“The point is, he chose you, and we’re going to find him. When we do, you can ask him yourself why he chose you.”
He was about to tell West that it was probably better if he didn’t know the answer to that question, but he never got the words out. There was a shout from the interior of the restaurant. They turned to see a man holding up two large bags and smiling. Food was ready at last.
West darted inside first to snag the bags. It was best if they both didn’t go. The restaurant was almost literally a hole in the wall. Narrow and dark, with a row of small tables lining either wall, the place had a single aisle that allowed customers to walk up to the counter. Ed had plenty of experience squeezing into tight places with no problem, but this place made him feel claustrophobic.
He watched as West slipped into the shadowy building and took the large brown paper bags by the handles, thanking the man, who was still grinning over their enormous order. They had to have made the restaurant owner’s night.
Voices lifted in anger and surprise on the street. Ed tensed and turned toward the commotion. The vehicle traffic wasn’t bad along this narrow block, but it got a lot of foot traffic from locals popping in to grab a meal on their way home. Someone was running and stumbling through the early evening crowd, bouncing off the people on the sidewalk and barely keeping his feet under him as he continued to move.
“Wait!” Ed said, holding up one hand to West as he neared the doors. If this person was careening wildly down the sidewalk, Ed didn’t want him crashing into West and their food.
Ed had barely gotten the word out when the smaller man slammed right into him as though he didn’t even see his six-foot-seven-inch frame standing right in the middle of his path. The guy let out a pained cry and seemed about to fall backward on his ass when Ed reached out and caught him by the arm.
He tipped his head up, and Ed’s breath caught in his chest. Green Eyes!
Actually, the man’s face was badly swollen and cut from a beating or two, but one eye wasn’t completely swollen shut. His features were familiar. The brown hair that had peeked out at the airport was matted from sweat and crusted with blood.
Despite clearly being in pain and frantically running for his life, he took one look at Ed and grinned. It was lopsided, and the split on his bottom lip reopened. But he exhaled with relief, “Big ‘n’ Sexy,” like it was Ed’s name.
The man’s smile faded and his eyes rolled up into his head as he passed out. Ed barely had enough time to improve his hold on him to keep him from crashing into the ground. Ed cradled him carefully, fearful of hurting him more than he already was.
“Huh.”
Ed’s head snapped up to find West standing next to him with both bags in his hands. His eyebrows had risen to his hairline as he stared at the stranger.
“When I said we’d find him, I wasn’t expecting it to happen quite like this. But whatever. Works for me. I was getting tired of listening to K shout at his computer.”
“Should we take him to the hospital first? He’s in terrible shape.”
West made a noise as if he thought Ed had lost his mind. “Doc Will.”
“Yeah, but if he needs more help…”
“Then Will can make that decision. I’m sure we can get him back to our place way faster than we can get him to a hospital anyway. You good to carry him?”
Ed grunted and adjusted his grip on the man’s limp form, sweeping him up into a bridal carry. It wasn’t as awkward as it should have been, but the guy couldn’t have been much over five five. An easy foot shorter than his own hulking height.
West snorted. “He looks like the type who is going to love knowing you carried him like that.”
“Shut up. I’m not tossing him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He could have broken ribs.”
The sniper continued to smirk as he shifted the bags to one hand so he could pull his cell phone out of his pocket. He was at least calling the rest of the crew, so they knew to prepare for an injured man. And yeah, to get poor Kairo off the hook for trying to find a man who simply couldn’t be found by technology.
No, they’d just needed a bit of luck.
But then, Green Eyes had found him in a crowd at the airport. Maybe they should have let fate draw him back into their lives.
Ed glanced down at the unconscious man, his heart squeezing. It seemed like a safe bet that he’d been unwilling to give his captors whatever they’d wanted from him in the first place, so they’d tried to beat it out of him.