Charity For Nothing: The Virtues Book III (28 page)

I jumped when the front door opened and I saw Nothing sit up sharply out of the corner of my eye. I cursed my jumpiness because it jolted Faith awake, although that might not be such a bad thing in this case.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position just as Marlin came through the door after Pyro, he smiled down at her tiredly, his face swelling something awful and mumbled out of swollen lips, “Hey, Baby Girl.”

My sister instantly became weepy at the sight of him, and I couldn’t blame her. He looked something awful. I sighed and pushed to my feet.

“Come into the dining room and let me have a look at you, please?”

“Thank you,” Faith said to me and I smiled at her.

“Of course,” I said and Marlin didn’t argue, humoring me for my sister’s sake. I think I loved him for that.

He dropped into a chair at the end of the table and I declared, “Light,” in warning to the three piled around their laptops.

“Get anything?” Marlin asked.

“Getting there,” Atlas declared, and Radar nodded.

“Gonna need the girls to go upstairs, and honestly, bro? You look like hamburger, so it’s best you sit this one out.”

“Fuck you too, Buddy.”

Radar shrugged and Cutter cut in, “He speaks the truth, my friend. You look like shit, and we need a show of force on this end. Having a dude in front of the camera who looks like he was on the losing end of a fight ain’t going to help our cause, even if
we
know you won.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got better places to be anyways,” he said looking at my sister.

All the while they were talking, I was trying to get a good look at him, Nothing already filling a Ziploc bag with ice. I shook my head and Marlin said, “Ow!” when I put my hand under his chin to get him to look into the light for me.

“Well! You going to let me help or not?” I demanded.

“Fine, you ain’t gotta go all Nurse Rachet on me, shit.”

I rolled my eyes, “Big damn baby,” I jibed and turned to Nothing to ask, “Got any frozen peas in there? They’ll mold to his face better and will be a little gentler than ice like that.”

“No frozen peas, but I got a hammer and can crush it up.”

“That’ll work,” I said.

“Use the counter, and don’t fuckin’ chip it. I got the storm shutters closed back here for a reason, so you can’t go out back and use the patio,” Cutter said and I looked out the sliding glass door. I hadn’t realized the shutters were closed with the kitchen light reflecting off the inside of the glass like it was. I assumed it was so no one could see to shoot from the beach and I suppressed a shudder. Hope and I traded knowing looks over Faith’s head who was glued to Marlin’s side.

Nothing crushed up the ice finely and emptied it into another, sturdier, Ziploc. He passed it to me wordlessly and I eased it over the half of Marlin’s face that would likely look worse in the morning. I pressed one of his large hands over it and he sighed.

“Got any anti-inflammatories around here?” I asked Cutter.

“Like what?” he asked, and Nothing answered for me.

“Like an NSAID, or Naproxen? Ibuprofen?”

“Check the medicine cabinet,” Cutter said and jerked his head behind him to the darkened portal of the bathroom door. I went in and turned on the light, digging through the medicine cabinet which was well stocked. I came up with a name brand NSAID and shook two of the blue liquid capsules into my palm.

“Marlin, I’m going to need you to take the girls upstairs. Nothing, you mind staying down here for this?” Cutter asked.

“Not at all,” he said and caught me around the waist as I went to go by. I looked up into his eyes, not at all happy about having to leave him down here. Frustrated but understanding why I was being sent to my room like a child while the adults had their talk.

“I’ll be up as soon as I can,” he murmured and I nodded. He kissed me, and I kissed him back. After all, it wasn’t him or any of the rest of the guys I was upset at. It was the jerks that had us all in this situation to begin with, the fucking assholes.

“Come on, Honey. Let’s help your man-child to bed,” I said to Faith and she gave me a tiny secret smile.

“Ooo, sisters. Never done that before. See you guys,” Marlin joked but Cutter was far too serious, waving us off absently. We took the back stairs from the dining room and kitchen as it was closer to the bedroom Marlin and Faith would stay in.

We helped him to lay down and I made sure his ice was working for him and told him how long to leave it on for. Faith hugged me tight and I smiled, “I love you, Sis.”

“I love you, too,” she said and we broke apart.

