Noah tugs on my arms and points toward a side door, slightly ajar from where he’d come in looking to score, and I nod, motioning once again for him to stay low and quiet. It’s like dealing with a child but his eyes are the size of saucers, so I’m really hammering it home.
I let him take the lead, covering his back because the thugs are all behind us laughing and joking about all of the things they’re going to do to me when they get ahold of me.
The only guy that I can see carrying a gun calls out to the others, “Kill the fucking kid before he gives us shit for dealing with the girl. Remember, we don’t get paid until she’s dead. Crawford made that clear.”
If I hadn’t already guessed that this is Randy finally noticing that two of his three sons are dead, thanks to my involvement in their lives, his words just confirm it. I already knew that it wouldn’t all happen smoothly, but the fact that they must have had eyes on us tonight pisses me off.
There’s more yelling and jeering, one of the guys yelling back, “Like I’d be worried about some fucking queer, did you get an eyeful of him? Just leave him here to rot so we can get rid of the Queen bitch.”
Ah, lovely. Homophobic, rapist thugs sent by Randy fucking Crawford. Just what my night needs. I’m suddenly filled with an immense joy to know that Nate is on his way to deal with this for us in the most horrific and blood-soaked way.
The concrete underneath us is cracked and reduced to rubble in some spots. I’m an expert at walking on any terrain in heels, they’re all I wear, but this is probably Noah’s first rodeo and when his footing slips, I know the moment we’re made.
I turn on my heel and open fire, thankful that my eyes have adjusted to the darkness and for all of the years of Harley working on my marksmanship. I take out the guy with the gun first, aware that the others are probably carrying too, but I can only make the call with what I can see.
It takes two bullets to take out the next guy, but he’s at least as beefy as Harley is and taller even than Ash, so it’s not a shock to me. The guys start diving behind the machinery as I shoot at them all, hitting a few more. I’m not sure if they’re dead, but when a bullet hits the door behind us, Noah grabs me and drags me behind another giant rusted hunk of metal.
“This is fucking crazy!” Noah hisses, and I roll my eyes at him.
“Welcome to Mounts Bay, Noah. This is how things go down here.”
There’s a moment of silence and then the door opens again and I hear the footsteps of some of the men leaving, fleeing as though they’re facing an army and not two people.
Enough of them stay behind though.
I’m trying to decide if we’re going to stay alive long enough for Ash to arrive, but when we start to move to the door again, the men left in the warehouse start to murmur together, noticing our movements and making another play to kill me.
Three of them rush us at the same time, two of them heading for me while the third takes his chances with Noah, probably aiming to have a human shield. Whoever they are, they did not think this plan through with the lack of firepower between them.
I shoot both men in the chest, the biggest and most effective target, and when I turn to the other one, he’s already slipping past me for Noah, going for his arm. I swing out my hand with the knife, impaling him and losing my grip as he yanks away with a scream. Noah’s eyes snap to mine, wide and startled, but there’s too much happening around us to acknowledge the fact that my priority here is getting him out of here.
He’s an asshole and a pain in my ass, but he’s also my best friend’s little brother, the same best friend who would die for me or my own brother without a second thought, so I’m getting him the hell out of here and then I’m going to kill the little shithead.
I move to shoot him from where he’s groaning on the ground with the knife still hanging out of his arm. That’s the last bullet, but it’s worth using it because of how close he was to us and there is no time to figure out a plan to kill him otherwise.
There’s still one man left alive in the warehouse, the rest have fled.
Randy really should have chosen his killers a little better—ten guys and only a fraction of them have a spine? Pathetic.
I carefully lean down to put my gun on the ground, pulling my knife back out of the corpse at our feet and spinning it in my hand to get comfortable with it again. Deep breath, this will be fine.
The problem is that while I’m psyching myself up at the thought of more disembowelments, the last guy creeps up on us, his feet unnaturally silent against the concrete. He could give Lips a run for her money, and he manages to get his arm locked around my throat. Before I get the chance to move into one of the defensive maneuvers that Lips has drilled into me, Noah lunges forward in a blur.
I don’t see what he does, but the man holding me jolts and then collapses around me, almost taking me to the ground too, except that Noah catches me and holds me upright.
I look down to find that there’s a knife hanging out of his skull now, a clean shot, straight through his eye socket and into his brain.
I glance up at Noah and his voice is steady as he says, “He’s right. I am a queer, but I’m not a fucking pussy.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
I pull myself away from him, wobbling on my feet for a second before I grab his arm again to steady myself. He might’ve been a complete brat to me all night, but at least he’s figured out his loyalties. “If anyone demeans you like that to me again, I will put a bullet between their eyes. Either myself or I’ll get one of the guys to do it, I’m still not the biggest fan of blood and gore so I save my heroics for special occasions.”
He shrugs and leans over to yank the knife back out, chuckling at the way the body jerks as he does it, the nerves still firing even with his heart stopped. “I am a queer, no use getting mad over some ugly fuck commenting on it. I’m never going to be anything other than what you see.”
I shrug at him and pull my phone out, finally pushing send on the text to Ash. “Why the hell would we want you to change? I care about loyalty and whether or not you’re good to your sister. The guys only really care about that too. Ash is a little snarly at you, but that has everything to do with you being his girlfriend’s brother and propositioning him, and exactly nothing to do with your sexuality. Lips cares about you because that’s who she is. She likes you already, she just wants you to like her back.”
He stares at me for a second before he wipes the knife off on his pants and then holds it out for me to take. “I don’t need taking care of. I lived on the streets for years. If there wasn’t all of this bullshit, I’d be paying my own way.”
