“Nope.”
“No way.”
“Not happening.”
All three of them speak at once, making me frown. “Why not?”
“You know the deal, Wren,” Sly says for the tenth time. “Once you can hit the target ten times in a row without missing, you can carry a gun.”
“You’re mean.”
“You love me like this.”
I try not to smile because, lord knows, I do love his bossiness.
“Where are we heading to next?” Pete asks.
“Elias said he’d let us know today after he finishes his research on the case,” I tell him.
Since we didn’t need to take on cases for money, we did them for free, but we did extensive research into the target and the case. Well, Elias mostly did the digging, then if he thought the target was worthy of our efforts, he’d bring it to the rest of us.
We’d only been going at it a few months and had already taken out a half dozen criminals. And these guys had all been real lowlifes. Pedophiles, murderers, and rapists who the system had failed. We made sure to stay completely anonymous,and Elias set up a place on the dark web where we could be contacted.
Word of mouth seems to spread fast, because we get requests almost every day. Not all of them meet our criteria, though, which is why we have such an in-depth screening method. Elias and Jagger take care of all that stuff, though. They are also in charge of giving all of us shooting lessons.
Pete is in charge of cardio training, and Dex does our weight training. Sly, well, he likes to boss us all around. He calls it “running the house,” and I have to admit he does a good job at making sure there’s always food in the fridge, clean clothes in our drawers, and freshly made beds.
Since we all hated cleaning, he hired cleaners to come in once a week, and Sly handled the laundry himself. I help him fold it all and put it away, and he often helps me with cooking. I don’t make every meal; they refuse to let me, but I do it often for us. I enjoy it now. Not only did I never cook alone, but they were always so appreciative that it made me want to do it more often for them.
As Sly pulls into our driveway, I see Jagger cleaning his bike. He and Pete had decided to get motorcycles, and I couldn’t get enough of riding with them. The thrill of the ride and the vibration between my legs always had me ready to tear their clothes off the second we got home. It was probably the reason they were always offering to take me out for a ride, now that I think about it.
Dex bought a big pickup truck, saying it would come in handy, and it did on several occasions. Elias drives our suped-up SUV, similar to the one we sort of traded away last year. And Sly? His car is my favorite. A black Porsche 911. It only holds two people, so when I get to be his passenger, it’sjust the two of us zooming down the windy roads around our Montana home.
I was secretly hoping I could get my driver’s license so I could drive it myself one day. I’m not sure that’s going to happen now, but at least I still get to ride in it.
As I climb out of the car, Jagger stands and walks over to me signing,“How did it go?”
“Sly banned me from driving,” I tell him with a pout.
He raises an eyebrow at Sly in question. “She almost hit another lamppost. Said she didn’t see it.”
Jagger turns back to me and signs.“It’s safer this way.”Then he wraps his arm around my shoulders and leads me through the garage and into the house.
“Wren?” Elias says when he sees us enter the kitchen. “What happened?” he asks when he sees my face.
“She’s banned from driving,” Pete answers as he opens the fridge and pulls out bottles of water and passes them around. “For life.”
“Did you hit another curb?” Elias asks.
“No! I didn’t hit anything,” I say in defense.
“She almost hit a lamppost,” Sly explains again.
“Ah. Well, think of it this way, Wren,” he says, turning to me. “You get to just relax and enjoy being driven around.”
“I didn’t think I was that bad,” I mumble as Sly walks into the living room.
“You are,” he says over his shoulder, hearing me despite the distance.
