by C. M. Owens
“I can’t tell if I should take you seriously or think you’re insane,” she mumbles at last, clearing her throat as she fans herself with her shirt. “And this box gets really hot. You should mention better ventilation to Snake if he’s so hell-bent on being complicated-kinky.”
I’m not sure why her cheeks are so flushed. It’s not all that hot in here.
The booth stops, and the door automatically opens.
“Is there a picture to purchase at the end of the ride?” she asks dryly, causing my lips to twitch.
“Stop smirking at me like that. You’re creeping me out a little with all your silent smirking.”
I shrug a careless shoulder and walk out, pulling on my cut as I go.
Running a hand through my disheveled hair to smooth it out, I dart a look up to the mirror as the strobe lights start pumping through the club.
Kara hurries closer to me when three men grab a screaming woman, pinning her down.
“Are they—”
“She’s wearing a blue collar. That means anything goes,” I tell her as she moves directly next to my side.
“I’m not wearing any sort of collar. What message does that send?” she asks over the music.
“It tells everyone I’ll shoot a motherfucker if they touch you,” I announce, distracted by the silhouette darkening the exit.
How the hell did this crazy bitch know where to find me? Does she track phones too? Fucking mafia chicks.
Sarah nods at me and turns to walk out, and I glance back and curse. Kara is crouched and angling her head, watching the trio of men enjoy the role-playing redhead.
“Coming?” I ask very loudly.
“No, but I think she is,” Kara answers with a furrowed brow and a widening part in her lips. “Oh wow. That’s a real thing! Did you see what they just made her do?”
Un-fucking-believable. It’s supposed to be a heady dose of seduction in this place. I had to work extremely damn hard to even get her to take it seriously. Now she’s back to simple intrigue and curious fascination.
Shoving through the door, deciding I need to up my game for the next round of getting her back to where we once were, but better, I glance over to see the villainous blonde with too many guns hanging off her person in plain sight.
“Robbed a bank on the way?” I guess.
“Nah, I have a guy who can hack accounts and shit if I need money. Bank robbing is too messy,” she states casually, popping the chamber of the gun she’s holding. “Herrin’s planning something big, but no one is sure what. He’s playing this really close to the vest, since you got his right-hand man and broke him like a cheap table.”
“Actually, Axle’s the one who did that. I just helped things along, because I apparently scare people,” I tell her as I prop up on the side of the building.
“I can relate,” she states idly, picking at a chipped nail. “Kara Caine happen to like my ex’s new playhouse?” she asks, annoyance in her tone.
“Are you mad he built a sex shop for voyeurism and exhibitionism alike? Or do you occasionally poke your head in to ensure he’s not physically partaking in such festivities?” I quip, shooting her a knowing look.
“Bitches know I’m crazy. The only girl who will touch him will be too dumb, easy, and shallow for him to even bother with,” she says a little snidely as she puffs out her chest.
“Yeah…because you’re so deep and thoughtful. That’s why you were a stripper—”
“Talk bad about those hardworking women because of their profession, and I’ll make three incisions of varying size, width, and depth on your dick,” she deadpans.
It’s the weirdest, most sincerely direct threat ever.
“Why did you stalk me? I thought we were meeting later,” I state in quick deflection.
Her eyes level mine. “Herrin knows your girlfriend is in town. Keep an eye on her, Rush. When he found out, they said he shot the messenger and every friend of said messenger, aside from one. And that’s only because I found out he existed before Herrin did, and I beat him to the kid. I sent him off with some money that will buy him and us some time, since Herrin will be seeking out that possible loose thread.”
I glance to the doors, idly noting Kara hasn’t come out yet.
Just as I start to go to them, they burst open, and Kara comes stalking out with wide, horrified eyes. “You’ll never believe what I just saw two people attempting to do. It was epic failure. Even the role-playing kidnapping group burst out laughing and soured their intensely dark erotic theme.”
I exhale harshly, and I turn my head back to find Sarah’s eyes twinkling in amusement. “I don’t see how she’s related to Herrin.”
“She used to be more relative. She’s a little out of practice,” I inform her.
“Sucks to have your job then,” Sarah says like she pities me.
“This is what I’ve been trying to explain, but Drex is a fucking idiot. You know that.”
“He’s not an idiot. He’s just a barbarian,” Sarah argues. “Barbarians are only good leaders if they’re paranoid. Eve’s helplessness has given him the fear he lacked, so he’s getting better. Just keep him reeled in, since Snake isn’t in the right headspace to do it.”
“You two haven’t dated or anything, have you?” Kara interjects.
I can’t help but smile. Mostly because she sounds jealous.
“No,” Sarah and I say in unison.
I try not to visibly shudder at the thought, because she may very well leave me with three incisions of varying height, width, and depth on my dick for that too.
Just as Kara starts to speak again, a telling series of pings rattle the building’s bulletproof exterior, and I hiss out a breath as I dive for Kara, ignoring the sting across my thigh.
Kara’s eyes are wide as she freezes, because she’s too fucking out of practice to react when bullets are fucking flying.