“Don’t do anything I would do,” I told them and left to go down the hall to my own room; as much as I wanted to sneak back down and listen in, I really didn’t feel like pissing off Cutter or bringing Corporal Badass out of my sister. All of my ornery had just plain fled and I figured I would just go lay down and wait for Nothing.

It’d been a long and crazy, crazy, day. Hell, it’d been a series of long and crazy days ever since I’d gotten here. One right after the other, bleeding into the next until I couldn’t really tell where one had left off and another began. Just so much had been happening in such a short amount of time I couldn’t even keep track. It felt like I’d been here for months when in reality, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of weeks.

Still, I was with my sisters, and I had met an incredible, if difficult man. One who, by all accounts, was just as crazy about me as I was for him; at least now that our shit had been straightened out and we were on the same page.

I slipped into one of my nicer sleep sets, a peach pair of satin shorts with a matching satin and lace cami, and got into bed. I left the light on and turned on my side, tucking my hands beneath my cheek and waited for my white knight, determined to stay awake for him.

You know what they say about best laid plans and all of that, though…

Chapter 36

Nothing

I knew better than to ask questions when the Captain was as engrossed as he was, and I caught Hope’s eye to warn her off, but she was just as intent as the Captain was when it came to what was going on, on the screen.

“Pyro, Gator, get in here!” The Captain barked and we ranged out behind him. He had Skype up and ready to rock and roll. It looked like, for all intents and purposes, it was show time. We all dropped expressions into neutral badass territory and he triggered the call. We waited, and the screen flickered to life, the scowling face of someone who was clearly in charge filling the screen on the other end.

“Who is this?” he demanded in heavily accented English.

“Well, now! By and far, I’d say your worst nightmare. Now how many more men of yours you want to keep throwing in our direction, eh? Because we can keep right on disappearing ‘em. By my tally, we’re winning this game, and from what I hear, you really can’t afford to lose any more personnel, now can you Mr. Tsaritsyn?”

The man on the other end looked suspicious, a glint of something akin to anger mixed with fear in his eyes.

“I do not understand what you mean…”

“Aw, cut the bullshit, will you? This is a secure line, I’ve got the best of the best on that. You stop sending your men to my town, you forget the girl, and you’ll never have to think about us again.” Cutter cut right to the chase, and I felt myself go on edge, hoping the Captain knew what he was doing here. This was a dangerous game and these were dangerous people that weren’t prone to just letting it go…

“Let me ask you this, what is this girl to you?”

“Family,” Cutter replied without missing a beat, “I’m sure you know what that’s like, having family you would do absolutely anything for, am I right?” Cutter demanded.

“I do, yes. And what about my family?”

“You send some out here?” Cutter demanded.

“Niet, but my men, are they not family like your men are family?”

Cutter scoffed, “Not even fucking close, my friend.”

The man scowled, “We are not friends, Mr…”

“Cutter.”

“Mr. Cutter.”

“No, no we are not, but there’s no reason to not keep it friendly, despite our little difference of opinion. Now, your men took someone who didn’t belong to them, and we tracked her down and took her back. That needs to be the end of this now, because I can’t have y’all traipsing into my town. We can keep adding to the body count, or you can just let sleeping dogs lie. We got what we wanted and left y’all alone, it’s time for you to do the same, now. Y’hear.”

“I do not like to be told what to do,” the man said.

“That makes two of us, but we ain’t givin’ her back, so you can just forget about that.”

“We do not want the girl, she has become too much trouble,” he said waving dismissively, and I could see Hope tense where she was standing off camera.

“Then I think that settles it then, now don’t it?” Cutter asked and we all held our collective breath.

“I have lost many men, what is in it for me? As you Americans like to say.”

“You don’t lose any more, and you stop dividing your man power.” Cutter said succinctly and the man frowned.

“I don’t understand, how do you mean?”

“You’re not a stupid man, Mr. Tsaritsyn,” Cutter said leaning back nonchalantly.

“I am not,” the man agreed.

Radar tapped his watch and held up three fingers off camera, “So, you leave us alone, and we’ll leave you be and we part ways, here and now, before things get even bloodier,” Cutter said.

“I do not think so,” the man said with a sneer, and Cutter laughed.

“I think you’re missing the point here, Mr. Tsaritsyn. I’m not asking, I’m tellin’ you this is what you’re gonna do.”

