Page 3 of Hell's Fear

“If we run, you know full well what she’d do. Plus, the other teams have already done this. I ain’t letting no fucker lord it over me,” Inglorious stated.

“They’d brand us cowards,” Davies agreed.

“I bet my Harley they all had the same conversation,” I said adamantly.

“Yeah, but they stuck it out, or the women would have tittle-tattled,” Rock pointed out.

“True. Can you imagine Artemis, Thalia, Molly, Casey, Irish or Autumn keeping their mouth shut if the other teams didn’t do this? The old ladies would have crowed about it,” Ezra responded.

“Shit news on Irish returning without her snitch,” Chance muttered.

“That’s life,” Ezra said with a shrug.

“Lindsey certainly would have had Lowrider by his balls if he went yellow-bellied,” Shotgun remarked.

“Yup, they did this. We have to,” Fish moaned.

“Phoe worked with Marissa on this. I’m just hoping it’s not going to be a repeat of a couple of years ago,” I said.

“Which time?” Shee asked, laughing.

“Yeah, the lunacy of last year, with Dave Schrader, Marissa’s maze, or the hellhole she turned Reading Hall into?” Hunter demanded.

“And let’s not forget the other Halloweens she did when it was just Hellfire,” I muttered.

“Mum certainly goes all out on this holiday. She does all holidays huge, but this one she really loves,” Fanatic said.

“Don’t you have a clue what your mom has planned?” Calamity inquired.

Fanatic shook his head. “Nope. Mum doesn’t share plans with anyone, and my siblings wouldn’t tell me what this was about, either. Trust me, I tried the big brother tactics, and they all laughed.”

“So, nobody has an idea what we’re walking into?” Shee asked.

“This ain’t good. It’s escape rooms, which means we have to use our brains, and those clues are abstract,” Calamity complained.

“What fuckin’ brains? We got cops, PIs, and bikers,” Inglorious stated with a bark of laughter.

“I suppose the positive is that there’s not a penalty if we fail to escape,” Ben said, sending Inglorious a dark look. “And speak for yourself, fucker. Us cops have brains, we need them to solve crimes.”

Everyone offered Inglorious and then Ben the stink eye.

“Now you’ve mentioned penalties, you’ve jinxed us. Any bets on Phoe setting up consequences for those who can’t escape?” I asked, knowing full well Phoe had done that.

With a united glower, we all turned and glared at Fanatic. My nephew made me chuckle as he scowled right back. “Don’t blame me for Mum!” he clipped his English accent on full show.

“You snooty little shit!” Shee teased, and Fanatic stared at him.

“If Fanatic ain’t got that look from Drake and Chance, I’m a monkey’s uncle,” Chatter murmured.

“You have started getting hairier. Chey commented on it the other day,” Celt replied, and I choked on my laughter.

“Why the hell is Chey looking?” Chatter shot back.

Celt opened his mouth, closed it, and looked disturbed. “Good fuckin’ question!” he finally said.

Lights appeared in the car park we were waiting in, and we saw the limo arrive. Thirteen women spilled out, all clearly in a good mood.

I smiled as my woman made her way to me. Clio was bouncing with excitement, and I forced a smile to my lips. This was going to be a shit show for the men, it always was, but the girls were in a great mood. That warmed me.

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