Page 66 of Knockout Queen

If we run away, let’s face it. He’ll come after us. He certainly isn’t letting Johnny leave without a fight, and I’m not living my life constantly looking over my shoulder for the day Kingston Marx decides to get his revenge. No, fuck that.

I press up on my toes and peck his lips. “I love you. I love all of you,” I say, swinging my gaze to the others in the room. I have no idea if I’ve said that to them all individually yet or not, but it’s true, and I don’t care who hears. “We’re just worried about each other, but we’ll make it work. We can think of what we’re going to do on the way back.”

Heavy silence fills the room, almost like it’s another intruder. I don’t want them all mad at me, but I’m not going to back down from them either. Otherwise, they’ll always gang up on me. I flick my gaze to Magnum. He knows why I want this. I’m hoping he’ll be on my side because of it.

Magnum sighs. “Let’s think about this tactically. Her idea about getting Gregory is pretty good.” His eyes light up. “Actually, we could use it to our advantage. We could tell K we used Kyla as bait. He would eat that up. We find Gregory, take him out, and then tell K we planned it that way the whole time.”

“Except he’s going to wonder why he wasn’t involved in the plan from the beginning.”

“Tell him you were worried about it getting out. He’s got a decent amount of paranoia lately, so it’s understandable. People have double-crossed him, so tell him you wanted it to be an inside job, so it didn’t get back to Gregory. You can tell him you were always going to tell him as soon as it happened.”

Oscar perks up. “I love this idea. Honestly, it’s genius. Plus, Kyla will be back in his good favor if he realizes she volunteered to be the bait.”

“I would have,” I say. I glance around the room. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before. He wants me. We can draw him in, and then you can take him out. Once we take Gregory out, maybe K’s defenses will lower and that’s when we can take him.”

“It won’t be that easy.”

“It’ll be easier,” I say.

Johnny glares at me. “All the attitude coming off you is just distracting me, I hope you know that.” He squeezes my fingers. “It makes me want to show you something else you can do with that mouth other than sass me.”

I give him a wicked grin. “Take me back to the Heights, and you’ll be rewarded.”

“That’s it. I’m taking her back,” Oscar says. He comes up behind me, picks me up by the waist, and carries me toward the door. Magnum stands in our way though, and all he has to do is cross his arms over his chest. Oscar places me on my feet with a chuckle. “Just kidding, dude. Lightening the mood a little.” He tugs me back against him and kisses the curve of my neck. “I absolutely do want a piece of this though,” he whispers.

I reach my hand back to cup the back of his neck. I meet Johnny’s greedy eyes as he watches Oscar kiss the side of my throat. “It’s just better this way,” I tell him, exhaustion taking over. “Brawler and Oscar both need to be in the Heights for their moms.”

“About that,” Johnny starts. It seems like he’s thought of more than a few problems with my plan while he was asleep. “What’s your plan after this? Us leaving the Heights, right? What about them?”

Oscar’s body deflates behind me. “My mom won’t come,” he says. “I’ll deal with that when I have to.”

I tug his arms back around me. I’m not sure if he’s saying his mom won’t want to come or if he’s saying he wouldn’t want his mom to come. She’s not the mother he had growing up, I know that. I also know it’s hard to get off drugs but leaving her here also feels like leaving her here to die.

Brawler clears his throat. “My mom’s not with it, obviously, but I’d love to take her with us. Somehow...” He shakes his head and stares down at the carpet.

“She’ll come with us then,” I say. “We’ll figure it out.”

Johnny nods as a sadness creeps into his features. He’s probably thinking about his own mother. The mother he went to find but ended with her demise.

“Alright,” Johnny says, calling our attention to the current problem. He breathes out a sigh. “Let’s do this. We’ll use Kyla as bait. People seem to like to strike us around her fights, but we can’t do that. That defeats the purpose of keeping Dad in the dark. He’ll know if we suddenly plan a fight for her.”

“We’ll go out tonight,” Mag says. “We’ll go to the clubs in the Heights. Those places are Gregory’s hangouts. I don’t know if he’ll be there, but we should be able to get a trace of him. Kyla goes in alone. None of us can follow her because we’re all tied to the Crew. The chances of her finding out any information while we’re standing right next to her are slim.”

“I don’t like it,” Brawler says. “We’re sending her in defenseless?”

I cock my head at him. “Seriously? You, out of all of them, are asking that question? Do I need to remind you that I can take care of my damn self?”

He gives me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I just don’t like the idea of one of us not being with you.”

“We’ll be with her,” Johnny says. “Just not right there next to her. We have bugs and wires and all that shit back at the tower. She won’t be too far away, and we’ll always know where she is.”

A rush of excitement pours through me. We finally have a plan. We’re not at the killing K stage yet, but we’re getting there. Everything is coming together just like I wanted.

I grab my car keys from the small, round table in the corner and jiggle them. “Let’s get this started.”

“You look entirely too happy for someone who is about to put themselves in danger,” Mag says.

I shrug his comment off. I know he’s being moody about all of this because he doesn’t want me anywhere near the Heights just like Johnny doesn’t, but it’s not their decision to make. It’s always been mine.

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