aware, but didn’t have full control of his body, yet.

“Part of me wishes I wish I could draw this out,” I told him, “but no matter, your death has been a long time coming. Thanks so much for coming to me, so I could do it with my own hands.”

Using my knife, in my right hand, I sliced his right and left carotid, saw him understand he was going to die, and let him live with the knowledge he was about to die for another twenty seconds before I buried his guard’s knife in his throat, slicing and blocking his windpipe.

Maybe I should’ve cut his cock off first, hammered on his knees and elbows, made him hurt some before I killed him, but the only thing necessary was that I made sure he never came after me again. This wasn’t about revenge, but about not having to look over my shoulder.

I left the knife in his throat and watched him die, and then realized Duke was standing beside me, back in human form, wearing jeans and no shirt. Barefoot. A quick glance told me he’d taken the jeans from one of the dead men.

“Ranger and Brain are gonna fly the plane out of here, but you can’t fly with that cut on your leg. Will you let me carry you to the car and get you to the yacht? We have supplies on it to take care of you.”

Brain was still in his hybrid monster form, a bloody mess. Ranger was human, but also bloody. The plane was going to need serious cleaning to be useable again, and getting it off the island as soon as possible would be good. I recognized the look in Brain’s eyes, knew he couldn’t get back to human in the next five or ten minutes, and also realized at the rate my leg was bleeding, we needed to get to the boat fast and get the bleeding stopped.

“I love you,” I told Brain. “I’ll see you in a few days.” I already knew he wouldn’t touch me in his monster form, worried his claws may scratch me and turn me. Same with a goodbye kiss, the risk I’d get enough saliva to change me was almost nonexistent, but he wouldn’t risk it.

He nodded, and I let Duke carry me off the plane.

I laid flat in the back while Duke drove, and felt my pants soaking with more blood. I wasn’t going to die in the next twenty or thirty minutes, but within an hour I’d be seriously weak from blood loss.

“Not saying it’ll come to it, but I need to know, just in case…” he paused a good five seconds before finishing with, “I need to know if you and Brain have talked about what’s involved in being turned.”

“He says there isn’t a group for the women who want to go lone wolf, and my choices would be the little bit of camaraderie I’d get from the RTMC as an ol’ lady, or joining a pack without him.”

“So, if I have to choose whether to let you die, or turn you?”

“Turn me. Also, if the choice is cutting my leg off, or turning me… I’ll handle being a wolf better than being a one-legged human.”

“You want it to be me, Gonzo, or Bash?”

Talking was keeping my mind off my leg, a little. “You’re the strongest, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then you.”

“We’ll have a… connection, for maybe as long as a year. I’ll be like your Alpha until you can break away from me.”

“Yeah well, at least I’ll be alive. We’ll figure the rest out from there.”

“Okay, the road’s about to get rough but we should be to the boat in five minutes.”

“You signaled them?”

“Yeah, they should be at the dock when we arrive. I’ll carry you to the yacht and send Gonzo back for the suitcase.”

We’d carried one of the suitcases onto the plane, as Ivankov had told us to bring the money with us. We’d lied and told him the other was in a storage facility, as we hadn’t wanted to risk travelling with both together. He hadn’t bought it until I’d told him I didn’t want to put all our eggs in the same basket, and then he’d laughed, and I’d died a little more on the inside, just hearing his laugh.

I shook my head, reminded myself I’d watched the life leave his eyes and waited for his heart to stop beating. He was dead. He’d never bother me again, and Ranger and Brain were going to get rid of the evidence.

I remember Duke carrying me onto the yacht, and Bash cutting my pant leg off. I know they gave me a shot, and someone cleaned the wound and wrapped it. I’m not sure exactly who did what, but when they finished, I remember telling them I’d change my clothes when I woke. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough, because they told me I couldn’t sleep in bloody wet pants, and they cut them off, along with my underwear, but kept me strategically covered with towels.

Harmony

I woke with a start, nauseated, and yelped in pain when I tried to get out of bed to run to the bathroom. Duke was right there, helping me, and he mostly carried me to the bathroom and then held my hair as I puked into the sink.

Someone came to the door, and Duke told them to get a washcloth and some water. A few minutes later, he pressed a cool washcloth to my forehead as I puked some more. He also wrapped a towel around my waist, and rolled the top so it held. I still had my shirt, bra, and bulletproof vest on from earlier, but nothing below my waist. Other people’s blood had dried on my shirt by the time I conked out, but my pants and underwear had still been wet with my own blood.