The man’s nostrils flared and his eyes sparked and ignited with rage, but he held his composure. Radar held up one finger and Cutter cocked his head to the side, waiting the man out, whose chest rose and fell with deep even breaths in an effort, I think, to calm down. I gritted my teeth, and hoped like hell our Pres knew what the fuck he was doing here.

“What d’you say, Mr. Tsaritsyn? We have a deal?”

“Niet!”

“Well, I thought you’d say that,” Cutter said sitting up and readjusting his position, just as the door behind the man crashed inward, a blur of black leather, some rapid gunfire and when the smoke cleared and the laptop righted on the desk, Baby Ruth’s face filled the screen.

“Well! Thank you kindly, Cutter, my friend. I do believe we have helped each other out tonight.” I felt my shoulders sag with relief.

“No problem there, Ruth, sorry it took my guys so long to get through the fire walls, of course, the cheap bastard should have realized, if we could get through to call him, it meant we could get through to locate him. Nicely done, my friend, nicely done.”

“Again, why thank you, kindly. Sorry you had to keep him talkin’ so long.”

“No worries, let us know when you boys want to head our way for that R&R, you hear?”

“Absolutely!” We could hear groaning behind Ruth and he turned and let off a few rounds at the floor. “Oo-we! These Russians can be tough bastards! We gotta go, talk soon.”

“You have a good night, now, y’hear?”

“Oh, I’m bettin’ it’ll be one hell of a party!” Ruth declared and the call ended.

“Atlas, wipe all traces of us out of that system,” Cutter ordered.

“Already on it, Captain.”

“So that’s it?” Hope asked, and she was just as poleaxed as me.

“I do believe that’s it, yes. Grigori gave us what we needed; it was just buying Atlas and Radar the time to do it in. Unfortunately, that gave Tsaritsyn’s men the time to rally for an assault, but like always, these dumb motherfuckers underestimate us,” Cutter said and sighed.

“Oh, I am so gonna fuck your brains out,” Hope said, dropping into the Captain’s lap. Hell, I would never admit it out loud, but if he told me to drop and blow him in that moment, I was so grateful, I’d seriously consider it. I shook my head and scoffed a laugh.

“You did it again, you clever bastard,” I muttered, and Cutter held up a fist, his mouth glued to his woman’s. I knocked mine into it and went to find my own woman, heading up the stairs, two at a time.

I knocked twice on the door, and popped it open to find Charity sound asleep, her hands tucked beneath her cheek like some kind of angel. I wanted so badly to wake her up and tell her it was cool, that she was safe, that her sister was safe, but I just didn’t have it in my heart to do it with how peaceful she looked.

Instead, I got undressed, tucking my clothes away neatly on top of my bag, and I got into bed with her, laying down so I could just stare at her, and stare at her I did, probably for an hour or more until she turned away from me in her sleep. I smiled then, and carefully pulled her back into the protective curve of my body, hers warm and soft where it fitted against mine.

Chapter 37

Charity

“Hi,” he uttered, and I stretched luxuriously, like a cat, along the length of his warm, hard, body beneath the comforter.

“Hi,” I muttered back and sighed, freshly awake, “How long have you been awake?” I asked.

“A couple hours.”

“A couple of hours? What were you doing?”

“Watching you,” he murmured and caressed the side of my face, leaning in for a kiss. I gave it to him, blushing, and a little self-conscious about any potential morning breath. He leaned back, and as they ever did, his soft gray eyes slayed me.

“What happened? I mean, is it over?” I asked quietly.

“I can’t give you any details, but yeah, Baby. It’s over,” he said with enough certainty, I had to smile.

“Good, because I’d really like to get back to saving people rather than hurting them.”

He rolled his eyes, “You and me both!”

I searched his face, “You mean that?” I asked and he tipped his head to the side, considering.

“Yeah, I do, but to be honest, painting houses pays me more… Speaking of which, I kind of need to get back to it today.”

“So soon?” I pouted.

“Storm only bought me
some
time, not enough.” He sighed, “Trust me, I’d rather be right here… with you.”

“It’s okay,” I said, “I should really put in more applications and send out more resumes, I haven’t gotten
anything
yet.”