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Roper hurried out of the tent and toward the hole in the fence. He should've known something would go wrong. Part of him hadn't wanted to extend the invitation to Corky after that shit he'd pulled on the cruise but he also hadn't wanted to bring Jed alone since she wouldn't've been safe without him or Pine. He just hadn't thought it would happen so quickly. Fucking Hell. God damned Corky, if he couldn't fuck a bloke then he had to go and fight him instead.
Ducking through the hole, he found Corky, who was being pinned by Pine, wrenching an arm free to hit Pine in the face. "Jesus. Corky, goddammit, stop it."
"I was right, Chief, he is a fucking plant. I fucking saw him trying to slink back through that hole!"
Angrily, he strode to glare down at Corky. "Of course, you saw him slink back, you little queer, you can't keep your eyes in your head when he's around. At least Jonathan's doing what he's supposed to as a reverse mole. Now, keep your bloody hands to yourself before I have them chopped off. Are you all right otherwise, Jonathan?!"
Pine looked pale and drawn. "Well, Richard, seeing how he shot me, I've been better."
"He what?! Which one of these fuckwits let him have a gun? I expressly forbade it." Of course he had to give the guards one priority job - Corky, yes, Corky and guns, no - and they'd still managed to fuck it up. Depending on where Corky'd hit Pine, he could be fine after a few hours in hospital or dead. God knew that if Pine died he was going to fucking kill Corky. They'd see how much Corky liked something being shoved up his arse when it was white-hot.
For possibly the first time in his life, Corky took responsibility for something. "It was mine actually. I had Jed hide it under her book so they wouldn't see. What'd you mean he's a reverse mole?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like. Pine was on Burr's side, now he's on ours and pretending to still be on hers. I can't say I'm surprised you ended up dragging Jed into this bullshit. You've always been too attached to her." He shook his head and called two of the others to secure Corky in a tent the opposite side of camp from Pine.
Thanks to Corky's impatience, he'd either have to delay the meeting in the hope that Pine recovered, which that filthy rat Burghatti would likely see as an insult, pretend everything was okay and further risk Pine or loose the ultimate insult by having Corky replace Pine as the middleman. Just three days ago he'd been having one of the best days of his life - sex with Jed and Pine, separately, of course - and now, to pardon the pun, it'd come to this.
The bullshit he had to put up with to make a little extra money. Burr should've been grateful that she didn't have to put up with it. He took Pine back to the jet, there was no way that Haven's tiny infirmary could deal with a gunshot to the stomach. Not to mention that if were to end up being deadly that Pine deserved far better than dying in fucking rat country. No, if Pine died they wouldn't be able to have a proper funeral but Pine as Birch still deserved that respect, damn it.
Roper pulled his blood-stained hands from Pine's wound and unrolled a bit of gauze that somebody'd put on the table. He hated how Pine flinched when he pressed it against the wound, it made him feel guilty. Guilt didn't make anyone money, guilt was for weaklings.
He scowled out the window.
Now everything was fucked because Corky couldn't deal with not getting a fuck.