Chapter 17 #3
“I mean it. Be careful. These guys aren’t like Hunter and Marco. They don’t play games for amusement, they wreak havoc instead. They will one hundred percent rape, torture, and kidnap you. Understand?”
“Text me when you know what's happening?” I asked, and he gave my hand a squeeze.
“Me or Skeet will be by to get Diesel later. We’ll fill you in then. Tell those rich pricks to stay home too, just in case.”
“Be careful.”
“Always, babe,” he smirked, stealing a quick kiss and pushing me out the door before Diesel could come and check on us.
Skeeter was coming out of the torture room again, still covered in blood but looking a little less pissed off at me. He glanced at the gun, seeming to realize whose it was, but he didn’t say anything.
“I can be ready soon,” he stated, and I shook my head.
“You stay. Diesel’s going to come with me so you and Slash can handle this. He can hang out at home with me and the guys until you guys are done,” I explained, and as much as he looked annoyed by being told what to do, he nodded.
“Get home safely.”
“We’ll text you when we get there,” I answered, hesitating before standing on tiptoe to kiss him, speaking against his lips. “Red is your color, Skeeter Maddox.”
He chuckled, managing to keep his bloodied hands to himself. “Go, before I drag you into that room and fuck you until you look the same.”
Heat sparked inside me, but I stepped away and moved in Diesel’s direction, finding him at the bar grabbing a gun.
I went to put mine down the back of my pants, and Diesel stopped me.
“Hold on to it until we’re safely in the car. Just in case,” he warned, and nerves filled me at knowing any time we were outside, we could be right in line of someone’s aim.
Diesel went outside first, only letting me follow once he knew it was clear, and we wasted no time getting into the car and out onto the road.
I drove while Diesel watched our surroundings, neither of us really talking until we reached my house. Putting the car in the garage was smart, so we agreed to do that and headed inside through the internal access, finding the guys in the den as we checked the house for intruders, just to be safe.
Caden took one look at the gun in my hand and his back went straight from where he stood at the bar, his eyes sliding to Diesel.
“What’s happened?”
“Nothing yet,” I answered carefully, not knowing how much to tell them.
Diesel pointed to the couch, eyeing me. “You stay here with them. I’ll finish sweeping the house.”
“There’s staff here, and Mom’s home. You can’t just enter rooms with your gun,” Caden scowled. “Why are you doing a sweep?”
“Soldiers are in town. Rory saw them today,” Diesel explained, giving me a dirty look when I didn’t move towards the couch.
“I’ll check with you so you don’t scare people. This might all be for nothing,” I said dryly, pulling my phone out to text both Slash and Skeeter to let them know we made it.
“If the Soldiers are here, something’s going to happen. On top of that, sometimes the Kings are right behind them. We can’t risk anything right now,” he said sharply.
“How can you check rooms when people are home?” Caden demanded, and after a second of thinking about it, I sighed.
“I’ll just tell Josie we’re doing a check.”
His eyes almost bugged out of his damn head. “Aurora, you can’t just tell Mom that Diesel’s sweeping the house for a potential crew war.”
“Why not? She saw them today too, and knew I was running off to tell the guys. At least if she sees Diesel making sure we’re safe—”
“She won’t feel safe. She’ll feel like we’re being targeted.”
“I like your mom,” I said with frustration, some of the anger simmering when I looked at him.
He was worried about her. “I’d rather freak her out with the truth right now, than lie.
Wouldn’t you rather she knew? What if she’s walking around alone and gets hurt because we didn’t tell her to be careful? ”
He stared at me, and all of us jumped when Josie’s voice came from the doorway.
“Would someone like to fill me in?” she asked dryly, her eyes widening when she noticed both Diesel and I had guns. “What are you doing with those?”
I told her everything that I could, knowing there was no point in hiding it, and she definitely seemed to calm down a little when we tucked the guns out of view.
Had Tristan ever held her at gun point? Did we trigger a bad memory?
“No one can get in here,” she finally said, making Diesel snort.
“I hate to break it to you, but yeah, they can. Anyone with good hacking skills can definitely get inside. It’s unlikely that you’re a target here, but because of Rory’s connection to us, we don’t want to risk it.
If we check the house, I’ll help organize a few things to help strengthen your security.
I’m good with computers, so I could set up some blocks for potential hackers. ”
She didn’t seem convinced, but I gave her a pleading look.
“Can you stay in here while we check? How many staff members are here?” I asked, wanting to make sure we knew who to look out for.
“Today there’s six. Karl and one of the girls are in the kitchen, the rest are upstairs cleaning. Rory, you can’t—”
“I can. I’ve been learning to shoot. I'm not terrible at close range.”
“I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to,” I said firmly, waiting for her to sigh as she sat on one of the couches, noticing Caden was pouring a whiskey. “Caden Holloway, it’s Sunday afternoon.”
We snuck out while she scolded him, and we checked all the rooms from top to bottom, making sure to be careful not to wave a gun in any of the staff's faces.
Diesel relaxed once we were done, glancing over at me as he tucked his gun down the back of his pants.
“I really don’t think they’ll be a problem here, but don’t rely on that assumption. If you think someone’s in the house that shouldn’t be, please don’t do this alone.”
“I said I’d call someone,” I replied, reaching out to pat his arm. He jerked back like I bit him, but I pretended not to notice. “Beer?”
“Beer,” he confirmed, following me back down to the den to the others, where we hung out until Slash came and picked him up, claiming to have zero information to tell us, then taking Skeeter’s jacket with them when they left.