I dive on top of her, and I roll us under a car as the bullets rain harder, windows bursting all around.
“I think these are for me, but I could be wrong!” Sarah calls out from another car. “I pissed some people off earlier today, and not everyone knows who I am!”
“You need to send a fucking memo or some shit, because I’ll kill you myself if she dies because of you!” I shout back.
“Fair enough, but good luck with that. A great many man more skilled than you have tried and failed,” she says as she grins.
In the next instant, she rolls out from under the car, while I pull out my own gun and fire at the two I can from this angle.
“Who the hell is she?” Kara snaps.
“Someone I should probably be nicer to, but right now she’s pissing me off,” I bite out.
My bike is at the end, far away from the bullets, but too far to run while they’re raining. I hate waiting under the car like a bitch while Sarah cleans up the mess.
There’s an alarming amount of laughter, because Sarah does sometimes get giggly when killing things. More so lately than she used to.
“My bitch mother always said you can tell a person’s character just from their collection of friends. Never mind the fact that her friends were sucking dick for a fix in my bedroom floor,” I mumble more to Kara as Sarah makes a joyful squeal of delight around a series of screams and assault rifles.
“How far away are we from the nearest police presence?” Kara hisses.
“It’ll be over in a minute,” I assure her. “The police are staying out of all this shit. They don’t get paid enough to deal with crazy motherfuckers on this level. ATF is who you should be concerned with, because it’s just a matter of time before they quit letting this go on.”
“This sort of thing happen often these days? Because I don’t remember this level of fucking open warfare!” she hisses.
“Yeah, well, shit escalates quickly around here right now. Too much shit at one time,” I grind out.
It goes so silent so abruptly that I’m worried I’ve somehow gone deaf. If not for Kara’s quiet pants
, I’d be positive that’s what’s wrong.
“Is she alive?” Kara whispers as she darts a worried glance up at me, just as I look down.
I hear the whistling in the distance to the peppy tune of I Feel Pretty.
“Fucking crazy bitch,” I mutter as I finally start moving away from the car we’ve been halfway tucked under.
Kara’s eyes are covered, and I frown when I look down at her.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t want to see dead bodies if I can help it. I’m really out of practice, and this shit is seriously out of control. You can’t just drop a girl into a boiling pot of Halo water when she’s been out in the cold for so long.”
“You’re way too fragile,” I say on a groan as I scrub a hand over my face.
“Not fragile. I’m just not quite as desensitized as you, and I’d like to keep it that way. It took me a while to reach even this level of normalcy.”
“Why the fuck do you want to be normal?” I ask her very seriously.
“Both of you fit under there on top of each other?” Sarah asks, interrupting whatever Kara was going to say.
Idly, I notice people peering around the corners of the club to see if it’s safe.
They squeal and run back inside when Sarah grins at them.
It’s not the smile that scares them. It’s the fact she has streaks of blood all over her, looks like she just left a seventies horror movie set, a gun is propped on her shoulder, and she looks damn happy about it.
Her smile falls. “People are so judgmental. I singlehandedly dispatched mercenaries of unknown origins to save the day and they act like I’m crazy. People haven’t an ounce of understanding that my life may not have been peachy.”
“War zones tend to leave people tense,” I mutter as I drag Kara to her feet. “They’re going to draw all the motherfucking heat in the world on this town if they keep bringing that much firepower out in the open.”
“Why are you griping at me? It’s not my fault people lack discretion when trying to kill you guys or me,” Sarah complains.
Kara stumbles up to my side, and she exhales harshly. “If you’d started the date that way, you wouldn’t have had to work so hard. My adrenaline is now on overdrive.”
My eyes roll so hard my brain feels punched by them.
Fucking crazy ass women all around me.
My phone chimes with a text, and it’s a message from Sarah with an address.
IDENTITY CRISIS: It’s not Herrin, but it’s a lead.
Chapter 25
KARA
Maya sucks on an oversized sucker as she stares at me from across the table. Some other random chick is sitting at the end of the couch, intently focusing on her phone.
Rush is…missing. It’s the first time he’s left me at the clubhouse for this long, and I have no idea where he’s gone.
Maya’s lips make a loud pop as she pulls the sucker out of her mouth and uses it to gesture at me. “I can’t really see much family resemblance, other than the cheekbones. Maybe a little bit around the eyes,” she says, lazily tracing air-circles to gesture to my eyes with her sucker.
“Should I ask who you really are?”
“No, you shouldn’t,” the unknown girl at the other end of the couch says.
“Colleen won’t let me talk about myself. She pretends to be uninterested in me, but she always sits close when the guys go out,” Maya tells me like she’s making a keen observation.
“Colleen has no opinions and no agendas,” Colleen states flatly.
There’s a long beat of awkward silence after that, and Maya resumes sucking her sucker.
“So…where’s Eve?” I decide to ask, since she’s the people pleaser who tries getting us all to talk.
Usually, we just let her do all the talking.
Colleen’s name is one I’m just learning, even though she’s been silently present most of the time.
“Eve’s at the hospital with Dash, because he’s one of Drex’s best friends. That means she’s going to be a good friend to him too. Isn’t that sweet?” Colleen asks dryly, exhaling really loud.
