“Oh, pish posh,” she waved off his concern. “What’s the ETA on the police?”
He didn’t seem willing to let the topic of her being unarmed go. “When are you going to learn you can’t just toss your life away like this? What the fuck do you think would’ve happened if you got shot?”
“I did get shot, see!” Lorelai pointed to the bullets still embedded in her vest. “I turned out just fine!
Now, Taylor looked like he was a second away from having an aneurysm. Even in the low light, I could see his face turning impressive shades of red bordering on purple. Lorelai, on the other hand, was unfazed by the whole ordeal. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, turning in a slow circle to take in all the damage. “Man, what a feckin’ mess!” Her head tilted down to the dead shooter at her feet, nudging his head to the side to get a better look at his face with the toe of her boot. “Get some IDs on these assholes first. I wanna know who thought they could fuck around and not have to find out what shootin’ up the club brings them.” The longer she spoke, the more that lilting accent from before wove through her words. If I had to guess, she was Irish. How she covered it so well before was impressive.
“Yes, ma’am,” Taylor responded with a snide tone. “Anything else, princess?”
The camaraderie between them spoke of a sibling relationship. Lorelai was a good head shorter, but their facial structures were eerily similar—tall noses with heavy smatterings of freckles across them, high cheekbones, heart-shaped faces tapering intonarrow chins, and the same emerald eyes. They were a striking pair.
Lorelai snapped and pointed at him with a finger gun. “Actually, yeah! Did you bring your bike?”
Taylor ground out, “Yes, I did. How else was I going to get here fast enough?”
“Sweet!” she chirped. “Imma need to borrow it. Call Jerel and have him give you a ride."
“Why don’tyoucall and ask him to pickyouup?”
Lorelai rolled her eyes. “Because I’m not leaving right this second. I’m gonna have to talk to the police, and get the club put back together, and talk to the staff, etcetera, etcetera. Butyou,” she jabbed the center of his broad chest with her pointer finger, “are gonna start making some calls to the other bosses and see if anyone knows about this. Got me? I wanna know who’s trying to start shit.”
“This would have been easier if you’d left someone alive,” he grumbled, casting a disgruntled look at the aftermath.
“You’re the one who shot the last guy! Don’t be bitchin’ at me for making more work for yourself. Now, git, I have shit to do.”
With that, Lorelai stepped over the dead shooter and took the stairs up to the second floor, leaving Taylor and me to stare up at her with varying degrees of awe and annoyance. Then his gaze fell down to glare at me. “And who the fuck are you?”
I tried to exude nonchalance where there was nothing but barely contained panic. “No one special. Just a customer who got caught up in all this.” I waved my hand around to gesture at the mess. Now did not seem like a great time to mention I was working for another mob boss’s underling. “I’m happy to get out of your hair while you deal with the cleanup.”
“Oh, fuck that!” Taylor’s beefy hand gripped almost all the way around my biceps before I could turn away. “You’re staying right here ‘til we get some answers out of you.”
“Really, there’s no need–” I began.
“I got this one, T. You start rounding up the staff and catch the police at the door until I get up there.” Lorelai came traipsing down the stairs with a red helmet tucked under her arm and a black jacket similar to what she wore before, covering her arms once again, this time without the Kevlar vest. A helmet with a logo I’d seen only a few days prior. As she walked up to Taylor, she shoved the helmet into his chest to catch it from barely hitting the ground and began to unravel the mess the braid in her hair had become.
He cursed bitterly. “Feckin' brat. Can you at least wait so you’re not riding off on your own?”
The sweet smile that spread across her pink-glossed lips did not match the feral spark in her green eyes. “Will it get you off my ass if I do?”
“Forgive me for trying to keep you alive.”
“Tick tock,” she tapped the top of her wrist with a finger. “Do as I asked, please. I got shit to do tonight.”
Taylor passed the helmet off to me. Shocked that I got dragged into this, I almost fumbled it too. Lorelai was busy running her fingers through the snarls in her hair, wincing on a particularly brutal knot. She leaned to the right to scrape it all over a shoulder, fingers deftly weaving the three pieces together to redo the braid and tying it off. And the whole time, her eyes never left mine.
“So tell me your story.”
I tried to keep my face blank. My expertise was not really in espionage, and my ability to come up with a believable lie was even weaker. Andrea was pretty clear that it wouldn’t benefit me if the Red Riot found out I was here under his order. And obviously, Lorelai was deep in the ranks.
“I’m currently employed by Frank DeNiro,” I answered plainly. It didn’t seem like I was getting out of this without beingvague after all. “But before you ask, I don’t think he’s involved in this. He doesn’t have the authority.”
She shot me a dubious look. “Uh huh. And I’m supposed to believe you because?”
“Well,” my eyes shifted to look over her shoulder. Staring straight into her stare made me unexpectedly nervous. And her smell teased my senses to the point of distraction. Movement caught my attention, and my eyes narrowed at the burly man sidling up behind Lorelai. He still had that creepy mask with the red-stitched smile covering the lower half of his face and a rifle held loosely in his hands. “From what I understood, Mr. DeNiro was on decent terms with the Red Riot. And I can say with certainty thathisboss wouldn’t organize a hit like this without provocation.”
“Again, I ask. What isyourpart in all this? You expect me to believe you, someone who openly works for another group, just happened to be here the same night the club gets shot up? And you managed to get out unscathed?” She had finished off the braid, flicking it over her shoulder without breaking her stare. “Why were you here tonight?”
Shit.“Just curious, I guess. It seemed like a good idea to familiarize myself with Frank’s business partners, in case I need to work with them later.”
