He turned back to grab my bag as I continued to stare down at his handiwork.
The death before me was a reality I hadn’t seen from him in weeks. But their fate was the same as mine. I would soon be the one bleeding on the floor, eyes void of life.
My head was swimming, and everything seemed to pulse around me.
“Lacey!” Six’s voice broke through.
I looked up at him in confusion. He shook his head, jaw clenching as he reached out for me. Holding on to his arms, he helped me step over the blood.
Once on my feet outside the massacre, he grabbed on to my jaw, forcing me to look at him.
“You need to focus on me.”
I gave a shaky nod and blew out a breath. He let go and handed me the weapons bag as he took my suitcase. Steel steps clanked beneath our feet and in the distance, I heard sirens. Six didn’t say anything, but he picked up the pace. He was at the trunk loading the bags in when I reached him. After tossing in the ones I was carrying, we climbed in. The engine roared to life and with a quick switch of gears, we were off.
I looked back at the hotel and the few windows with the curtains drawn watching us go, then close up.
“They were never leaving alive, were they?” I asked as we sped down the road, away from the sirens and flashing lights.
“No.”
“Why?” I didn’t understand why someone wouldn’t walk away when threatened like that.
“Because they’re cocky assholes who don’t back down, even when their insides are screaming at them to.”
“Oh, come on! How many shithole motels does this city have?” I asked after an hour of driving.
We’d pulled into an almost identical architectural stain as the blood covered one we fled.
“A lot,” Six said as he turned to me. “Vegas, baby.”
I groaned and reached for the handle.
My hands shook as I exited. While the adrenaline had worn off, there was some residual aftereffects that prevailed. Weakness and fatigue being some of them. Luckily my ears had stopped ringing, but there was still a strange feeling in them.
Once again, the room was out of date and well worn. I collapsed onto the bed as soon as we entered.
The images of the dead gangsters were on my mind. I couldn’t shut them off. I’d seen enough death to last a lifetime since Six.
Death chased him and the other Cleaners. And only I knew why Three was able to be taken out.
“You aren’t as great as you think you are,” I said, my face half mashed into the comforter. “The Cleaners aren’t invincible.”
He stopped unloading his computer and stared at me. “Are you actually going to tell me what you know?”
Was I? Thinking back on what my tired brain said, it was a sort of interlude. Did I want to tell him? But what did I really know?
Would telling him end me now?
“I know that you aren’t impervious to death. I know you are susceptible to drugs.”
Six stood and climbed onto the bed to lie next to me. “What drugs?”
“Three.”
Six nodded. “That explains a lot.”
“There was a cocktail of drugs in his system, including Ketamine.” I thought the word would register, but by his blank expression, it appeared it didn’t. “I don’t know what your date rape drug knowledge is, but it’s fast acting and can impair motor function and distort the senses.”
“Ingested from a drink,” he said, thinking to himself.
“You need me more than I need you,” I said, knowing for the first time it was true. “There have been plenty of times I could’ve run away, gotten help, but I didn’t.”
He reached out and brushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “Because I’d kill you.”
“At this point, I’m trying to live as long as I can. Therefore, I don’t want to piss your psychotic ass off.”
“You push my buttons constantly.”
I let out a little laugh. “Yeah, but that’s fun. You make it too easy.”
“Why are you such a sarcastic pain in my ass?”
I shrugged. “Sarcasm is my defense mechanism, so…shut up.”
One corner of his mouth twitched up. “I should punish you for that.”
“Yeah, Mr. Killer, what are you going to do?”
“Hmm.” He looked around the room as he tried to come up with something. “I could fuck you.”
“Pfft, that’s no punishment.”
“No, but I just killed five guys and now I want to fuck your brains out.”
My brow scrunched. “Is that a side effect?”
“I guess you could call it that.”
“I thought you were hungry.” We never did get to eat before those dickwads showed up.
“After.” He smacked my ass, making me jump.
“Fine, but I’m just going to lie here because the day’s shit wore me out.”
“Undo your jeans.”
I quirked a brow before reaching down and flicking the button and drawing the zipper down. His hands wrapped around the waistband, then yanked my jeans and panties over my hips and ass.
They weren’t all the way off, just down enough to expose the necessary areas.