“No…no…I just…” He looked around for help but everyone was enjoying watching him struggle too much to intervene. “Ijust thought maybe she’d be feeling a little self-conscious, or something. You know how chicks can be.”
“How can they be?” Hype asked, his grin growing wider as Code’s mouth opened and closed a couple times as he tried to come up with what to say.
“Leave him alone,” Ruck said with a sigh, taking pity on the kid.
“Ho-ly fuck my life,” I sighed as I really thought about Code’s point. Rubbing a hand over my face, I could feel my blood run cold. Dev was my age, making her nearly twice the age of those girls. Pregnant women were known for getting insecure about their bodies, and here I was, about to send her down a river surrounded by sorority girls who liked to flash people for beers? She had a fucking amazing body, but the kid was right, how was she going to be feeling about it right now?
I didn’t give a fuck about those girls. Sure. Pretty women were nice to look at, but I had no interest in them. My focus was—and would remain—solely on Devyn. But I needed to make sure she realized that and maybe Code’s ideas would help. “Whatever, go on.”
Merc slapped me on the shoulder. I must have gone ghost white, because he was trying to reassure me. “Hey, I got you covered.”
“How?” I asked, hopeful to salvage this.
“Easy, look,” he got up and drew two circles on the board, “this is your tube, and this is hers.” He drew two lines off of each of them, making a roughly ninety-degree angle off each. “These are your fields of fire, or in this case, observation. So long as you’re looking at each other, and not at…threats…you’ll be good.”
“Yeah, but we’ll be spinning around the river the whole time, so she’ll be able to look over my shoulder and see the girls, then when we spin she might think that I’m looking past her. Atthem.” Not that I would be, but damn, I couldn’t stare at her the entire time or I’d look like a fucking creep. The idea that these guys were way over thinking this—and forcing me to as well—began to creep into my mind.
“Ah, but not if her field of view never looks toward the threat.”Never in my life did I think I would be, accurately, referring to college girls as a threat.“Are you forgetting who you’re talking to? Diver here,” Merc added.
“Hold up, are you suggesting…”
“That I stay submerged and guide your tube through the chokepoints, keeping her positioned to never see the beaches with young, nubile women? Why yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”
“That…could work,” I muttered, rubbing a hand over my face. I was too far into this to stop now. Merc had that look in his eyes. The one that said he wasn’t going to let this go anyway. “Thanks.”
Drifter was nodding along with us. “That will also mean you have someone there, too, in case you need him in the deeper areas. I’m sure your old lady can swim, but you know…just in case, Merc will be around, keeping an eye out.”
That made me relax once more. It made this ridiculous plan worth it. “What else?”
“Escape plan,” Ruck said, grabbing the marker from Kilo—who had been scribbling everything on the board. It was barely legible, but somehow we could all read it. That was what happened in the military, you learned to read the worst of the worst handwriting. Military members were as bad as doctors, didn’t matter the branch, you couldn’t read a fucking thing they wrote.
I leaned forward in my chair. “Alright.”
Ruck circled four spots on the picture. “These are your best exit points. Easy to get out of the river, and Relay will be able to pick you up a short ways away.”
“What?” Relay asked, looking confused. “Me?”
“You decided to bring everyone into this plan,” Ruck said with a smirk, “so you can help during the actual date.”
“I- You-” He sighed and scowled at me. “What fucking day you planning to do this?”
“Saturday,” I said with a grin. This was the perfect way to take revenge on him and piss him off at the same time. “It’s her next day off.”
“Can’t believe I’m giving up a Saturday for you,” he muttered, but he didn’t contradict Ruck’s orders.
It was over an hour later before Ruck had Merc, Hype, and Code leave so we could get to church. Ruck folded his arms over his chest. “Alright. The Collective.”
“They making a move?” I asked, eyes zeroing in on him.
“Not yet,” OD answered. “Or not as far as we know.”
“They will,” Ruck replied. “There’s no way they’ll sit back after we demolished Carrick’s crew. We took out an entire faction of their fucked up organization. A lot of money moved through Carrick. So, I just wanted to go over this all again before we get started.”
“So do we go on the offensive?” Relay asked, sounding hopeful. He’d made this suggestion before too, about a week ago when we discussed what to do about The Collective.
“Not yet.” Ruck rejected the idea again as he looked around the table. “You guys finished getting your shit taken care of?” Everyone was nodding. Ruck’s eyes stopped on me. “You’re not.”
I frowned. “Sure I am. Not like I can move Mom, Dad, and Isaac into the clubhouse. But I gave my dad the head’s up. They’ll be careful.”
