Chapter 13
Luna
I’m in a fucking panic right now. I could ask Damion to lend me the money, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to do that. I just got the job, I can’t ask for more.
Kim has been stuck up my ass since they were taken, and I want to snap her stupid little neck.
“Looks like it’s going to be a girls’ night,” she says.
“What’s that mean?”
“It means we get our guys back in any way we have to. We need money.”
“And?”
“And don’t be stupid, Luna. You’re going to go out there and whore yourself out just like I am.”
“No, the fuck I’m not. I’m not a whore. I’m not fucking anyone for money,” I tell her. She must have lost her mind if she thinks I’m going to earn a fucking dollar like that.
“Where else are we going to get money?” she snaps at me.
“I’ll figure it out,” I tell her as I try to think of something, anything I can do.
“There’s nothing else, Luna! Don’t you get that? We do what we have to do out here to survive and keep our crew together,” she yells at me, throwing her arms out to the sides.
“I’m not crew.” I remind her.
“Then get the fuck off this block. You don’t need to be here,” she snarls, giving me a shove. I’m about to beat her ass when another idea hits me. This isn’t my smartest move, and it’s probably something I’ll never forgive myself for, but it’s worth it. He’s worth it.
“I have an idea. Watch Davey.”
“He’s not my brother!”
“You want them back or not? Watch Davey for me!” I yell back at her. I hear her huff out a breath, but I don’t really care. I take off jogging until I get to the house. I don’t even know if he’ll open the fucking door for me, but it’s worth a try.
I walk up the steps as I try and catch my breath from the jog over here. Raising my hand, I knock and pray for the best. A few seconds linger before the door opens, and the man eyes me up and down.
“I need to talk to him,” I tell him. He laughs and tries to slam the door shut, but I don’t let him. I block it. “I mean it. It’s serious!”
“Get the fuck out of here. This isn’t the place for little girls,” the man snaps at me.
“Fuck you. Come outside and I’ll show you a little girl, you piece of shit!” I scream at him. I know I can fight, and he isn’t very big. I’m banking on the fact that he’s smaller and I can take him, but he never comes outside. Instead, Pete steps into the doorway, looking between the two of us.
“What do you want?”
“I want that job. I know I can do. I can do it tonight,” I tell him.
“You crew now?”
“No.”
“Then fuck off.”
“You know where I live, Pete! You know where I hang out. Come on. I need the money.”
“What for?” he asks, eyeing me up and down once more.
“Raven crew is in jail.” He chuckles.
“Let me get this right. You’re willing to put your own ass on the line for a crew who isn’t even yours?” Now he says it like that, it doesn’t sound so great, but it isn’t the whole crew I’m doing this for. “Ahh, there it is. You’re doing it for Marco.” I nod my head this time.
“Yeah. He’s helped me before; I need to help him.” Pete moves to the side and allows me to come in, throwing his arm around my shoulder as he walks us toward the back of the house.
“You’re crazy, you know that?”
“No. I know when people have my back that I need to have theirs too.”
“You ever killed anyone, Luna?” he asks, and I’m a little shocked he knew my name. But why wouldn’t he?
“No.”
“And you think blowing up a house of people isn’t going to rip you apart?” He looks over and down at me now before he pulls his arm away from me. “Listen, I get it. I can loan you money, but I can’t give you the job.”
“I don’t want a loan that I can’t pay back, Pete. Please. I can do this.”
He seems to be thinking about it. He drops down into his chair and sits back, just staring at me.
“Tonight? You can do it tonight?”
“If there’s a way in, yeah.”
“They’re having a party. Mainly their crew. I’m a bad man, Luna. A very bad man, but I don’t condone rape, nor do I want that shit in my neighborhoods. Add to that, they’re kids?” he shakes his head. “We don’t touch kids.”
“I agree.”
“If there’s a kid in there, it’s on you to get them out,” he adds, nodding at me. Fuck! Why didn’t I think of that? I’m going to go in and feel it out before I can do anything.
“I can do it,” I tell him.
“I’ll give you everything you need in a backpack to blow that place to hell. You wire it up exactly how I tell you, and then you meet me on the rooftop over on eight. You got that?” I nod my head.
