AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We don’t need to become tech experts, sweetheart.” Sadie smiled gently but that smile was a sign her patience was thinning.
“Well, the general idea is that the camera drones will go in first so we can find where the people are, as well as muscle for The Crusaders. This little fella right here,” he flashed a loving smile at a sleek black and chrome drone with badass blades that looked like they could slice a throat without much effort, “he’s going to fire blanks at those motherfuckers.”
“Blanks? You have got to be fucking kidding me. What good will blanks do against The Crusaders?” Jasper, exasperated and annoyed, made him a world-class asshole.
“Serious Jas, do you have a better fucking plan? Then shut the fuck up and listen.” Cal turned his gaze to Sadie and me. “The blanks sound like the real thing which will trigger the gunshot detection system and send the cops running.”
“How can we be sure they will come running?” Sadie asked, suddenly intrigued.
Cal grinned. “Because the idiots will shoot back with live ammo and the system will read it as a real shootout. Not only will Glitz’s finest show up, but they’ll be also armed and ready for a gunfight.” Cal was proud and he damn well should be.
“Good job Cal.” I turned to Jas and Sadie expectantly. “Well?”
I could tell another smart-ass comment was on the tip of Jasper’s tongue, and I glared at him. He might be older and technically in charge, and he was big as fuck, but I wasn’t afraid to give him a beat down when he needed one. It wouldn’t be the first. Or the last. “The cops will come and likely kill some of them,” Sadie said, thinking out loud. “They’ll arrest the rest and save those people.”
“But…blanks?”
Cal snorted an irritated huff. “Just because we own this town doesn’t mean we should take stupid risks.” It was the only argument guaranteed to sway Jasper.
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things.” That was as good as it would get from him, for now.
Sadie nodded her agreement, one hand resting on Jasper’s shoulder.
“I’ll tell Thomas to have the help get dinner started so we can all eat after this is taken care of.” She flashed a smile that would have been more appropriate for a normal family gathering, not an Ashby family get together.
“Be safe boys.” She kissed each of us on both cheeks and smiled. “And if you need to, get ruthless. It’s the Ashby way. Love you.”
“Love you too, Ma,” we both echoed and got busy taking apart all the pieces that needed to come with us to Crusaders’ territory.
Sadie left and Jasper turned his cool green eyes on both of us. “Don’t fuck this up.”
“You can always go and take care of this yourself,” Cal tossed back. “What was your plan again? That’s right, you don’t have one.”
Jasper smirked, slightly impressed that Calvin had decided to start fighting back. “Good luck.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Maisie
Jana smiled at me from the driver’s seat as we made our way home after the longest graduation ceremony in the history of higher education. “How does it feel to be a college graduate? Are you excited about the future?”
I knew what Jana wanted. She wanted me to be excited about my wide-open future, but the fact was, I had no clue what I wanted the next twenty years of my life to look like.
“It feels…freeing. And a little scary,” I admitted.
“It’s scary as hell,” she admitted. “Luckily, you have a big ass family to lean on. To get all the unsolicited advice you don’t want and to push you when you need it.” She flashed a lighthearted smile and shook her head. “You know, all that annoying stuff.”
I returned her smile, feeling a little lighter but not exactly carefree.
“How long did it take you to figure out what you wanted to do?”
“Our situations are different, Maze. I chose my career because it was steady and I didn’t have a safety net. It was just me and I picked accounting for all the wrong reasons. But I found a way to make it my own and that brought Max into my life.” Her wistful smile said her memories took her to those days, twenty some odd years ago when she’d fallen for a bad boy biker.
“Do you regret it?”
“Not at all. I made a choice that would give me a life so different from how I grew up and that was all that mattered to me. It never occurred to me that I would find a guy like Max, or any guy for that matter.”
“Stop it, you’re amazing.”
Jana flashed a gentle smile but even her hair couldn’t hide the pink staining her cheeks. “Thanks, Maisie.” The car came to a stop outside the house that had been my home for the last few years. I let out a long, wary breath.
