“Brother?”
“Someone is out there. I can hear them walking.” I murmured.
“I should have known you’d be back, surprised to see the backup, though.”
I knew that voice. I’d spent the last four years listening to it.
Roth.
He stepped out of his hiding spot, and I walked over to him quickly, my gun still was drawn and aimed directly at his chest. “I should blow you the fuck away right where you stand,” I growled.
“Problem?” Archer asked, his gun drawn and aimed at Roth too.
“He was one of my guards.”
“Blow his fucking head off.” Wire said.
“Wait.” Roth put his hands up, “You should, but I can help you.”
I was intrigued, it could be a trap, but Roth had always done what he could to help when it mattered. That was when Angel was with me. I hoped it didn’t mean his help only extended to her. “How is that?” I asked, lowering my weapon a little.
“How is Angel?” He asked, putting his hands down slowly, the despair on his face was visible.
I lowered my gun all the way and signaled for Wire and Archer to do the same. “She’s okay. We made it out safe.”
“Good, good. I couldn’t let them get her. I should have done something…” He shook his head and looked away. He felt guilty, and he should.
“She’s good.”
He nodded and then looked back over at me. “Look, you are not going to be able to get to Ruby here. What you see down there are representatives from the French government. I promise you they’re not the enemies you want to have. Along with those you see, there are about thirty more in the surrounding area. All your men are already spotted, but they don’t know if you’re with us or are here to cause trouble. One gunshot, and it’s over for all of your people.” Roth said.
“Well, fuck!” Archer swore, taking a step back. “Wire, if he’s telling the truth, we gotta get out of here now. The last thing any fucking form of government wants is to be seen doing some shady shit. They’ll take us out just because we fucking know too much.”
“How’s that helping me? They need to die, Roth. I don’t fucking know where your loyalty is, but if this is just a ploy to get me to forget about them, then you can fuck off because that shit isn’t going to happen.” There was no way I was giving up, no matter what anyone said.
“No, she does, a lot of us need to die, but Ruby and Harrington are at the top of that list. You want to get to them you got to catch them with their pants down.”
“You have a plan or some shit? Because right now, what you’re giving us is shit.” Wire snarled.
“Stall brawls.” Roth looked up at me expectantly.
“You want me to fight them?”
“No, those stall brawls are open. Ruby and Harrington are just there to shmooze and show off. They aren’t worried about anyone coming in there to kill them, and the other folks they are entertaining are all trust fund, silver spoon babies. They would piss their pants if someone shoved a gun in their face.”
It was true. I never saw any real opposition besides Lou and Roth whenever I was at any the stall brawls.
Suddenly like a flash, it hit me. I wasn’t there, so who the fuck was fighting?
“There are more? Lou said there were more like me. Prisoners?”
Roth’s eyes went big for a second, then fell from my gaze. “You thought you two were the only ones? No, Ruby just liked to tote you around to add to your pain, but you were far from the only ones. This compound alone has five others. Each one of their other compounds has more.”
Fucking hell.
“Wire, we can’t leave them in there. We can’t.” My needs had changed from just killing Ruby and Harrington to now killing them and freeing as many of their prisoners as I could.
“Agreed,” he stepped up closer to Roth, “so tell us what we need to do.”
Roth explained everything in detail, how many guards there were, where all the trip wires were, and what the Giles were into as far as he knew. He knew Ruby and Harrington would break away from the crowd if they saw me. The plan was for him to say he found me trying to get in and captured me. They would want me to do a stall brawl as a present for their guests, and Archer and his boys should have no problem taking them out while they were still in cover. There would be some pushback, but the guards at this estate were only basically trained, most of them have never fired their weapons before. It should be a walk in the park for us.
***
We all went back to the estate but set up a campsite far enough away that no one would come looking for us. The next day was game time. Roth came for me a little after sunset; it was time for me to go back.
“All your guys are in their positions?” Roth asked Wire.
“Yeah, we straight.”
Roth nodded and tried to walk to me. Wire put an arm out and stopped him curling his fingers around the man's neck lightly.
“If you try to screw us, or if you turn on Ink, I promise you what you saw this Ruby woman doing would be child's play compared to what I will do to you. This shit better work, and you better not be fucking trying to play us. You get me, Roth?”
He nodded once, and Wire let go of him. He walked over to me, pulling a pair of handcuffs out his back pocket. My hand balled up immediately. I never wanted to be in handcuffs again.
“Look, they pop right open.” He put them on his wrists, and I heard them click. He pressed a button on the side of them, and they opened right up, letting his hands go free. “You ready?”
“Yeah, okay.”
