“Four.”
I paused. “Find us one last route. If shit really does go south, I want a route for each of us to take just in case we have to split up.”
Angel nodded as he backtracked through the crowd. “On it. Give me about twenty minutes, and I’ll be ready with that last route.”
“Anything else?” I asked as I held out my arms.
And when no one said anything, I smiled. “Then, let’s get ourselves in the right frame of mind. Tonight is going to be hard, even though it’s going to free us. You need to be ready to kill at the drop of a hat, all right?”
I clapped my hands together, dismissing the guys before I watched them all go their separate ways. Viper grabbed a few more things out of the closets before locking them up, and as I stood there in the silence of that dead-end hallway, I ran down the plan in my mind. Goose and Angel were preparing the last few things before we could load Reaper and his shit into the van, then it was up to Viper to go with Angel in order to plant the improvised explosives we wanted to install all around the north side of that dock where those containers were going to be stationed. The plan was to set those off at pointed moments in order to distract the asshats that decided to get in our way while also funneling the women toward us. Because while we wanted to take out Bullet and his men, I didn’t want to hurt those women, nor did I want to take out the dockhands if I could stand it.
Even if they had taken Bullet’s rape money.
From Reaper’s computer in the back of the van, he’d be able to control the explosives from at least half a mile away, though I wanted him closer in case it became an all-hands-on-deck type of scenario. But since he’d only be parked a block or so down from the dock in question—and covered in bushes, to boot—I didn’t worry so much about his proximity as I did the volatility of those explosives.
Because even just running up and down the fucking dock might set them off.
Still, that would give me, Bender, and Angel the ability to rush into the firefight with Bullet while Goose stuck to the outer northern edge to catch the girls that I knew would run away from the explosives. And as I stood there in the hallway, breathing in the confident silence that swirled around me, a grin crossed my face.
I couldn’t wait to see the look on Bullet’s face when he realized that he’d finally been bested. Then maybe, just maybe, after killing her sister’s captor, Julia would forgive me.
Even though I had no fucking clue why the hell that was so god damn important in the first place.
18
JULIA
“It’s no use,” my sister said as I rushed past her, “we don’t have a way to get out of here.”
I shook my head as I searched for doors I hadn’t thrown open yet. “There’s always a way out.”
“Why can’t you just accept that he’s trying to help you?”
I whipped around and stared my sister down. “And why can’t you just accept the fact that I get to have control over my own life?”
She folded her arms over her chest. “So, that’s what this is about? Control? You’re pissed that he’s doing what’s best for you because you don’t like the decision? Well, what about me? What about how I feel about the decision?”
I shook my head as I turned my back to her. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“You mean, I wouldn’t understand the fact that you’re in love with Fangs?”
I froze at her words, unable to speak.
“Well,” she scoffed as she flopped down onto something soft, “you should know as well as anyone on this planet that your assumption is a lie.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Tee. I’m just—”
“You just want to stand by your man’s side and help him out. I get it.”
I leaned my forehead against the wall and did my best not to cry. How could he do this to me? I thought Fangs and I had come to an understanding. I thought—
No matter what I thought, I had obviously thought wrong.
“Tee?” I asked softly.
She sniffled. “I’m not giving you my permission to run straight into a firefight that will kill you.”
“I’d never ask you to do such a thing.”
