Page 12 of Dirty Ruck (Ruck Boys #5)

Chapter Twelve

Chelsea

Strong arms grabbed me and I was pulled to the ground, surrounded by a protective wall of muscle. I ducked my head and screwed my eyes shut, as though somehow that would protect me from a bullet.

For the longest time, we crouched like that, hard up against the wall. My heart was in my throat the entire time, thundering like crazy.

In the back of my mind was the unwelcome thought, Fuck, not again.

Finally, I managed to say, "Is everyone okay?"

Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked into Jay's. He was opposite me, with Frost and Dallas on either side. His brown eyes were wide, staring at me without blinking.

"I'm okay," he whispered.

"Me too," Frost agreed. "Dallas?"

"Fine," Dallas said. "What… What happened?"

It wasn't until he spoke that I realised the tang of blood filled my nostrils. If all of us were okay, then…

Biting my lip, I turned to look at where Sierra stood. Now, she lay on the ground, blood seeping from a hole in her chest, directly above her heart.

"Fuck," I whispered. My instinct was to try to help her, but she was beyond help. I swivelled my gaze to the door. "I didn't see anyone."

"Me either," Frost said. "My eyes were on her." Slowly, he released his grip on us and stood.

"I saw," Jay said, slowly rising as well. "It was that other girl, Milly. I saw the gun in her hand and pulled all of you down."

I realised now, he was right. He started to push us to the ground before the gunshot sounded. If he hadn't…

"My hero." Frost kissed his mouth. "We need to find her." He headed towards the door.

Dallas was the last to stand, trembling, his eyes on Sierra. "It happened again." His tone was haunted. For the rest of my life, I'd remember the look in his eyes.

I grabbed his arm. "It wasn't you. You didn't do this."

He couldn't seem to stop staring at her. "I came here again and someone died. What if… What if it was you?" He shook his head.

I placed my hands on his shoulders and turned him to face me. "It wasn't me. You didn't do this. This is not your fault. I don't know why Milly did it, but it wasn't because of anything you did. Okay?"

I wished I believed that. Milly was either aiming at one of us, or was trying to stop Sierra from talking to us. Either way, this was my fault. I was the one who decided to come here. If I hadn't, Sierra would still be alive.

For how long though? I didn't know, but a while at least.

"We should go before she comes back," Jay said. His phone was in his hand, presumably filling Atlas in on what happened.

"Looking for someone?" Storm asked as he stepped into the doorway, a small body over his shoulder. Milly writhed and struggled, but his arm was clamped over her, holding her firmly in place.

"She came running out with a gun in her hand, so we figured we should grab her," Atlas said. He glanced around us to Sierra, his expression grim. "Looks like we were right. Is everyone okay?"

"We're fine," I said. "Everyone except for her."

Divina wasn't going to be happy. Technically, we didn't make a mess, but another woman was dead. And two girls would be missing from tonight's lineup.

If she wanted to, she could take it out on Milly when we were done with her.

"Looks like we're going to have a chat with this woman then," Storm said. "Unless she wants to give us some answers now." He glanced back over his shoulder.

"Let me go," Milly insisted. "You have the wrong person." She wriggled harder, but it got her nowhere. He was approximately twice her size and at least twice as strong. Not to mention angry. That alone would keep her pinned there until he was ready to let her go.

"Gun says otherwise." Ramsey appeared, carrying a small handgun. "Recently fired." He held it between his thumb and forefinger, a look of disgust in his eyes. Not for the gun, but for what it was used for. The gun itself was just a tool, albeit a deadly one. Milly was the one at fault here.

"Definitely by her," Jay said. "I saw her do it." He explained in a handful of words.

"Care to rethink your answer?" Storm asked. He looked ready to snap her neck and throw her in the bay.

"Fuck off." She tried to kick him in the back, but he turned, almost hitting her head against the door frame. She managed to duck her head to the side at the last moment. "Hey, watch it!"

He turned back around the other way, almost doing the same thing, and not looking even slightly sorry for it.

If anything, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Of course he was. She was lucky he hadn't strangled her the moment he realised what she did. Or what she might have done if they hadn’t caught up with her first. "We can take her to your brother's workroom," Storm said.

Her head picked up and she looked at me, terror in her eyes.

Yeah, she knew exactly who I was and who my brother was. And what he was going to do to her. Why hadn't that stopped her from raising a gun in my presence?

If I was as scared as she seemed to be now, I wouldn't have done it. No matter how much I got paid.

Was it that simple though? Probably not. It usually wasn't. She could have a family member being held somewhere to ensure her obedience. A sibling or maybe a child. If not that, they might have something on her that forced her to act.

People who hired other people to kill for them, there was nothing they wouldn't do to get what they wanted.

No low they wouldn't reach if they felt they had to.

They wouldn't lose any sleep over it either.

