“I will,” I said, unable to hide my surprise but King was perceptive and knew his son.
I followed him out to the cars. War wouldn’t look at me and he got in a different car to the one I climbed into the back of. I wished I had chance to say goodbye to Wave, to let her know she didn’t have anything to worry about, but King was right. Time was slipping away from us, it was almost nearing midnight. There wasn’t much talk on the drive. We all knew what part we had to play. I checked my gun as we neared the neighborhood.
Casper was in my car with Widow driving and had a backpack that made me nervous. I’d seen one too many times what he was capable of, and that was the undeniable reverse of discrete. A message came through the group chat from Ink that told us nothing had changed in the house, except for a few lights going out.
Kansas had snuck out to the house earlier and disabled her alarm so we didn’t need to worry about that. He’d also cut the wires to the neighbors security light, which would be triggered if we passed by the sensors.
Casper and I headed along the street a few blocks away, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. I checked off the numbers on the houses until I could see number seven. There was some movement inthe driveway at the side of the house. There were no walls between this and the house next door, so we needed to stick to the shadows.
I glanced back at the street just before I rounded the corner and my heart lurched into my mouth as I saw someone striding towards us. I pulled my gun, I couldn’t chase away whoever it was but I may have to subdue them. I could hear the others working on the back door to get us inside before we were seen. As the person drew closer, I recognized her.
“Waverley. What the fuck?” I whisper shouted. She didn’t look in the least bit concerned that my face was thunderous. I grabbed her arm and pulled her around the back of the house.
Casper looked over and did a double take. He nudged Dirt, who also turned and his face went stony. No one could say anything right now because things were already in motion. Another figure appeared around the side of the house, causing everyone to freeze. It was Widow. His face was furious. He glared at Waverley.
“She climbed out of the fucking trunk and ran, Hustle. I tried to stop her,” he explained to me.
“Yeah, don’t think there is any stopping her,” I muttered, putting my hands on my hips. There was going to be so much shit over this. I couldn’t fucking believe she’d actually done it, or that none of these fuckers saw her getting in the god damn trunk of the car.
“It freaked me the fuck out,” Widow went on. “What the hell?” he said to Waverley.
King had come around from the other side of the house and stopped dead when he saw her. Then he came over and crowded us all against the back of the house.
“Shut the fuck up, do you want to blow this?” he looked between the three of us. “Are you out of your mind?” he asked Waverley. “How the fuck did you get here? And you,” he pointed at Widow. “Get back to the car where you’re supposed to be. We will talk about all of this when we get back, but it’s too fucking late now for this shit. You are in big fucking trouble,” he said to Waverley.
Widow turned to head back to the car. Dirt popped his head out of the door to Danica’s kitchen and gave each of us a look that said we were fucking this up. Only King, Dirt and War were going inside. Casper had gone to his post at the other side of the house.
“You stay outside,” King said in exasperation.
“No,” she shook her head to emphasize the point.
“Waverley,” I groaned at her but I looked to King. “We can’t leave her outside alone.”
King jammed his finger into my chest to reinforce his words. “It’s on you to keep her safe. You both stay back until we’re inside and have secured Danica. Then, and only then, might I consider letting you come in. I mean it, Waverley. You push me on this. Jesus fucking Christ,” he turned away from us then headed along the patio that led to the back door.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done,” I grabbed her arm and started towing her after me so we could get somewhere out of sight. Not only did I now have to babysit her, I also wasn’t on the team inside the house and couldn’t keep an eye on War.
“Outsmarted everyone?” she asked but her nonchalance faded quickly when she saw the expression on my face. “Stay behind you, keep my mouth shut and don’t do anything stupid.”
I hurried her across the paved patio, there was a screened porch attached to the house, the windows were only half height from the roof, the base was solid wood and there was a step up to the door with flowerpots around it.
All the lights were off, but it created a small, concealed space where no one could see us from the other houses. I didn’t like how wide open the garden was beyond, even if it was dark out there. I huddled her into the corner, away from the external door to the porch. I glanced down at her. She was all in black, her hair tied up. I still couldn’t believe what she’d done.
“How’d you even get out of the trunk?”
“Cars made after 2002 have trunk release buttons inside,” she told me. “It was mostly added to stop people being kidnapped,” she gave me a deadpan look.
“How did I not know that?”
“You ride a motorcycle and hate cars,” she whispered.
Fuck, I was so pissed right now. I kept shaking my head, looking all around to make sure we were still going undetected.
“Sorry,” Waverley said, staring at her feet. “I needed to be here. I’m part of this too.”
I didn’t answer her. I had no idea what King was going to do to her once we got back. Any goodwill she’d built up with the Prez was in the toilet now. Not to mention, she’d promised not to do anything to undermine me.
I should have fucking known she’d do something, I just never thought she’d hide in the trunk of the god damn car. I couldn’t believe she’d been lying back there the whole time and none of us had any idea. It was ingenious if you thought about it.
