"Not as a hobby," I said, getting a wobbly smile from her. "But in the name of saving my own neck? The necks of my men? Yeah, I'm willing to do whatever it takes."
"What if there are a lot of them?"
"We're not as small of an organization as we used to be," I told her. Back when we'd started, it had just been the four of us. Huck, me, Che, and Remy. With Teddy as an unofficial member in a way. Then Seeley had joined on. Eventually, we had an open house and brought on Donovan who Che knew from his old racing days and Sass's brother Alaric, a former male stripper. Two of Seeley's friends were in the process of untangling themselves from other jobs to prospect full time for us. And we could count on Eddie if we needed him too. We weren't the minuscule operation we used to be. We could hold our own.
"How will you guys... how will you know where to be when they get in touch with me?"
"Someone is going to be nearby at all times. Once you seem like you're on the move, we will follow at a safe distance. As soon as you get your sister, you run to your car and take off. Don't look back or anything. Just go. You okay?" I asked, seeing the gray twinge to her skin again.
"Just... I'm just a little sick over the whole thing."
"I get that. But if we can pull this off, it is almost over."
"I'd be an accessory to murder," she declared.
"Yeah, but you would have committed real murder yourself to get her back, right?"
"Yes."
"To someone who never did anything to either of you," I clarified.
"Yeah."
"Don't you think this way is better? The only people getting hurt are the ones who did the hurting in the first place."
"That's true," she agreed.
"And if they got to keep living, they would only do this again. More innocent people would get caught up in this cycle. They'd be forced to get blood on their hands."
"You're right," she agreed, taking a deep breath, then releasing it slowly. "So, walk me through it again step by step," she demanded, wanting to get every point of it committed to memory.
After we'd finished that, she'd gotten changed for the party, and took the gun I'd brought for her, this one loaded down with blanks, and left to head toward the clubhouse. I headed out a couple minutes later when I figured it would be safe since whoever these guys were would be watching her, not the apartment building as a whole.
From there, I got back to the clubhouse, finding the guys standing around, keen-eyed, aware, but trying to appear like they were enjoying the party.
"Ambulance is parked down the street from the fire station," Seeley murmured to me as he walked past.
"And the cop?" I asked, looking over at Donovan.
"He's ready too," he told me, nodding.
"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath, looking around for Shy who was told to act like a partygoer until one of us approached her. Then she was supposed to "open fire" and take us out before running out like everyone else would in the chaos. "Let's get this started," I said, grabbing a cup off the island, then making my way toward Shy like I was just a random biker, and she was just a random pretty girl I wanted to fuck.
Shy's eyes widened, not having anticipated it being me, which made her pause for a moment before she reached into her purse, and pulled out the gun.
"Do it," I whispered while pretending to chat her up.
"I don't want to hurt you again."
"It will just bruise Do it," I demanded, not wanting someone to see the gun before she could raise it and shoot.
I was sure she was freezing up when, suddenly, she raised a wobbling arm, slid her finger to the trigger, and squeezed out three blanks.
The impact sent me flying backward, landing hard even as the impact from the blanks sent pain across my chest and shoulder.
It went exactly as we'd expected.
At the sound of gunshots, there were screams and panic, everyone trying to exit out of the two doors, running back toward their cars and bikes, getting the fuck out of there as quickly as possible.
Shy was with them.
As I stayed exactly where I was, pretending to be dead as my men fussed around me, checking my pulse, pretending to call the police, putting on a big show just in case anyone was still around watching, or recording like everyone seemed to do these days.
"This is gonna feel weird as fuck," Huck mumbled nearby as Seeley's friends with the ambulance they bought after some local EMS upgraded wheeled in a squeaky stretcher, then knelt down next to me to pretend to feel for a pulse and respiration, then my eyes.