The Thief (Black Dagger Brotherhood #16)(25)

“Do not worry.” Ehric glanced over from the driver’s side. “I will not let ill befall you.”

Actually, that’s my job, she thought. But thanks.

Ten minutes later, they pulled into a strip mall, headed around the back, and a man stepped out from behind the mountain of snow that had been cleared from the parking areas. He was blond-haired and—yeah, wow, really good-looking. Wait…she recognized him from before.

As the guy walked over, Ehric stared across at her. “Please remove your hand from your weapon. He is our escort or we will not be allowed to pass. If he senses your aggression, things could get…complicated.”

Sola slid her hand back into view, but kept her palm on her thigh. “Who are these people?”

“Friends.”

File this under birds of a feather, she thought as she re-measured the blond’s enormous size. And P.S., why couldn’t she hang out with normal people who had normal jobs?

The man popped the door, bent himself like a pretzel to squeeze inside, and filled the entire back seat as he unkinked his bends. “How we doing, people? Hey, Sola, I don’t know if you remember me. You were pretty out of it when I saw you last. My name is Rhage, and I’ll be your deadweight for this trip. Please keep all trays in the upright position and the swearing to a minimum. In the event I get carsick, I will request a transfer to the front seat, driver or passenger is fine. And if the lady wouldn’t mind giving me her weapons, we can get moving.”

As she twisted around to look at him, he gave her a winning smile, his brilliant blue eyes so stunning, she was momentarily struck dumb by their color. It was almost as if they were backlit, somehow? But she wasn’t fooled; good looks and charm aside, if she didn’t pony up the metal, he was going to lose that easygoing facade quick as a camo sheet being pulled off an anti-aircraft gun.

“I’d feel better if I kept it,” she muttered.

“I’m sure you would. But then you aren’t going to my facility. So what’s our choice? And by the way, if we get in there and I search you, which I will, and I find anything you didn’t disclose? We’re going to have some problems, the three of us—problems that are going to be difficult to solve amicably. Have I made things clear enough?”

He smiled again. And waited, as if he didn’t care what her decision was, either way. Her choice was going to determine what he did, and he took no ownership over whether the outcome was A) “amicable” or B) “bust a cap in your ass.”

Ehric shifted in his seat and started handing over his weapons. “It does not apply solely to you,” he said. “And I trust them.”

Sola watched the show, coveting the man’s pair of forties. As well as his switchblade, and his—were those throwing stars? And a…

“Excuse me,” she cut in. “Is that a grenade?”

Ehric looked at the compact, palm-sized bomb in his hand. “Why, yes. It is.”

As that was passed back, like it was nothing more than a Halls Mentho-Lyptus being shared between cold sufferers, she knew she was solidly in drink-the-Kool-Aid-or-get-off-the-ride land.

“I really don’t want to do this,” she muttered as she got out her nine and handed it over. “I mean…really.”



* * *



—

Annnnnnd twenty minutes later, they were out far from the city and its suburban skirting, traveling on a two-lane road through a forest of evergreens, passing by yellow reflective signs with deer leaping on them and nearly no cars.

“Oh, yo! Turn this up!”

The man named for the Hulk’s primary emotion shot his arm out between the seats and hit the volume just as they slowed and bumped off the asphalt onto a pair of deep ruts in the snow and underbrush.

“—you’re face-to-face with greatness and it’s strange—”

Sola cranked around, and the guy took it as having an audience, flexing his biceps and singing to her, every word perfect and on pitch as if he had done this a million times before. “…It’s nice to see that humans never change…”

They began to bounce up and down over divots and dips, the music swelling as big-and-blond sang his heart out. “…What can I say except yooou’re WELLLCCCOMMMMMME!”

Sola blinked and looked at Ehric—who was bobbing his head to the beat like a dad riding tight in an Odyssey at carpool. As her brain tried to assimilate the Deadpool-meets-Disney extremes, it was impossible not to wonder why she kept falling down rabbit holes—although at least this one had a soundtrack she could stand. If it were Frozen? She would have killed herself.

Rhage tapped her shoulder like he wanted the attention back. “My kid loves Moana. We watch it all the t— What has two thumbs and pulled up the sky?”

When he got to the “this guy,” his leather jacket opened and she checked out a matched pair of daggers that were strapped, handles down, to his enormous chest. He had disappeared all their weapons into somewhere, and God only knew what else he was packing under his—

As Ehric slowed to a stop, she glanced out the front windshield and frowned at a decrepit old farm gate that was wing-and-a-prayer’ing it at the job of keeping anyone from heading farther on the lane. Clearly, they were just going to plow through the thing—

The old gate broke apart and moved in two halves out of the way, its structural failings clearly an illusion. And as they continued on, there was soon another…and another…and still others. With each succeeding barrier, the fortifications became newer and stronger, the ruse of no-security, this-is-nothing-special fading away.