Page 122 of Tenderfoot

“I’ll ask them that when I have them hogtied on the floor in Titus’s garage. Now go to Titus’s, get your tasers out, but stay out of the fuckin’ way when this shit goes down.”

He didn’t let Raye respond. He disconnected.

“Shit, shit, fuck!” Raye screamed, punctuating each word by slamming the heel of her palm on steering wheel.

“Calm down, girl,” Luna cooed through the speaker on my phone. “You got precious cargo.”

Raye took a second, then ordered, “Head to Titus’s.”

“Roger that,” Jessie replied. “See you there.”

She disconnected.

I held both phones in my hands and said to Raye, “Remember, Gabe and Cap know what they’re doing. The bad guys might have cut them off, but we know our guys have a plan and the upper hand. Okay?”

“They know the Nightingale guys have Kev, and they want Kev,’ Raye replied.

Oh yeah.

Whoever this was knew the guys had Kev, and they wanted him.

“They think they can get their hands on one or more of the Nightingale boys and use them as leverage to deliver Kevin,” Raye continued.

Oh yeah.

They were totally thinking they could do that.

I was sensing Kev knew more than he was telling anybody.

I was sensing with what was right then happening, the Nightingale guys would figure that out.

So last, I was sensing Kev was going to be in a load of hurt sometime very soon.

No, what was last was, I hoped Cap and Gabe figured this out (but they would) and called it in (though, I knew they would) so the rest of the guys (most importantly to me, Javi) knew to keep an eye out for these kinds of shenanigans.

The Merc came up on our tail about three blocks from Titus’s.

We had our tasers out and were ready to rumble after we parked outside Titus’s and rolled out of our vehicles.

Titus appeared from the shadows beside his man-cave garage, and he was making hand motions, though it wasn’t to us.

“Get inside!” he ordered.

Now that was to us.

“Cap is—” Raye began.

“Baby girl, love the love and concern,” Titus cut her off. “But get your ass inside my garage.”

I grabbed Raye’s hand and started to tug her to the garage.

As I did this, I saw two cars down the way pull in at angles, cutting off traffic on Titus’s street.

At that point, I heard car noises coming from the other direction.

Thinking they might be Gabe, Cap and their pursuer, I turned that way.

But it wasn’t. Instead, I saw two more cars stop, then expertly, and quickly, back into two driveways right across from each other.

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