Page 28 of Six
“Fuck off,” the man spat.
“Well, mate, if that’s the way you’re going to be, no one can say I didn’t give you a chance, can they?” Gavin stepped forward and Mr. Saturday Night shrank back, keeping his attention trained on the gun in Gavin’s hand. This man, whoever he was, may be playing a tough guy, but at least he was smart enough to be worried now.
“One more chance, Tony,” Gavin said, raising his gun. The man looked confused, but that could have been from the reference to theSaturday Night Fevercharacter rather than any questions he had about Gavin’s intent.
The sound of sirens drifted toward them, and the man flickered Gavin a cocky smile. “I ain’t tellin’ you shit,” he said. Although why he thought the arrival of the fire department would sway Gavin from his path, Gavin hadn’t a clue.
“Again, wrong answer,” he said, then swiftly, he brought the gun down in a single blow and Mr. Saturday Night collapsed fully back to the ground.
Knowing the men had come for the women—to either capture or kill—Gavin figured they might have something in the car they’d intended to use to restrain them. Sure enough, after covering his fingers with his shirt, he popped the trunk and found a fresh packet of zip ties. Grabbing a rag from the floor, he used it to open the packet without leaving any prints. When he had several ties in hand, he tossed the package back in the trunk, stuffed the rag into his back pocket, and circled around to the two men.
Kneeling beside Mr. Mack Truck, Gavin withdrew his phone, opened an app, and placed the young man’s right hand, then his left, on the screen. The handy program, provided to him by Britain’s finest, would digitally record fingerprints.
After using a couple of zip ties to bind the man’s wrists and ankles, Gavin moved on to Mr. Saturday Night and went through the same process. The sirens were getting closer, and he hoped that the police were close behind the firefighters. A volunteer force wasn’t prepared to deal with what were essentially two hitmen.
Once they were secured, Gavin debated whether to leave their guns. If they’d committed other crimes, it could help law enforcement link them to those crimes. Leaving them could also serve as a warning to the first responders not to assume the two men were victims. On the other hand, if he left them, and one of the men woke and managed to break free, or if one of the first responders cut them loose, there’d be live weapons in the area.
With a sigh, he crouched down and used a stick to pull Mr. Mack Truck’s gun out from under the car. Checking the safety, he slipped it into his ankle holster. It was an awkward fit, but he’d rather carry his own weapon as he made his way to Violetta’s car.
With one last look at the scene, he contented himself that all was as good as it could be before turning toward the woods. Then, as the tires of the heavy fire truck crunched on the driveway, he slipped into the foliage and jogged his way north.
Chapter Thirteen
“All’s good,”Gavin said, his voice sounding a little tinny on speakerphone. Her phone wasn’t hooked up to his Bluetooth system, and Abyasa held it in her hand so that Six could keep both hands on the wheel while they talked. Driving while juggling a phone was something she could do practically in her sleep, but she wasn’t going to risk getting pulled over for something so stupid.
“I’m taking the women to Cyn’s house. I assume you know where it is?” she asked. She’d called her friends the second she’d turned onto the main road and was certain they weren’t being followed. She trusted that the three of them were taking care of everything and would make Abyasa, Candra, and Shinta more than welcome.
“I do, I’ll head there. Any chance you can give Joe a heads-up on the two men?”
“Already done,” she answered. As soon as she’d finished talking with the club she’d called Joe. Although by the time he picked up, Cyn had already texted him and he was looking up the number for the local sheriff.
“You good?” he asked. His question wasn’t about her. Like her, he was worried about the three women. They’d already been through so much that the events of the day were the last thing they’d needed to experience. A little something inside Six broke open at his concern. Sure, he was too happy for her liking, but his worry was genuine.
“As good as can be,” she answered. “We’ll get to Cyn’s and get everyone settled, and then we can figure out where to go from there. And you?” He’d said all was good, but that didn’t necessarily meanhewas good, just that the situation was.
A beat passed before he answered. “I’m fine, Violetta. Thank you for asking.” She recognized that low rumble in his voice now. It was the tone that came out when he was thinking things about her that were best kept inside his own head.
“Gavin,” she admonished with an accompanying eye roll, even though he couldn’t see it.
“I hear that eye roll, love. I’mfine,” he repeated. “I’m fifteen minutes behind you. I’ll see you at the manse.” And with that, he hung up, though she smiled at his parting words. Cyn did indeed live in a manse. Her seaside mansion was so over-the-top that they’d all embraced it long ago as one of Cyn’s eccentricities.
The drive was mostly silent although Six did tell Abyasa—who translated for the others—a little about what to expect when they arrived at Cyn’s. She wanted to prepare them for the house itself—the likes of which she was certain they’d never seen before—but also her friends. She told them about Cyn being an archaeologist and traveling all over the world, about Devil being a doctor and doing medical research, and Nora and her love of animals coming through in her work as a veterinarian. She also told them about Joe and answered the few questions they had about Gavin.
Keeping an eye on her three passengers as she navigated back to Cos Cob, she wondered at their resilience. The courage they had to reach out to Jeremy in the first place, then their willingness to leave everything familiar behind in order to stop the men perpetrating crimes, humbled Six. Sure, she’d done a lot of courageous things in her life, but she’d done it knowing she always had the safety net of Franklin and her friends. And if needed, her family. These women had none of that, and yet they’d still stepped off the ledge into the unknown. She barely knew them, but she knew they were remarkable women.
Six intentionally drove slowly, and by the time they turned off Main Street in Cos Cob and onto the oceanside road that led north to Cyn’s, Gavin was behind her. A few minutes later, they were pulling through the main gate of Cyn’s house and up the driveway.
Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of gasps and quiet side conversations—Cyn’s house was nothing if not gasp-worthy. But by the time she brought the SUV to a stop, the women were silent. Six sensed their fear and anxiety and wished that there was something she could do to assuage it, but time, and exposure to her friends, was the only way.
Behind her, Gavin climbed out of her Tesla but remained standing at the front of the car, giving the women time to adjust without him looming over them. Six glanced at Abyasa, who was still staring at the house, as were Candra and Shinta.
“Are you ready? There will be food, clothes, showers, and, I can vouch, some of the best beds,” Six said in her best Malay.
Just then, Cyn, Devil, Nora, and Joe filed from the house, though they, too, kept a respectful distance. From where Six sat in the car, she pointed to her friends and one by one, told her passengers who was who.
“And they are all friends with Jeremy?” Abyasa asked.
“Not Joe, who recently moved here, but the others, yes,” Six answered.
