“Signal has been given. Please be careful. Please. I really like all of you and I don’t want any of you to get hurt. And this is a really bad idea. Maybe the police could deal with it?” Ellis rambles.
“The police obviously can’t handle it or they’d have done something by now,” Henry says. “Proceed.”
Cassel and I slip around the corner at the same time. I reach the man with the rifle and just as I loop a hand around his neck, Cassel plucks the device out of his ear and puts a gun to his head. “Make a noise and we’ll blow your brains out,” Cassel whispers.
The man freezes and quickly drops the rifle he’d been gripping. I pause while I stare at the beauty and wonder how such an inconsequential man has such a beautiful masterpiece in his hands. It really is so pretty anddefinitelyshould be mine. My fingers stretch out for the beauty as Cassel drags him back.
“Help me, he’s really heavy,” Cassel complains while his tiny body struggles with the task at hand.
My job is also to pull this man back and signal the others to come, but would it really hurt anything if I just… took his gun with me? Do bad people even really deserve things this nice?
The man is stone still; I think he believes that if he doesn’t move, we’ll forget he exists. I use one hand to help Cassel and the other hand to pull my precious after me as the others join us. Jackson grabs him and begins binding him and Everly takes over holding him at gunpoint.
“What are you doing with that gun?” Jackson asks. Like shouldn’t he be paying attention to his new victim and not me? Why is his eyesight so phenomenally good?
“Nothing,” I say as I look away. “Just… moving it for you guys. I don’t want any of you to trip over it or something.”
Jackson stares at me like he’s very thankful that I was so thoughtful and not at all annoyed I’m taking the gun home with me. I can’t very well tote it into the children’s birthday party, so I tuck her in a nice little spot.
“Be careful,” Jackson says.
“I always am.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Grab my baby when you head out,” I say as I point at the gun.
“Absolutely not.”
“If you loved me, you would.”
“Maybe it’s because I love you that I won’t grab a gun that you don’t know the history of. Who knows what crimes that gun is tied to?”
I think he worries too much and decide I’ll have to come back for her myself before hurrying on my way.
Tavish, Cassel, Micah, and I now have a very limited opportunity to reach the wall that surrounds the estate. It’s broad daylight, so we have to rely on Ellis and Henry to keep us safe and guarantee that none of the other sentries will be looking our way when we make it across.
“This is so damn risky,” Tavish says. “And I love it.”
“Of course you do,” I retort as I hurry forward. I didn’t tell Jackson, but the main reason I left him behind was that I did not trust his ability to scale the fence. He would probably have kicked Tavish to the curb—which I would have enjoyed—and run out here just to prove he could… and then failed miserably.
I dash forward and reach the wall a moment before I hear a silenced gunshot. I jerk back, pulling Cassel with me since Micah and Tavish are too far from me.
While the gunsaresilenced, they can still be heard, so there’s the possibility that others have heard the shot the guard just took. So as the guard reaches for his earpiece, I reach for my gun but before I can, a bullet coming from a different direction than us hits his hand.
“FUCK,” he cries out, and Tavish takes advantage of his momentary surprise to pummel him to the ground, ridding him of his earpiece and his gun.
I look over to see Henry rushing onto the scene, gun drawn, black ski mask in place.
“Shit already going south?” I ask, wondering where the guy came from and how he saw us.
Henry sighs. “The coms aren’t working. We were trying to alert you about that guy the moment we saw him. I think something’s blocking our signal.”
“What?” Cassel asks, looking irritated. “I had everything perfectly in place. Shit. I need to get it up, but I have to be the one to get shit from Raul’s computer.”
“I’m tech savvy… ish. Like I know how to turn a computer on and off,” Micah says.
We all stare at him, positive that we’re all “tech savvyish” if that’s the only requirement.
