Page 21 of I'm Not in Love (I Promise)

Leon jumps in. “I’m sorry to come by unannounced. I’m Randy, we’ve been talking.” King’s sharp eyes narrow. “From Florida,” Leon adds.

The man standing to his left bends to speak into his ear and realization blooms on King’s face. “Randy, that’s right.” He drums his fingers on his desk. “Why are you here and who are your… friends?”

“We can leave,” one of the seated men says. “It’s no problem.”

King laughs and my skin crawls. So much for Costco dad. This guy’s creepy. “I’m not done with you two. Stay awhile. Finish your drinks.” He focuses back on us. “Go on.”

I stay locked in on the three men around the desk while Leon stumbles over his words. “I have a lead… some girls. The pick up’s tomorrow. I wanted to bring you in… Call it a good faith gesture.”

King clasps his hands together and laughs again. This time my hand inches toward my gun. “And what makes you think I’d be interested in that, Randy?”

Leon’s quiet for a moment as the tension in the room rises. “Based on our conversations. You mentioned girls and I?—”

Both men shift, drawing their weapons before I can react, but Jasper’s quicker than I am. He faces them, gun drawn. Leon and I follow suit, aiming our weapons at the three men behind the desk.

“Do you think I’m stupid, Randy? You come here, to my place of business unannounced, and expect me to what? Agree to work with you?” The two men in front of the desk try to abandon their seats but he fixes his gaze on them. “Did I tell you to move?”

“No—no, but?—”

King nods to the man on his left and he shoots one of them in the leg. “Try to move again… I dare you,” he says.

They curse and bite back screams. My focus isn’t on them, not while guns are still pointed at us.

“Greg, remind me to can those two idiot bouncers for not patting these ones down,” King says. “Where was I?”

“Listen,” I say. “We’ll leave right now and forget this ever happened.”

They laugh and look behind me where two more guys have appeared from nowhere. They’re blocking the door, their weapons drawn.

Jasper and I exchange glances, while Leon seems to be deep in thought.

“I don’t think so,” King says. “What’s going to happen is you three idiots will drop your weapons and walk slowly over there.” He points to the back side of the wall near the metal shelves. “Then my boys will pat you down.”

I blink at Jasper, trying to relay my thoughts. Leon catches my eye and jerks his chin slightly. “And what if we refuse?” I ask.

“Then you die, genius,” the stocky guy to the right says. “Lower your weapons.”

With my hand shaking, I begin to squat, but at the last second, I aim and shoot out the overhead light above us. The distraction causes all out chaos to ensue. Leon and Jasper drop low, firing their weapons. I manage to hit the stocky one and he goes down.

Sparks drop from the ceiling as I duck behind a box and fire off a few more rounds. “Let’s go,” I shout, hoping the guys can hear.

King cowers behind his desk. Figures, a guy like him is all talk. I’m dangerously low on ammo. I assume Jas and Leon are too.

Gun pointed at the remaining two, I crouch and head toward the door, hugging walls and boxes. I’m so close. Right there.Bam!A bullet smashes into the wall beside my head. Fuck. I aim and fire, hitting one of them in the shoulder.

“D,” Leon calls. “Come on.” He’s made it to the door with a hunched over Jasper by his side. Steeling myself, I dart forward and follow them out the door. I grab a nearby chair and jam it under the doorknob. It should buy us a few minutes.

“Fuck!” I yell. “We can’t go through the club. There’s gotta be a back entrance.” Jasper groans and Leon hangs back, sinking to the floor. Jasper’s shirt is soaked through with blood. “Shit, Jasper. Hang in there.” I face a frozen Leon, shock catching up with him. “Hey, stay with me. We gotta get the fuck outta here. Hold him up, I’ll grab the other side. They’re gonna come for us. We didn’t kill them all.”

Leon nods and speaks low to Jasper. He’s the biggest of the three of us so carrying him isn’t easy. I spot an exit sign glowing in the dim hallway and say a silent thanks that one thing’s working in our favor. We stumble to my car and drape Jasper’s groaning form into the passenger seat.

“He needs a hospital,” Leon says. “But fuck, they’re going to ask what happened to him. What do we say? We can’t tell the truth.”

“Let’s just get the hell out of here and we can figure something out on the way,” I say.

“Y-yeah, alright,” Leon stutters. He climbs in the back and takes off his shirt. “Jas, here, hold pressure.”

Jasper groans and presses the shirt against his shoulder. “Fucking hell.”

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