The Man Who Hated Ned O'Leary (Dig Two Graves 2)

“How long can you keep me like this?” Cole roared and rose, attempting to use the momentum to his advantage, but his captors must have foreseen his struggle, because Terje’s foot cut his legs from under him and sent him back to his knees.

“You have no right to keep me! Let go,” Cole cried, trying to flee the two pairs of hands, but it was futile. Ned would die alone, convinced that Cole no longer cared for him.

He’d never regretted anything as much as writing that goddamn letter instead of staying until morning. A pair of worn green boots approached, and Cole raised his head to see Jan, who opened his arms with a deep frown. “What’s happening here?”

“We’re trying to save his life,” Roger said. “But might have to break his arms to do it.”

Cole choked on air, boiling on the inside as his mouth filled with the salt of his own blood. Had he bitten through the inside of his cheek? Yes, he had. “I have the right to do whatever I please with my life! I can’t let him die! He’s a good person! And I’ll even go with both arms broken! I’ll find a way, and then I’ll take all of you to hell!”

Jan scooted to Cole’s eye level, exhaling as if this were very tedious. “I know what this is about. But he’s turned himself in, Cole. What do you think you’ll do once you get there? Be reasonable.”

There was no reason left in Cole when it came to this. His life wasn’t worth living without Ned, and if he couldn’t save him, he’d have to go through endless days and nights on his own, with guilt as his only companion.

Because whatever happened to Ned would be his fault.

He’d driven Ned to this madness.

“I don’t care! I need to try! I love him, Jan. He’s the only one for me, and I pushed him away!”

Jan’s sneer was so twisted his mouth twitched. “Maybe you should have thought twice before you told your man you hated him, but what do I know,” he grumbled as his frown deepened.

“I’d give my arm to turn back time, but I can’t! All I can do is get him out or die trying,” Cole cried, swallowing coppery saliva while he twisted with pain. He couldn’t stand this. If Ned died because of his selfishness, he’d never forgive himself.

Jan shook his head and took off his top hat as he stood up. “Don’t kill yourself just yet. Lemme think.”

“You can’t seriously be considering this a good idea,” Terje said, squeezing Cole’s arm harder.

Jan shut him up with a gesture and glanced at Cole with a devilish glint in his eye. There was a catch to the plan he’d come up with, but right now Cole would have signed a deal with the Devil in his own blood, regardless of the clauses. “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Would you really do anything for him, Cole?”

Any other time, Cole would have approached such a question as if it were a sleeping mountain lion, but if Jan knew someone who could help or had an idea that might save Ned, the risk was negligible. He’d be considering consequences once Ned was safely back in his arms. “Don’t you toy with me! Spit it out!”

“I’ve got an idea, but if you both come out alive, you will stay with us, Deadeye. At half pay.” Jan circled Cole as if he were Satan himself, demanding Cole’s soul as an offering.

“That’s it?” Cole mumbled without thinking, hanging off Roger and Terje as his entire attention focused on Jan’s smirk.

“I could ask you to stay for no pay, but then you’d have to find new ways to fill your pockets. And I can’t have that kind of attention around my show. So yes, just the rest of your life.”

“Yes. We will stay,” Cole said, nodding as ecstatic fog rose in his skull. He’d never planned to let people tame him, but freedom would be a small price to pay for Ned’s life.

“I happen to own a police uniform. The same one the local street officers wear. If you manage to pull Ned out without getting killed, be in the basement of the Crying House by five and not a minute later.”

Cole stalled, confused by the mention of the old haunted house. “What? Why the hell would I go there?”

Jan waved his hand, but the hold on Cole’s arms was already growing weaker. “If you want my help Cole, you gotta trust me. It’s a lesson you should finally learn. Weren’t you in a hurry?”

When Cole rose this time, Terje and Roger let him go. Without them pulling him down, he felt stronger than ever and ready to take on an entire police station. Ned’s eyes would brighten once he saw Cole, and they’d run off to safety. And if Cole ended up bleeding out before he even got into the building? So be it.