Chapter 24 Chloe
TWENTY-FOUR
CHLOE
West stood and made his way to the door. “Try to keep yourself distracted, and we’ll be home before you know it.”
He slipped out into the hallway, and I scrambled off the bed.
If that man thought he was leaving me behind when I knew they’d need proof inside and out of everything that was about to happen, he was sorely mistaken.
I heard him striding down the hallway, walking with purpose while I scrambled to get everything I needed.
And after I checked to make sure my own cell phone was charged enough, I pulled up my camera.
Before toggling it to video.
“Now, where do you think you’re going?”
Lexi’s voice sounded the second I stepped out into the hallway.
I looked over at her and begged her with my eyes, but she simply folded her arms across her chest. She moved to stand in between me and the hallway that stretched all the way to the front door, and I knew I’d have to be honest with her.
“Lexi, don’t,” I said.
She tilted her head off to the side. “Frost figured you might try to go with them.”
“They need video proof. Someone has to be with them.”
“Then go tell them that and let someone else take the video. You aren’t alone anymore. You’ve got a family now. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
Her words struck deep, but they also didn’t matter. “If you don’t move, I’ll move you myself. Now, please, I love you, but get the hell out of my way.”
She took a step toward me. “Do you know what’s going to happen to me if I lose you? What’s going to happen to Natty if you die? Do you really want to risk that for a fucking video that someone else could take?”
“I love him, Lexi.”
Her face fell. “What?”
I swallowed hard. “I love West. I’m in love with West. And I’m not letting him do this alone. I have to go, okay? I’m sorry.”
I shoved past her, practically knocking her off her feet.
Bikes struck up as an engine turned over, and I knew I had to be quick about things.
I sprinted toward the living room that housed the one window that looked out toward the front of the property, and as the guys eased away from the warehouse, I saw it.
I saw that black car hidden in the shade of the trees.
“Bingo,” I whispered.
I sprinted for the car and tried to remember what I had seen West do in order to get the engine to start.
It took me much longer than I would have enjoyed getting that damned engine to turn over.
But once it finally roared to life, I threw it in reverse and tried to catch up with them.
The engine was loud. Louder than I wanted it to be.
But with the ground they had already gained on me—plus the fact that some of them were on bikes—the sound of the revving engine wasn’t noticeable.
I stayed at least six car lengths behind them, trying to conceal myself as much as possible.
And when we finally got to the abandoned warehouse, I drove by it so that I didn’t look too conspicuous.
“Now, to get myself hidden,” I murmured.
Four blocks up the highway there was a left-hand turn that I took.
I had to do some fancy maneuvering to get the car parked in between enough trees so that it was concealed from all angles.
Then I searched through the damned thing.
I had been in such a rush that I hadn’t stopped and thought about grabbing myself a weapon.
But this was the luxury car of a fucking drug dealer.
He had something in this damned thing somewhere.
And once I popped the trunk, a smile crossed my face.
“Jackpot,” I murmured.
There were shotguns and semi-automatics.
Pistols and hand grenades. I shoved a couple of grenades into my pockets before sliding the pistol behind my back.
I tucked it into my jeans and filled my back pockets with ammunition for it.
Then, I grabbed the pump shotgun and checked to make sure it had a couple of rounds in it.
Before I grabbed a handful of them and started through the woods.
“Well, well, well,” Carlos’s voice said in the distance. “Nice to see you all. West, good to see you again.”
I silenced myself as much as possible and ducked behind a tree trunk. I set the shotgun down and pulled out my phone, zooming in as much as I could before I pressed record. I picked up the shotgun and crept a bit closer so that the audio didn’t sound so fucking far away.
And with every second that passed by with me undetected, the smile on my face grew.
That’s it, keep talking yourself into a fucking hole, asswipe.
The footage was so clear and so damn good that I almost shat myself.
I got everything, and I mean everything, about that transaction.
His pseudo-admission about being an informant.
His complete admission about using the FBI for his own nefarious desires.
Him commanding his men to fire the first shot.
And the second that first bullet popped off, all hell broke loose.
“Fall back! Fall back!” Stone roared.
The last shot on the video was Carlos in pursuit of Stone with a gun thrust out in front of him.
It was a glorious shot before I cut the video altogether, then I stuffed my cell phone into my bra.
I pulled one of the grenades out of my pocket and pulled the pin.
I tossed it into the middle of the crowd of cartel men gathering to help out their leader.
And after ducking behind the tree, I plugged my ears as much as possible.
Before the bombastic explosion shook the fucking ground we all stood on.
“What the fuck was that?” West roared.
I giggled to myself as I pulled out the second grenade and pulled the pin. I watched as a few men turned their heads in my direction, so the second I chucked it I picked up the shotgun and made a break for it. Bodies went flying. Men started screaming. Carlos was shrieking at the top of his lungs.
And with each body that dropped, I stopped to make sure it wasn’t West.
“Come on,” I grumbled, “I gotta get closer than this.”
