“Dayum, Reece,” Layla said, also overlooking the lie-rents’ long list of aliases. “Didn’t know you had it in ya.”
My mom’s head peeked around my dad’s. “No time for chatting.”
She was similarly outfitted, her hair in a tight, severe bun against her nape, a style I’d never seen on her.
“Climb in the back,” my mom barked at us. “And hurry.”
“No, we’re gonna take our own cars,” Hunt said.
My mom frowned, lines creasing either side of her mouth. “Don’t be stupid. This truck’s armored. It’s bulletproof.”
“We know what ‘armored’ means,” Hunt said. “We need our own means of getting the hell outta here once we’re done.”
My mom’s frown deepened. “You still don’t trust us? After we showed up like this for you all?”
Hunt shrugged. “Could be all a show.”
Damn right it could. Some of my awe at the radical change in my lie-rents’ demeanor drained.
“Be smart, son,” my dad said to Hunt.
Of course, Hunt wasn’t hissonanything. But then, none of us were any of their actual children, so it made no difference.
Brady shored up next to Hunt and crossed his arms. “We are being smart.”
Celia’s head crowded behind my mom’s. “Come on, Brady. We can talk it all through later. Right now, we need to move. Get in the truck.”
“No,” Brady said. “We’ll be right on your tail.”
“After you give us some guns,” Griffin said. “We’ll take two each.”
“Who’s to say we have that much firepower?” my mom asked.
The five of us merely stared back at her.
“Fine,” she said with an irritatedtsk. “Make your assumptions.” Then, mumbling angrily under her breath, “And don’t listen to us when we’re trying to save your asses.”
The back doors of the truck popped open to reveal Orson and Porter, also dressed in dark tactical gear, with guns strapped to vests, and holsters all over the damn place.
“Did you guys rob an armory or something?” I asked.
“Valid question,” Layla said.
“We didn’t rob anything,” Porter answered. “We’ve known about the perils of the situation a lot longer than you have.”
“Don’t remind us,” Brady said grumpily.
“We’ve been planning for contingencies.”
“We just hoped it’d never come to this,” Orson said, with a heavy look at all of us before sticking on Griffin.
Alexis was seated atop a bench that lined the wall of the truck, her sunglasses perched across a slim thigh. As outfitted for a fight as the rest of them, she sat with a straight spine and one leg femininely crossed over the other. She alone appeared implacable, like the whole bunch of us weren’t about to charge headlong into a fight we definitely weren’t prepared for, no matter how many guns they had.
The kind of money Magnum had? It could probably buy the entire world’s armies and a nuclear arsenal all his own.
Porter and Orson began handing over a revolver for us each, along with a weapons holster that looped around our waists, and spare magazines of ammo. Griffin had demanded two guns for each of us; we got one. It was still more than we’d counted on.
“Where’d you hide all this?” Layla asked while she fastened her belt, patting the Velcro tabs to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere.