“I got it,” Pete calls a few more people into the room to start getting things together as he explains to me exactly how he wants me to do it and how to blind in.
It shouldn’t be that hard. I’ve never met any of those people, and they sure as hell haven’t seen me that I know of. I keep to myself mostly.
“Alright, then. This is all on you, Luna. You fuck this up, I’m going after Marco.” His words are meant to scare me, and they do. I don’t want anything to happen to Marco because of me. He doesn’t even know I’m doing this, and I’m pretty sure if he did, he would be pissed and try to stop me.
I grab the backpack and hoist it over my shoulder before walking out of Pete’s house. I take a deep breath and start the walk over to the building.
Once I arrive, I go in smiling like I belong there. There are a lot of people, but like Pete said, they’re mainly crew. I can see the tattoos on them.
I move through the house basically undetected and set shit up just as Pete and his guys told me to.
When I’m finished, I’m back out of there in less than an hour.
I made sure to check every single spot I could think of to ensure there weren’t any kids in there, and I thank God when I didn’t find any.
I jog over to the building Pete told me to meet him at and up the fire escape to the roof, when I see him standing there waiting for me. He had to have been watching for me.
“That was fast. You sure you got it right?”
“I got it right.” Dropping the now empty backpack onto the roof, I move to stand next to Pete.
He passes me a switch, and I’m not sure whether to take it.
This is it. This is when I kill someone.
You would think the reality of it all would hit me harder than it is, but all I can see is Marco’s face when they shoved him into the back of that car.
My chest rises and falls rapidly as I look at the switch in his hand, my insides trembling as I think about what I’m about to do.
“It’s not going to flip itself,” he says. I reach for it slowly, taking it in my hand before laying it flat against my palm.
I blow out a breath and whisper the words, God forgive me.
Then I do it.
I flip the switch and close my eyes as the explosion rocks the neighborhood. Pete and his guys roar before he grabs me and forces me to look. He grabs my chin in his hand and holds tightly.
“Hope your little boyfriend is worth it,” he says as I watch the flames lick the sky. Tears slip down my cheeks as realization slams into me, and I bend over, throwing up. My stomach trembles and my insides shake.
Pete thrusts another bag into my hands, and that’s when I leave. He doesn’t need me here to celebrate this shit with him, and I don’t want to be here any more than I have to be.
I climb down the fire escape, and I run. And I don’t stop running. I don’t know how I do it. I don’t know how I made it to Damion’s, but here I am.
I step into the elevator and press the button for his floor as sobs shake my body.
When it stops, I walk out and knock on his door.
When a girl opens it, I deflate. I open my mouth, but words don’t come out.
So I shake my head and turn, walking back to the elevator.
I’ve never felt so stupid, so lost, so alone in my life. What did I do? What the fuck did I do?
“Luna?” I hear Damion behind me. “Luna, stop.”
“I need to go,” I say through the sobs.
“It’s not what you think, Luna. She works for me, too. She’s just here to pick up a new laptop.” My shoulders slump because why should I care? Why does that bother me so much? It’s not about the girl being here. It’s about Marco. What I did to him. What I’m doing for him.
Damion’s hands come to rest on my shoulder, and I immediately spin around and grab onto him. He pulls me in and holds me there as I cry hysterically into his shirt.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know what to do, Damion. I shouldn’t have done it, but he needs me, and I did it anyway. What am I doing?” I cry harder as he holds me. At some point, he lifts me off the ground and carries me into his apartment, sending the other girl away.
“I shouldn’t be here. I didn’t know where to go, though.”
“Luna, what happened?”
“They took him to jail. They took all of them to jail. I had to do something, right? I had to help get them back out.”
“What did you do?”
“I can’t tell you that. You’d hate me. You would fire me. You would … would look at me differently. Oh my God, Damion! What did I do?” I’m fucking hysterical at this point, and I know it.
“Listen to me. We’re going to figure this out, okay? I need his name, Luna. I can get someone to go get him.”
“I have the money. I have all the money,” I tell him quickly as I take off the backpack and shove it in his hands. I don’t want it in mine anymore. I don’t want to touch it. I don’t want to see it. I want nothing else to do with that money.
“His name, Luna. I need his name.”
“Marco Vasquez.”