“Nah, just knocked out cold. Possibly a fractured skull.”
“Shit. Are we going to get in trouble for this?”
Noah scoffs. “Unlikely. What’s he going to do? Go to the cops and tell them I kicked his ass while he was trying to shoot me.”
“Good point,” I tell him before pointing down at Anton. “What are we going to do about that?”
He shrugs again. "Not our business. I’ll call his guy to get him off the street and hopefully away from my place and then we’ll hand that gun to the cops. Hopefully, they’ll be able to get a little information off it and tie him to something.”
Damn, that’s not a bad plan.
I let out a deep breath as Noah pulls his phone from his pocket to make his call. I listen in, a little terrified of just how easy Noah fits into this life. Whoever he’s calling must pick up as Noah doesn’t waste a second with his threats. “Your boss is lying unconscious in the street. You have three seconds to get your ass away from my home and scrape him off the fucking road or you’ll be next.”
With that, he ends the call and takes my hand. We start walking towards Noah’s Camaro, wanting to be far away from Anton if he decides to join the world again when the gun appears at my feet. I look down at it, hating all the pain and suffering this stupid little thing could have brought.
The only good that will come of this is Noah handing it to the cops. Hopefully, they’ll be able to find something to pin on Anton to keep him locked up.
I go to pick it up when Noah yanks back on my arm, nearly pulling it right out of the socket. “Don’t,” he yells, pulling me as far from the gun as possible. “Haven’t you ever watched those crime shows? Fingerprints.”
With that, he pulls off his shirt and wraps it around his hand before picking the gun up off the road. He wraps the shirt around it and walks to his car before shoving it deep under his seat and looking over at me. “Come on, babe,” he says. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Chapter 7
We sit out the front of my house, Noah on one side and Tully on the other, contemplating what the fuck we’ve just done and how the hell we’re going to save our asses.
One. We knocked out the mob boss and possibly fractured his skull. I mean, I’ve never met Anton before this but from the movies I’ve seen, that’s not exactly something mob bosses are fond of.
Two. Tully evaded them and made a fool of Anton’s muscle guy. Probably something that’s going to cause a few heads to roll.
Three. Noah stood his ground and quit working for him when no one gets that pleasure. It’s been rumored that the people who have tried…well, they’re no longer with us. You know ‘accidents happen’.
Four. We handed Anton’s gun to the police. This one speaks for itself. When Anton finds out the cops have that, he’s going to know it was Noah who did it and something tells me that’s not exactly a forgivable offense.
We’re fucked. So fucking fucked.
Tully leans forward on her knees and stares at the ground ahead. “He’s coming for us, isn’t he?”
Noah lets out a sigh and reaches around me to squeeze his sister’s knee. “Yeah,” he tells her. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. He’s after me, not you two. You can get out now, be safe, and I’ll face this on my own. I’m not about to let my mistake hurt you.”
I shake my head. “No, we’re a team, Noah. A pack. We’re not just going to abandon you.”
“This isn’t a fight we can win, Henley. This isn’t high school. Anton has the power to really hurt us, and without Rivers here to back me up, we don’t stand a chance. Fuck, even with Rivers we don’t stand a chance.”
“I’m not leaving you to deal with this on your own,” I tell him.
“I’m with Henley,” Tully says. “You’re my brother and I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you and I didn’t at least try.”
“Try how?” he demands, pushing up from the porch so he can turn to face us. “What are you going to do? What can you do? We’re ants in this little game.”
“I don’t know, Noah,” Tully yells back at him, pushing to her feet to get right in his face. “All I know is that you’re my brother and no matter what, I’m there.”
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you,” he tells her. “This is too risky.”
“And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you,” she repeats.
Noah huffs as he watches his sister before stepping into her and pulling her into a tight hug. “Will you at least sleep here tonight so I can keep an eye on you?”
“Yeah, but what about mom and dad? I don’t want to risk Anton’s guys going back there and scaring them.”
Noah releases her and she steps back as his eyes flick across to me. “There’s a roll of cash in the top of my closet. Give them some of that and tell them to go spend the night in the city. They’re always talking about getting away for a night.”
“Ummmmm…roll of cash?” Tully questions, raising a suspicious brow.
“Seriously?” he grumbles. “I work for a guy like Anton for seven years and you don’t expect me to have rolls of cash lying around?”
“Rolls…like plural?” she grins. “Just how many rolls are we talking and where are they hiding?”
“Don’t even think about it,” he tells her. “You’re not stealing my cash so you can go on some ridiculous shopping spree. Besides, most of that is your college fund.”
Tully’s mouth drops open. “Excuse me?” she grunts. “What college fund? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Really? All my secrets have to be out in the open but you’re going to stand there and pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about? Come on, Tullz. Me and Rivers worked out years ago that you want to be a florist and your personality alone tells me that you’re never going to work under someone else, so that leaves one option– you want your own fucking store. Be your own boss.”
She gapes at him for a moment. “Are you kidding me? I’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to hide this and you’ve known all along?”
