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I grab a shot glass and spot a bottle of whisky still intact from the storm of bullets those fuckers rained on us. Grabbing the bottom-shelf whisky and the glass, I pour Charlie a shot. She shakes her head at the offering.
“Trust me, honey, it’ll help. You’re going into shock.”
Lifting her trembling hand to the glass, she grabs it and downs the shot in one go.
Lucy lays her hand on Charlie’s back and reaches around with the other, grabbing the bottle from my grasp. She takes a long pull, downing several shots at once. There’s no way this girl isn’t going to pass the hell out drinking like that.
Jude comes up behind me and grabs the bottle from Lucy’s grip.
“That’s enough for you, munchkin. I’m not carrying your ass out of here when you pass out.”
“Wow. Even after being shot at, you’re still a complete dick.” Lucy shoots an angry scowl at Jude, who simply shrugs as though he’s heard it all before.
“How did he find me?” Charlie asks no one in particular.
“That’s what I’d like to know.” The suspicion in Jude’s voice isn’t lost on me.
“We need to get out of here,” I tell my brothers. “Who knows if they’re coming back for whatever they were looking for in the first place.”
Jude looks at Charlie, who’s still visibly unsteady.
“What are they after, Charlie?” he asks her.
“I-I don’t know,” she stammers. Her eyes flicker to Lucy, who’s wearing a stone-cold expression, giving nothing away.
“I need to go,” Charlie tells Lucy. The two women stare at each other for a few moments, having a silent conversation.
“I agree. You need to come with us,” I tell her.
Charlie’s eyes dart to me. “I don’t want to bring you more trouble.”
Jude scoffs, and I shoot him a withering look.
“Listen, we don’t know what he’s after, and considering who he’s connected to, the safest place you can be is with us. Maybe we can convince Cillian to rein in his cousin.” And I need to figure out what the hell Charlie has on Jace that almost got us all killed since she doesn’t seem inclined to share at the moment. Getting the truth from her is going to take a gentle hand, not angry demands.
Without giving Charlie or Lucy an opportunity to argue, I direct Wyatt to get the van running.
“We’ll stop by their place so Charlie can grab her stuff, but we’re heading back to Shine tonight.”
Lucy steps in front of Charlie. “If you think you’re taking her and not me, you’re sadly mistaken. Where she goes, I go.”
The defiant lift of her chin tells me I don’t have a chance in hell of not dragging her along with us. I could probably come up with a plan to make her stay, but I don’t have the time, and if it makes Charlie feel safer to have her friend with her, I’m all for it. Maybe if she doesn’t feel so scared and defenseless, I can get her to open up to me about what Jace is after and find a way out of this mess.
“Fine,” I concede. “But we need to leave now. I’m not waiting around here like a sitting duck.”
Charlie’s and Lucy’s gazes tentatively sweep through the destroyed bar.
“Jimmy is gonna be pissed,” Charlie comments as she takes in the broken bottles and bullet holes.
“Not as mad as he’d be if he found two dead bartenders,” Wyatt replies with a chuckle.
We all give him a grim look.
“What?” he asks, raising his shoulders as though he doesn’t understand how close that was to being a reality.
Shit, if we had gone back to our rooms after eating or decided to stop one town over, this would have ended very differently for Charlie and Lucy.
“Too soon, bro,” Barrett tells him, expressing the sentiment we all feel.
