Junior reaches back and grabs the rope of Paulson. “And we’ll throw this guy in for good measure.”
The Henchman is silent for a few beats and then says, “We’ll take the cook but not the pig. He needs to go back to his daddy.”
The other two bikers laugh as if this is hilarious. Paulson makes some muffled retort and that makes the bikers laugh even harder.
“I think you’ll take them both.” Junior pushes Paulson to his knees and then moves to the side.
Just as we planned.
Two shots whistle through the air, the muffled boom of the gunpowder echoing down the lake. Henchmen one and two drop to their knees. The leader pulls out his gun and shoots at his nearest targets—Paulson and Trainor. Then a bullet catches the Henchmen leader in the shoulder and another in the chest. He spins like a top and collapses. The whole thing takes under a minute. I text Chelsea.
Mission complete. Will need a pick up in five.
On it.
Junior and Moose pick themselves up from the ground where they dropped before the first shots were fired. Mia is still down and Junior rushes over to her.
“Are you hit?” he rolls her over.
It’s too dark for me to see anything. I race toward them, flicking my safety on and shoving my gun into the arm holster that Easy fitted me with earlier.
“What happened?” The whole point in getting Trainor and Paulson on their knees was so I’d have a clear shot at the Henchmen.
Mia moans, rolling her head from side to side. Junior is frantically patting her down. Moose is on his knees, beside them.
“Are you okay?” he keeps repeating. “Are you okay?”
“Fuck I can’t see shit here,” Junior curses.
“We need to get moving. The gunshots are bound to generate attention.” Hurriedly I carry out the rest of the plan. I cut the zip ties from Paulson and Trainor and then place my gun in Paulson’s hands. Moose and Junior are too preoccupied with Mia to help but Big appears, finally, and help me rip off the duct tape. He drops his own hot gun into Trainor’s hand.
Our hope is that the police will take a cursory look at this and decide that it was a drug deal gone wrong. Someone double crossed someone else and they all died in a fiery shootout.
It might not explain the slit throats of the Henchmen crew in the woods, but police are inventive. They’ll come up with some lie to explain the dozen or so homicides without too much paperwork.
“Let’s go, brother,” Big says in a gentle but firm voice.
Junior swallows and nods. He picks Mia up in his arms, refusing to let Moose touch her. Big and I drag branches over our footsteps as we follow the three into the brush and away from the shore.
26
CHELSEA
Our departure from Wirth Lake is delayed when Moose and Junior argue over who is going to take Mia home. She wasn’t shot. Instead, she fainted when the gunshots were exchanged— part in fear, part in exhaustion. She looks terrible.
I want to bring her home with me but by the way that Junior is holding her, I figure I have a better chance at taming a tiger. Grant is conversing quietly with Abel and Easy which leaves me alone with Big. So uncomfortable.
“You ever going to look me in the eye again?”
“No,” I answer and continue staring into the night sky. “Lots of stars out tonight.”
He laughs and takes a step closer. A hand on my chin tilts me down so I’m forced to look at him. He presses his thumb to the bottom of my lip.
“No worries, sweetheart. I’m not here to horn in on any guy’s territory let alone a fellow brother. But someday I’m going to get a girl who looks at me like you look at Wrecker.”
“How’s that.”
“Like he hung the moon and stars for you.”
“I-I-” I can’t actually get words out because I don’t know what to say. Big is a gorgeous guy but Grant’s the only one for me. Big smiles, though, and presses his finger against my lip.
“You don’t need to say anything. I know that the other night you enjoyed it because Wrecker was there and that if he wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have gotten to touch you. That’s okay. I enjoyed the hell out of it but I’m not going to lie. I want what the two of you have. Not many people connect the way you two do. Take Riot and Mandy. They have a complicated relationship that goes way back. And they’ve hurt each other and loved each other and hurt each other again. You gotta make sure you’re outside the zone of danger. Got me?”
His hand drops. I nod rapidly, relieved that his curious touch is gone because he is so very fine. “I got you.”
“Don’t want you to suffer a bad bystander injury.”
“I appreciate the heads up.”
Grant peels away from Abel and Easy and strides toward us. My breath catches in my throat. “Sorry we took so long. You ready?” He rubs his hands along my upper shoulders and pulls me in for a quick kiss. “Everything okay out here?” he asks Big.
Big nods. “Peachy. You know, Wrecker, you are one lucky sonuvabitch. You know that right?”
Grant stills, his hands tightening around my shoulders. He pulls me closer and jerks his chin upward. “I know it.”
We turn toward the truck together, our arms wrapped around each other’s waist when his phone rings. He pulls it out of his pocket and looks at the Blocked Identity flashing on the screen. When he doesn’t answer it, I pluck it out of his hands and press the speaker key.
A cool voice blasts into the quiet night. “It’s like you don’t even care about your attorney.”
“Who the fuck is this?” Grant barks.
“You cost me eight good men tonight so I took your lawyer. Think about how you can make this right.”
The phone goes dead.