“Got a thing for my brother?” I guess.
She releases an indignant snort. “I’ve moved on to more mature interests. I’m just used to order. In case you missed the daily headlining news on every channel, there’s been nothing but fucking chaos in Halo for a while now,” she goes on in a bored tone. “Life’s never been simple, and no one’s ever going to let it be simple.”
More uncomfortable silence follows that as Maya continues to study me.
“Did you and Axle ever have a thing? Asking for a friend,” she says, blinking those very long lashes at me.
I clear my throat and shake my head. “Nope. We didn’t even really talk. Rush is the only one from the club I ever dated, for the record,” I tell them, adding that last part quickly to eliminate any future inquisitions.
Maya sits back like she’s satisfied with that, and she resumes her sucker attentions.
This would be the perfect opportunity to escape…if that was still at the forefront of my mind. Instead, I find myself darting a quick glance to the door, stupidly hoping Rush walks through it.
We had sex, and…then he dropped me off like a date who had a curfew and told me to ‘stay put.’
Dick.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I lean back and huff a little.
“Withdrawal issues so soon?” Maya muses, still studying me too intently.
“I need something to do. I’m not a sit-and-stay sort of girl just because a man demands it,” I point out.
She stands abruptly, and she struts into the room of legend no woman is allowed to enter. I gawk.
“Eve gets to go in there too,” Colleen states dryly, angrily flipping a page. “I’ve helped launder money for this club for years, but do I get to go in there? Nope.” She makes the last word pop, as she continues to be engulfed in whatever has her attention.
Maya comes back out, pushing a large, pin-filled bulletin board in front of her.
Colleen glances over her shoulder dismissively, looks back at her magazine, and then quickly darts her gaze back to the board as her eyes widen.
“Have you lost your mind?” Colleen hisses, and then she swallows like she’s bitten something sour. “I mean…whatever.”
She shrugs and lifts her phone up to take the place of her magazine once again.
“You’re too well trained,” Maya tells her primly as she gestures for me. “You’re the adventurous kind, and Axle says you think the most like Herrin.”
Colleen snorts, but she clears her throat as I quirk an eyebrow in her direction.
“Something to say?” I ask her as I slowly stand.
“The last girl I had something to say to ended up being a very important figure in the mafia-that’s-not-the-mafia. The one before that ended up being Drex’s future bride. The one before that ended up being a homicidal maniac that I sort of adore, but fear immensely. I’ll never have anything to say again,” she deadpans, giving a firm nod afterwards.
My eyes dart to Maya, who palms her face.
“You’re in the mafia?” I ask, looking around to see we’re all alone in here.
Our guards are in the hangar shining up their rides.
Maya’s weird, but not mafia weird. I don’t think. Come to think of it, I’ve never met someone in the mafia.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Maya says as I move closer, albeit warier. “There’s no such thing as the mafia. The eighties are gone.”
Colleen clears her throat again, and Maya glares at the back of her head.
“What my family does is mostly legal…in some states,” Maya goes on.
Colleen says nothing.
“See? She pretends to know nothing, and then I talk too much when she lets on that she thinks she knows something,” Maya grumbles.
“I don’t want to know anything,” Colleen interjects.
“Is this their search for Herrin?” I cut in,
analyzing the board full of strings, newspaper clippings, internet printouts, and various other things.
“It is. He has a clubhouse…but it’s been abandoned for a while now.”
“It’s smarter than staying in the place where the enemy can easily find you,” I dutifully point out, and then absently gesture to our surroundings.
“I’ve handled that for the guys,” Maya says like it’s not a big deal. “This place isn’t as secure as the pentagon, but it’s built to endure any outside attacks. No one can get inside unless someone lets them in.”
“Don’t ask. I still have a migraine from all the detail that has gone into this place,” Colleen mutters.
“It’s still a spot that will be easy to pick them off from neighboring locations when they come and go,” I tell her.
“Handled that too. We have facial recognition software in place in various surrounding locations. Rush is in charge of most of that,” she goes on.
That dick. That’s how he knew I was at Drake’s.
“Could have told me that before I hid in the tattoo guy’s place for no reason.”
She nods. “I could have, but I didn’t trust you then.”
“And now you do?” I muse.
As if summoned, Drake comes walking in from the doors at the hangar, one of our guards holding it open for him.
“Ah, I see the vagina squad has claimed its newest member,” the man full of ink says as he runs a hand through his dark hair, shaking out the rain.
Hell, I didn’t even know it was raining, but he’s saturated.
He’s carrying a travel tray with four lidded coffee cups that he puts down on the table beside us.
“I’m not looking at that board. Just the vibe of it says ‘death comes to the curious’ in my opinion,” he quips as he takes two cups out of the tray and goes to sit down by Colleen.
“Can he be trusted?” I whisper to Maya.
She shrugs. “Eve seems to think so.”
“Eve will drag me to my death with all her fucking trust. Don’t listen to Eve. I’m entirely too untrustworthy. I shouldn’t be trusted with any sensitive information,” he says very seriously.
