My eyes widened, and I wondered if I should hang up.
“Tell Skye to have Serena call Marco,” Vinny snapped. “We need backup.”
Serena was already moving, ripping open Vinny’s desk drawer to retrieve the burner phone he had stowed away.
“I’m on it!” Serena shouted, hopefully loud enough for Vinny to hear. “Skye, get their location, I’m trying to get into the Stellar’s security camera feed.”
She’d been trying–and failing–to do that for two weeks. I wasn’t sure why she thought she’d work better under pressure, but apparently gang wars were motivating.
I forced myself to breathe and focused on the phone.
“Reed,” I said sharply, cutting through his breathing and distant footsteps. “Where are you exactly in the house?”
“Second floor,” he replied immediately. “East wing. Master suite. Hey sis, I see your bunny on that shelf, do you want it?”
Another shot.
“Reed! Fucking focus!” Vinny grunted.
“Iamfocused,” Reed said, mildly offended.
“Don’t touch the bunny!” Serena shouted as she finished her call with Marco and returned to Vinny’s desk.
“That rabbit has a camera in its eye,” she snapped. “If you move it, I lose my angle.”
On the other end, Reed paused. “…Oh yeah, forgot about that.”
Serena unlocked the laptop and clicked around for just a moment before opening up the camera. The master bedroom came into view from the bunny’s tilted perspective. Benji and Violet were cowered in the far corner near the balcony doors. Benji had one arm wrapped around her shoulders, the other bracing against the wall, shielding her body with his own, and Vinny stood in front of them, pistol in hand. Reed was closer to the door smiling ear to ear as he let off another shot.
Did it run in the family? Was Violet this fucking crazy? Did she just hide it well?
“Three left in the hall! Do you think they’re gonna call for backup soon?” Reed sounded hopeful.
“This isn’t a fucking game!” Vinny barked.
“Yeah, I know, but we’rewinning.” Reed purred. “Plus, I’ve wanted to do this foryears!”
Another shot and my stomach dropped somewhere between my ankles.
Reed leaned slightly into the doorway again.
“Okay, that one’s crawling,” he muttered. “I respect the effort.”
A single shot.
I looked over at Serena. “Can I please hang up on him?”
Being aroundthishad to be bad for my baby, or at least my sanity. Serena shook her head.
“We need to be able to talk to Vinny.”
I expected a snarky comment from Reed, but as he tried to shoot again, his body stiffened. He was still smiling, but he took a few slow steps backward into the room.
“Reed, what’s happening?”
For half a second, there was only the faint sound of breathing on the line.
“Oh,” Reed said softly.
