Chapter 20 #2
The hearts are rather large and unstoppable as I bite my lip to keep myself from smiling. If any of the bad guys were to take this moment to look in and catch me, they would see a man grinning manically because of his first love.
So much so that when Grayson comes running in going, “They’re here!” I’m still smiling.
“What?” I ask.
“Let’s get out, quickly,” he says before rushing into the room where the others are. “Are you done? We need to move. They’re here.”
“Fuck, fuck,” Audrey says. “Just one minute.”
“Can you take the computer with you?” I ask.
“No, you know he’ll change everything if he thinks I’m able to get into it. Stall them for one minute.”
“Fuck,” I hiss, but I hurry back to the rear of the house where I see a dark car parked behind it. There’s a fence, but it’s mostly decorative and allows me to see them as they move between the panels.
I push the window open just enough to knock the screen out before lifting my gun.
I watch them until they decide to peek around the fence before pulling the trigger.
Honestly, I don’t want to shoot them, but I make sure the hit strikes the fence, driving them back and making them second-guess coming this way.
Grayson fires off another shot, forcing more back, but I know this isn’t going to fix everything.
“There are more coming this way,” Felix calls from the other side of the house. “Lane! Lane, I need you!”
I hear Lane rapidly moving across the house while I question if I should leave this area and rush over to assist. “Antonio, make her hurry it up! We’re being surrounded on two sides,” I shout.
“She claims she’s almost done.”
I hear a window break on the far side of the house, an area we hadn’t been able to watch, and decide that we have to call it.
Risking their lives isn’t worth this. “Let’s go.
Now,” I say, wondering if I should begin shooting them to protect those I care for, but what if they’re not all bad people?
What if they joined for the money? What if they joined because they had to?
I see someone running this way and I follow him with my gun as my indecision leads to hesitation. “Grayson…”
He pushes my gun down and shoots the man in the leg. The man falls forward before scrambling for cover with the rest of his team.
“We’re moving now,” Grayson barks.
“I’m done. I’m done,” Audrey says before she comes running out. She dashes right past us as we start after her.
Antonio slows enough to reach for Felix. “Let’s go!”
“Coming. Coming,” he says, tugging Lane after him.
I keep them in front of me, knowing that someone’s in the house and I need to protect my people.
I’m moving with my eyes focused behind me, waiting for them to come around the corner.
I’m so fixated on our rear that I don’t notice the explosion until Grayson tears me back as debris rains down on me and I feel a flash of heat rise up around me.
I shield myself while Grayson wraps his arms around me, protecting me as smoke billows and debris settles. My hand tightens on his shoulder when I look around him to the kitchen that is currently ablaze.
“What the fuck just happened?” I ask, watching the others rush away from the flames. Thankfully, no one seems to be hurt… but what the hell caused it?
“Audrey threw a lighter at the stove,” Felix says. “She must have turned on the gas when we were in here earlier. She’s gone.”
“Fucking hell,” Grayson mutters.
“She sent out the information, I watched her,” Antonio says. “I also had her send it to an email we can access as well. I don’t think she’s working for them if she gave us all of that. I know it was legit; I watched her.”
“We’ll talk about it later. We need to get out,” Lane urges.
“Right, right,” I say as I usher them toward a sliding glass door that leads out to a pool. I slide it open while I keep scanning everything I can. “We should never have come here. I should never have led you guys into this danger.”
“Cal, we all willingly came here. We decided to come here,” Felix says. “We’re here to save the lives of people who don’t deserve to die, right? It’s not like we came here just for fun.”
“Exactly,” Grayson agrees, beginning to guide me toward the fence when I see someone coming. The dog rushes to him, wagging his tail, appearing excited to see the person who must take care of him before the man yells something at the dog and hits him away with his gun.
Evidently, he’s pissed the dog didn’t eat us.
Felix’s entire body grows rigid as the dog growls at the man who points a gun at the canine. I shoot the gun out of the man’s hand before he can pull the trigger. He howls and falls back, and the dog looks over at us.
