reached the stairs that led up to the fountain.
I bumped into JJ in the dark and muscled my way past him to catch Rogue’s hand, pulling her tight to my side.
“We gotta be smart about this,” I muttered.
“Well I wasn’t planning on being dumb about it,” Rogue shot back and a breath of amusement left me.
“We need to take the darkest route to the house,” Fox said.
“Nah, I opt for the quickest,” I argued.
“If we’re seen, we’ll lose our chance to get to her,” Fox said through his teeth.
“And if we’re slow, there’ll be more time for us to be seen,” I pushed.
“I say we take a vote,” Rogue said.
“This isn’t a democracy,” Fox growled.
“Well maybe it should be,” JJ piped up and we all turned to him as he glared at us through the light of my phone. “This is a family mission, not a Harlequin one.” He gave Fox a pointed look and Fox sighed, looking to the ceiling like some god above could offer him help. But if anyone was up there, I doubted they’d be paying attention to a few ruffians in a hole.
“I’m not a part of this family, so I’m gonna do whatever the fuck I like,” I said stubbornly.
“This isn’t about you,” Rogue snipped, poking me hard in the nipple. Ow, bitch. “It’s about Miss Mabel. And I say we’re voting or I’m going to go out there and get her myself.”
“I’ll follow her if she does that,” JJ said simply. Fucking whipped, he was.
“Fine, we’ll vote,” Fox decided and I clenched my jaw as the urge to go against anything he said rose in me.
But then Rogue squeezed my hand and I sighed as I looked at her. “Fine,” I gave in. “I vote we take the quickest route.”
“Darkest,” Fox said smoothly.
“Dark is safest,” JJ agreed like of course he fucking would and we all looked to Rogue to make her choice. If this was a hung vote, I was gonna take her my way and they could go theirs, I wasn’t wasting anymore time down here.
“Dark,” she chose and I swore under my breath, not missing the smirk on Fox’s face as he got his way.
“Then lead the way, oh mighty king.” I bowed with a flourish and gestured for Fox to go ahead.
JJ snorted under his breath as Fox walked by and headed up the stone steps.
We followed, all drawing our weapons as he made it to the hatch at the top and pushed against the stone. It swung inward and he peeked out to check the way was clear before hurrying through it. We all kept close as we followed and I pushed the hatch closed half a heartbeat before a brand new, shiny motion-censor floodlight turned on and we were all lit up in a furiously bight glow.
“Fuck,” I gasped, turning back and opening the hatch, but a shot went off and a torrent of men appeared, all aiming guns at us.
“Drop your weapons!” one of them barked and my gut knotted right the fuck up.
Me, JJ and Fox crowded around Rogue instinctively, jamming her between us as we all dropped our guns and raised our hands.
Ah shit. Now what?
S ome asshole wearing cheap cologne and a string vest jabbed a gun into my back and forced me to start walking.
Maverick snarled insults at all of them as he closed in on my left side, his arm brushing mine while Fox moved in on my other side, the two of them effectively boxing me between them with JJ next to Fox as we were herded around the house.
My heart pounded as I looked between the men who were corralling us towards the front of the manor, searching for a weak spot amongst them as I tried to think of a way out of this.
"I'm gonna kill you first," Maverick said conversationally, looking at the guy who was still jabbing me with his gun. "I'm gonna take that gun you're so fond of poking my girl with and ram it up your ass before I pull the trigger and watch your insides go boom."
"More like the three of you will watch while we all take turns with your girl here before you each eat a bullet," the man pointing a gun at Fox chuckled.
I swear I could feel the tension that ran through my boys at that suggestion. JJ's spine straightened while Fox and Maverick exchanged a look which promised violence with so much certainty that I could taste