Taken by Her Prince

Colleen leaned against the door and stared out the window. “That’s it,” she said.

“Good.” I looked in the rearview. Luca, Simon, and Aldo were crammed in the back seat, with Aldo in the middle. He looked annoyed and kept throwing Colleen dirty looks, which I chose to ignore and forgive.

“You three ready?” I asked.

“Ready to get outta this car,” Aldo said.

Luca jammed his elbow into the stocky man’s side. Aldo grunted in return.

“We’re good, boss,” Luca said.

I turned to look at them. “No bullshit,” I said. “We’re not starting a fire like that asshole’s people did. We’re not looking to burn down this whole block.”

Luca nodded and stared out the window.

Fortunately, the whole block hadn’t gone up, and the fire department managed to keep the blaze under control. The Endless Well was totaled, and I was sure insurance wouldn’t cover it all, but that didn’t matter. We’d rebuild and make it better than ever, and in the meantime, we were going to get some sweet, delightful revenge.

“Guns up,” I said and opened my door.

“Wait.” Colleen leaned toward me. She reached out and pulled me closer and kissed my lips. “Good luck.”

I smirked at her, a surprise thump sweeping through my chest. I laughed as Luca rolled his eyes but I closed the door and went around the front, sliding my Glock out from my jeans.

Luca, Aldo, and Simon came out next, piling out from the back like a bunch of clowns. They came after me, jogging to keep up. I walked fast to the front door of O’Hare’s and turned as Simon came up next to me. He slipped a small lockpick set from his pants and began to get to work on the door.

The plan was simple. We’d get inside and smash the place. We’d find anything worth stealing and we’d steal it. And if anyone from the Club was inside, we’d kill them.

No fires, no bullshit like that. But we’d make sure the Club knew they couldn’t fuck around.

Lock picking took time. It wasn’t like in the movies. Simon was good at it, but it still took a few minutes to get the bottom handle open before he could start on the deadbolt.

“Just another minute,” he said.

Luca shifted from foot to foot. “We’ve been waiting too long,” he whispered.

“Nobody’s around,” Aldo said. “Relax, man.”

My eyes drifted back toward the car. Colleen was still in the passenger side, leaning against the window. I could feel her staring at us, and I could almost taste her anxiety.

Good, let her be anxious. I like it when she cared.

“Hate standing out here in the open like this,” Luca said.

“Not in the open,” Aldo said. “We’re under the awning?” He grinned and took a step to the right to shake the silver pole holding the awning up. “It’s nice—”

He didn’t get the last word out. A crack rang out in the night and a bullet pinged off the pavement an inch from where Aldo was standing. If he hadn’t moved, that shot would’ve taken his skull clean off his head.

“Down!” I shouted. I grabbed Aldo and pulled him to the ground as more shots rang out. They pinged off the ground around us. Simon grunted and gasped in pain as I shoved Aldo forward. Luca crawled to the cars and crouched there, his gun out.

“Where are they!” Luca yelled.

More gunshots blared in the night. Aldo got into cover with Luca, but I was caught half way between the cars and Simon. I stared as Simon fell to one knee, a hand on his arm, blood dripping from his fingers.

“Simon’s hit!” I called. “I need help!”

“I don’t know where they are,” Luca said. More gunshots rang out as he peeked his head up and almost took a bullet in the eye.

“Shoot your fucking guns,” I said. “Right now.”

Aldo and Luca both came up firing at the house across the street. They aimed high, shooting for the roof. That seemed to work as the fire coming down at us slowed. I got up and ran to Simon. I grabbed him and pulled him along, pulled him into cover as Luca and Aldo dropped back down.

The gunshots started up again.

“Roof opposite,” Aldo said. “I saw his barrel just before he came back up.”

“All right.” I held my Glock steady. “We need to back off.”

“Fuck that,” Luca said.

“He has the drop on us,” I said. “And the longer we wait, the more Club guys will show. We gotta move.”

“Fuck,” Simon groaned. “Fuck I’m shot. Oh, fuck, it hurts.”

I shook Simon and growled in his face. “Deal with it,” I said. “We gotta run. You gonna run?”

“Yeah,” he said, his eyes wild with fear. Sweat dripped down his pale skin. I saw freckles on his nose, freckles I’d never noticed before, and his pores looked huge and bloated. His dark eyes rolled back toward where the sniper was hiding on the roof then back to me. “Yeah, I can run.”