Hired Hunter (The Rover 2)

Choosing to give him a little latitude with his tone because of his injuries and his grief over the captain, I let his response go.

“We know his games now,” I said. “We’ll go back and find him once we all get a chance to rest up.”

“And how long do you think that will take?” he asked, sharply, like it was my fault we were in this mess.

Maybe my wounds were making me delusional, but he sounded angry at me.

“What is happening right now? Are you mad at me?”

“Oh, I am livid with you. What were you both thinking coming out there? Now he’s dying and you—”

“I, what? Say it? Got him killed? Cost you what...Oh, I see. I cost you your sister. Is that what you think? By trying to save you, I lost you Sol for good?”

His jaw tightened, which was a feat since he seemed to be grinding his teeth together to keep himself in control.

I stared straight out the window into the darkness. He didn’t know the woman they brought to the clearing wasn’t his sister. The Black Mage wanted him to choose me so that he would resent the choice later. And if he didn’t choose me, well, he wouldn’t have won that way either.

My side hurt, and my head. Every part of my body from my toes to my eyebrows ached like I’d jammed myself between two cars crashing I glanced over at Fin, who avoided looking at me.

Anger surged up to match the pain. “You’re an idiot. You are the one who came out here on your own with no backup.”

“That’s because my backup was laid out on their asses from our last fight.”

He made it sound as if the captain and I had commiserated and took some kind of sabbatical while we should have been jumping into another fight.

“Wow, so, you went off on your own because he and I were still healing from our last fight, and now you’re blaming us for coming to save you. How the hell do you walk around with that ego? It must be compensating for the size of your balls.”

He threw the radio handset at the windshield and it cracked outward from the point of impact. Thankfully, it didn’t shatter, and he could still fly us. Otherwise, I didn’t know what would happen.

Fear of falling out into the dark night at ten thousand feet made me keep my mouth closed. One more attack on its structure and the machine might fail. I would rather die under the Black Mage’s knife than broken on the ground from a long fall.

I clutched at my seatbelt as every ripple of air, every turbulent current, sent me a new test of will.

When we landed in the lawn of his house, I jerked at my restraints until I freed myself and flung my abused body out of the contraption to the ground. Soldiers were already awaiting our arrival, and they lifted me onto a stretcher. Shock had set in and my entire body quaked so much I couldn’t have stood on my own if I tried.

The captain came next on another stretcher. Fin stayed by his side as the soldiers marched us all into the house.

Fin had almost gotten me killed several times in the last few days. I wanted my money back and to never see the bastard again.

The soldiers put me in a room off the main hallway, somewhere. Doctors or nurses shouted as they tended to the captain. I needed him to survive, if only to punch him later for being such an idiot.

It was a while before someone came to tend my wounds. They slid an IV into my arm and then stitched up the knife slashes along my side. Someone else wrapped my head with gauze and glued together a massive gash in the back of it. After they wrapped and prodded me for what felt like an eternity, a female nurse sponged me down and put me in blood free clothes. I didn’t know whose they were but I was grateful to be out of the crusty material.

“How is he?” I asked one of the women as she fluttered around me.

“The man you came in with?”

I nodded. “Please, tell me.”

She soothed me to lie back down. I didn’t even realize I’d jacked myself off the table to get her attention.

“He’s going to live. He missed by a lot and the bullet went clean through up into his mouth. He needs surgery to fix everything in there, but he’ll be fine.”

Who needed surgery when you had magic on your side? No doubt the moment the doctors left, Fin would use his abilities to heal his friend. The fight for control over his body must have been what kept the captain from truly blowing off his own head.

Would Fin heal me too? Something told me I was on my own from now on.

I settled back into the covers of the bed and stared up at the ceiling. A heart rate monitor ticked away from beside me. Even though I felt betrayed by what Fin had said to me on the ride, I still longed for him to come and see me.