by Abigail Roux
It sliced through the material easily and Nikolaus pulled the gag away as she
opened her mouth wide and worked her jaw a little before offering a weak smile.
“Thank you,” she whispered as her eyes darted between the three of them.
She licked her lips and looked at Carl warily. “I’m sorry I stomped on your foot,” she offered tentatively.
Nikolaus looked at Carl with a laugh and Brandt started sniggering.
“And I’m sorry I elbowed you, too,” she said even more tentatively.
Carl glared at Brandt, who was giggling behind his hand and snorting in a
most unbecoming manner.
“She beat you up?” Brandt finally squeaked as Carl turned to face him.
“Well, no wonder you wanted to keep her gagged!” Brandt managed to say before he
doubled over laughing.
“Don’t mind them,” Nikolaus told the girl. “If they don’t have their crayons,
they get a bit unruly.” She smiled shyly and looked from Nikolaus to the other two men, who were now bickering loudly and poking at one another. “What’s your
name?” Nikolaus asked her.
“Marissa,” she answered in a hoarse voice.
“Marissa, I’m Nikolaus,” Nikolaus replied in a soft voice.
Behind him, Carl snatched the lighter out of Brandt’s hand and held it up in
front of him tauntingly before pulling it away and forcing the other man to grab
wildly for it.
“Those two will probably kill each other before long, so you don’t really
need to know their names,” he said as Carl took Brandt in a headlock and sent him
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once more to the ground with a thud, sitting on him and flicking the lighter in his face tauntingly as Brandt struggled to get to it. Nikolaus just sighed and looked at her with a smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll be going with Shawn when we leave.”
“Which one was he?” Marissa asked in a small, worried voice.
“He’s the one who wanted to kill you.”
“Oh, good,” she said in a distant voice as she watched Brandt finally get hold
of the lighter and use it to set Carl’s sleeve on fire.
LXXII.
“HA!” Brandt cried as Carl rolled off him and beat his burning sleeve out on the
ground.
“Goddammit, Wally! I liked this fucking shirt!”
“Well it was awfully flammable for being quality material,” Brandt reasoned
as he sat up and leaned against the door. He winked at the girl and she shrank behind Nikolaus as best she could, tied up like she was. “Besides, burns give clothing
character.”
“I’ll give you some fucking character,” Carl grumbled as he examined his
wrist for any permanent damage.
“You big baby,” Brandt said with a grin. “Hey, Gizmo, why don’t you untie
her, yeah? She can’t be comfortable in all that.”
“You think?” Carl asked distractedly as he looked at his singed cuff.
“She won’t run,” Nikolaus said confidently as he used Carl’s knife to slice
carefully though the many layers of material. “Will you?”
“I’ll be good, I promise,” she said in a stronger voice than she had used
before.
“There’s a good girl,” Brandt said happily. “You’ll like Beignet once he gets
used to you. Just do what he says; and he’ll take care of you,” Brandt said with a tinge of sadness. He wished he could say a final goodbye to the other man, but Remy
needed this time more than he did.
“Beignet?” the girl said doubtfully.
“I wouldn’t suggest you call him that,” Carl advised as he rested his back
against the wall and settled down.
“Is there nothing else you can do with me?” she asked desperately. “Lock me
in a closet or… or throw me off the train?” she suggested hastily.
Carl and Brandt both laughed joyously.
“Shawn’s not so bad,” Nikolaus told her in amusement as he finished freeing
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her. “He’ll most likely take you somewhere, threaten you not to say anything about all you’ve heard until you piss yourself, then leave you safe and sound in a Holiday Inn with a couple thousand dollars to get you home. He’s a good man; he won’t hurt you unless you do something to threaten him.”
“Couldn’t I go with all of you?” she asked meekly. “I mean….”
Nikolaus looked at the others and they both frowned and shrugged. “Remy
surely had a reason for sending you with Shawn. He probably thought Shawn could
keep you safe better than we could. Did he say anything to you when he tied you up?”
“Is that his name? Remy?” she asked curiously. Nikolaus nodded and set
Carl’s knife down on his knee. “He just kept telling me that he wasn’t going to hurt me. I thought he was going to… I thought he brought me in here to kill me. But he kept telling me jokes and, no, he didn’t really say anything about… I thought you were going to kill me,” she finished with a little sniff.
Nikolaus put a tentative hand on her knee and patted her comfortingly.
“When we leave, we’ll take you back in there,” Carl said quietly. “If Remy
says you can go with us, then we’ll take you.”
“You’re not… you’re not staying together? I thought you all were friends?”
she asked in surprise.
Brandt looked at Carl and then Nikolaus, who both looked as miserable as he
felt about the whole thing.
“We’re supposed to leave at the next stop,” Nikolaus told her quietly.
