“I know. It’s hot. Maybe she can give Cece some lessons. She’s not quite the hellcat she used to be.”
“You’re kind of sick, you know that, Logan?”
“Hey, blame Cece. That woman just does it for me. I like her brand of crazy and I want more of it again.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, rolling my eyes, but already coming up with a plan.
✯✯✯✯✯
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Lola asked as we walked toward the woods behind my house where everyone was waiting.
“Trust me. This is the best idea I’ve ever had.”
“Why? Because you think you’ll kick our asses?”
“Nope. Because I know you guys are going to win.”
She stopped me with a hand on my arm, glancing at everyone waiting for us. “What makes you so confident?”
“Well, first of all. I know that you’re a badass. Second, these women are very creative. There’s not a single time that we’ve gone paint balling with them that they’ve lost.”
“Do they know how to shoot?”
“Not at all. Well, Maggie does, but everyone else is just very determined,” I grinned.
“What do you get out of it?”
“Sebastian, Cole, and Sean pride themselves on being the best shots and therefore, always think they’re going to win. I love to watch them get knocked down a peg by these women.”
“You’re not going to go easy on us, are you?”
“Definitely not. But I can’t change what I know is going to happen. Just make sure when Sebastian starts bragging about winning, you make the stakes high.”
She grinned at me and we continued walking to the rest of the group. Everyone was decked out in camo and had on their game faces.
“No kid today?” Sean asked. “Were you afraid he was going to tip the scales in our favor?”
James was a natural at paintball. He was fucking awesome actually. “No, just wanted to keep this a friendly game,” I grinned.
“This will be over in less than an hour. Just watch,” Sebastian said.
“Why are you so confident?” Lola asked. “I’m a great shot.”
“Sure, you are, but come on. We have three trained fighters on our side.”
“I have a bunch of women that want to kick your asses.”
I looked over at the women. Lillian, I could very clearly pick out. She was looking at the ground in disgust. Tromping through the mud wasn’t her idea of a good time. Cece looked bored and kept checking her hair in the compact that she kept in her pocket. Maggie was fumbling with the large gun. It was obviously still awkward for her to hold a gun with two missing fingers. But she looked determined. Alex was holding her gun like it was diseased, and Harper was doing jumping jacks to prepare. Sarah, she just looked completely lost.
“Yeah,” Sebastian smirked. “I can’t wait.”
“Want to make a friendly wager?” Lola asked, stepping into Sebastian’s space.
“Anytime.”
“If we win, you and your boys sing karaoke. Our song choice, our choreography.”
“And if we win?”
“Same thing.”
“Private show or public?” Sebastian asked.
“I think we both know a private show would be best.”
“Deal.”
They shook on it and walked back to their teams. Sebastian pulled out a map and spread it out on a table I had positioned back there for occasions like this. “Alright, ladies. We’re going back to this location here,” Sebastian pointed at the map. “Everyone have your emergency kits and radios on?”
“Yes,” the women responded dully.
“Good. If you get lost…just call us for help.”
“Not likely,” Maggie muttered.
We broke apart, going our separate ways. There were two different paths we had cut through the woods so that we could play paintball back here on my property. I had a lot of acreage, so it was a perfect haven for us. We trekked through the woods, keeping a strong pace so that we could pull ahead of the ladies and get there before them and set up.
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Jack grumbled as we hiked to our location.
“Since when?” I asked.
“Since I hit forty. I’m running a garage and restoration shop, I have three kids, and I work out every fucking day. This was supposed to be my day off.”
“If you work out so much, why is this so hard?” Sebastian chuckled.
“Let’s just say my workouts aren’t quite what they used to be.”
“I’m with Jack,” Sean said. “When I hurt my knee last year, it never really healed right. By the end of today, I’m gonna be hobbling around the woods, praying to God that I make it out of here.”
“You should try a hot soak when you get home,” Logan suggested. “Cece does this lavender shit and it really helps you relax. They also make shit to put in baths for inflammation. It’s supposed to be really good.”
“You know what else works pretty good? Meditation,” Drew said. “I’m serious. When you start focusing on pushing that negative energy out of your body and just let yourself relax, it really helps a lot.”
“Or, you can put an onion in your sock at night when you sleep,” Cole suggested. “The onion is supposed to draw out illness in your body, but when I’ve used it, it also lessens pain.”
“You just stick an onion in your sock?” Logan asked.
“Well, you have to have the sock on your foot, dumbass,” Cole jabbed at him.
“Jesus Christ! What’s with you guys? Are we men going to play paintball or should we head for the spa for a detox day?” Sebastian snapped.
“I could actually go for a spa day,” Jack said. Sebastian glared at him. “What? They give great massages.”
“I could go for that too,” Drew sighed. “I’m not as young as I used to be and construction is kicking my ass.”
“Man, you could have told us,” I said, a little shocked that we hadn’t known that.
“It’s no big deal. It’s more that I have fucking two sets of twins at home and they drive me fucking batshit crazy on a good day. I come home from work and the last thing I want is the chaos of what’s waiting at home.”
