Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Gustavo for once looked more guilty than angry. “Many hours? The pain in my chest, it is… it is severe. My brother, he is a slave to his heart condition, as well. He and I have this in common, you see?”
I nodded slowly. I was kind of afraid I did see. Sort of. Maybe? All I knew was, there was a glimmer of Kev in this guy’s eyes just then… a kind of hero-worship thing for his brother, which didn’t track at all to him being a violent cartel-honcho drug lord, but there it was anyway.
“I’m sure if your brother is the sort of man you think he is, he just wants you to be happy and healthy.”
Gustavo looked away, and his jaw tightened. “You have saved my life, Dr. Carter. I owe you a great debt of honor.”
I set my jaw and darted a look around the room to see that the guards had not come back yet, and the women sat quietly in the corner. “If that’s the case,” I whispered quickly, “then for heaven’s sake, let us go. All of us. Me, Riggs, and the other guy—”
Gustavo shook his head. “What you ask is impossible. My brother will be coming soon, and he has need of the seed man. Gustavo will not let him go.”
The seed man? Was that Mullet? I noticed he didn’t say it was impossible to let me and Riggs go.
“Please,” I said again. “Sir. Señor Santiago. To clear your debt to me. For the sake of my cousin, who’s like a brother. I beg you…”
Gustavo swallowed hard, and as he stared up at me, I knew in my heart that he was going to say yes, and I would be able to tell Riggs I’d saved us.
But then he caught sight of something over my shoulder, and his face hardened.
“Leave me, Dr. Carter,” he commanded.
“But—”
“Ah, Rodrigo! I’m so glad you’re back. Escort Dr. Carter back to his room immediately, while Luis serves me my coffee. And please ensure that our other guests are also taken care of and that the seed man is ready to perform his job. Gustavo’s plan must be executed perfectly! Let there be no mistakes.”
“Sir,” I protested one last time, appealing to his hypochondriac nature. “You should let me continue to monitor you, at least. Your blood pressure—”
But Gustavo merely shook his head, and before I could say another damn word in my favor, I found myself out in the hall.
Fuck.
13
Riggs
I couldn’t stop second-guessing my decision to stick around for Buck’s sake. I had to trust Carter knew what was best for Buck’s health and stability, but with Santiago gone, this was our best chance at escape.
“Y’all don’t happen to have, like… uh… one of them opioids they’re always talking about on the TV, do ya?”
I glanced down at Buck, who was still writhing in pain. Sweat beaded his hairline and dripped down his neck.
“’Cause this hurts like a sumbitch.”
I grabbed the bottle of high-dose Tylenol Carter had left instead of the opioids Buck had begged for. I asked one of the fretting women nearby to grab some water, and we managed to get the pills into Buck. As soon as Carter raced out of the kitchen to help Santiago to his room, I leaned in close to Buck so no one could hear.
“Are you Buck Nutter from Licking Thicket?”
“Great googly moogly!” The man’s eyes widened enough for me to see brain matter behind them. “Are you one o’ them psychics?”
How could this guy be responsible for the latest gaming sensation taking over the world right now? It was impossible.
“If I was, would I be here?” I grumbled. “No. But I work for Champion Security, and I’d like to get you out of here.”
“Champion… wait. You guys are the ones who tipped me off about the coup at HOG! I owe you my… well, maybe not my life since I’m laying here gutshot. But I at least owe you a beer, man.”
“You’re not gutshot. It’s a gash on your leg, and you’re going to be fine. But I need to know what they want with you. Why are you here?”
His eyes flitted away, and he looked embarrassed. “It was a big misunderstanding.”
“Tell me.”
Buck glanced back at me with a little whimper of discontent. “But you’ll think I’m two rounds shy of a full clip.”
I stared at him, wondering if it was possible the man had any ammo in his clip at all. “Naw,” I lied. “It takes a smart man to come up with something as popular as HOG. You can’t be stupid. I’ll bet you were simply taking advantage of a business opportunity.”
His eyes brightened. “Yeah. Yeah, exactly so. You hit the nail on the hammer, my friend. It was taking advantage of a business opportunity. Ya see, I invented Horn of Glory. It was my baby. And when I heard Jacob Horn was gonna get rid of me, gonna force me away from my life’s work, I done lost my mind over the injustice of it. I left HOG Corporate before they could make me leave. Ain’t no big-brother corporation going to pull the cotton over this guy’s eyes, you know? Not again. So I did what any self-respecting man like myself would do. I listed my seed for sale on the internet. The dark web. Where the bad guys are. Which… in hindsight… maybe weren’t such a great idea. So happens they don’t like taking no for an answer.”