“Yeah,” he grins.
Tully gapes a little more before turning to me. “Did you know about this?”
Damn it. Why did I have to be brought into this twin thing? “Kind of,” I cringe. “He mentioned a while ago that he knew and wanted to keep it quiet until you were ready to tell him yourself.”
“But…all this time?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn,” she looks back at her brother. “You’re not paying for me to go to college. Besides, I’ll be going to community college to get my business degree. It won’t be that expensive. I can work a part-time job and pay for it myself.”
“Only you’re not going to community college,” he says with a cringe. I guess this is where it all comes out. “I may have applied to BHU on your behalf.”
Tully shrieks. “You did what?”
Noah shrugs unapologetically as I groan. “Are you really that surprised?” I ask her. “I mean, he’s notorious for doing shit like this.”
“Yeah, I know, but usually I can guess when he’s up to something; but this…I mean, I’m completely blindsided.”
“That was the plan,” he tells her. “If you knew, you would have tried to stop me, and for the record, we should be hearing something from them soon. Now, can we stop talking about this shit and focus on the important stuff? I’m going to be really fucking pissed if my girl gets kidnapped out of her bed in the middle of the night because we were too busy talking shit to work out a plan.”
“Fine,” Tully says, dropping back down beside me. “But the ball’s in your court. You’re the closest with him. You know how he works, what makes him tick.”
“You see,” Noah murmurs. “That’s the problem. He doesn’t do his own dirty work. He would send me and Rivers to do it for him so I’m at a fucking loss. I have no idea how this is going to play out, who he’s going to send, and what games they’re going to
play.”
“So…we’re not just fucked, but we’re really fucked?” I sigh.
“Pretty much.”
“Shit, Noah. I really want to hate on you for this,” Tully groans.
“I know, just…promise you’ll get mom and dad out of the house. I don’t want him going back there and looking for me only to find them. Things are bad enough between me and mom, I can only imagine what would happen if she saw Anton in her home.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what we need,” Tully scoffs. “An angry Mumma Bear.” Noah rolls his eyes before raising an impatient brow towards his sister. “Fine, I’ll do it,” she snaps back at him. “Consider mom and dad safe.”
“Good. And then you’ll come straight back here?” he confirms.
“Well, I ain’t sleeping there by myself, though, it’s not like here is any safer. Anton was on his way here when you intercepted him.”
“Shit, you’re right. Maybe with mom and dad gone, we should be sleeping there.”
I shake my head. “Nope. No way. Not with Dad and Ari here. I don’t want them left unprotected. I mean, no offense, but I’d prefer Anton and his douchebags walk through your empty house than walking through mine and finding my family.”
“Good point,” Noah says walking into me and wrapping his arms around my waist, holding me tight. “We’ll stay here. Your family will be safe.”
“Good,” I say only just now realizing how freaked out I must look with my wide, panicked eyes and high-pitched fretting. “They’re all I have.”
Noah presses his lips to my forehead. “You’ve got so much more than you could ever know,” he tells me. “I don’t know how, but we’re going to kick Anton’s ass and at the end of all this, he’s going to be behind bars.”
“Wait,” I say, straightening as I step back to look at him properly. “What about the gun?”
Noah searches my eyes with deep confusion. “What do you mean ‘the gun’? We already handed it in.”
I smother a grin and hide my scoff. Noah handing in that gun was a whole new adventure. By the time we pulled up at the cop shop he was sweating bullets. He looked so fucking guilty and was terrified of the ramifications of walking into that place with a loaded gun.
On the way there he asked me at least a hundred times if he should leave it in the car, go in and explain before allowing one of the police to come out and take it from his car or if he should just go in calmly and explain exactly what’s going on with it wrapped inside his shirt.
I simply searched around the floor of his car and asked if he’d dropped his balls somewhere which promptly settled that; though I can’t say he was too impressed with me right then.
After walking into the police station, he spoke to the guy at the front and handed over the gun saying he’d ‘found’ it on the street after seeing Anton Mathers hanging around. He refused to give his name despite having been brought in so many times that they already knew exactly who he was and he didn’t dare tell them what had really happened as an explanation would have led to questions which would implicate Noah in ways that we’re not prepared for.
All in all, it was a terrifying trip to the police station despite not having done anything wrong. I just hope the cops are smart enough to run the gun for prints and link it to something.
I snap back to reality. “Think about it. If that gun has been involved in any crimes, then Anton is going to come looking for it and he’s not going to stop until he’s got it. I doubt he’s going to realize that you handed it in,” I say with a cringe, “so the first place he’s going to look is your place and I have a feeling he’s going to tear it apart.”
“Shit, I didn’t think about that,” Noah says as Tully hangs her head, devastated for her home which is no doubt going to be torn to pieces.
“Maybe we could set up a camera or something? If the gun comes back clean, they’ll be able to get him on that, or at least the guys he sends to do it.”
“Not bad, babe,” Noah says, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I’ll get that geeky computer nerd, Simon, to come set something up.”