“You need to think about Sarah. Do you have any idea what that’s like for her all day?” Logan asked. “I mean, think about it. You get a fucking break from them. She’s at home all day with them, plus doing the cooking and taking care of the house. That sounds fucking brutal to me.”
“Yeah, man. You have to be considerate of her feelings,” Sean said. “Lillian goes to work, but with my hours being so crazy, she’s the one that’s always responsible for the kids. She never gets a break because it’s always on her to make sure that the kids are taken care of.”
“It’s true. I’m the same way with Harper. I was just expecting that she would take care of the kids always because she works from home. I walk in the door and just assume that she has it all under control. I shower when I want, I go grab a beer when I want, and it never really occurred to me that I have the liberty to do all that shit because she’s always the one making sure the kids are showered, have eaten, have done their homework. All that shit that I just take for granted because I’ve never had to worry about it.”
“They truly are the ones that hold our lives together,” Logan agreed.
Sebastian spun around, hands on his hips with his gun slung over his shoulder. “Okay, can we all get our heads in the game? I feel like I’m watching a fucking Oprah episode here and I don’t even have any beer. You want to be men and go kick our wives’ asses or do you want to go to the fucking spa?”
We all looked at each other and Jack shrugged. “I kinda want to go to the spa.”
Sebastian shook his head and walked away, leaving the rest of us laughing. The guy really needed to take it easy.
Lola
“Okay, ladies. If we’re going to take these guys down, we need a solid plan.” I looked around at the group
around me and seriously wondered how they had managed to beat these guys every time they went against them. “How has this worked in the past? What did you guys do? What was your strategy?”
“Strategy?” Lillian asked. “I’ve actually never played before. I just want to be clear that this is my first time.”
“Me too,” Sarah said.
I nodded, feeling a little less hopeful. “Okay, not a problem. What about you, Harper? What did you do?”
“Um, well, I ran like crazy and shot at anything that moved while I screamed my head off. But that was before I had kids and I was in better shape. Disclaimer here: I wasn’t actually in shape at the time, so I’m probably a little worse off now.”
Fuck. Why was Ryan so sure we were going to win? “What about the rest of you? Cece?” I looked at her hopefully. She looked like the type of girl that didn’t take any shit.
“Well, I was with Vira-”
A pain-filled groan escaped from Lillian’s mouth, but Cece cut her a sharp look.
“As I said, I was with Vira and our strategy was to strip down to our underwear and distract them while the other ladies took them out.”
“Of course that was her plan,” Lillian grumbled. “Ladies of the evening are always willing to strip naked for someone else.”
“Hey, I did it too,” Cece said defensively. “No matter what she did to you, she’s still my friend, so how about we cut the crap for just a few minutes?”
“Can we focus? I’m not sure that stripping down is the key here.”
“Well, it probably wouldn’t work anyway. It’s not like I have the same body I did then,” Cece groused.
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” Sarah said sympathetically. “You know Logan wants you no matter how you look. In fact, I think he wants more of the old Cece back. He’s not getting any younger. You think these men aren’t chasing their youth too?”
“You know, she has a point,” I said.
“I’m not stripping,” Cece said firmly.
“No, but maybe we need to give them a little reminder of who you were when you first met. It’ll definitely distract them.”
“It’s true,” Lillian agreed. “You know, when Sean and I were dating, we did all this fun stuff together that was so out of my element. I’m not sure if I still have it in me, but I definitely want to bring some of that back.”
“What about you, Alex?”
“Umm…I’m not sure that I have anything to offer. I’m actually pretty terrified of the woods, but I wanted to try this for Cole.”
“I think we can use that. As long as you don’t totally lose it, Cole won’t kill me when this is all done.”
“So, what exactly is the plan?” Harper asked.
“Distract, evade, and conquer,” I said fiercely. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the blank faces that were staring back at me. I guess I had hoped for a warrior cry or something. Sighing, I pulled out the map that Ryan had given me, marking where we would be playing.
“Okay, ladies. Here’s where we’re headed. Now, we’re going to have to split up if we’re going to make this work. We’re going to get into position and then Alex, you’ll be up first. You’re going to call out for Cole, scream like you’re fucking terrified.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard.” She bit her lip, but I watched as she steeled her spine. This girl was ready to do shit.
“Cole will go running to you and that’ll take him out. I’ll be positioned here,” I pointed to the map. “I’ll be up in a tree, taking them out as you ladies draw them out to me. With any luck, we’ll get someone running to you with Cole.”
“Next, Cece. Find your most seductive song and get that body shaking. You need to distract Logan as much as possible. No matter what happens, if you’re hit, you don’t go down. You shake that ass until he comes out.”
“Got it.”
“Sarah, since you don’t know jack shit about playing this game, you’re going to be stumbling through the woods, calling out for us. Just act like you don’t know where the hell everyone is and you’re lost. Meanwhile, Maggie, you’ll be making your way around the guys.” I pointed at the map. ”See this trail? Cut across here. Follow the trail, but stay in the woods so they don’t see you coming. You need to move fast, but quietly.”
