As I stood up, Duce turned to me and clapped my shoulder. “I guess we need to get going. I would like for us to be done before Celine gets back. Show her that we are good at what we do."
I shoved him to go forward. "Come on."
He laughed, and we both readied our Glocks as we wound around the crates slowly. We heard that laughter again and paused, our backs against the crates as we tried to hear how close it was.
Duce leaned in real close, whispering in my ear like we weren't doing anything important. "So, what's your deal with our girl?"
I turned and scowled at him, keeping my voice low as I responded, “Is that really important right now?”
Duce looked around, shrugged, and nodded. I clenched my jaw, thinking we had more important things to do than talk about this, but I had a feeling he wouldn't let it go. “Our girl? When was she ever mine or yours? She is just here to complete a job, and then she’s gone.”
He rolled his stupid eyes at me before looking at me like I was a child. “Naw. She is ours. I have seen the way you look at her-”
“Oh, you mean with contempt and annoyance. Yes. You are right. Sign me up for commitment. Pendejo.” I blew out a breath at that last part, wanting him to hear that he made me so mad that I was now reverting to my mother tongue.
He chuckled lightly. “Yeah, we’re keeping her. This job is just the reel, but, in the end, she is going to stay, and that's that. Plus, who else is going to take all your piss and vinegar and turn it into sugar and spice as she does? Not me, man, that's for sure.” He kicked off the crate, ready to advance again as he left me in the dust to think about all that.
I went after him quickly. “What makes you think that the others will want her to stay? That she will want to stay?” I was desperately trying to prove him wrong, to make him see that she was just going to leave us. She was not going to leave her fancy assassin life to slum it with some bikers. Even if she was starting to grow on me. I needed him to understand so we didn’t end up being the chumps in the end.
Duce eyed around the next crate, seeing if it was clear, and covered me as I slipped by in front of him. “The others are already half in love with her, so that's not going to be a problem. I mean, hell, did you see her calm down Rabid’s wolf last night?! If that's not a sign that she is perfect for us, then I don't know what is.” He paused before he continued, “As for her staying, well, we are just going to need to convince her to stay, but I think, between the five of us, we can keep a lady like her on her toes. Not let it get boring.”
Before I even thought about it, I blurted out, “What makes you think she even wants all five of us?”
This time, he covered his mouth at his own laugh before settling down against a crate before we took another turn. “Are you kidding? That woman looks at us all like we are each a different chocolate bar that she wants to take a bite out of. I mean, it's obvious that I'm the milk chocolate with hazelnut, the kind you want to eat up all day.” He preened at his own analogy, and I almost punched him in his pretty boy face right there.
“Bricks is that milk and white chocolate mix, it surprises you with how much you like it.” Then he just kept rattling on, “Gears is the milk chocolate with nuts… you get it? Cuz he works with nuts and bolts.” He pretended to slap his knee at his own stupid joke. He straightened up really quick as he lifted a finger. “Rabid is the dark chocolate. It's serious and sometimes looks down on the milk chocolates with its healthy antioxidants and shit.” He thinned his lips at that, and then he looked at me and smiled wide. “And you… you are that bitter eighty percent cacao shit. That stuff that doesn't even taste like chocolate, but it is still part of the group, for some reason. Yeah, that's you.”
That was it. I punched him right in the gut and covered his mouth tightly, letting him have a moment to compose himself before I let go. When he straightened up, I whispered, “Are you ready now?”
He nodded his head. “I was just answeringyourstupid questions.”
I hit him, pointed upward to show him that we were getting closer to the light source, and he quieted up. I was in the lead, and I pointed my gun as I turned the corner, keeping my eyes sharp for any movement as we turned the corner, and then I saw it. In the center was a huge table with bricks and bricks of drugs stacked up so high that I knew this was the fucking motherload.
We both scanned the room, not seeing anyone else around, and I lowered my gun. “Well, that was easy.” I went to the table, opened up my cut, and pulled out the two remaining sticky explosives then stuck them underneath the table.
“Yeah,” Duce’s unease filtered out, “a little too easy.”
As I looked at the table, a piece of me wished I could be here to see it all when it blew to smithereens. Drugs essentially killed my family, or, really, the greed that came with selling drugs, and I detested them with my whole being. All I saw in front of me was a lot of dead bodies that it took to make all of this filth.
I felt a breeze of air pass me, and I knew we were too late. I felt the barrel of a gun hit the back of my head as a cruel voice sneered, “See, Yank. I told you there was something fishy about these boys. I told Killian not to use them, but he insisted, and now I just caught them trying to light up our stuff. What do we do to people who try to fuck our shit up, Yank?”
A slimy peep of a voice sounded next to me, and I turned slightly to see a vampire with a silencer barrel right up to Duce’s head. “We blow their brains out to ensure they don't see the light of day again. That's what we do, Hamish.”
“Drop the guns, boys.” Both of us dropped our weapons, knowing they had us. Fuck. This was not good.
I felt the gun push into the back of my head harder, almost like he was going to pull the trigger, and then it pulled back. “On the other hand, Yank, if we shoot them now, then their gunk is going to get all over our pretty drugs, and we can't have that.”
Yank squeaked out, “Nope. That's just unsanitary.”
Hamish bit out, “Turn around, slowly.” We both did, eyeing each other, trying to figure out how we were going to get out of this, but nothing was coming to mind. We looked at the two vampires that had us on the ropes, saw they had Fanger cuts, and grimaced. I was going to die by a fucking Fanger. That's the fucking worst.
“Now, switch sides. Nice and slow, like your fucking a virgin, all right.” They both snickered at their stupid joke as they kept their guns up.
The one called Hamish tilted his head as he licked his fangs. “Now, where were we… oh, yes,” he pushed the gun against my forehead, “we were here.”
This was it. This was the day I was going to fucking die. I escaped death once, and I knew that was my one and only shot. I knew that I wasn't going to be gifted another. It's why I was such an asshole all the time. Why I always had a wall up, only letting in the people I knew wouldn't lead me to my death. It's why I always pushed Celine so hard. In my mind, the best case scenario was that she would break our hearts, the worst case, she would be our deaths, but I didn't have Celine to blame for this. This one was on me.
I let my mind think about that time in the gym, how it could’ve been different. I would still be the one that was more up for the rough stuff, but I almost envisioned drinking down her scent, running my hands all over her body slowly, and digging them into pressure points to get different senses going. I could show her what the height of pleasure and pain could feel like and give her the aftercare she deserved. I felt ashamed for leaving her on the floor of the room.
