“What’s going on?” he asked in English.
“El doctor viene con nosotros,” Skinny explained. “No sigas.”
Riggs frowned like he was gonna argue about not following, but did the man not understand the benefit of him staying behind so he could alert the cavalry and rescue me later?
“That’s right, Nurse Riggs!” I said a little desperately. “I am going with these fine gentlemen for… reasons! And you should stay here! Also for reasons!”
“Carter,” Riggs began in that warning voice of his where the “you’re a fucking idiot” was implied but not stated.
“Yes, I am!” I said brightly, two seconds away from peeing myself. “Dr. Carter, at your service. And now… I must go! To save a piece of shit! Who is sick! With his heart!” I sounded a little like I was calling out a murderer in Clue. “I’m sure I’ll be back very soon.”
“Diles que el no puede hacer nada sin mi,” Riggs told Marisol in a flat voice.
Huh?
Marisol looked back and forth from me to Riggs. She nodded vigorously at Beardy. “Es la verdad. El guapo odia ensuciarse sus manos.”
Wait, what? I freakin’ hated that I didn’t know what was going on.
Skinny snorted at Beardy. “¿Siempre con jefes, eh?”
Beardy rolled his eyes. “Muévete.” Move. That one, I knew.
“But I need to put my outdoor clothes on first.” Riggs jiggled the bag in his hand. “Mis ropas.”
“Now’s not the time to talk about ropes, Nurse Riggs!” I said urgently. We didn’t need to give the guys any ideas.
Riggs looked at me, and his eyes softened, but he shook his head in exasperation anyway.
Beardy looked Riggs up and down in his medical scrubs, then shook his head. “No ropas.” He gestured for Riggs to put the bag down, so Riggs did… gently and with clear reluctance. I could almost hear his teeth grinding in frustration from across the room.
“We need supplies too,” Riggs tried again. “Equipos.”
We? Was he still planning on coming? I thought we’d settled that.
“We don’t need supplies. I do,” I said loudly. “Only yo is a, um, doctor, so you need to stay here and patiently await my safe return!”
Riggs shot me a look that said “shut the fuck up” in every possible language.
Beardy pointed at the portable EKG machine and the defibrillator, then gestured at Riggs to take them outside while Silent guarded him.
Dang it.
Then Beardy nodded at Marisol. “Chama, traerlas.” He pointed at our bags of supplies.
Marisol swallowed hard but nodded. She hefted the heavy trauma backpack, but Beardy stopped her and gestured for Skinny to go through it first.
Skinny upended the contents on the end of the bed—moment of silence for my careful organization—and sorted through it like he was looking for possible weapons. In the end, he scooped everything on the bed back into the bag.
Marisol made a move toward Riggs’s go-bag on the floor, which contained maps, emergency food, and our IDs, but Beardy stopped her with a string of Spanish.
“He asks what’s in the bag,” Marisol told me in a whisper.
“I… uh… important things? More clothes. Blankets. Food,” I answered semi-honestly.
Beardy shook his head and barked out another order, and Marisol dropped the bag with an apologetic look at me.
Fuck.
“Let me just check Luz one more time,” I told Beardy, glancing down at her. He nodded once but eyed me closely.
I laid my hand on her wrist to check her fluttering pulse.
“Remember to give her the aspirin exactly as discussed,” I told Marisol.
She nodded.
I grabbed the medicine bottle off the table by the bed and pretended to point to something on the label.
“And if you could get a message out for me. Let them know we’re in trouble—” I began in the same instructive tone.
Marisol’s eyes widened. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. Yul works for them sometimes. If I leave to deliver a message, he’ll know.”
Oh, so those were the friends who gave him the Horn? Great.
I nodded. “No, I get it. I would never want you to put yourself at risk. Take care of your grandmother—”
“¡Andale!” Beardy grabbed my arm and towed me out the door.
Outside was a Jeep with the most enormous wheels I’d ever seen and a freakin’ gun turret perched on the back like we were in one of those Mad Max movies. Skinny was already at the wheel, Riggs was in the back seat with a sack over his head and his hands tied together, surrounded by our equipment, and Silent manned the rear gun. Beardy pushed me roughly into the back seat and bound my hands in front of me before taking the front passenger’s seat for himself.
“You okay?” Riggs demanded in a low voice, turning toward me slightly.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” I said a little dazedly. “Mostly,” I corrected as I realized exactly how serious this predicament was.
I was zip-tied, for heaven’s sake. And that was so not one of my kinks. There was no silver lining to this situation.