“I can do that. Do we have any paintball grenades?”
“Uh….yeah. Why?”
“Grenades are sort of my thing. Give me a few of those and I’ll take out as many as I can,” Maggie grinned.
“Good. Alright, Harper and Lillian, I’m counting on you to run through the woods, screaming like banshees. Do your thing.”
“What would our thing be exactly?” Lillian asked uncertainly.
“Whatever worked last time,” I said.
“Well, see I don’t really have anything that works. I just kind of wing it and hope for the best,” Harper said.
“Fine. Wing it.”
“But what if we don’t actually draw them out with this?” Lillian asked. “I mean, they’ll know what we’re trying to do.”
“That’s the point. They’ll be distracted by everyone and I’ll be doing my thing. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s the best I have right now. Normally, I would have tactical maneuvers and shit, but this will have to do.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Maggie grumbled. I looked at her pointedly and she shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
It took us longer than I would have liked to reach the battleground and I was sure that the guys had been set up for a while, scoping out the place and getting into position. They definitely had an advantage over us.
“Alright, ladies. This is where we split up. Make sure you’re on channel 3. Let’s move!”
I crept off to the left, slipping through the trees until I found one that worked for me. I hadn’t seen any movement yet and I prayed that the girls didn’t all get shot up before I had a chance to take anyone out.
Ryan
“Goddamn, it’s cold out here. How much longer are they going to take to get here?” Drew grumbled.
“They probably stopped to get their nails done,” Jack replied.
“This coming from the man that wanted to go to the spa,” Sebastian grinned. “Just relax. This is the thrill of the hunt.”
“What’s wrong with just hanging out with a beer around a fire?” Logan asked.
“Hey, you were the one that suggested we all hang out to get to know each other,” I replied.
“Yeah, but I meant grabbing a beer at the bar or meeting at your house and having them all make us food. This requires an actual effort on my part. I didn’t sign up for this shit,” Logan grumbled.
“Yeah, well, this is something Lola likes to do and at one time, you did too.”
Logan sighed and rested his elbow on his knee. “Yeah, at one time I did. Maybe it would be more fun if it was just the guys, but we’ve been sitting here for a fucking hour and we’ll probably take them down in like, five minutes.”
“Cole!”
I looked over at Cole with a what the fuck expression. “Is that Alex?”
“Help me, Cole. I’m so terrified,” she shouted.
I choked back a laugh and so did he. “Is she trying to draw us out by trying to sound scared?”
Cole nodded. “Sounds like it. You would think she could do a better job.”
A piercing scream filled the air and we all looked at each other, knowing that one wasn’t fake. Cole was up in an instant running through the trees and shouting for Alex.
“Should we go out there?” I asked.
“And give up our position?” Sebastian scoffed. “Let’s find out if that was even real first.”
He was watching through binoculars and started shaking his head. “She got him. Damn, that was pretty good.”
“Let me see.” I grabbed the binoculars from his hand and looked. Sure enough, Cole was covered in paint and helping Alex out of a hole. “Crap. She definitely got him.”
“What the hell is that?” Logan asked. We were all quiet for a minute as we strained to hear what the sound was. “Is that…Hot Stuff?”
Jack started laughing. “They’re going to have to do better than that.”
Cece strutted out from behind a tree and Logan put a hand on Sebastian’s gun, stopping him from shooting her. “Wait. Let’s watch the show first.”
Cece started dancing and swaying her hips, adding in some gyrating.
“Damn. She’s still fucking sexy,” Logan murmured.
Her hands were in her hair as she lifted the long strands off her neck and then she went stiff, screaming as she started running through the trees. Harper and Lillian ran out from the side, holding their guns like they were about to shoot someone until they saw Cece doing some kind of weird dance that had us all shaking our heads.
“Where are they?” Harper shouted.
“I don’t know! There was a huge spider on me!”
Lillian pointed at the ground and they all shrieked. “Snake!”
The three of them took off running, tripping over one another to get away as fast as they could.
“Isn’t there a river down that hill?” Drew asked nonchalantly.
“Yep,” I nodded. “Wait for it.” Three screams filled the air as we heard what sounded like rolling and then splashing. “And they found the water.”
“Let’s go get a better look,” Logan nudged me. Logan, Sean, Jack, and I made our way over to the edge of the hill where the steep embankment could be seen. All three women were standing in the water, squealing and ripping their clothes off as they all splashed each other. At least, that was the way I saw it. Judging from the looks on my friends’ faces, they were seeing something completely different.
I could picture it exactly as they were seeing. Everything was in slow motion while Barry White’s Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Baby played in the background. The tiniest little droplets of water could be seen as the girls slowly ripped their shirts over their heads and swung them around their heads while shaking their hips. The shirts went flying and then the girls were reaching out and touching each other, like they were at a nightclub and were dirty dancing with each other. When the pants started to come off, I shook my head, not really wanting to see my friends’ wives completely naked.
Lola: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 8) Page 11