Page 98 of Rivals & Revenge

After a few tense moments, the venom won. “You can fuck right off with that. I will out shoot you with my scout any day of the fucking week—twice on Friday!” she challenged.

He chuckled, “I think I’d like that. Maybe Rossdale can come and bring his antique too.”

“You do know it’s not the tool. It’s how you use it, right?” I quipped.

That earned me a laugh from the girls. Henri went silent, most likely searching for a proper comeback.

"Why?" Tierney asked, helping Connor strip off her blood-soaked clothes.

"You said you were done helping. That you had gone as far down that road as you intended to." She asked, giving voice to my question.

"Ahren said you were being set up. He already paid for me to stand down, but the way he defended you—let's just say it made me curious."

"You could have told me." I growled.

He laughed. Fucker seemed to think our panic was funny. "And have that crazy bitch fucking with my life. Hard pass."

"Why didn't you shoot sooner?" Connor rasped, her chest still heaving after her near miss.

"Sorry about that," he said, for once sounding contrite. "She had awful trigger discipline. Her finger curled around the trigger. It wasn'tuntil she lost her grip and had to pick it back up that she faltered and I saw an opening."

"Thank you. As long as you aren't shooting at these two, I will give you a lifetime of patch jobs." She choked out a half laugh.

"Generous offer, but I don't like living off charity. I pay my debts. Patch me up a couple times and we'll call it even. Get my number from Rossdale."

"By the way, it's Christmas for you two." his laugh echoed in the empty yard. "No more looking over your shoulder. The order has been permanently canceled."

"So who the fuck was shooting at us?" Tierney piped up.

"Rogues I guess. She probably paid them directly. I can only say they weren't sanctioned. Either way, they're dead."

"Thanks for the ear, by the way. You couldn't have helped take some of those bastards out before I got shot?"

"Nah. You know how it goes, man. The first shot is a surprise. After that, you give away your position. I only had one shot to get her."

"Yeah. I get it. You didn't want to waste it. I know." I agreed.

"Ok. I'll ask. How'd you get the order canceled?" Tierney asked, raising her hand like a schoolgirl in class.

"I told you, I did some digging. Found a lot of things that didn't add up. Like Rossdale said, they should have sent him after you or a top hitter from another region. Sending the order to newbies, that made no sense. I took everything I found to the new broker, and she agreed to cancel on her end without notifying the client. Just so you know, this is only the second time something like this has happened where they took the client's money but refused the job. You should feel special. "

"Special probably isn't the right word. But I am deeply grateful. Thank you."

She turned to me. “I'm going to finish helping Larissa get cleaned up and dressed in something not covered in blood.”

I nodded, tapping off the speaker, lifting the phone to my ear.

"I meant to tell your girl, nice shot. She's pretty badass with a knife," he complimented her.

A hearty laugh broke from my chest. "You have no fucking idea what she can do with a knife."

“Did you ever figure it out? Why you needed to risk your life for hers?”

“Yeah.” I said, a wide smile breaking across my face. “Yeah, I figured it out.”

"Look. In all seriousness, Tierney and I are both happy to owe you more than one. Just say the word. Connor too."

"I'll hold you to it," was all he said before the line went dead.

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