I pulled my phone out to call Griff, however the sound of glass smashing diverted my attention. Wilder reached for his gun at the same time I reached for mine.
Signalling to him, I said, “Front window?”
“Sounds like it, brother.”
“Stay here while we investigate,” I said to Scarlett and after she’d nodded her agreement, we h
eaded to the front of her apartment.
Scarlett’s apartment was old and shabby, as were the sheer curtains on her front windows. Along with the outside light she had left on, they made it easy to see the two guys standing on the front balcony. A gush of wind caused the curtain to blow to the side just as one of the guys spotted us and raised his gun to take aim.
“Fuck!” I yelled, at the same time as Wilder shoved me to the ground.
The gun sounded and thankfully the bullet missed us. I scrambled to my feet and closed the distance to the front door. Yanking it open, I ducked to avoid the fist coming my way. And then another gun sounded, confusing the hell out of me because it wasn’t either of these two guys, and it sounded like it came from behind us.
“Get the fuck out of my apartment!” Scarlett yelled, and tension punched through me at the thought of her getting caught up in this.
“Jesus, Scott, she’s got a fucking gun!” Wilder roared.
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know, and while I wanted to go to her and rip that gun from her hands and tell her to get the fuck back, I was dealing with more pressing matters – one guy trying to knock me out and another waving a gun around.
As I straightened, I punched the guy in his stomach.
“Motherfucker,” he yelled, stumbling backwards.
Aiming my gun at both of them, I thundered, “Who the fuck are you?” I didn’t recognise either of them, cementing my belief they were from Julio’s crew, but I needed confirmation.
“It doesn’t matter who we are, all that matters is why we’re here,” the guy with the gun snarled as he raised it at me.
“Why you’re here is pretty fuckin’ clear,” I snapped. My brain worked overtime trying to figure out how the fuck this was going to go down.
He smirked. “Nothing’s ever as it seems.”
What the hell?
My finger twitched on the trigger of the gun, but I refrained from pulling it. I needed to confirm who they were. However, before I could do that, Scarlett pulled the trigger on her gun, and all hell broke loose.
She shot at the roof, but it spooked the two guys and the one with the gun also fired his. Thank fuck my reflexes were quick – I ducked in time to avoid being shot.
“Fuck, Wilder, can you restrain her?” I yelled.
“I’m already on it,” he threw back and I blocked out their arguing as I did my best to defend all three of us.
I lifted my leg and kicked the guy in front of me as hard as I could in the stomach, which pushed him backwards into the one with the gun. He dropped the gun, so before either had a chance to recover, I moved to kick it out of reach. They were scrambling to get to their feet, and the panic I read on their faces put my mind at ease. It looked like I was about to get to the bottom of who sent them.
Standing over them, I aimed my gun again, and demanded, “Tell me who the fuck you work for or - ” I directed my gun at one of the guy’s dicks, “ – shit’s about to get real fuckin’ messy.”
Fear sliced across his face and he held his hands up. “Stop! It’s Julio…he sent us.”
“Why?” I asked, keeping my gun aimed at his dick.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his mate silenced him by slitting his throat from behind with a knife I’d never seen coming. As the guy slumped back with blood oozing from his throat, his mate shoved his body to the side so he could stand. Everything happened so fast – one minute I had the situation under control, and the next the tables had been turned.
I did the only thing I could in that moment – I shot him.
As his breath was stolen from him, so too was our chance at gaining new information about Julio.
I raked my fingers through my hair and turned to face Wilder. He held Scarlett around her waist, but now that the threat had been erased, he let her go.