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“I’ll be there.” He watched as she sashayed away.
“Should I?” The girl in his lap motioned toward where Ronnie disappeared.
“No,” he instructed. “Keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.”
She opened and closed her mouth silently before she went back to her lap dance.
Finn lifted his hand to check the watch at his wrist as the doors burst open and all hell broke loose.
~ ~ ~
Gretchen stood behind Neil with her gun held across her body as agents burst through the back entrance of the nightclub. Music pumped through the open doors and screams rang out as people, most likely the innocent who’d never experienced a police raid, began to run. One of Carlisle’s suppliers sprinted toward them, and she raised her gun, surprised at how readily her finger went to the trigger. The man stopped, looking back for another escape.
“Nowhere to go,” Neil warned him. “Get down.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, flicking from Neil to her as he weighed his chances of getting past them. He lunged toward her, and she stepped forward, catching the side of his jaw with the butt of her rifle.
“Get on the fucking ground,” she ordered.
“Fucking-A, Chris.” Neil rushed past her and stepped between her and the man writhing on the floor, holding his broken jaw. He motioned for another agent to cuff the man and take him away.
Gretchen pushed past Neil and rushed down the hall, trying to break away from her partner. Her desire to find Ronnie outweighed any potential danger, and she had to get away from Neil in order to protect him. She had a personal vendetta to settle with Ronnie Sinclair, one that could cost Neil his badge if he were with her. He caught up with her as they made their way down the hall, outside the room where she’d first slept with Finn.
“Check in there.” Neil ducked his head toward her old room. She hesitated at the door before turning back to warn him not to follow, but he’d already continued down the hall.
~ ~ ~
When the doors burst open, Finn tossed the girl to the floor and jumped to his feet supposedly as surprised as everyone else. As he rushed toward Carlisle, as per his job description in case of such an incident, he caught sight of Grant as the other man ran forward to meet him. Finn took Carlisle’s arm and pulled him up, ushering him out of the main part of the club and to his private office. Grant ran up to cover his back. They pushed through Carlisle’s door and slammed it behind them before Finn slid aside the false bookcase, and Carlisle disappeared through the private tunnel where he would essentially walk right into Captain Carpenter’s hands. Finn had barely replaced the bookcase, when the door behind him splintered, and three agents dressed in black entered the room with their guns raised. Finn turned and held his hands up, but Grant moved toward the men. As one agent’s finger twitched on the trigger, Finn had a moment to think of what a life with Gretchen could be like, before he threw himself into Grant and crashed to the floor on top of him.
~ ~ ~
Gretchen’s head snapped up as the first gunshots rang out. Despite the inevitability of violence in these situations, tonight, more than ever she’d hoped for a peaceful ending. She swept into her old room, pushing back the memories it held, searching for any sign of life. When she found none, she lowered her gun. In front of her old dresser, she took a moment to wonder where she’d be now if she’d never slept with Finn that first night. From the corner of her eye, she caught movement in the mirror. Before she could turn, the cold steel of a gun pressed against her temple.
“I never have understood why you all wear those vests when it’s so much more convenient to shoot you in the head.” Ronnie emphasized her words with a jab of the pistol as she reached across and yanked Gretchen’s gun from her hand.
Gretchen smirked. “You won’t pull that trigger.”
“You don’t think?” Ronnie’s hand shook.
“You hire people to do your dirty work,” Gretchen explained. “You’re too smart to get your own hands dirty.”
“Which is why no one will believe it’s me.” Ronnie pulled back the hammer.
“You won’t make it out alive, if you shoot me.” Gretchen watched the other woman in the mirror, waiting.
Ronnie’s eyes darted to the door and her hand drooped. In that instant Gretchen struck, spinning around and swinging her elbow so it connected with the other woman’s chin. Ronnie’s head jerked back, and she stumbled.
Gretchen spun around. “You should’ve had them kill me when you had the chance.”
Ronnie’s eyes went wide, and she gave her head a swift shake. “You.”
Ronnie tried to lift the gun, and Gretchen grabbed her wrist. Pulling Ronnie’s arm across her own body, she slammed the heel of her hand down on the back of the other woman’s elbow with a satisfying snap. The gun fired as Ronnie went to her knees, and Gretchen fisted her hand in her red hair and brought Ronnie’s head down as she drove her knee up and into her face.
The gun clattered to the floor and Gretchen kicked it away, before letting Ronnie fall, bleeding, to the floor. She stood for a moment as Ronnie tried to push herself up, before she shoved her down with a booted foot across her throat.
“You have the right to shut the fuck up,” she told her, still too angry to even smirk. “Frankly though, I don’t give a shit what you do.” She pressed a little harder and Ronnie thrashed, trying to use her broken arm to push Gretchen’s foot away.
“All clear in here?” Neil lounged in the doorway, his gun loose at his side.
