Page 22 of One (The Towns Syndicate #2)

Ally

T he two gunshots were so close, I felt my hearing go out for a minute. It didn’t help that the asshole landed on top of me and my body hurt from falling off the bike, but I couldn’t get him off.

A twig broke and I laid still, hoping this dick weed was covering me enough that his friend wouldn’t notice me.

It was too quiet, and I worried about King and Boogie, what if— Nope I wasn’t going there, I couldn’t.

They needed to be ok. Noise from the opposite direction caught my attention and I wondered if that was them or more of the other men.

I wiggled my hand out from under the asshole, just in case I needed to shoot someone. It wasn’t ideal, but since I was stuck what the hell else was I going to do? Two shots were fired, and then three more as my heart rate skyrocketed.

King walked by me, an assault rifle raised scanning the area. Boogie was nowhere in sight, but I had to remind myself that it meant nothing. He could be anywhere, hopefully.

“King,” I whispered as he turned around quickly. “Down here.”

He looked down in the opposite direction.

“Behind you,” I said, almost laughing at how ridiculous this was.

“What the fuck, Ally?” he growled, kneeling by me.

“I did this on purpose,” I said, feeling defensive.

He pushed the guy's body off of me as I looked around.

“Shit, Ally,” he said, staring down at me.

I looked down to see so much blood I almost gagged.

“Not mine, I’m fine,” I said, sitting up and throwing myself at him. “I’m ok, I promise. I have the vest remember?”

I felt him shaking.

“Where is?—”

Gunshots echoed and I tensed.

“Shit,” King growled as we separated.

“Two more vans showed up,” Boogie said, running to us.

He picked me up, kissing me hard, pulling away too soon.

“Little One,” he said as if he were in pain, examining me.

“It’s not mine,” I said, and he nodded.

“We have to leave and if we head this way we can hit our cabin,” Boogie said, handing me a rifle and then grabbing my hand.

“You sure?” King glanced behind us as we started to walk fast.

“I checked my phone before leaving it,” Boogie said, looking over his shoulder.

“Good idea,” Kind said, grabbing his phone, breaking it and throwing it in the opposite direction. “Do you have your phone, Doll?”

“I left hers back there too,” he said, out of breath.

“Boogie, what's wrong?” I inspected him, but I didn’t see any injuries.

“Nothing,” he growled, pulling me.

I knew something was wrong, but decided against pushing it. We walked for what seemed like forever in the freezing rain. My hands and feet felt numb as we hit the second hour of walking. The pain in my limbs was becoming unbearable, when I saw the familiar driveway.

I almost cried when King found a spare key he had hidden, and we stumbled into the house. Boogie walked in front of me, and that's when I saw the blood trailing down his boot.

“Boogie, what the fuck,” I snapped.

“It’s just a scratch,” he grumbled.

“What the?—”

I turned around just in time to hear a gun go off twice. The pain knocked the air out of me as I fell backwards, hitting my head on something and then my vision dimmed slowly wondering if this was the last time I saw Boogie and King.

“We have to leave now.”

“How the fuck do you expect us to do that?”

“We are sitting ducks here. Next time, they will kill her.”

“Boogie, we can’t leave, we have to wait for Mars and Roman.”

“That’s too long to fucking wait!”

Something crashed and I gasped, fully waking up.

“Shit, Little One.” Boogie stood next to me. “I’m sorry.”

Worry marred his beautiful face, and all I wanted to do was hold him. I groaned, feeling my head and chest. Those were the worst places, but everything hurt.

“What the hell happened?” I asked my voice a little gruff.

“Someone found our trail,” King said on the other side of me.

I slowly looked over to him. He looked just as worried and exhausted as Boogie.

“They shot me in the chest,” I said, rubbing lightly remembering the pain. “And I fell back on something.”

“An end table,” Boogie said.

I nodded, wincing at the pain. “How long have I been out?”

“Fifteen minutes,” Boogie said, sitting down on the bed but hissing in pain before he stood up.

“You still haven’t patched him up?” I glared at King, but it wasn’t very stern since anything I did hurt my head.

“He wouldn’t let me look at him,” King glared at him.

“Wait, did you get shot in the ass?” I tried not to smile.

Boogie did not appreciate the smile. “It grazed my ass.”

“Lay on your stomach,” I ordered. “That was too much blood for just a graze, and if it was, you got a big ass so it might have taken?—”

“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Boogie glared at me.

“Let King take a look at you, and we can see what the damage is,” I said, trying to sit up, but decided that was too hard. “If we leave, we need both of you to be good. I need you to be ok.”

He looked conflicted before he huffed, unbuttoning his pants, pulling them down and laying on his stomach. A bullet had grazed his ass, but he had a bullet in his upper shoulder, and that was where most of the blood came from.

“God dammit, Boogie,” King snarled, inspecting his wound. “You should have said something.”

Boogie just grunted as King laid out a very intense kit.

I grunted, moving myself to lay next to Boogie, which earned myself a growl and a glare from them.

They could kiss my ass; I needed to be close to them as everything hit me.