Bullets fired off by the dozen and I managed to get close enough to one of Carlos’s goons with my shotgun.
I shot him right in the back with buck shot, dropping him to the ground as beads peppered his spinal cord.
I tried not to watch. I tried not to think too hard about the lives we were ruining because of our efforts.
This was life or death. Do or die. And God damn it, we’d all make it back to the warehouse.
“Come on, West,” I murmured as I searched the grounds, “where are you?”
“Stop!” Stone roared.
Everyone froze and I saw a man holding Carlos by his tie. A tall, slender man with salt-and-pepper hair held a gun to the man’s temple and I scrambled to get my phone out. I aimed the camera and pressed record, making an entirely separate video just in case the guys needed the encounter on camera.
And as everyone froze, the man that held Carlos was the first one to speak.
“Call off yer men,” he said with his thick accent.
Is he…Irish?
Carlos held up his hand and all of his men holstered their weapons. But I knew this shit wasn’t over yet. No one retreated, which meant the man had another ace up his sleeve. That much I knew for a fact.
“Don’t be stupid now,” I whispered to myself.
“God on High, I wish I could kill ye right now,” the slender man said, “but I kind of like the idea of making ye suffer just a little bit longer.”
Carlos chuckled. “You really think you can beat me at my own game?”
The Irishman raised his nose into the air. “The Banderas Cartel is now under my control, understood? The Lost Boys? The Celtic Riders? All of these men whose lives you’ve made a living hell? They’re now going to enforce if need be.”
Carlos barked with laughter. “And what makes you think I’m ever going to allow that to happen?”
I stopped the video because I knew we didn’t need any of it, and I was glad I did. Because the second Carlos questioned the man, the one I’d call “Irish” from now on held his gun out toward his first victim and shot one of the dealers point blank between his eyes.
“Miguel! No!” Carlos roared.
Irish pulled the man closer to his face.
“That is what will happen if ye don’t comply.
And every time ye refuse to comply, someone else in yer circle dies.
I’ll pluck ‘em off, one by one, just like ye tried doing with us. Until there’s no one left to torture except you, strung up to your legs and sliced open to bleed like pig.
I will kill you if you step out of line.
If you don’t listen to me. The entirety of the Fitzpatrick Mafia will come down on your head.
You think we play by your rules, Carlos?
I know about your daughter. The one you hide in the Maldives, away from this life. ”
Carlos stumbled over his words. “Th-th-there’s—there’s no way y-you—you're bluffing.”
Irish jammed the gun into the man’s gut. “Are you sure about that?”
And when Carlos didn’t respond, I knew we had it won.
“I will slaughter your entire family just so you have to watch them die,” the man growled, “and when every last one of them is dead, including your daughter, I’ll toss you into a jail cell so that every single day, all you have at your disposal are the memories of their blood spilling on the ground.
I run this cartel now, and if you don’t like it? There’s my proposal.”
He shoved the man to the ground and Carlos just stayed there. He waved his hand in the air, as if he were waving a white flag of defeat, and that was when Irish turned to the cartel’s goons.
“You all work for me now. What I say, goes. You guys want to earn a pay raise?”
The sea of cartel heads nodded.
“Great,” Irish said, “then clean up this fucking mess and get this asshole out of my sight.”
So, I figured it was safe enough for me to step out of the shadows.
“West!” I called out.
Every single one of those crew members turned their heads in shock as I trotted out of the woods clinging to that shotgun.
“West! Over here! Come look at this!”
His eyes widened as he scurried toward me. “What in the fucking hell are you doing out here? What in the world—what did I say—”
“Irish!” I exclaimed.
The man turned to face me and he held his arms out in the air. “Ah! It’s Chloe, right? Very nice to meet you,” he said as he walked up to me, “I don’t believe we’ve met yet. I’m Clancy Fitzpatrick.”
He offered his hand and I shook it. “Nice to finally meet you. Look what I got on camera.”
West’s wild eyes kept studying me. “Where the hell did you get the shotgun?”
I giggled. “They were in the trunk of Carlos’s car.”
Stone trotted up to us. “Were you the one chucking the grenades?”
I smiled at him. “Nice little touch, huh? I mean, they just went flying.”
Stone smiled at me for the very first time. “You’re resourceful. I like that.”
“Down, boy,” West said flatly.
But when Clancy played the video of Carlos admitting that he was an informant for the FBI, everyone stopped.
“You got that shit on video?” West said breathlessly.
I handed my shotgun to Stone. “Yep. We’ve got our blackmail.”
Clancy typed away before he handed me my phone. “I just sent myself that video from yer files. Store my number away. Call me if ye ever need it.”
“Hey, thanks. I appreciate that a lot,” I said as I tucked my phone away.
West cupped my cheeks. “You are, without a shadow of a doubt, the most infuriating, most annoying, most insane, most incredible, most amazing woman I’ve ever known.”
My smile grew so bright that it closed my eyes. “Love you too, West.”
And the kiss he slammed against my lips left me breathless as our teeth started clattering together.