Page 35 of Taking Over the Dark

I want to live in the delusion for a day, so I plan to do just that. I’ll call him later when the guys are back home.

Home.

?*This isn’t their home, but a part of me wants it to be. Even with both of them living across the hall, I can’t lie and say I don’t like having them in my line of sight, knowing all three of them are safe. With the camera feed from the kitchen on half of my screen and the stadium feed on the other half, watching Nash and Zamir’s practice, I can relax and get some much-needed work done.

Before I know it, a couple of hours have passed, and my phone vibrating on my desk pulls my eyes off my computer screens. I look over, and it is Nash. Sliding the bar to accept the call, I answer, “Are you okay,Il Novellino?!”

I look over, and the stadium is cleared out. The background noise coming through my phone sounds like they’re in the car.“Right now, yes. But Zamir and Rhett think we’re being tailed.” I sent Rhett and Dino with them today for protection, not really thinking anyone would pop out so soon after us finding Nash and Ellie, but apparently, they’ve had other plans ready to go.

“Did they not learn the last time they pulled this shit?” I huff through the phone. I’m up out of my desk chair to go see what Ellie is doing.

Nash says, “Apparently not.” And I can hear the gears shifting in whatever car they decided to take today.

“I’ll call Noah and get him to pull from the cameras around to see if we can figure out who this is coming after us now,” I say as I walk out to the kitchen.

“Blair, can you get Noah on the phone? We need him to run cameras, but I don’t want to hang up with the guys.”

Ellie snaps her head over, asking me, “Are they okay?!”

“Yes. They have a tail right now. Nothing has happe—” I’m cut off by gunshots ringing through the speaker. Ellie gasps, then snatches Blair’s phone out of her gloved hands.

She dials Vin from what I can see over her shoulder, but Noah answers instead, “Butternut Biscuit, did you already miss me?”

The growl that comes from deep within my chest catches even me off guard, but we don’t have the time to focus on Noah’s tomfoolery right now.

“Noah, it’s Ellie. Nash and Zamir are being tailed as we speak, coming home from practice. Can you pull from the cameras around there and see if you can figure out who it is?”

“On it, boss.” I can hear his keyboard clacking away, and then he adds, “Marcello is Boss Daddy… you know what that makes you, Ellie?” He pauses a beat. “Boss Mami.”

Everyone besides me starts laughing, even Nash on the phone while he’s actively getting shot at. “You are all children.” I focus back on what’s happening. “Who’s driving Nash?”

“Zamir is.” I can picture him looking over at him in this moment. “He’s doing a damn good job at it too.”

“Nash, your teeth are next. You were not this happy while I was driving the getaway car.” Ellie huffs like she is serious, but the smile on her face says otherwise.

“Rhett, Dino, keep them safe.” I think for a second and then tell them, “Give Nash a gun and let him shoot.” He can put some of those sharpshooter skills to good use.

I hear the telltale sound of metal crushing. “Update—I don’t like not being able to see this.”

Noah walks through the door with his laptop, flipping his screen around. “Eyes are on them.” I watch as Nash’s window rolls down. He has his black hood up so you can’t see his face, not that Noah won’t be scrubbing all of this footage in seconds anyway, but they can never be too cautious. His body is out the window, and he aims at the driver’s side of the windshield and fires.

The black unmarked car looks like it stops gaining on them and eventually steers off into the sandy shoulders of the road.

Fuck, that was probably the first time he’s shot someone and not just a target at a range. Noah’s now sitting in front of Ellie at the table, working on what I’m sure is scrubbing the guy’s existence from ever being there. “Run that plate, too,” I instruct.

“Already did. Stolen car, so that doesn’t help us.”

If I had been with them, I would have turned the car around and dragged them from the car, but I didn’t want to risk Nash and Zamir, especially with them not being heavily armed. I need to keep them in this apartment until we can figure out where Zamir’s dad is hiding and end this all once and for all.

Ellie’s voice pulls me out of the spiral I was heading down in my mind when she says to Blair, “I want to chop my hair.”

Blair hesitantly agrees. “I only feel okay about doing this during a menty B because I’m just as good with extensions.” Iwould say she got her cockiness from my sister, but I think it may just be the one trait she got from me… and she’s not wrong; she is just as good with extensions.

I’m watching Noah’s screen with the phone trackers on Nash and Zamir, ensuring they’re almost here. I have messages from Rhett and Dino filling me in on what happened in code words, in case anyone ever gets through Noah’s encryption, per our protocol.

Ellie and Blair are done rinsing her color out, and Blair has the back of her hair chopped off as the guys enter the door.

“Honey, we’re home!” Nash yells through the apartment, then abruptly stops when he sees everyone right in front of him.

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