“Come here, baby. Come, come,” Felix calls.
Lane hooks him and shoots at some noise in front of us, and I see the men pull back for cover.
Rushing forward, I dart across the yard and over to the fence.
“They’re waiting for us to open the gate,” I say as I press my gun through a crack between the fence and the gate.
It doesn’t allow me much mobility, but when I shoot a man using his car for cover, just nicking his arm is enough to push him back.
I shift to a new target, but an explosion along the road seems to draw everyone’s attention.
“What the fuck was that?” Lane asks.
“Well… Audrey is a demolition expert,” Grayson says. “Maybe… maybe she’s trying to help us get out while protecting herself. Or maybe she’s just blowing up shit for herself.”
“Whatever it is, let’s go,” Lane urges. We hurry to the SUV, moving quickly across the yard before everyone but Antonio scrambles for the side door. When I see Felix hesitate, his eyes longingly looking back at the dog that seems listless, I hesitate.
No, this can’t pay him back for everything he’s done for me by opening up his life and drawing me into it, but it’s something.
I slip away, rushing back into the yard while Grayson is trying to shove people into the SUV or I’m positive he wouldn’t let me go. I grab the dog but he puts the brakes on, making me realize he’s wearing a collar to keep him in Allen’s yard.
“You better not maul me, you got it?” I ask.
“Cal, what the fuck are you doing?” Grayson yells.
The dog grumbles at me while I reach down and quickly pop the collar off. I hear someone behind me as I grab the dog’s regular collar and begin hauling him across the road, and Grayson lifts his gun and shoots at whoever is back there.
I heft the dog up and toss him into the SUV before Grayson slams the door shut and Antonio floors it. Felix’s eyes are in the shape of hearts as he reaches out to the confused dog. “B-Baby!”
“What is that?” Lane asks. “Who are you talking to? You only use that tone when you’re talking to a pet. You better be talking to one of your many pets already in this vehicle.”
“N-Nothing! There’s nothing here at all,” he says as the dog loudly pants, probably confused why his life has suddenly changed, but he does seem quite pleased by Felix’s ecstatic petting. He’s so thrilled, in fact, that his stub of a tail gives the smallest wag.
Copper and Trav aren’t sure what to think about this and Brigs just snorts and kicks in his sleep, having screamed himself to sleep at some point.
Grayson grabs me in a headlock as he crams me into my seat next to Traveler and buckles me in while Antonio gets us out of the area. Antonio is all smiles, thrilled as he flies through the city, even though Grayson is not happy.
“What the fuck was that?” Grayson snaps, voice sharp.
I avoid his eyes as Felix’s delight fills the car. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mutter.
“You put your life in danger for a dog.”
“No, for Felix. Not for the dog.”
“You… Cal…”
He still has me in this weird hold, so it’s rather hard to look at him, but when I manage to glance up at him, I can tell that he really is upset.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry,” I say. “I just… they clearly weren’t treating the dog well. You saw how they hit him because he didn’t eat us. Who knows what else they might’ve done to him?”
“I know that… but I still wish you wouldn’t have risked your life. What if the dog had bitten you? What if he had attacked, and then what would you have done?”
“I guess I would’ve gotten slightly mauled before, hopefully, hobbling back with at least three limbs.”
Grayson’s expression tells me that he’s really not finding it all that funny, so I reach over and squeeze his hand. He lifts his hand, and at first, I’m afraid he’s so mad at me that he’s pulling away, but when he pulls my hand up with it, I realize he’s lifting my fingers to his lips.
“Do not ever act that reckless again, you hear me?”
“I do.”
“Antonio, you said you’re sure Audrey sent the information out?” Felix asks.
“She did. I watched her. She also transferred money out of his account. She claimed it was so he couldn’t use it to move more product, but I’m pretty sure she just wanted to steal his money.
As long as someone we sent it to cares, the information should be out and in another’s hands.
We should be able to stay out of it now,” he says.
“Let’s head home. Hopefully the proof is enough to get Allen arrested. ”