“This is so exciting,” Spenser says as he walks up with his boyfriend, Carmine.
“I’ve only been to one of these,” Carmine tells us.
“I love seeing Lucy like this,” Spenser smiles, then looks over to Jesse. He rolls his eyes. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about… unless you go back that butcher of a barber. Then I’ll stab you with my scissors.”
“I already said I was sorry,” Jesse tells him.
I snicker.
“Jesus,” Linc mutters. “Is everyone in this group scary?”
“They’re definitely not shy,” I inform him.
There’s a loud noise, like a car backfiring. I look to the street for the piece of shit, but Linc’s shoving us all to the ground as another pop, then another and another, and then there’s a blast. Fire and heat close it singes the hair on my hands.
“Lucy!” Jesse bellows.
She coughs and crawls her way over. “Jesse.” He pulls her close.
“You okay?” Linc asks.
“Fine. What about everyone else?”
I see Damian and Celeste, Sera and Cage all checking on the others. I spot Meggie’s bright pink hair and Trace rolling off of her. They’re all okay.
“Where’s Joey?” Damian asks.
Spenser and his guy are shaking, but fine. Simone and Carmen are unscathed.
But no Joey.
Everyone’s looking, and when I move forward, Linc pushes me back.
“Don’t, E. Don’t look,” Linc says, and it’s then I know it’s bad.
Linc signals Damian over. “I think he got caught up in the blast,” Linc mutters.
Damian looks over and frowns, anger and grief come and go quickly.
Lucy’s running over and Damian stops her. “Where is he? Where’s Joey?”
“Luce,” Damian starts. She looks at him and shakes her head.
“No! No, no, no!” she screams and wails, her heart breaking as she catches a glimpse of her brother lying amongst the rubble and debris—and not in one piece.
“Motherfucker,” Cage yells. He’s on the phone, likely with Gio, telling him what just went down. The fire department and ambulances, police sirens all fill my ears.
I look over and what I see isn’t Joey Russo. It’s devastation. It’s carnage. It’s telling me someone had a point to make and they didn’t care who got hurt while they did it.
We’re all gathered together, just as we were when we arrived.
“Is anyone hurt?” Damian asks.
No one’s hurt.
“Let’s go back to CFD and we’ll call in our personal physicians and nurses to make sure. We’re going on lock down,” Damian announces.
“What does that mean exactly?” Spenser asks.
