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Stumbling down the embankment to the stretch of open ground in front of the fence, his heart leaped again to see a subtle but man-sized opening cut into the chain-link. The optimism faded quickly. Beyond that, the dusty ground smoothed out into concrete.
Not that Leon had the tracking abilities to have used the dusty ground anyway. He’d spent most of his time fighting in cities. Garrett could have done it. Hell, Garrett could have probably tracked Sebastian over the concrete itself, but Garrett wasn’t here.
Leon eased himself through the hole in the fence, careful not to snag his clothes or rattle the chain-link, then crouched on the inside. Great, he was in the compound, but now what?
He paused there for a moment, surveying the surrounding buildings and flexing his hands in frustration, when he heard a sharp yell and saw a flash of light beam briefly out the window of a nearby building.
Without pausing to evaluate, Leon took off toward it in a low, silent run. Coming up to the window, he heard a series of grunts and curses and the thud of blows on flesh. He raced along the outside of the window until he came to the corner of the building. Then threw himself back the way he’d come.
A guard with a flashlight strode toward the door of the building, around the corner from Leon.
“Hello?” the guard called as he advanced on it, but no more thuds came from the building now. “Stevens, is that you?”
Then suddenly, a loud crash and a curse and “Roberts!”
“Stevens!” The guard rushed into the door, and Leon skirted the corner and came in right behind him.
He absorbed the scene in an instant.
The guard that must be Roberts stood bent over on the other side of the large toolshed, holding the side of his bleeding neck.
A man dressed in mechanic’s overalls lay sprawled on his back in the middle of the room, as though he had just been thrown there.
And Stevens stood just inside the door, already raising his gun.
“Shoot him!” Roberts sputtered. “Shoot him! He’s a worm!”
“No!” The man in overalls raised his hand, his eyes wide as he scrabbled backward. But he was too exposed to make it anywhere. “No, please—”
Just as Stevens got his gun up, Leon cinched his garrote around the man’s neck. Stevens dropped his gun as his hands went to his throat, but he couldn’t slide his fingers under the wire Leon had cutting into his skin. Leon stood tall, yanked back on his hold, and held on tight as Stevens kicked and clawed and eventually thrashed and twitched.
Sebastian didn’t waste a second of his opportunity. He launched himself from the floor and buried a knife in Roberts’s throat.
In seconds, both guards fell to the ground with twin thuds.
“Leon.” Sebastian left his victim and stumbled toward him. Leon opened his arms, and Sebastian fell into them. He buried his face in Leon’s chest and wound his arms around his waist. “I fucking hate having guns pointed at me.”
“I know. You’re alright.” Leon held him close and kissed the top of his head. “I’ve got you.”
“You…” Sebastian suddenly stiffened in his grip, and the hands he’d clutched Leon’s back with appeared at his chest. They started to shove, but then they grabbed Leon’s shirt instead and held him close. “What are you doing here?”
“Coming after you.” Leon reached to grab one of Sebastian’s hands, but before he could, Sebastian shoved him away.
“I’m not going back with you.” Sebastian disengaged and then raised a finger at Leon. He tilted his chin up in that challenging way. “I’m not taking those guns for you, so if you think you can persuade me, you’ve wasted a lot of valuable time.”
“I’m not asking you to.” Leon raised two placating hands, but the fire in Sebastian’s eyes and the tremble in his lips told him Sebastian wasn’t done.
“I’m done following your orders just because you’re giving them!” Sebastian chopped his hand through the air as though he could sever his old bonds just like that. “I don’t care if I’m your most valuable soldier. I don’t even care if you love me or not”—the shake in his voice gave away the lie to that, and Leon’s heart cracked in his chest—“I am taking that ship, and I am taking it far, far away from here!”
“And I’ll help you.”
Sebastian’s mouth, already open and twisted up, ready for another tirade, froze, then softened. “You will?”
“Yes.” Leon reached slowly for Sebastian’s hand, and when Sebastian didn’t pull it away, he took it and drew Sebastian back to him. “I’m not giving you any orders, Sebastian. I’m here to help you.”
“Really?”
Leon tried not to let the pain of Sebastian’s tiny, disbelieving voice show on his face. “Really.”
