Rock slaps my shoulder, then Murphy’s. “Go get the body.” He glances at the bed of my truck. “Hope you got room in there, we’ll have more than one by the time we leave.”
“We’ll be right back.” I open my door and climb in.
Murphy hauls himself into the passenger side and slaps the dashboard. “Let’s see what this pretty thang can do!” he shouts, like we’re about to recreate a scene from The Dukes of Hazzard.
“Knock it off.”
I fire up the engine, back out of my spot, careful not to hit any of my brothers who don’t bother to move the fuck out of my way, then put it in drive and jump the short mound of dirt in front of us. We land with a bounce in the open field and I hit the gas.
“Woo!” Murphy hits the dash again. “I knew she had it in her.”
I flick my gaze to the rearview. “Hang on, Carter.”
He and June are buckled down and hanging onto each other. He nods at me. “I just want to get gone.”
Driving seems a hell of a lot quicker than our stealthy walk through the property had been. I plow over the rough terrain, jerking the wheel to the left or right to avoid debris that seems to be scattered everywhere.
“Jesus, fuck,” Murphy breathes.
“Aw, what’s wrong? Not having any fun?” The insanity of the night coaxes my inner asshole out of hibernation and I give the steering wheel another quick twist.
“Keep being a dick and you’re gonna flip this thing,” he warns.
The trailer comes into view and I hit the brakes, skidding into a neat circle that sends a flowerbox flying through the air and ends with my tailgate a few feet away from the front steps and clouds of dust billowing around us.
“Show-off,” Murphy says, throwing open his door and leaping out of the truck.
I’m a little slower sliding out. My side burns in protest. I press my hand over the wound and ease out of the truck.
“You all right?” Murphy shouts.
“Fine.” I drop the tailgate and roll back the truck bed’s cover. “Hey, fun story, when we took you to the hospital, I wanted to load you back here but Heidi and Charlotte wouldn’t let me.”
Murphy gives me a sarcastic really, fucker? head tilt. “I’ll grab his legs. Just push if you’re too weak to lift him.”
“I can lift him, asshole.”
That might have been a bit too optimistic. A new pain rips into the skin where I’m still bleeding. “Shit. Let’s roll him onto a sheet, first.”
I run-hobble to the room where we found June and rip the filthy quilt off the mattress. We spread it out next to the body and roll the guy into a neat corpse burrito.
I give the body a quick test shove. “Better.” Together, we ease it out onto the front step.
“Almost there.” Murphy’s not even a little out of breath.
We push and slide the big floppy body, then lift and toss him into the truck. I roll the cover into place and slam the tailgate shut. “Now, let’s hope we don’t get pulled over.”
“Wouldn’t that just be a fucking perfect end to this shitastic night.” Murphy taps his fist against mine.
Gunfire explodes in the direction of where we left everyone.
“Shit.” We haul ass into the truck.
In the back seat, June whimpers. “Please, please don’t give me back to them.”
My indifference toward her cracks. “Stay down and out of sight back there with Carter.”
“Okay.” The seat belt unclicks and there’s a rustling sound as she slides onto the floor.