Page 78 of Purgatory
“Wait, why are you telling me this? You’re coming with me, right?”
“We need to make sure the way is clear in order for you to take the boat down the lake. We need to make sure you’re safe first and foremost. I won’t risk losing you again. Then, we need to take care of this mess completely before we follow you there.” Jax explains.
I start to shake my head, not wanting to go with this plan. Not wanting to separate and not know what was happening with them after I did. We don’t even have our radios. They're downstairs... with my bat. How would I even know if they were ok?
Hawk must have noticed my concern and wraps an arm around me. “Don’t worry, Aly, we’ve got this. We’ve been in worse shit before. It’s just best we know you’re out of harm's way before we really let loose. Let us have some fun then we’ll meet back up and tell you all about it over dinner.”
I don’t get a chance to respond to Hawk as Cole takes my hands next, placing a pistol with a full magazine and a knife in my hands. He drops his gaze, looking right into my eyes, reinforcing how serious he is. “You are strong. You know how to use these now. You know how to operate the boat and where the safe house is. All you have to do is execute your part of the plan and we’ll see you once our part is done.”
I don’t like this. I don’t want to leave them. I don’t want to be alone again. I don’t want to not be able to know if they’re alright. I don’t want to do this. Any of this. But I don’t have a choice. They need to be able to pull this off without having to worry about me, and by seeing me off the property, covering me until I’m far enough away, they can do that. I take a deep breath, steadying myself for what I need to do. Cole’s right. I can do this. I need to be confident in my guys and their training. And I need to not be a little bitch about it.
“Ok...ok,” I say, which makes Cole smile.
“That’s our girl,” he says before kissing me on my forehead.
I take a second to shake out my nerves, steeling myself for the inevitable adrenaline rush about to manifest itself within me and look at Jax. “What do you need me to do?”
Jax smiles and gets right down to business, indicating to the bed covered in weapons, “Ready to show me how good of a shot you are with the big guns?”
I widen my eyes in shock. The big guns? I’ve only ever shot the little ones. He was pointing at those big mama-jama, machine gun looking,Rambo’s pick of the week, sweet baby death machines.
“Don’t worry, they’re just like the AR’s but with just a bit more kick to them. Plus, you’ll be shooting it lying down. You can do this,” Jax reiterates.
I take another deep breath and nod, his confidence in my ability to carry out his plan successfully doing wonderful things for my deflating self-esteem. Let’s face it, I’m no G.I. Jane. Far from it actually but dammit he makes me feel like I could be. He turns to Cole and Hawk.
“Hawk, you’re gonna be out there with us on the roof. You can take the rifle. I want to take out every one of them backthere as fast as possible. Use the silencers so we don’t draw anymore assholes to where Aly needs to run through.
“Cole, I’m gonna need you to give a distraction to the guys downstairs. Confuse the fuck out of ‘em so they don’t know which way to turn as we set up the shots out back.” Jax leans towards the bed, lifting a small item and placing it in Cole’s outstretched hand.
Cole’s face lights up with giddiness, “Frag out?”
Hawk smiles and Jax nods. “Frag out. I wish it didn’t have to come to this but they’re already outnumbering us, and if they’re threatening to burn the place down, I’d rather we take her out ourselves, just in case they change their plans and decide to gut the place. There’s way too much here that I don’t want to let get in anyone else’s hands. If we can’t have it, no one can.” He looks back to me.
“Aly, once we take out the guys in the back, you’re gonna run your little heart out to the boat and get to the safe house. Any stragglers will be taken care of by us so don’t look back, just book it to the lake as fast as you can and take off. Once you’re in the boat, there’s a flare kit under the wheel. Take one out when you’re far enough away from the shore and light it up. That’ll be our cue to disengage and get the hell out of here.” He bends down, taking my face in his hands, letting me know how serious he is about this. “Now, baby, really listen to me, if we’re not at the safe house by tomorrow morning I want you to pack up and go. You need to be safe at all costs and if we don’t make it back…”
“No…” I shake my head back and forth at the thought, refusing to acknowledge any possibility of what he’s saying coming to fruition. No. That can’t happen.
Tears start to track down my cheeks and he wipes them away, a silent plea for me to listen before continuing, “If we don’t make it back…then this place just isn’t safe anymore. We shouldn’t have any problems here but just in case.”
He looks back to where Cole and Hawk are nodding in agreement to his orders, pleased that they’re on board with him but still not wanting to linger on those words.
“It’s just the back up to the back up, gorgeous. Those guys aren’t going to have anything on us. You just focus on what you need to do and we’ll see you in the morning,” Cole adds.
I release the breath I didn’t know I was holding and nod again. At this rate, my head was going to pop off its hinges if I kept on nodding like a dumbass at everything they said. But fuck, I just wanted to get on with everything. Get it done and over with.
Needing to put a little hustle in their bustles, I lift one of the sweet baby death machines, which is way heavier than I thought by the way, and head to the door, waiting for Jax with a look. He smirks approvingly, grabs my weapon’s twin and nods to the others as they all stash a ton of the other goodies from the bed into holsters that, apparently, they fitted themselves with while I was caught up in my head.
I still don’t understand where they were hiding all this stuff all this time. Fucking preppers, holy shit. Ducks in a row and all that jazz. And here I am not even wearing matching socks...good grief.
She’s in a league of her own, folks...
“Ok. Boys, rendezvous at the lake trail entrance.”
We all nod one last time to each other before Jax leads me through the doors, his pistol aimed towards the stairs with Hawk taking up our rear. Luckily, the dicks downstairs didn’t dare come up yet and we’re able swiftly enter Hawk’s room, undetected. Pushing open his sliding balcony door as quietly as possible, we step outside, climb over the balcony railing and onto the rooftop. Thankfully, it isn’t one of those crazy steepones or my clumsy ass would have fallen right off before I even settled on it.
Jax moves close to me and helps me set up my big mama-jama so that I can lie on my belly and shoot it. They, on the other hand, remain standing with theirs. It’s then that it dawns on me that, along with the tactical gear, and the pants from earlier, they were able to also pull on some boots. I must have really been out of it because here I am, still in my sleepy shorts and tank top combo. Mismatched man socks to boot. Suddenly, I don’t feel nearly as prepared for this as I should be. Like… I don’t even have shoes for crying out loud but here I am, about to go into battle as a fucking hobbit of all things. And minus the mithril! Oh, this is just embarrassing. But I find that I don’t linger on my ineptitude very long as my gaze travels to Hawk and Jax as they raise their weapons. Muscles all glistening in the sun, sweat starting to drip down their chiseled...
FOCUS YOU DICK HUNGRY TWAT, YOU’RE GONNA GET US ALL KILLED!
