Standing and waiting for them to run and get it was strange. Surrounded by people, next to a sociopathic hitman, I realized I would rather be standing there with him then just about anywhere else.
When we were back in the car and headed back to the motel, I turned in my seat. “Okay, we’re out of there. What’s going on? Who was that guy?”
“He’s an informant.”
I gave a slow nod. “And what did we learn?”
“Three and Eight are dead and that’s all that they know.”
I threw my hands up. “We already knew about them. How did you get that anyway?”
“The dealer.”
My eyes widened. “The dealer was an informant as well?” He looked like any other dealer in town. Guess informants were everywhere.
“Yes.”
“All right,” I said with a nod as I caught up. “What was all the cryptic talk in the sports bar?”
“Four was last seen in an industrial area about an hour outside of town.”
Two down, possibly three.
Six didn’t say anything more, instead lost in his thoughts. Probably calculating fifty different next moves and analyzing them.
But more than that, his brow was knitted together. For the first time, he was showing me the slightest hint that beneath his cool, calm exterior were rough seas.
For hours I watched Six meticulously clean each piece of the arsenal he picked up. Boxes of bullets emptied, pushed one by one into a clip for backup.
He had a shoulder holster, and as soon as two guns were ready, he strapped them in, setting it aside. What looked like a smaller pistol was slipped into some other type of holster and set next to the other one. That left one more along with half a dozen full clips and at least two knives.
“Are you going into battle?” I asked, completely enthralled and totally terrified.
He stopped and glanced at me. “Preparing for as much as I can.”
Preparing.
I continued to watch him and realized that it was for that rarity he talked about—a firefight. If there was, what would happen to me? Caught in the middle, nowhere to go and no way to defend myself?
“What about me?”
He quirked his brow. “What about you?”
“I’m just going to be left undefended?”
“Lacey, this is a precaution. This is being prepared for the what ifs I can’t answer. The control I’m lacking going in there with little to no information other than this is where Four last was seen.”
There was no John Doe in the area, no found bodies. No evidence Four was alive or dead.
I nodded, but I couldn’t help but worry. I was on board for Six killing me, but the prospect that it could happen by someone else didn’t sit well.
It all may have been a precaution, but as I watched him put a vest over his T-shirt, the panic began to grow.
“You’re wearing a bulletproof vest?” I scrunched my brow at him while he pulled on the Velcro straps.
“We’re going into the unknown. I don’t like that. I’m a killer, not stupid.”
Fair point.
“I hadn’t seen you wear one, so I guess I assumed you were that badass.”
“I am that badass. But I’m also a badass who has enough bullet wounds in his torso.”
True. There were at least five.
He threw another shirt on top of the vest, then paired it with some cargo pants in which he stuffed the extra clips. Setting his foot on the chair, he attached the smaller gun with what appeared to be an ankle holster.
Shoulder holster on, knife strapped to his other ankle, and the last gun he had prepped stowed in his waistband. He threw on a jacket and stashed the second knife into one of the side pockets of his pants.
Seeing as he was getting ready to go, I got ready as well. However, my options were extremely limited.
A sundress.
And a jacket.
Flat strappy sandals.
Cherry lip balm and a bottle of water.
Oh, yeah, I was a force to be reckoned with.
I held my arms out and motioned between us. “There is a major imbalance going on here.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.”
It was odd, but his words did relax me. Because I’d seen his brutality first hand. The safest place for me was next to him.
After about fifteen minutes of driving, civilization fell completely away, replaced by the barren desert landscape. The flat of the bowl shape that the city sat in morphed into rocky hills and cliffs.
Asphalt gave way to bumpy dirt roads. What seemed like driving into nothingness opened up to a large metal structure. Concrete exhaust towers, flanked by steel and rock from the hillside. Large conveyor belts reached for the sky, moving from one tower to another.
Bright lights flooded the exterior, cutting through the dark. Its dayglow ways reminding me of the strip.
Two cars sat in what appeared to be a parking area, but based on the dirt, anywhere was a parking spot.
Six’s fingers drummed on the wheel as he drove around at near idle speed. After a minute, he threw the car in park and turned to me.
“Stay behind me,” he said in an almost whisper.
“That sounded almost chivalrous.”
He turned to me with his usual blank face. “I just want to fuck you later, and I’m not into corpses.”