With that, Noah steps away, leaving me beside Tully who looks sick. "You ok?” I murmur, keeping our conversation private from Noah as there’s no way she’ll be honest with me if he was listening in.
Tully sighs. “I don’t know. I don’t like this. I mean, if Rivers were here for back up, I could maybe see a way out of this, but without him…I don’t know. You and me, there’s only so much we can do for him. If it gets physical, these guys would just toss us aside like ragdolls. Fuck, Henley. Anton tried to pull a gun on him today. I could have lost my brother over this stupid shit.”
“Believe me, I know,” I tell her, “but what choice do we have? Anton is going to seek revenge one way or another. We need to be as ready as we can because I don’t plan on losing anyone to this.”
“I know, it’s just…”
“It’s hard,” I finish for her. “We’re all missing Rivers but we need to learn how to function without him. Maybe it’s a good thing as it gives us a chance to see just how strong we are on our own.”
“I seriously can’t wait to see him again so I can kick his ass.”
“Whose ass are you kicking?” Noah questions, joining us again.
“Rivers,” she grumbles.
Noah scoffs. “Believe me, there won’t be anything left of him after I’m through with him, especially now.”
“Come on,” I say, defending the guy who’s apparently my half brother. “Give him a break. He couldn’t have known this was going to happen. None of us could.”
“True, but it doesn’t make me any less pissed at him.”
I stand and walk towards him, changing the topic as bitching about Rivers really isn’t helping anything. “What did Simon say?”
“He’s in. He’s meeting us there in ten, so we better get going,” he says. "Hopefully this is quick. I need to be out before mom and dad get home.”
With that, we hide Noah’s Camaro in my garage and take my Supra back to his place. Precisely ten minutes later, we pull up to find Simon bringing his old shit box car to a stop on the curb outside Noah and Tully’s place.
Noah jumps out of the car and heads over to the guy, shaking his hand and thanking him for coming.
We get inside and Tully helps Simon get things sorted while Noah hurries through his room, grabbing all his stacks of cash and anything important which he wouldn’t want Anton’s guys getting their hands on if they were to actually show up here tonight.
Simon sets up a few cameras throughout the house and gets Noah to download an app on his phone where he can record and watch what’s happening through the night.
Tully heads down to her room and quickly packs up some of her more treasured things before finding all of Lily’s special things and placing them all in the back of my supra, keeping them somewhere safe where they’re not at risk of getting ruined.
Once Simon leaves, we all hurry around the house, making sure every treasured possession is taken care of and before I know it, Noah’s handing Tully a bunch of cash and reminding her of the importance of getting their mom and dad out the door for the night.
Noah and I head back to my place and as I cook dinner for my family, but he can’t help but continually check the cameras, making sure Tully and his parents are alright.
When Tully shows up two hours later with all her worldly possessions, relief washes over Noah, and just like that, we settle in for our night. Tully and I are staring at the TV while Noah stares at the screen of his phone, watching the front door.
----------
My bedroom door creaks open and I peer into the dim light that comes from the hallway as Noah pushes into my room. I instantly push up, alarmed. “What’s wrong?” I question, searching his face as he closes the door behind him.
The soft noise of the door closing has Tully shooting up in bed beside me, both of us sleeping uneasily with the thought of Anton’s men coming through the doors. “It’s ok, it�
�s just me,” Noah murmurs quietly as to not wake dad or Aria. He sits down on the edge on my bed, phone in hand. “You were right. They’re ransacking my place.”
With that, he turns the phone around to show us the screen and right there in front of us is Noah and Tully’s home turning into a crime scene. Tully sucks in a gasp as the camera captures a masked man storming down the hall and heading into her bedroom. “What do we do?”
“Nothing,” he says. “I got a movement notification from the sensor Simon set up near the front door. I’ve already called the police. All we do now is sit back and watch.”
“But they’re destroying our home,” she cries, watching as drawers are tipped out all over the floor, couch cushions are cut with knives, and family photos are torn off the wall, searching the spaces behind them.
“Believe me, Tullz,” I know,” he says. “But we’re safer here. We’ll head back in the morning and start cleaning it up, but for now, we just have to be thankful that we’re not home and that mom and dad took the bait.”
She nods her head as tears silently slide down her face.
With that, Noah climbs in between me and Tully comforting us both, the best way he knows how as we watch it all play out on the screen before us.
Three minutes later, red and blue lights begin flashing through the front living room windows before the door is kicked in and four men are cuffed and dragged away, spreading unimaginable amounts of relief throughout each one of us.
But the question is, with four of Anton’s men out for the count, have we just given ourselves an actual shot of beating this or did we just anger the beast a little more?
Chapter 8
Tully was able to wait all of two minutes after the cops had dragged Anton’s thugs out of her home before she was flying out the door, desperate to get home. Noah and I ran out after her, each of us falling into her Jeep with just moments to spare before she took off down the street like a bat out of hell.
Undeniable: Haven Falls (Book 5) Page 7