“Those fuckers.” He’s all business now, and once again, I climb out the sunroof. Taking aim, I shoot at the one closest to us. I hit the windshield dead center, and the driver brakes and leaves the chase, knowing if it was a real bullet instead of paint, he’d be dead.
“Okay, I’m done with this shit. I have an idea. Get back in here,” he says as a few more paintballs hit the rear of the car. I shimmy back down and sit as he rolls my window down. “Get ready to shoot.” He yanks the steering wheel sideways and pulls the hand brake, and we spin, my side coming in line with the car heading directly toward us. Breathing out, I fire and watch with satisfaction as blobs of green paint bloom on their windshield—direct shots that would have taken out both people in the front. They stop, but Sage releases the hand brake and accelerates again, and we leave them in our smoky wake as he burns rubber.
“Yes!” he shouts and holds out a fist for me to bump. Shaking my head, I do so before strapping back in again. “We are such an amazing team,” he crows, and I roll my eyes.
“Where are we headed?” I ask him, and he grins.
“Stefano asked me to show you the tunnel entrance to the fortress, so we’re going on a road trip.” He points the car in the direction of Banebridge, but when he gets to a turnoff into the forest about ten minutes from Suncity, he takes it. We wind through the dense foliage for another few miles before he turns again.
The trip has been quiet up until now, the only sound the quiet music in the background.
“You need to memorize this route. We don’t program it into any GPS, and they automatically wipe where we’ve been once we turn the car off,” he tells me as he takes another couple of turns, and then suddenly, he turns onto an off-road track that’s blocked off with a boom gate and a no trespassing sign. He presses one of three buttons behind the driver’s side visor and the boom gate lifts, allowing us to pass. We drive a little farther and into a cave where he stops. The cave is huge and could easily fit a semi. He then pushes another button on the dash, and the whole floor lowers. We go down a level, and he drives off. As I turn around, I see the floor return to where it was, and we continue down an unlit tunnel with white markings on the walls that reflect when the headlights shine on them.
“Holy shit,” I whisper in the tense atmosphere, and I see Sage grin in the dim light.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“It sure is. I need someone to install that stuff in my car.” We drive for another twenty minutes before I see the headlights reflect off the two doors that block the entrance to the underground lair below the fortress. Sage pushes another button, and they slowly open and we drive in, parking where the trucks had been previously.
He turns off the car, and we both just sit there, the adrenaline high gone.
“That was some pretty impressive driving,” I say as he pulls a rolled joint out of the cup holder and lights it up.
He inhales deeply before holding it out for me. “It sure fucking was. Your shooting wasn’t too shabby either,” he replies, blowing out a stream of smoke as I put the joint to my lips.
“Come on. A new shipment should have been delivered last night. Gio asked me to check it over. He had somewhere he had to be today.” I pass the rollie back to Sage and we both climb out of the car.
“He’s been doing that a lot,” Sage comments offhandedly, and I grunt.
“I know, but he’s still my brother, and I’m sure he will tell me what he’s doing eventually, even if it’s starting to piss me off and it makes him look suspicious, like he’s doing something he shouldn’t. I’m getting sick of covering for him with Dad too.”
“Maybe it’s a girl,” Sage remarks and gets out of the car before I can say anything. I scramble after him.
“Do you know something?” I demand, but he just mimes zipping his lips.
“Asshole. I’ll find out eventually, and then I’ll kick your ass,” I threaten him, and he just grins.
“It’s all just foreplay, baby, and you know it.”
We walk over to the familiar black crates, and I shove the lid off. No one else seems to be around today. I know these aren’t scheduled to leave for a few more days, but I want to make sure the inventory is all there. Sometimes they don’t give us everything they are supposed to. Looking down, I see this one is mostly handguns, but there are some military grade grenades inside as well. I pull out my phone to compare the list to what is actually in the box. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Sage fucking around and looking through the inventory, but I pay him no mind. Scanning through the sheet, I look down and count the grenades. There are supposed to be twenty, but I can only see nineteen. My adrenaline spikes, and I look at what my idiot friend is doing. Sure enough, he has one of them in his hand and he’s throwing it up and catching it. Before I can even open my mouth, too stunned to do anything but stutter, in what feels like slow motion, he puts the joint in his mouth and studies it closer.
“What’s this?” he mumbles around the cigarette in his mouth, and before I can stop him, he pulls the pin. It clicks, and I watch as comprehension dawns and he looks at me with horror.
“Sage, you fucking idiot. Throw it toward the door and run.” Luckily there is a big open space and no trucks in it today, and the car is far enough to the side to be safe. He follows my order, and we run the opposite way. He’s slightly behind me when we hear and feel it explode, throwing us off our feet. He catches me as we go to the ground, and I cushion his fall as I land between him and the concrete. A gush of air escapes my lungs, and I groan in pain.
We lie there a moment, trying to catch our breaths as I contemplate all the ways I can kill him. “Fucking get off me, asshole.” I demand as I squirm, but once again, something in his groin area starts to harden at my movement. “Are you fucking serious?”
He leans in and nuzzles my neck. “Sorry, baby, but you do feel good, and I feel like we just escaped death. I think we should fuck to reaffirm our lives.”
“Sage, the only thing you will be reaffirming if you don’t get off me is my foot up your ass.” I buck my hips a couple of times, and although his dick continues to harden, he rolls off me. I get to my feet, and luckily there doesn’t seem to be too much damage, just a small hole in the concrete. “You are going to tell Dad about that.” I point to it and storm away, leaving him chuckling on the ground.
“One day, Tori, one day.”
I don’t respond to his taunts, but I can’t help but think about how nice it felt to have him wrapped around me, even if it was for only a moment.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Since I no longer have a security detail, I scored myself some henchmen like Aunt Carla. Dad said they are assistants, but Dean and Sam have resigned themselves, with long suffering sighs, to being called henchmen, and their lives are much better for it.