When I finally thought it was safe to step away from the sink, I pointed out, “Blood loss, major trauma, and riding in a yacht on the ocean don’t mix.”

“Can’t argue that. If Gen were here, she’d make ginger tea, do you want me to see if there’s some stocked?” Bash handed him a new toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste, which he set on the sink.

I shook my head, realized that was a bad idea, and said, “No, but maybe a little Coke, and some toast?”

He nodded to someone in the other room, and I asked, “Have we heard from Ranger or Brain?”

“No, but I don’t expect to until we get closer to Jamaica.”

I knew this, but had needed to ask, anyway. I looked in the mirror at the rest of the bathroom and told him, “I need to take a shower. I don’t know how much of this blood is mine, and how much belonged to someone else.” My shirt had a decent amount of dried blood on it, and I could see and feel the streaks on my arms where someone had tried to clean them, probably while I slept.

“If you’d been anyone else, we’d have cleaned you properly, and changed all of your clothes while you were out.”

Instead of responding, I opened the toothbrush package, and took a few minutes to brush my teeth.

The bathroom was surprisingly luxurious for a boat, but there wasn’t a bench in the shower and I wasn’t sure I could stand long enough to wash my body and hair. However, a bath was out — if we put plastic wrap over the current bandage, it should be okay under running water, but submersion was out of the question.

Bash came in with the Coke and toast. I accepted the glass from him as he said, “Gen’ll have Duke’s balls if he helps you in the shower. I’ll bring one of the outdoor chairs down and put it in the shower stall, so you can sit, and I’ll wash your hair, then we can stand you up and make sure all the blood’s washed off.”

I shook my head, and Bash looked solemn as he told me, “I’m sorry about before, truly, but you can’t go in there by yourself or we risk you giving yourself a concussion when you fall. I’ll keep swim trunks on, and I’ll behave. You’re Brain’s woman, we all know that.”

I took a sip of the Coke, and looked at my feet several long moments as I felt the sway of the boat. The yacht had come with a minimum crew of two who drove in shifts. I could’ve hired lots more staff — maids, cooks, and strippers I was pretty sure would do more than just take their clothes off, but the less people on the boat, the better, so I’d gone with the minimum.

“Where’s Gonzo?”

“In the bedroom, listening in case you need something else, so he can go get it.”

“Why are you offering to help with my shower? Why you and not him?” I asked Bash.

“Would you rather have Gonzo?”

I shook my head. “I’d rather not have any of you see me naked, much less have to help me, but I don’t see another way.” I looked around, and said, “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to hold off on trying the toast until after my shower. Someone is going to walk me to the toilet, and everyone will leave. While I’m sitting, I’ll get rid of my shirt and everything else, and will wrap a large towel around me. Someone can bring the chair in, and ya’ll can get me settled in the chair, and then leave. I’ll see how I do washing my own hair and cleaning everything except my butt, since I’ll be sitting on it. If I need help, I’ll call you in. If not, when I’ve finished, I’ll turn the water off, wrap myself in a dry towel, and then someone can help me to a chair in the bedroom. I have some sundresses packed, I’ll wear one of them so I won’t have anything on my leg. Then I need to take a look at the wound, and we’ll figure out how I’m going to get around without needing to be carried. I don’t dare bend my knee, which means ya’ll need to bring something to prop my leg on in the shower.”

In the end, I only needed help getting into and out of the shower, and managed to get myself clean with no help. Bash got me to the bedroom when I was finished, and once I had the dress on, Duke squatted in front of me as I nibbled on the toast, and told me, “I can put a splint on your knee, two sticks on either side, and medical tape to hold them on, so you can try to walk without the temptation of bending your leg. I don’t mind carrying you, but I’m guessing you’d rather walk, if you can manage. How much pain are you in?”

“I can handle the pain, I’ve had worse, the main thing is watching for infection.”

“The yacht has penicillin in the first aid cabinet. We should probably start you on it, if you aren’t allergic.”

“Yeah, that’d be good. What’s the deal with the captain? What’d you tell him?”

“He thinks you were too drunk to walk when we brought you on board. We wrapped you in a blanket, so he didn’t see the blood. He’s used to ferrying the rich and partying crowd. The Coke and toast will just further the lie along. If he asks about you hobbling around, just tell him you’ve aggravated an old knee injury. If we end up splinting the knee, it’ll back it up.”

I nodded and said, “Let’s get the bandage off so I can see the injury. What do we have available for first aid? Don’t suppose the kit has medical grade superglue?”

