But they cared for him as much as he cared about them, and while they were in the wrong now, he could make them understand that Hammer did not deserve whatever his club had in store for him!
Jag spun around and dropped his spear for the same reason Dex’s gun was still in the holster, and balled his hands into fists, ready to fight Dex off.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Stop,” Frank roared, stomping after him. “Get into your fucking car, and we’ll talk! He won’t be hurt, but he’s going back to the junkyard with us, as are you!”
Right before Dex could crash into Jag and leap in through the side doors of the van, where Hammer still lay like a sack of potatoes, Frank grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air. Dex let out a screech of fury.
“You have no idea what we’ve been through! He saved me from a fucking tiger!” His heart leapt when he saw Hammer’s shoulder move. “Hammer, I’ve got you! I’ll work it out!”
“Dex?” he croaked, not all there yet under the sack, but Shane shut the door with a single tug, making him disappear.
It was like getting shot over and over. “I’ll make this right!” Dex shouted as Frank carried him away, huffing from the effort.
“You’ll alert the whole town!
Jag spat on the ground as he circled the van to get in from the passenger side. Some friend.
“What do they want from him? What’s the situation? How did you find us?” Dex asked, never taking his eyes off the van as his ogre of an uncle carried him above ground, away from the man who needed Dex’s help and protection.
“Dex. Keys,” Frank said with a grunt, finally putting him down.
“Hammer has them,” Dex said, pulling his jacket from Frank’s hand. He took a deep breath and put it on before glancing toward the van. It was now very clear he didn’t stand a chance against them all, and since persuasion was the only weapon he could effectively use, he’d focus on that instead of thrashing around like a salmon thrown onto shore.
Frank took a deep breath and yelled to Shane. “He has the car keys. Get them for me!”
Fury was like a flame coming to life when a match dropped into a puddle of gas. “Don’t fucking touch him, Shane! I mean it.”
The van shook, but then Shane stepped out, holding up Dex’s Dollar sign keychain. “Like wrestling an alligator. Damn, Dex, I can see how he took on that ‘tiger’,” he said, making finger quotes at the end as Frank shoved Dex forward, flattening his face against the hood as the wind sung above. But the flame inside Dex was burning ever stronger. He couldn’t let Hammer be hurt over something he hadn’t done. And even if he had in fact donesomething, Dex was ready to stand between him and death, beating his chest like some barbarian.
“Listen to me,” he said, trying to convey the seriousness of the matter. “Don’ttake him to his club.”
Behind him, Shane gave a loud exhale, and by the sound of it, the keys have landed in Frank’s hand. “Talk to your uncle. I don’t have time for this. We’ve been on the road for hours, and you know how Jag gets in cars.”
“Shouldn’t have taken him with you then,” Dex growled, but when he tried to kick Frank and wrestle away again, a painful nudge in the calf made him falter with a low groan. “Fuck you.”
“Remember, Frankie, I’ll want all the spicy details,” Shane said, laughing as he jogged off. Moments later, Dex recognized the roar of the van’s motor coming to life and growled.
How could he protect Hammer if he wasn’t at his side? His man was strong and capable, but if he tried to take on Jag and Shane while cuffed and dizzy, things might take a bad turn.
Frank pushed him into the car. At this point, Dex didn’t have many options but to go with him. “Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”
Dex frowned and crossed his arms on his chest. “Well, yeah, but I couldn’t exactly contact you.”
Frank sat his massive form behind the wheel and glared at Dex, locking the doors with the press of a button. “Oh yeah? But you had time to go on Grindr?”
Dex’s mind went blank. “I haven’t been on Grindr.”
“Stop the bullshit. I tracked you down as active on there a few days ago, and it took us ages to work out your exact location. Thank fuck you’re dumb enough to give away your position like that.”
That hurt. Especially that he didn’t even—Hammer must have been the one to turn his phone on for some reason.Fuck.
Dex shook his head as Frank turned on the car. “Oh, and you think you know everything, huh? I bet you believed what Lion and his fucked-up brother Ryker told you.”
Frank hummed and pulled out of the parking lot before driving past the axe-throwing place. “They told me nothing. What they want from him is none of our business. My job is to keep him imprisoned, or get rid of the body. And, as a rule, we don’t fuck our prisoners,” he said, squeezing his bread loaf-sized hands on the wheel. “Has this been going on evenbeforehe ended up at the junkyard?”
“You know I’m twenty-two, right?”