33. Theo #2
“You had a new stage installed earlier last year,” Ben answers.
“Scotch was always bitching, complaining what you had was like an afterthought.” He turns to Kane.
“That’s what Scotch kept saying; that the club wasn’t built for a band, so the stage was an afterthought.
An add-on. The Rollers finally had a new stage installed last year, and now the club layout has changed a bit. ”
“She’s by the stage,” Aiden repeats. “She’s telling us where she is. Bottom level, to the left when you come in the main doors.”
“She’s speaking, and she’s lucid enough to tip us off.” Kane slaps a hand onto Aiden’s shoulder. “She’s unharmed, and she’s ready to tear him apart. Let’s move.”
“There’s an entrance beneath the stage.” Ben stops every man in his steps when he turns to Aiden.
“The stage has storage beneath for the band’s equipment, but the bottom doors only open so far.
There’s a tiny crawl space that leads straight into the club.
It’s separate from the other storage doors. ”
Aiden’s nostrils flare. “I will kill you, Conner. I will murder you if you snuck my baby into that club.”
“I didn’t!” he stammers. “I stopped her from going in. I locked it up from the outside and never gave her the key. We fought about it.” His eyes wheel from one set of eyes to the next.
“We fought, because she thought she was clever for making that space, but I padlocked it up and refused to give her the key. She keeps trying to challenge me for it. She’ll make bets or whatever.
If she wins, I pay her. If she loses, she pays me.
She was super mad when I locked the space, so I said if she can win enough to save five grand, I would give her the key. ”
“This is why you refuse to let her win her circuits,” Aiden murmurs. “You refuse to let her win.”
“No,” he snarls. “I refuse to let her party in a club that started as a drug cartel. She’s only sixteen. When she’s old enough to party, I’ll take her, I’ll keep her safe. But she won’t be going a day sooner. And she especially won’t be doing it while crawling on the damn floor to sneak in.”
“Where’s the door?”
Ben turns to Kane. “South side of the building. About halfway along, it’s just the crawl space dudes use to check for pests and stuff. The tunnel splits off from there and straight into the club. It ends under the stage.”
“Is it locked inside the club?”
“Nope. Just outside. If she got in there, she could crawl to the door, but she’d be stuck under the club, because it’s locked from the outside.”
“We’re gonna talk about this.” Aiden smacks Ben’s shoulder, but then he pulls him along and begins the stampede of us all piling out of the building and into cars.
My hand flexes and tingles with need. I’m supposed to be holding Libby’s hand.
She’s supposed to be right here with me, but instead I’m running with Soph and hoping our brains are enough.
The woman I thought was a bimbo so long ago is my intellectual match, while Jay stays with Kane and rounds out our party as they watch our backs.
As a group, the four of us jump into one car and speed out of the lot behind Alex’s cruiser and Aiden’s truck.
“He’s leading us into a trap,” Jay says calmly. “We know this. He wouldn’t tell us where to go unless he had something waiting.”
“And we’re doing exactly as he asked,” Kane agrees. “Three Bishops in one car. He didn’t ask for Spence or Soph or the chief. He asked for us.”
“I’m not leaving Soph behind,” Jay says. “We’re not separating. And Kane stays on my wing always. We end it today, and none of us can function if we don’t know the others are safe.”
“I’m staying with Griffin,” Soph says. She meets Jay’s fiery eyes when they snap up. “We need to stay strong, and Griffin and I are strongest as a team. You stay with me too, but where he goes, I go.”
“Sophia…”
“Work to our strengths, babe. You and Kane follow our six and keep us out of Dunne’s scope, but then you let us work.”
“It works.” Kane tears the car around a corner behind Alex and snatches up his cell as he goes. Dialing, he waits only one ring before Alex picks up.
“Yeah?”
“You need to pair up with the muscle. Spence and Romeo will get you where you need to go. Trust them to fuck shit up and make it right.”
“Okay. And you?”
“We’re what he wants. We’re the kids of the fallen.
Me, Jay, and Griffin. And Soph’s staying with us.
Griffin is going straight for the chick cop, which means we’re heading straight for the girl too.
Cars are loaded up; let Spence set up how he wants to set up.
You won’t find a more trustworthy brother. ”
“I don’t know him, Bishop. I don’t know half of the people with us.”
“I know him,” he murmurs. “It’s time to trust. I only associate with the best. That’s why I’ve kept you around.”
“Bishop…”
“ Trust. You go with them and coordinate the layout. You know the club better than they do. Help them. Do it quietly, and get that door open in case the girl decides to crawl.”
“And you?”
Kane’s eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. “We’re going straight through the front doors. It’s what he wants. It’s what he’s expecting, and he has no clue we have so many men. Turn your sirens off. He doesn’t need to know we have more.”
“Too late.” Alex’s voice catches as he tears his car around a turn and skids onto the sidewalk out front of the club. “He would have heard us the second we left the station.”
“Okay. Stay sharp. Dude knows computers. He knows security and whatever Griffin taught him.”
“He knows explosives.” It’s a quiet admission, a confession of guilt as three sets of eyes come back to me. “ Roar Munitions is a Griffin subsidiary. We’re contracted to supply the military.”
“You make bombs?” Sophia screeches. “You’re… but… Roar has no ties to Griffin!”
“Well… they’re hidden,” I admit. “I worked harder on that connect than I did on others. We’ve been working on this arm of manufacturing for about seven years. Olly eagerly followed me around while I worked.”
“Fuck. Okay.” Alex audibly rubs a hand over his face. “I don’t know how to handle this. How big a blast radius are we talking?”
Every pair of eyes come back to me.
“Uh… there’s no safe zone if he’s gone big. Not for this town, or the next two. If he’s going small, then it could be contained to literally a square foot and still kill the person in that foot of space. I won’t know until I see.”
“I’m definitely with Griffin,” Soph murmurs. She snaps her laptop closed and shoves it to the floor. “This isn’t one of those things where we snatch it and dump it in the lake to muffle the blast, is it?” she asks hopefully.
“No. This isn’t gonna be like that.”
“I’ll be with you. Jay can watch our six.”
“And I’ll watch over all of you,” Kane says. “I’ll make sure you have space to take care of your shit. We don’t fuck this up. We only get one life, one chance. There’s no reset.”
He cuts the engine beside Alex’s cruiser and feels the same thing I do.
I know tingles race down his spine, because we’re all already dead if Olly has explosives and decides to use them.
There’s no running from this. There’s no hiding.
Olly holds the entire town in his hands, and it can all be wiped out if he decides he’s done.
“I think it might be a suicide mission.” I grab Soph’s arm as she turns to slide out of the car. “He can’t expect to survive this. Either he’s here, and he’s not expecting to survive, or he’s away, and he’s gonna remote activate, in which case, we’re already dead.”
“Ever been dead before, Griffin?” Jay turns and meets my eyes.
“Because I have. When you work while dead, it’s like all the free lives in your favorite Super Mario game.
It’s like you ran into that titanium mushroom where you turn silver and you can run through all the bad shit, and none of it can hurt you.
That’s what this is like. If we’re already dead, then we have nothing to lose.
If we’re already dead, then we can take risks we wouldn’t normally, because fuck , there’s no fear of death if you’re already dead.
Take risks, do this up right, and make sure my girl lives.
I’m gonna marry her soon, so if you deliver her in one piece, you can attend.
Like… sit in the back. You don’t get to speak or anything. ”
Soph laughs and, leaning forward, grabs his face with a rough hand and gives him one fast kiss. “There it is, I guess. The proposal of the century. Don’t die, and we’ll tie the knot.”
“You got it, Sugar Plum. Let’s move.”