“It does, but we can’t use it until someone takes a look at the muscle. It may need to be stitched.”

I shook my head and started unwrapping as I told him, “I believe, with the angle of the knife, it likely stabbed the center of the muscle, so nothing should be severed. As long as I keep it immobile a few weeks, it should heal.”

“You a doctor?”

I rolled my eyes. “I have as good of a grasp of anatomy as any medical professional, and I’ve patched myself up enough, I know what’ll heal and what needs a doctor. When you live off the grid, you only see a doctor when absolutely necessary.”

They watched as I superglued the cut closed, and I let Bash bandage and wrap it again, as he’d done a good job before and he could get to it better.

As he worked, Duke asked, “You’ve kept the glass of Coke down, and the toast down, do you want something else? We have Tylenol, but you may want a little more on your stomach before you try it.”

“Yeah, maybe more Coke and toast, and possibly a scrambled egg?” I was both starving and sick to my stomach. Hopefully, some more food would settle it.

He looked at Gonzo, who went up the steps, presumably to fix my food. When Gonzo was gone, Duke asked, “Do you want us to bring your food down, or do you want me to carry you upstairs?”

Being in the bedroom with Bash and Duke was too much, so I said, “I’ll try hobbling up the steps.”

“No,” he said. “We’ll work on that tomorrow, but for today, I’d rather you let me carry you.” His voice softened and he said, “I can smell your pain, Harmony. Let me carry you.”

I rolled my eyes and told him, “Fine. I want to be in a recliner, inside, but so I can see where the yacht is going. Maybe that’ll help my woozy head.”

The upstairs area was beyond beautiful, and I felt like a truly pampered princess as Duke settled me in a recliner, and Gonzo brought my toast and eggs, and put the Coke in a cup holder on the side table.

“Thanks, guys. Now, sit down and stop hovering. How long did I sleep?”

“Three hours,” Duke answered as he sat across from me. Gonzo handed me the Tylenol bottle, and I got some out and handed it back to him with a polite, “Thanks.” I forced myself to make eye contact, and I knew they could smell how hard it was for me to do it, but there was nothing I could do about my scent. I’d worry about what I had control over, and that was my facial expressions. They were trying to help me, and I needed to try to be nice, back. Even if it killed me on the inside.

I looked back to Duke. “I note I awakened without any of my weapons?”

“You won’t need them on the yacht, but I’ll bring you whatever you want.”

“Yeah, the sundress has small pockets. I’d like my pepper spray and knife, please.”

Gonzo left the room, and Bash said, “I cleaned your knife, made sure no forensics lab’ll ever know what it was used for.”

“Thanks, again. Why are ya’ll being so nice? I’m not used to having people take care of me. I appreciate it, but I’ll be okay on my own.”

“We miss our brother,” Gonzo said as he came back into the room and held out his hand to show me my knife and pepper spray. I put one in each pocket, and Bash added, “We came on this trip to try to make things right. We can’t take back what we did, but we can show you we’re sorry things worked out as they did. Actions speak louder than words, in our world.”

Duke looked around and said, “Guys, I’d like to talk to Harmony alone. Can ya’ll go to the other end of the yacht, somewhere you can’t hear our conversation, please?”

When they were gone, Duke turned some music on and sat across from me again. “I know you’ve killed before, but was it self-defense, so you didn’t have an immediate choice?”

He was trying to help, by making sure I was okay. If this was the first time I’d killed in basically cold blood, taking a life when mine wasn’t in immediate danger, he figured there was a chance I’d fall apart over it once I started thinking about it. I was fine, though, and didn’t want to talk about it, so I told him, “I’m thinking if I have an ice bag for my head and my leg, I’ll probably go back to sleep. This recliner’s pretty damned comfortable.” He looked at me another handful of seconds, and I added, “I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, Duke. He had to die. Even if I thought I could let him go and he wouldn’t come after me again, he’d seen you and Brain in your half forms at that point. They all had to die — I took one of them out. We don’t have to analyze the fuck out of it.”

He looked at me a few more seconds, and I could almost sense him smelling for a lie. He finally grinned and said, “Okay. There’s quite a movie library — I’ll put the TV remote on the table beside you, get you some ice packs, and leave you alone, but I won’t be far. Just say my name and I’ll be back.”

I explored the television’s menu, found the movies, and started a musical, but fell asleep not ten minutes into it, ice packs blissfully numbing the pain of both my leg and head.