This was exactly why I tried to stay away from this lifestyle.

I didn't want to become a monster like that. Cold and unfeeling. Numb.

"It's not too late to speak," I told her. If she really was forced to do this, we might go easier on her.

She dropped her head and sagged against Storm's shoulder.

"Seems she'd rather deal with your brother than with whoever put her up to shooting Sierra," Atlas mused. "I'm guessing she knows she's dead either way."

"Not necessarily," I said, knowing she was listening. "She might open up later and be allowed to get back to her life. You know my brother doesn't kill innocent people. She could have been paid to try to scare us and things got out of hand.”

Her head picked up again. "That's exactly what happened. I've never used a gun before. I didn't know how to. I thought it wasn't loaded, or it was locked or something. Hell, it could have been a toy for all I knew. I didn't know anyone would die."

"Of course you didn't," I said, although I didn't believe a word that came out of her mouth. "I know you didn't mean to kill Sierra. It was a terrible accident."

Milly nodded vigourously. "Exactly. So, if this big oaf would put me down, I can get out of here.

Before someone else tries to pin this on me.

" Her voice rose higher and higher as she spoke.

She was trying to look like she wasn't going to lose it, but she was starting to freak out around the edges. I would be too if I was her.

"I don't think so." I frowned. "No doubt my brother will have questions for you. He'd be very disappointed if I didn't give him a chance to get answers."

I wasn't saying that to scare her. He would want to see her. There was a chance he'd know who she was and who she was working for, even if Ramsey didn't.

Not to mention the trouble we'd be in if we let her go and she proved to be someone important or useful.

That was a call I wasn't willing to make.

And Ramsey didn't seem inclined to make it either.

He was as quiet as ever, turning the gun around and around in his hands, his eyes on it like he was trying to figure something out.

What, I had no idea. Whatever it was, he was deep in thought about it.

The fact he didn't use the gun on Milly was something to be grateful for. I'd seen enough bloodshed for one night. For now at least.

Milly dropped her head again and sighed. She'd probably stick to the story I'd given her, but she knew we weren't going to let her go that easily.

I almost felt sorry for her. If I thought she really was innocent, I would have.

But I didn't. She was in this up to her eyeballs.

I suspected it was her who was working with India, not Sierra.

By suspecting the wrong person, I might have caused an innocent woman to lose her life. For that, I'd always feel like shit.

I took a long look back at Sierra before following the guys out. "I'm sorry," I told her corpse.

I sent a message off to my brother to let him know we were coming and to request someone come and clean in here.

It was the least I could do for Sienna and Divina.

I wished I could do more, but I needed to be there to talk to Milly.

I wanted to hear what she had to say, Besides, sometimes a woman was needed to make another woman open up.

I desperately needed to understand why she did what she did.

Was she really aiming at me? If she was, I owed Jay my life. If he hadn't seen her when he had, things would have turned out very different.

"Chelsea?" Dallas slipped an arm around me and held me close to his body. He was still trembling, but it lessened a fraction.

"I'm coming," I said. "I feel so bad for Sierra. She couldn't have gotten out of the way of the bullet in time. She probably didn't even see the gun. One minute she was talking to us, and the next minute…" A knot of emotion filled my throat. My eyes prickled with tears.

"When I heard the gunshot, I thought it hit you," he whispered. "I thought another one might come. All I could do was hold you and try to put myself between it and you. I don't care if I could have died as long as you didn't."

"I would have been devastated if you died." I leaned against him and buried my face in his shoulder. "If any of you died."

I was starting to think we should go home and stay there forever. We could have food and whatever else we needed delivered and never have to see anyone but each other, right? We might go crazy, but at least we'd be alive.

"I don't hate that idea," he admitted. "We could stay in bed all day."

"We need to get out of here first," Atlas said from behind us. "We can work out a plan later. For the record, I think people would notice if we didn't turn up to training or to games. Sooner or later, they'd come looking for us. ‘They’ being the press and team management."

I grimaced. The last thing we needed was a contingent of paparazzi camped outside our gates, wondering what the hell we were up to.

"Fine, we'll be normal for a while longer." I untangled myself from Dallas, but kept my arms around him, walking with him to the corridor and down to the door that led out of the club.

"Who said anything about normal?" Atlas said lightly. "I just said we can't hide away, that's all."

"Watch your mouth," Frost told him. "Normal is a dirty word, don't you know?"

Atlas clapped him on the shoulder. "Sorry, bro. I'll watch myself from now on."

For now, we watched ourselves, stepping out carefully to join the others.

Storm tossed Milly into the back of his SUV, where she landed with a bounce and short cry of protest.

"Sorry not sorry," he said before he closed the hatch to lock her in.

She looked suitably miserable. She should thank her lucky stars she wasn't dead.

Yet.

We all squeezed into the rest of the vehicle and fell silent as we made our way to Ice's place.