“I said shut up, bitch!” yelled the first man.
“Again, don’t call me bitch,” said Lucy in a sing-songy voice. “It’s just very disrespectful. You didn’t need to shoot the dog by the way. We would have come without you hurting him. Now you’ve only pissed him off and probably the whole family. We love our dogs.”
“God, what do I have to do to shut you up!”
“I told you, we don’t generally take orders very well and we won’t be shutting up. It’s important that you understand your situation. Within a few minutes, maybe less, there will be a group of men storming through that door. You won’t hear them, you won’t see them, and you damn sure won’t identify them.
“When they have safely removed Rachel and me, they will proceed with killing you in the most brutal ways possible. If you think Santori owns the book on that, you’re wrong. See, one of the men that will come through that door will be my father. He gets angry a lot. Chaos was his dog.”
The men stared at one another, then back at the women.
“Lucy and Rachel. Keep talking we’re almost to you.”
“It’s obvious that Santori didn’t tell you who our family is. I mean, why would he? You’re dispensable. He’s trying to get a rise out of our family and I’m guessing, he wants something we have,” said Rachel.
“He wants his fucking worthless nephew,” said one of the men. “Tell us where he is and we’ll let you go.”
“No, no, that’s not how this works,” laughed Lucy.
“Good girls. Keep talking. When I count down, hit the floor.”
“You’re going to have to play nice with us and let us go before you get any cooperation with our family.”
“I swear to fuck if they don’t stop talking,” started the second man.
“Three, two, one!”
Lucy and Rachel rolled to the floor curling into a ball as the men stared at them. The front door shattered into a million pieces as Tailor and Alec stormed through, splintered the wood frame as they did.
Behind them were Gaspar and Ghost. Antoine and Luc kneeled beside the two girls, lifting them in their arms and calmly walking out.
“Hey, Uncle Antoine,” smiled Lucy.
“Hi, honey. You good? You good, Rachel?”
“I’m good now,” she smiled. Antoine set her down by the car, Chief and Sniff waiting for their wives. Luc cut the zip ties and both women fell into their arms.
“Sorry,” said Rachel. “We knew you would come for us. How is Chaos?”
“How is Chaos? Rach, I don’t give a shit right now about the fucking dog,” said Chief with tears in his eyes. “How are you?”
“Us? We’re fine. We were annoying the crap out of them. I think they’ll be happy to have us out of their hair.”
Sniff held Lucy tight to his chest, kissing her face over and over again.
“It’s okay, honey. We’re fine. We knew you’d track us. We pressed the buttons immediately. Honestly, I thought you’d be here sooner.”
“The radio tower was interfering with the signal. Hiro finally shut it down,” said Sniff. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“We’re perfect,” she said kissing him again. “Thanks Uncle Antoine, Uncle Luc. Love when you sweep me off my feet.”
“Don’t make it a habit girl. I’m old and can’t afford to have years knocked off my life.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
With the women safely on the planes back to Louisiana, the entire Robicheaux Ranger team, plus Tailor and Ghost with them, the men knew they were going to be fine.
“Now, let’s give our friend a call,” said Chief. He dialed Santori’s number and was surprised when the man answered with a smile on his face.
