"D'you know where Christmas and Erin went?" Hale asked the moment Ross walked into the garage.
"Back to her place," he answered. "Why?"
"I bought her Chinese food." Hale glanced down at the extra boxes of Chinese food, grinned. "More for me, then."
Ross chuckled, shook his head. Tool popped his head into the garage, waved to Ross. "I'll be out in a minute," he said. "Got one more tat to do, then I'm done for the night."
Ross nodded. He fished his cell phone out of his pocket, dialed Christmas's number. "Don't eat Erin's food just yet," he told Hale. "Let's see if she's still hungry or not."
Hale threw his hands up, pouted. "Really? I was looking forward to the sweet and sour chicken!"
"You should've bought some for yourself." Ross tapped the gas tank of the nearest motorcycle, the phone still ringing. "Answer the phone, Christmas," he muttered, rapped his knuckles against the tank.
"You've reached Lee Christmas. Can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message."
Ross frowned, re-dialed. The phone rang – once, twice, three times.
"You've reached Lee Christmas. Can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message."
"What? Not picking up?" Hale asked around a mouthful of rice. He forced himself to swallow. "Maybe he doesn't want to talk to you."
"If he doesn't pick up," Ross growled, re-dialing a third time, "he's gonna wish he never talked to me."
Hale set down the Chinese food. "D'you want me to call everyone?"
"Didn't Gunner crash on the couch?"
Hale nodded. "I'll go wake him up."
"You've reached Lee Christmas. Can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message."
"Fuck." Ross re-dialed a fourth time, dread creeping into his stomach.
"What have I told you 'bout waking me up?" Gunner cried, his voice booming through the whole garage. He stumbled out from the back, crashed into everything in his path. "Can't a guy get some sleep? I haven't been out of rehab that long, buddy. I've still got some crazy in me!"
Hale sat back down with his Chinese food, rolling his eyes. "Boss's orders. Sorry."
Gunner rubbed his eyes, staggered over to Ross. "What the fuck is so important that you had to wake me up?"
"You've reached Lee Christmas. Can't come to the – "
Ross hung up. "Lee isn't answering his phone. Something's wrong."
"Yeah, he doesn't want to fucking talk to you." Gunner migrated over to Hale, the smell of the food drawing his attention. "He's probably over at Lacy's house."
"He's with Erin," Ross snapped, calling Christmas one more time.
"Then he's fucking her." Gunner stopped, dead in his tracks. "Wait, that didn't come out right."
Hale shook his head, laughed. "What? Drunk on sleep?"
"Fuck off." Gunner snatched up one of the boxes.
"Hey, that's Erin's. She might chop your balls off if you eat it."
After a moment's thought, Gunner set the food down, snatched up one of the boxes Hale had opened. Hale frowned, reached for his chopsticks, intent on stabbing the fuck out of Gunner's hand. Ross waved the two into silence, brow furrowed, concern etched deep into his features. Gunner jerked a thumb in his direction, received a shrug from Hale. In between bites of noodles, Hale called up Toll Road and Yang, keeping his voice quiet as Ross paced back and forth. Although unease crept down both Hale and Gunner's spines, they stuffed their faces, distracting themselves from the feelings of dread.
"If he doesn't answer," Ross stated quietly, "we're heading over to Erin's place."
The garage door rolled open, flooding the place with cold air. The three Expendables leapt to their feet, reached for the nearest weapons. Christmas stumbled inside, bleeding, groaning. Ross dropped the phone, rushed to the merc's side. Lee collapsed against him, was nearly dropped to the floor. Gunner snatched up his legs, hauled him to the nearest couch. Gun in hand, Hale surveyed the outside world before shutting the garage door and hurrying over to the other mercs.
Christmas spluttered, coughed, gripped Ross's hands like a woman in labor. Blood crusted his white shirt, his jacket, ran down the left side of his face. The split in his skin measured two inches long, half an inch wide, cut down almost to the bone. A livid black and yellow bruise had already started to form around the wound. Upon further inspection, Ross realized that the merc's knives had been taken from him, including the knife in his boot.
"Christ, you look like shit," Gunner stated, reached out to touch Christmas's face. The Brit knocked aside his hand, winced.
"What happened?" Ross snapped his fingers in front of Christmas's face, caught his attention. "Where's Erin?"
"They took her," Lee spat out, his breathing heavy as he fought off waves of pain. "They ambushed us and took her."
The other mercs stiffened. Hale gripped the edge of the couch to death, knuckles snow-white. Toll Road and Yang entered from the other door, laughing and joking. Gunner stood up, his face silencing the other two mercs. Seeing Christmas sprawled out on the couch, they rushed over, questions rolling from their tongues. Ross waved them off.
"Who were they?" he asked, a bit more forceful than he should have.
Christmas gritted his teeth, pain still shooting up from his groin. "I don't know. They knew what they were doing, though."
"How could you let them ambush you?" Toll Road cried, stormed away from the couch. "What a rookie mistake – and I'm the rookie!"
"Save it, Toll Road!" Gunner yelled, stood to his feet again, towering over the ex-wrestler.
"Calm down," Yang intervened, standing between the two men. "Anger isn't going to get us anywhere."
"Oh, bullshit, Yang," Hale snapped. "Preach about your fucking peaceful crap to someone else. We're talking Erin here!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Christmas's voice boomed around the garage. "You're not helping my fucking headache!" He turned his head to Ross. "I don't know what happened to Erin. All I know is they took her. She might've been shot; I heard a gunshot before the lights went out. Bastard took me out like I was nothing. I swear, he was as tall as Gunner and built like Hale. I didn't have a fucking chance."
"What the fuck do we do now?" Gunner asked. "We don't know who the fuck took her."
"I'll bet it's that CIA asshole." Toll Road kicked aside an empty can of gasoline, hands clenched into fists. "Find him, and we find Erin."
"We don't know who he is," Yang pointed out. "Our search hasn't led us anywhere."
Ross, who hadn't spoken a word since the first initial questions, finally spoke, his voice drawing everybody into silence.
"I think it's time we paid Mr. Church a visit."