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Next, I pull out his flashlight and press my lips to his in a brief kiss before turning and running toward the cave entrance.
In a flurry of motion, I yank my phone out and call Birdie the instant I shoot out of the cave opening.
“Did you get–”
“Birdie, we’re fucked!” I interrupt her. “We may have been set up. The target got the drop on us after killing the lights, and Maxen took a knife to the leg. There’s so much blood, I’m thinking he hit an artery.”
Instead of Birdie, Knot’s thunderous voice breaks in. “Is he secure? Where’s the target?”
“Dead. Maxen got three shots off before the lights came back on. I had to leave him alone inside to contact you.”
Knot is nearly frantic when he hands down orders for me. “Sadie, I want you to listen to me. Get back inside and try to help Gates out of the cave. If he loses consciousness due to blood loss… you leave him. Get your ass away from there. Do you hear me?”
“But… I–”
“You know as well as I do, there’s nothing you can do to save him if he’s that far gone, and I don’t want to risk you still being there when the others show up.”
“Do you have intel bringing them here?”
“No, but it’s only a matter of time. And we won’t see anyone coming until it’s too late. Now go. Do what I say.”
I don’t answer fast enough, and Dillan Knot does something he’s never done before. He raises his voice to me. “Dammit, Sadie. That’s an order!”
My voice cracks when I answer, “Yes, sir,” though I don’t know if I’ll be able to leave Maxen behind.
With no further words needed, I hang up and rush back into the cave. I find Maxen leaning against the wall just outside the long tunnel where the attack happened. There’s a pool of blood under his left boot, and his eyes are closed.
I don’t know what he was thinking or how in god’s name he’s even on his feet. “What are you doing?!” I bark as I drop to my knees in front of him.
Pulling my first aid bag from where it’s tucked under his arm, I call up my medical training for a bit of field surgery. I may or may not be able to stop the bleeding, but I’ll be damned if I don’t try. And so will he.
“I can’t die, pretty Sadie,” his voice slurs as I begin unwrapping the long straps keeping pressure on the bandage.
“If I did, your sweet pussy would weep.”
A laugh bubbles out through my panic, and I peel the bandage off to inspect the wound. I’m searching for the hole in Maxen’s pants when he says, “Because once you’ve had world-class dick, all the rest are just average.”
My hands freeze as I struggle to process what I just heard. “What did you just say?”
“World. Class. Dick. You know. What I’ve been giving you.”
His words are even more slurred as he throws mine back at me, words that were spoken in jest during a private conversation with Knot in his Escalade. Why Knot would have shared that with Maxen is a mystery to me. I shove that worry into the background and focus on saving Maxen’s life.
I pull my knife from its sheath and cut away his pants, thinking the fabric held as the dull blade gouged into his flesh. With the pants cut away, shaking fingers probe the bloody mess.
“Maxen… where? I can’t find a wound.”
With a voice no longer slurred, he answers, “That’s because there isn’t one.”
My brittle heart shatters as realization dawns—that sense of worry, the wrongness. My sixth sense had been screaming at me, but I’d attributed it to this whole clusterfuck of a mess.
Maxen is the asshole behind all of this. That means he’s the son of a bitch that killed Brock. I slide my hand back slowly and draw my gun, prepared to end his life or die trying, but I never get the chance.
Maxen reaches down, grabbing me by the throat with one hand and catching my gun hand with the other. I’m lifted off the stone floor and slammed against the cave wall. My feet dangle above the ground, and Maxen presses himself against me to ward off any kicks I might launch.
I use his proximity and my free hand to grope around his belt, looking for any weapon he has on him. He must have anticipated me, as there’s nothing useful to grab. Maxen shoves his groin against my hand. “You just can’t get enough of me, can you?”
“Fuck you, asshole!”