Page 28 of Gold Rush
“Go in the back once the distraction starts. But Murph,” Goldie said, then took a deep breath to finish, but it wasn’t necessary.
“We’re giving all the money away.”
Haze said, “Well, there were a bunch that had no kids, so that part of it didn’t really worry them. What they are all worried about, though, is money. Poor neighborhood, behind on rent and mortgages.”
“Fine. Fine! But from now on, will you people bring me jobs that makeusmoney?”
Goldie met with Dean in his room, and Dean clung to him tightly. “Don’t go. Just…just stay here.”
“I’m going. I’m not doing the stealing, though. That’s what the others are doing while me, Abs, if he’s up to it, and Cosmo are pumping up the neighborhood.”
Dean crawled onto his lap and wrapped his arms around Goldie’s neck. “I don’t want to lose you just when I found you. I don’t think I can handle that.”
“You’re not losing me. Ever.”
Dean moved to stare into Goldie’s face. “Ever?”
“I am pretty sure you’re stuck with me now.”
Chapter Eight
Hippywaspackingheavy,and that always worried the group. He was their weapons man, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t get to him first.
They were heading into the building as soon as the crowd, hopefully showed up and harassed Dane.
Dean wasn’t leaving the pub, as much as he’d begged to be there. Goldie would be happier if none of them were there, if the crowd could handle it all, but they’d gotten the people into it, and would defend them, with their lives, if necessary.
It was all set, and once they paired off to leave in separate vehicles that Cosmo was good enough to boost them before the event, Cosmo drove the car Goldie rode in with a set jaw and steel eyes. “They tried to kill Abs, of all of us. Why not come after you or me?”
“You know why,” Goldie told him.
“If he’d have died, Goldie, I would have lost all the calm I have, and I know you would have.”
“What are you trying to say, Cosmo?”
He was quiet for a while as he drove, but Goldie watched his jaw clenching as he thought of how to say whatever he had to say. “Of all the jobs, this is the one that could get us back to where we don’t want to be. Are you ready for that?”
Thinking of Abs and Dean, the only two victims he personally knew, and he knew he’d die for them, go to prison for them, without question. “I am.”
Cosmo nodded hard. “Yeah. Me too, and that is something I never thought I’d say when I first got here.”
“Told you we’d make you a part of this weird family.”
He laughed in a breath. “Fuckers.”
Once they got to where they were meeting the neighborhood residents, the crowd looked a little sparse. There were maybe ten people waiting around, and Goldie saw their faces. They were not as gung-ho as they were previously.
They got out of the car and moved through the people, talking to them, reminding them of why they were there. As they were getting those present riled, more showed, even an old woman with a cane. Goldie went right for her and took her arm. “Ma’am, you don’t have to be here.”
“I do too,” The old woman said, jerking her arm from his. “I’ve been here seventy-five years! It’s mine more than any of you all!”
Abs came over after parking the car he’d taken and kissed her cheek, making her blush. “Thank you. They tried to kill me, and I thought no one cared. You are showing me I’m wrong.”
“You poor thing. We’ll chase them out of here, and if you need anything, you come see Mrs. Chambers.”
She got another kiss on her cheek for that.
The witnesses to that seemed to take her enthusiasm into themselves, as they asked Abs if he was okay, if there was anything they could do for him. All he would tell them is make sure he was the last victim of these men.
