“Get out of here.” The voice grunts huskily, taking me by surprise.
“What?”
“Leave or I’ll shoot.”
“How—”
“Leave. All of you.”
“Who—”
They click the barrel of the gun into position, and I freeze. We can’t leave. We just got here.How pissed Vince would be if we left right now? Really fucking irate. I don’t have a choice, though, my life and potentially the rest of my team, or we call it a night.
“Okay.” I gulp, no longer fighting them on their hold. There is a pause, like they’re unsure of what I might do, should they let me go. Then in a split second, they leap to their feet, still holding the gun to me as I stand, arms raised as I press my earpiece to speak.
“Team. Get back to the cars immediately.” There is a moment, a pause, that makes me wonder if they’re also encountering their own bulletproof ninja men.
“Copy.” Each team begins to confirm their understanding, and I wait for Ninja to let me go. They tip the gun toward the cars parked in the alleyway, and I narrow my eyes for a second.How do they know where we’re parked unless they’ve been watching us this entire time? And why have they chosen a couple of hours into our scouting to order us away?
Before I can ask, they shoot an inch away from my foot, and I begin my sprint back to the car, focused on it completely as adrenaline pounds through my body with each step.
“Come on!” Knox calls from my car, waving to me to hurry. I pick up my pace, even more, glancing back to see the shadow is gone--either disappeared into the grass or vanished just as mysteriously as they appeared.
“Cars are loaded,” I hear in my ear as my feet break from the grass to the pavement. I pick up my pace for the last few feet and reach for the handle. The moment I pull open the door and jump into the car, the tires screech, and we twist around so quickly I’m not sure what direction we’re going as I buckle my seatbelt. My heart is nearly pounding out of my chest, drumming in my ears and pulsing in my feet.
“What the fuck just happened?” Knox calls back as we speed around the corner, trailing the three other cars full of our boys.
“I don’t know.” I cough from the effort it took to speak, as I’m still catching my breath. Just as we pass the field we were in, I hear an ear-splitting boom, and the car rattles.
“What the—” Knox stops when he sees the fiery trees that were lining the fields, and he looks back at me in disbelief as the flames quickly spread. Someone just blew up the field, which means whoever tackled me, just saved our lives.
11
KIRA
“They’re falling right into our trap.” I overhear one of the boys saying something about some mafia gang coming up on our land. I catch wind of the conversation as I walk through the front door after my basketball date got cut too short.
“What’s this all about?” I ask casually, completely opposite to how I feel. A pit is forming in my stomach because I have no idea who they are talking about, but I have an inkling of who is involved.
“The San Giovannis. They must have seen us setting up cameras in that field near the house. We think some of their boys will be there tonight.”
“Oh, and?” I raise my brows implicitly.
“And Barrett over here suggested we blow it up.”
“Blow—”
“The field up,” Barrett cuts me off. “With them in it.” Why does this bother me? It’s like his words are pestering my nerves, prodding at parts of me I didn’t know could feel this way.
“W-why?” I manage to get out, and his brows lower as he narrows his eyes at me.
“Why what?”
I take a step back, and he takes one forward.
“Why are you blowing them up?” I stop when I hit the back of the couch.
“Is that not why we’re here?” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Don’t tell me you actually care about them. Fuck. I knew you would suck at a mission like this—”