Page 91 of Blood and Fire
He tilted up her chin. “Too late. You’re under my skin.”
“Hello?” McCloud’s voice punched in from above, sharp with disapproval. “Get a fucking room, would you? Move it, people!”
Bruno dragged her up the hill. She didn’t really understand the words he said. It was the tone, a comforting, low pitched hum that tingled in her ears, pulling her as firmly and gently as his hands did.Put this hand here. This foot there. Stretch to the right, just a little further, there you go. Good job…It wasn’t that far in terms of distance, but it took a shaking eternity to creep sideways, along the gorge wall.
Finally, they got to ground even enough for him to scoop her up like a sack of potatoes. She wrapped her arms around his neck. So glad he was still alive. How incredibly improbable, to have survived that.
He set her down on a stump near the bridge. McCloud held a big, scary looking rifle in his arms. He looked her over, appraisingly.
“Not shot?” he asked. “Nothing broken?”
She shook her head. Torn, swollen, sprained, maybe, and bruised to a flipping pulp, but not shot or broken. “The body armor caught the bullet. Knocked out my wind. But I’m OK. You guys?”
“Fine,” Bruno said. “Both lucky.”
She rubbed at the dirt and grit in her eyes. “Thanks for the sharpshooting,” she offered. “Saved my butt.”
Bruno jerked his thumb towards Sean. “That was all him,” he said brusquely. “I don’t have that kind of aim.”
“Oh. Um.” She blinked at McCloud. “Well. Thanks.”
He nodded gravely. “At your service.”
“And, ah…” She gestured, towards the SUV. “Them?”
“Three are dead,” Bruno said. “Two of them had cell phones that blew up. I assume your guy is still alive down there, or we would have heard a kaboom from the creek. Assuming they all carry those fucking things. The driver didn’t.”
“Not a guy,” Lily said. “It was the nurse.”
Bruno looked baffled. “What nurse?”
“Miriam. My father’s nurse,” she explained. “At the mental hospital. She must have been the one who murdered him.”
McCloud grunted. “This is so fucked up. Let’s get out of here.”
“They’re probably watching us from a satellite,” Lily said. “We can’t run from them.”
Bruno lifted his hand, and gave the sky the finger. “Up your ass,” he said, mouthing the words with exaggerated care. “Let ‘em watch.”
“We can’t leave unless we move their rig,” McCloud observed. “I can’t off-road here.”
“So we roll it off the road,” Bruno said.
Sean looked dubious. “They could blow us up.”
Bruno stared up at the sky. He held up a blackened, bloodied hand, felt the snowflakes swirling down. He looked at Lily.
“It’s nine miles to the nearest big highway,” he said. “They’d have all the time in the world to come and finish us off if we were on foot.”
McCloud nodded. He glanced at the SUV. “Flip a coin for it?”
“No,” Bruno said. “I’ll do it. You take Lily. Move back.”
Lily shot up off the stump, panicked. “No! Bruno, don’t, please—”
“Let’s get this done.” Bruno headed towards the SUV.
She burst into tears as McCloud led her away.