“Now you will all treat me like I’m this wounded bird that needs to be coddled! I’m not. I want to be myself!”
Tank’s face was pale when he looked at Clover. “You are yourself, but things like this affect people.”
Clover hid his face in his hands. “I don’t want you to think about it or change your behavior. I want us to move on!”
Drake understood him all too well. He also didn’t want to be reminded of the horrors lurking in his past, which was why he hadn’t told much about it to neither Boar nor Pyro. But how could they ‘move on’ when one of them was missing and everyone else was hurt by the consequences of Drake’s selfish bloodlust?
The door to the trailer opened with a bang, and Pyro stumbled outside, his hair a wrecked bundle on top of his head, his skin stained a reddish brown, and his eyes narrow when he walked into the sun.
“What the fuck is this racket?”
Tank’s arms dropped, and since no one else spoke, he answered. “Drake’s got a new lead on Boar.”
Chapter 4 - Pyro
Pyro leaned against a bench in a tiny park outside of a hospital on the outskirts of Denver. The landscape was bare for the most part, but the two trees offered protection from the punishing sunshine. Pyro couldn’t bear the wait any longer, so he lit himself cigarette number four. Staying sober wasn’t easy, but he didn’t want to fuck up when Boar’s life was at stake. Boar would not have liked who Pyro had become in the past few months, but they could deal with that once Boar was back.
Because he would be back.
That was the only thing Pyro lived for.
He was annoyed when he realized he’d succumbed to the same ritual as Drake, who stood next to a tree on the other side of the bench with a cigarette of his own. Fucking bastard. If he was so eager to die, he should have gone on his own, without dragging Clover and Boar down with him. Pyro could barely even look at him at this point, but the years of camaraderie and Drake’s determination in the search kept Pyro from saying something he would regret. He could leave breaking Drake’s arms and legs for a more convenient time.
Tank paced between them, his face as expressionless as it had been since Pyro had gotten up earlier today. The eerie tension between the others kept him on edge, but he’d been too hungover to ask questions. Boar. He needed to focus on Boar, but the fact that all he could do was wait agitated every single nerve in his body.
Because, of course, the job of going to the hospital to ask about their target had been assigned to Clover, the most inconspicuous of them all. Pyro’s feelings toward him had been warped in those past few months. He hated Clover for not alerting him of Drake’s plans, but also loved him for not giving up on their relationship even when Pyro lacked the skills to express the turmoil within him.
No matter how many times he’d pushed Clover away, Clover would always show up and be his safety net when coke got the best of him. Even Tank had given up, but not Clover.
Clover was a good person. Too good for Pyro, just like Boar was, but Pyro was too selfish to give up on their love.
“How long has it been?” Pyro asked, sitting on the bench and watching the brownish facade of the large three-story clinic beyond the parking lot. The lowering sun reflected off its windows, as if it was a day like any other. People had been coursing in and out, but none of them resembled their boy, who stubbornly remained out of sight.
“Twenty minutes,” Drake said in a tense voice.
“He’s fine,” Tank said, though his jaw clenched in contradiction.
“He was to ask about this Hake guy at the reception. Why is it taking so fucking long?” Pyro looked at the building again, rocking back and forth to deal with at least some of the unease in his body. Someone should have gone with the boy. What if he’d been attacked in the hospital and smuggled out in an ambulance? All this while the three of them stayed behind like the elderly and children during a battle.
Maybe if he hadn’t tattooed his face, he could have gone in Clover’s place, but that ship had sailed long ago.
Drake released a cloud of smoke. “At least five minutes to get there. Maybe he’s stuck in a line. Things don’t happen in an instant.”
Pyro accidentally broke the cigarette in his fingers. “Thank you for that explanation, Drake. I know that. Maybe you could have just dealt with this when you were away instead of coming back to us with another shitty lead. So some guy in a bar tells you about some other guy who has a catalogue of people for sale. It’s gonna be the dancing monkey all over again.”