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Taking off in a jog, Indio ran right to where he’d seen the camo man heading. Around the next crowd of trees was an open field. A little clearing, some trees and a field where there was no place to hide.
Running a little faster, he made it to the trees before he slowed. He cautiously moved around the trees, trying to see through the branches, and there he was. The man was stopped, facing away from Indio, off in the clear field.
Indio no longer had to run. He took one step, then another, holding the gun in front of him as he came out from the trees. He wasn’t moving, a perfect target, and all Indio had to do was pull the trigger and the resort could resume being built, and he could prove to everyone, and mostly himself, that he could handle the big jobs.
Indio was no longer that punk that sold teeners to tweakers on the sidewalk of Federal Blvd. He could be an MC president. He could handle heavy shit.
And then, the ground fell away from him, and he was falling, the gun going off, his own scream echoing back at him from the walls of the hole he fell into until he splashed into a pit of water that was neck deep.
He hopped up to try to reach the top, but it was no use, and the gun had fallen from his hand when he hit the water. The little bit of sky that showed above him was shadows as a figure looked over the side of the entrance to the pit. “Caught ya. Now, let’s get you out of there and have some fun.”
*****
The others were running in the same direction, but Sel was far in front of them. He’d been much closer to Indio than they’d been, keeping so low that he’d been crawling over the ground.
Anything to not be seen.
When he saw Indio was on the move, he was too, only he crept along south of him, keeping up as best he could. Indio was after someone, and fear was burning through Sel’s veins.
He had a bad feeling that Indio was walking into trouble. Nothing was as it seemed. It was wrong; it felt wrong, the fucking air even smelled wrong.
Two long hours he’d sat and watched the man in the fire's light. Sel didn’t think he’d ever seen a more beautiful man. There were no harsh lines on his face, and he even smiled a few times. The firelight caught it all, and Sel knew that out there on his own, Indio could let some of that tough exterior slide off and be real, be vulnerable, and that he would likely hate it if Sel ever told him.
When he started moving faster, Sel stopped, seeing he was about to be in a clearing. He could so easily be seen. He took the tablet from the big pocket of the hoodie and looked at the signal, but there wasn’t one. There was no service, and he’d had it just moments ago.
Following along, he hid behind some trees and watched Indio, seeing him moving off in the clearing, but he saw more. He saw the person Indio was chasing. Only, the guy wasn’t running. He was standing there, in the clearing, in plain sight, even in the dark.
“What the hell?”
He wanted to scream out for Indio to stop, but he’d alert the other man of his presence. If Indio turned back to him, the other man could see them both, and if he had a weapon…
Instead, he was ready to run after Indio, behind him, as backup if nothing else, but then he saw Indio falling away, into some hole in the ground.
It hit him immediately as he fell to the ground on his belly, watching through the grass so he couldn’t be seen. Whatever hole Indio had fallen into was a trap made by Alex Brooks. He’d let Indio chase him right to it, because in the seconds after Indio had disappeared, the man walked back and peered into the hole.
There was something being said, Sel couldn’t hear it, but he heard Indio respond, his loud cussing and it sounded like water splashing.
The man took something from a pocket of his camo jacket and Sel saw too late it was a gun that he fired into the hole. Sel watched, his hand on his own gun, but his heart was beating so fast, knowing that it didn’t matter.
Then he realized it made a sound unlike a regular gun. It sounded more like an air rifle, something a friend of his father had bought him when he was thirteen, which was quickly taken away by his mother after he’d used it only once.
Why would he use an air rifle? He knew the sound of a gun with a silencer and that wasn’t it. Sel watched as the man threw something into the hole, as if he was fishing, and what he caught was Indio, pulling him up, and it wasn’t easy for him. Sel started crawling slowly closer, hoping to get close enough to pop a cap in the fucker’s head, hoping that whatever had been done to Indio could be treated, and he could be okay.
The gun out in front of him, he crawled as close as it was wise to do, and when he did, he heard the man talking. “Goddamn, you’re a heavy bastard,” he grunted as he sat on the ground using the leverage of his legs to pull Indio out of the hole with a thick rope.
It took a while, but soon enough, Sel saw Indio emerging, water running off him, his hair sticking to his head. Once he was laid on the ground, the man slapped at his face and listened to his chest. Sel held his breath while he waited, and soon the man confirmed for him that Indio was indeed alive.
“There you are! Thought you might have drowned. That’s no fun at all, is it? Let’s go and visit some friends of yours, huh? We’ll have a party, just me and a bunch of fucking criminals trying to take my land.”
Friends? The pit in Sel’s stomach grew another ten pounds, and he wondered who the guy was speaking about. Then he realized something else as Alex Brooks looked through Indio’s pockets.
“You’re supposed to have them in your pockets.” He shoved his hand into the wet jeans and pulled out the tracker, tossing it back into the pit. “There. Getting wet kills it, but just to make sure. Sorry, but can’t have them finding you guys.”
Brooks left Indio lying on the ground, and Sel thought for a moment he was going to just leave him there. Every muscle in his body jumped, desperate to get to him to make sure he was okay.
Then he heard a weird rattling and settled back down in the grass. Brooks came around the trees, pushing a wheelbarrow. Again, he talked to Indio like Indio was awake and listening to him. The guy was batshit crazy.
“Sorry for this. I’m sure it ain’t comfortable, but I can’t carry a big guy like you all the way to the jeep.”