“But that’s about two minutes away if that watch you’re wearing is right,”
she said as she nodded at Nikolaus’s wrist.
“Observant little thing, aren’t you?” Brandt said with a fond smile. He had
never had much use for the female of the species. In his limited experience, they were either afraid of him for no reason, or smarter than him. He didn’t like to deal with unwarranted crying, and he didn’t like being outsmarted. Granted, this one had cried a little bit, but he supposed that was warranted since he had offered to let her play with one of his grenades to cheer her up. In hindsight, that probably hadn’t been the best way to go about it.
Even as Brandt mused, the train began to jerk and slow. Brandt and Carl
were both pitched around on the floor as the train pulled to a stop. They sat staring at one another uncertainly as the sounds of passengers disembarking and train whistles greeted them.
“Herren?” Nikolaus ventured finally.
Carl looked at Nikolaus and the girl, then turned his head to stare at Brandt
for several long seconds. Brandt returned the look unblinkingly. Either way, he and Carl were going to stay together. He’d promised that much. But the thought of leaving the others to the will of Fate didn’t settle well with Brandt at all.
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“For the first time in my life I have people I call my friends,” Carl said
finally as his jaw took on a determined set. “I wouldn’t like myself very much if I abandoned them now.”
Brandt smiled grimly and nodded. “We take it to the end, then,” he said
gravely.
They sat in silence as the train vibrated beneath them. This was their stop,
but they weren’t about to get off now. Brandt thought that he’d never felt so relieved in his life. At least they would all go down together.
Suddenly, the door at Brandt’s back was forced open, sending him rolling
backward as he was caught off balance. Carl jumped to his feet and knocked the first man back with a powerf
ul punch to the face, and Nikolaus stood protectively in front of the girl, wielding the knife Carl had given him as three men invaded their little compartment. Even the girl got in a good kick or two as the intruders grabbed at her, but the compartment was simply too small to allow the four of them to defend
themselves, and they were quickly overpowered.
LXXIII.
“OH, shit,” Remy breathed as his eye caught movement outside the window of their
compartment. Remy pulled away from Shawn’s arms and slid around the other man’s
body.
“What’s wrong?” Shawn asked in a voice hoarse from restrained tears as he
stood where Remy had left him in the middle of the compartment, facing the door and rubbing his face in an exhausted manner. Remy wiped at his own damp eyes as he
stepped to the side of the window and looked out.
“We have guests,” Remy announced as he watched the men outside
crabwalk along the side of the train and then board it. “Time for Plan B.”
“There’s a Plan B?” Shawn asked doubtfully as he walked to stand beside
Remy and look out. They weren’t worried about being seen, it was already too late for that. “If there’s a Plan B, then why in the hell were we going through with Plan A?”
“Because in Plan B I have to kill you,” Remy said as he bent over and rifled
through his bag.
“I think I rather liked Plan A better, in that case,” Shawn murmured gloomily
as he peered out the window.
Finally, Remy found what he was looking for and he grinned. It was really a
miracle that his equipment had survived the entire mission. Remy hadn’t been able to spend much time with it, but they had still ended up in the same place, in the end.
Remy stood up and looked at Shawn, preparing to explain his hastily thought
out plan further. He stopped and stared before he could a get word out. Shawn looked at him intently and frowned.
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“You’re going to stab me with that big mother of a knife again, aren’t you?”
the older man asked in a defeated voice.
Remy smiled affectionately and let his hand come up to brush a stray lock of
hair from Shawn’s face. “Yeah,” he said apologetically. There was an underlying
sense of urgency surrounding them, but for several long moments they simply stood there looking at one another longingly. “But don’t worry, podna,” Remy finally said as he shook himself out of a near trance and gave Shawn a cheeky wink. “I’ve got the hang of the switch this time. Here,” he said as he handed Shawn the blood capsule he had fished from his bag. “Makes it more fun,” he said in response to Shawn’s dubious look.
“Is it real blood?” Shawn asked as he examined the little plastic capsule.
“I don’t think so. It’s a Halloween thing. You know, you put it in your mouth
and bite it… vampire costume,” Remy said with a careless wave of his hand just
before he unbuttoned his jeans and dropped them to the floor. He then bent and
strapped his knife to the inside of his thigh before pulling on the loose pair of track pants he had retrieved from his bag. Shawn handed him a dagger and he cut a hole in the inseam and tore at it until a hand could fit through. “Can you reach it through there?”
“Yeah,” Shawn answered readily as he watched Remy’s hands move. “We
start a fight, then? Close combat?”
“Yep,” Remy said as he straightened up and looked at Shawn with a grin.
Shawn nodded grimly and looked at Remy sadly. The adrenaline that had started to
pump through Remy’s body waned as a profound sadness hit him. “There’s so much
we never said,” he murmured as he took a step closer and lifted his hand to smooth out the wrinkled material of Shawn’s shirt.
