He groaned and tried to roll over onto his back. Couldn't. The stranger's body had been forced hard up against his own. He elbowed some room, and then rolled over. Taking several deep breaths to calm the churning in his gut, he tried to concentrate on what was happening beyond the confines of his dark prison.
Footsteps. And voices talking softly. Savagely. Then the trunk swung open, and light poured in. He blinked, throwing up a hand to shade his eyes against the sudden glare of sunlight. But the shape silhouetted by the sunshine was one he knew well.
"Glad to see you're alive and well," Karl said, and held out a hand to help him up.
He accepted it gratefully. Right now, it felt as if he'd become a punching bag for some fool wearing boots. He climbed out, but it was only with Karl's help that he made it over to the side of the road.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Karl asked, as he squatted down in front of him.
"Three," he guessed, looking down the road towards the car rather than at Karl. Four men were lying face down in the dirt, guarded by Karl's oldest son, Harvey. He returned his gaze to his friend. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but why the hell are you here?"
There was tension around Karl's eyes, despite his smile. "The bond of the twin, my friend."
He groaned softly. As if his brother didn't have enough to worry about. Then he realized exactly what Karl had said and glanced up in surprise. "He told you."
Karl nodded and handed him a cell phone. "Call him."
He did. Stephan answered almost immediately. "Are you okay?"
He scrubbed a hand across the raw edge of his face. Fresh blood mingled with old, and his hand came away smeared red. "Better than I look."
"You going to make it tonight?" Concern mingled with relief through Stephan's soft voice.
"Yes." He might feel half-dead, but come hell or high water, he'd drag himself to that meeting. He still had a poisoner to net and a brother to save.
"Good. You have a problem, though."
Only one? That would be something of a miracle. "What?"
"Ryan's skipped."
He swore softly, though in truth, he wasn't really surprised. The need to break loose, to find answers herself, had been very evident in her eyes earlier. He just hadn't thought she'd succeed in getting past SIU's security so easily.
"I'll find her. See you tonight."
He hung up and handed the phone back to Karl. "You took a risk, bringing Harvey in on this."
Karl shrugged. "I was with Stephan when he sensed you were in trouble. With the poisoner obviously being someone close to home, he didn't want to trust your safety to just anyone. So I came."
He rubbed his ribs. Christ, it hurt to breathe. "And Harvey?"
Karl handed him two tablets. "Painkillers." Once Gabriel had swallowed them, Karl added, "Harv was in town signing up for extra university courses, and I was supposed to pick him up and bring him home once I'd finished with Stephan. He's been itching to get into some action for a while now, and this was safer than some of our operations."
True. Lord only knew how many had gone sour recently — which again, pointed to someone close to home. But which of the three?
"You going to take those four back to Federation headquarters?" He indicated the prone forms on the road.
"Yeah, but not before I look after these wounds of yours."
Karl began swabbing the blood away from Gabriel's face. He grimaced and pushed his friend's hand away. "I'm fine. Really."
"Yeah, right," Karl said, voice dry. "Doesn't mean a thing that you look like a pin cushion that's born the brunt of too many pins."
"You're exaggerating again, my friend. No one could look that bad." Even though he certainly felt that bad.
Karl smile. "Maybe I should get a mirror. Or maybe I should just leave you alone and let Stephan take care of you tonight."
He raised an eyebrow. "That a threat?" If it was, it was a damn good one, because if he looked as bad as Karl was suggesting, Stephan would ban him from field operations. He'd threatened it more than once already, particularly after Mathew, their youngest sibling, had been killed a year ago.