Page 94 of Reset

It was the other boy’s turn to pee himself.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The teenagers called themselves Le Chat and La Fosse because they were sixteen and thought they were cool. Dimitri thought they were headed to prison, probably sooner than they expected.

The boys led them to a hospital, not far from the street market where they’d found them. The complex was a mixture of old and new buildings, with the newer ones in worse condition than the older.

“Where’s the entrance?” Callum asked from the driver’s seat.

The teens were wedged between Dimitri and Megan in the back seat. Dimitri would have rather they’d ridden in the boot, but he’d been outvoted. The back seat was cramped, and it smelled. But not as badly as it could have done. The boys each had spare pants in their backpacks, and Dimitri had ensured they changed before getting in the car.

“It is in the bottom of the old car park,” Le Chat, the slightly more cooperative of the pair, said. “Behind the eye hospital.”

“Is it a public parking garage?” Callum asked as he stopped at the entry barrier for a ticket.

“Oui, I think so. We usually do not have a car.”

Callum drove them into the right building, then spiraled downward into the basement parking level. The space was everything you’d expect from an old car park: bad lighting, cramped, and dirty.

“Where?” Callum barked again.

“You see the garbage containers? Over there.” The boy pointed to the huge wheelie bins, several of which were lined up in a row on the far wall.

“It’s always rubbish,” Megan complained. “This is a hospital. Couldn’t the entrance have been through a nice sterile room?” She stroked her favorite leather biker jacket. “Now it’s going to smell like medical waste.”

His wife had her own priorities. “You could leave it in the car,” he pointed out.

Her smile was blinding. “You’re a genius.”

As she shrugged out of her jacket, La Fosse leered at her cleavage, angling himself ready to grope when the car slid to a halt. His moves weren’t even covert. He was too busy drooling to put the effort in.

Dimitri knew there was no need to deal with the boy. Megan could look after herself. And she did. With one quick move, and two fingers, she poked La Fosse’s eyes in the best Stooges impersonation Dimitri had seen in a while. The kid howled as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“You ogle me, touch me, or generally pant after me one more time,” Megan said sweetly, “and I start tearing off body parts. Got me?”

There was much nodding and apologizing through the sobs.

Man, he loved his wife.

“You two are a delight,” Megan said with disgust. “You perv on women, steal stuff, lie, and abandon people who’re lost and alone. People who might die without help. I’m wondering if it’s worth leaving you alive at the end of this. Seems to me you don’t have anything of worth to add to society.”

The boys started to protest, but she held up a hand. “One more word, and my gun comes out. I’m so pissed with both of you that I can hardly keep my hands off it.”

There was silence. During which Lake turned to the back seat and smiled at Megan. Not a lip twitch, a full-out smile. Dimitri’s chest puffed with pride.

After they’d piled out of the car, Le Chat told them to move one of the bins. When they did, it revealed an old manhole cover.

“We go down there,” he pointed.

“Of course, we do.” Megan glared at him, making him squirm.

As the teens removed the cover, Callum nodded to his team. “I’ll stay up here and coordinate.”

“You won’t slow us down,” Dimitri said, “if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasnae. But the prosthetics will make it hard going and we need someone to run things up here.”

There’d been a time when Callum didn’t even mention his prosthetics, let alone the impact they had on him and the team. If Ryan had been there, he would have faked tears, patted Callum on the back, and told him he was proud that his boss had finally grown up. Man, he missed Ryan.