Page 69 of Outlaws' Dirty Secret

I don't understand, but I don't need to. All I know is that Poe managed to hit the pause button on my certain doom.

The rumble gets louder, echoing off the city blocks, and then tires squeal as four motorcycles turn hard and peel into the courtyard. Gravel sings as they skid to a stop, and then they're by my side. Skyhigh, Dragon and Blackout. The fourth guy runs off to the side, whoever he is. I only care about them.

“No.” I shake my head. “You can't be here. I might still explode. It’s better to clear everyone out, okay? I wasn’t… I wasn’t brave enough to stop before, but I am now. It’s okay.”

“No it fucking isn’t. You’re going to be fine, baby,” Skyhigh says with a grin like he does this every day. “Just stand up niiiice and slow, and stay real still.”

He carefully, so carefully, one button at time, opens my jacket and reveals the explosives underneath.

Poe whistles. “Holy shit.” Suddenly, he looks a little nervous about his jammer. And maybe he's right to be. Maybe it's not working and Tanner is just waiting to get as many people close as possible.

“Leave it here,” Skyhigh tells Poe.

“Yeah, it's on.” He puts it down on the ground next to us.

“Good. Now everyone else, back the fuck up. This is a party for two, you got that? Just me and Willow, no one else.” When no one moves, he yells, “Now, for fuck's sake!”

After a moment, Poe backs up quickly. Riot and Lash take cover behind the church while Poe goes inside. I swear there were other people here too, but they must've run. Only Skyhigh, Blackout and Dragon left, and they're all I need.

“Weren't you fuckers listening? I said to back the fuck up.” Skyhigh glares at his best friends while he pulls out his knife.

“Fuck you.” Dragon crouches next to me. “I'm not fucking leaving. So you better fucking get this right so you don't take out all three of us.”

“All four of us.” Blackout corrects as he takes my hand and squeezes it. “You think we're gonna leave either Willow or you? We know you can do this.”

“You fucking idiots,” Skyhigh growls under his breath.

They're here. They're all here, and… and they think they're going to save me? Maybe there really are miracles.

It's what we're going to need.

“Okay, Willow, stay with me. You gotta stand real still, okay?”

I nod. “Okay.” My voice feels so small.

Skyhigh traces each wire with his finger, just barely not touching, his nimble mind figuring out how everything is connected as quickly as possible. I'm shivering like a leaf, but do my best not to make it harder for him.

Pretty sure there are no second chances if he gets it wrong.

37

SKYHIGH

In the movies,they make it look so fucking easy. Just cut the red wire. And you know that whatever wire they cut, it's all gonna work out in the end.

Yeah, they have no fucking idea what they're talking about.

Just looking at Tanner's work, it's obvious he's not an expert, but it's not an amateur job either. Everything's rigged to cause an explosion if anyone tries to take the harness apart. Wires are unlabeled, they're all black and cutting any of them could cause a short inside the receiver box. He must've been stealing from Chafik for a while to get this much high-end hardware together.

Poe's jammer box is still crackling and humming, but the battery's not gonna last forever. And if Tanner has access to a frequency it's not jamming, this could end real fast, real ugly.

So enough thinking. Just gotta do.

A little status LED screen on the receiver box reads 'ARMD' in bold red letters. Nice of it to tell me. Unless it's a decoy. Saw this a couple times back in the day, where bombs would be made to misrepresent things. Sometimes it was right, sometimes it waswrong and felt too obvious. If I didn't build it, I don't trust it, but that doesn't mean I won't keep an eye on it.

“Skyhigh?” Willow's voice is so fucking thin, so fucking terrified.

“Every day and twice on Sundays, babe. You're gonna be fine.” Fuck, these go all the way around her. If this goes up, it's gonna take out more than just us.

---