“I love you, lad,” Shawn said with difficulty as Remy’s hand came up to
caress his face once more. “You just remember that every time you think you want to take a stupid chance.”
“I will,” Remy said as his eyes began to water.
They could hear thumps coming from the next room and they both knew the
attacking forces had found some of their companions. It was almost over.
“I’ll find you, Shawn,” Remy promised just before he moved in and kissed
Shawn gently. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, but I’ll find you,” he whispered against the other man’s mouth.
Shawn kissed him once more and then shoved him away before they could
get lost in one another. He nodded and Remy returned the nod with one of his own.
“Let’s go get ourselves captured then,” Shawn said in a gruff voice.
LXXIV.
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THIAGO knew he’d run out of time. He didn’t have time to tell Gray how much he
cared for him. He didn’t have time to tell Gray that he couldn’t go an hour in the day without thinking of him. He didn’t have time to tell Gray that he’d never been good with words, and that he wasn’t likely to develop the ability any time soon.
He didn’t have time to tell Gray how sorry he was, and that he loved him and
always would, no matter what happened. He only had time to get Gray away. Away
and out of danger.
“It’s our boys,” Gray murmured as he leaned next to Thiago and looked out
the window at the men moving discreetly through the crowd. “They’re going to kill you, Thi.”
“They’re going to try,” Thiago corrected through gritted teeth as he made a
decision he knew would haunt him for the rest of his days. “Get the hell out of here, Gray.”
“No. No, I’m staying with you,” Gray said determinedly as he straightened
and turned to look at Thiago with a weak smile.
Thiago could have killed himself as he looked at the other man. Even after
the lies, the deception, and the abuse, Gray was still loyal to him. Probably even still in love with him.
“Did you hear what I said?” Thiago shouted, even though he wanted nothing
more than to take the other man in his arms and hold him until the last possible
second. This was his only option, though, if he wanted to save the other man. He
shoved at Gray’s shoulder for good measure. “Get the hell out of here! I don’t need you, Gray,” Thiago said in the most malicious voice he could muster. “I don’t need you, and I don’t want you with me.”
Gray paled visibly and took a step back as he searched Thiago’s eyes for any
hint of a lie. But that was one thing that Thiago knew how to do, and he knew that Gray could search from now until the end of time, and he wouldn’t find the emotions Thiago was hiding.
Thiago shoved at him again, hard enough that he stumbled backward and
caught himself on the handle of the door to the compartment. He looked at Thiago
incredulously.
“Thiago,” Gray said almost pleadingly. “What the hell are you–”
“Shut your mouth and run like you usually do, you fucking disgrace!”
Thiago shouted as desperation began to take him over. Gray had to go. Now. They
were coming any minute, and Gray had to be out of sight or they’d take him, too.
Gray’s mouth parted in shock and he was breathing heavily as he furrowed
his brow and searched for words. “Everything you just said was another lie then,” he finally said in a hoarse, barely audible voice.
Thiago’s heart broke as he remembered all the words he’d just spoke, not ten
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minutes ago. He’d tried to convince Gray that he loved him, tried to tell him all the things he no lo
nger had the time to prove through his actions.
And now he was taking it all back.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Gray, I was trying to get one last fuck before you and
Shawn rode off into the sunset!” Thiago said in a condescending voice as he waved his gun through the air dramatically. “You might be shit at everything else you do, but at least you’re una Buena cogida.” Thiago took a step closer and lowered his voice until it was just a menacing, disgusted growl. “If I’m going to make a last stand it won’t be beside a whore like you,” Thiago spat with as much disgust as he could
muster as he looked Gray up and down with a sneer.
Gray’s jaw clenched, and after several tense seconds of disbelief, he nodded
curtly as his hand pushed at the handle on the door. He turned as he pulled the door open, and Thiago’s heart dropped into his toes when he saw the man standing in the aisle with a gun pointed at Gray’s face.
Gray moved on reflex only, and he knocked the gun to the side, pinning the
man’s arm against the doorjamb as his other hand swung toward the man’s elbow
joint. The arm made a sickly crunching sound when it broke, and Gray’s elbow came up to hit the man’s chin, knocking him back and to the ground.
Thiago’s gun was up and ready as two more men came through the small
doorway one at a time, but Gray’s body blocked any shot he had, and the two of them were overtaken.
LXXV.
MARISSA closed her eyes and offered up a little prayer to any deity that may have been listening as she and the three men with her were all marched down the center of the train at gunpoint.
She thought she’d been scared when the big man grabbed her in the dining
car as she wiped down the tables, but that was nothing compared to the complete and utter terror she was experiencing now. The German who introduced himself as
Nikolaus was in front of her, his fingers laced behind his head obediently and, every few seconds risking worried glances over his shoulder to make certain she was okay.