I grabbed Boogie’s hand as King worked on him.

Tears fell out of my eyes, as Boogie's expression softened.

“Little One,” he whispered.

“I’m ok,” I said, wiping my tears. “I think everything is just hitting me and I’m finally realizing people actually want me dead. They might succeed and hurt you at the same time too.”

“They can try, Doll, but they won’t get a chance and if they do, well, dying for you would be a fucking honor, and in death we will be together,” King said leaning towards me. “There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for you and that includes dying.”

“Theres a reason people fear us, Little One,” Boogie said.

“We won’t go quietly into the good night, they know that, and that's why they sent vans and vans of people. You don’t just send someone to kill us.

You send a fucking army and pray you kill us, because if you don’t well let’s just say I hope they know how to hide well because hide and seek is our favorite game. ”

I shivered.

“We protect what's ours, Ally.” King kissed me softly, leaning back and allowing Boogie to do the same. “Expect someone's head on a platter or a necklace of bones. You will get a souvenir.”

This shouldn’t be romantic but dammit it was.

The sound of a phone ringing broke our moment, and King answered the phone.

Boogie and I held hands as we heard the one-sided call that sounded like he was talking to Mars.

Boogie stared at me intently as we laid together.

King hung up and his shoulders finally relaxed.

“They are twenty minutes away and they have a crew cleaning the highway and two will be going through the woods,” he said, looking relieved. “Doc will meet us at Halloween Town to check on you guys.”

“Ok, then finish up so we can check on the perimeter and get the fuck out of here,” Boogie said, never taking his eyes off of me.

I think he felt like if he looked away, he was afraid I might disappear. His expression grew darker as the minutes passed. My chest grew tight with discomfort, the tense silence made me feel worse. Was I breaking us apart?

Once Mars arrived, one of the guys was always with me. At least twenty men were with us, and that was me just counting who was in our immediate vicinity. Boogie and King were on the phone speaking with several people, and I suddenly realized how little I knew of their network.

“How are you doing, Noelle?” Roman sat on the bed with me, handing me a Gatorade bottle.

“OK,” I said, looking out of our bedroom to the living room to see if anyone was listening or about to come in. “Can I ask for a favor?”

“What can I do for you?”

I looked out the door again. “I need this to be kept quiet, but I need you to find Lance my?—”

“Is he missing?” he cut me off.

“Arthur said he was the reason for the attack today, but I don’t know, something just doesn’t feel right,” I said, glancing out the door.

“Why not have Arthur look for him?” he studied me.

“I don’t know, I’m going on a hunch here,” I sighed.

“You think Arthur was the reason for the attack?” he scowled.

“Maybe, or it could be Lance, but something just doesn’t feel right.” I shrugged “If I say anything to Boogie and King, especially now, I’m afraid it will turn into a shoot now ask later situation and I really don’t want Lance to die…yet.”

“I can’t keep a secret from them,” he said with a pointed look.

“I know, but can you just not say anything if they don’t ask,” I said, ready to pout if I had to.

Roman glanced out the door. “Fine. But if they ask, I’ll fucking sing like a canary.”

I narrowed my eyes at him feeling like he might tell them without them even having to ask.

“Thank you,” I sighed, hoping this wasn’t a mistake.

“Should I look into Arthur?”

I shook my head. “I’ll do that when I get back, but I need to find Lance now.”

“Boss says we are moving out.” A man dressed in fatigues came into the room. “He said she will be in the SUV.”

“Alright, Noelle,” Roman said, getting up. “Let’s get your highness in the car.”

“I can walk,” I said, as Roman lifted me from the bed.

The room spun for a second as I held on to his shoulder.

“Are you going to throw up on me?” Roman’s gruff voice held a hint of panic.

“No, just got a little dizzy,” I said, laying my head on his shoulder.

“Alright, I'll walk slowly,” he said walking out into the living room.

I was not ready for the cold when we stepped outside. Roman’s warm body was comforting until I heard Boogie growl before Roman.

“You might want to hurry and put me in the car,” I said quickly.

“I don’t need you throwing up on me and?—”

Roman’s body tensed when he realized what I meant.

“Give her to me,” Boogie growled.

“Boogie, he was just trying to?—”

He glared at me, my words abruptly stopping. Roman handed me over, Boogie yanking me away abruptly, making me gasp.

“She said she was feeling?—”

Roman didn’t finish his sentence as we walked away, and I tried not to throw up. Boogie wasn't gentle as he jostled me walking to the SUV.

“Can you chill out, you're making me nauseous.” I gritted my teeth as he dropped my legs, but kept my upper body close to him, as he opened the door to the SUV. “What the fuck is your problem?”

I swallowed the rising amount of saliva as I fought the urge to vomit, actually I should just vomit on him because he was being an ass.

“Just get into the car, Ally,” he snapped at me, not even bothering to help me.

“Roman was just helping me, if you're angry about that maybe you should have come for me instead of telling one of your lackeys that we were ready to go,” I snapped. “Don’t get angry at me for your stupidity.” And here it came up.

I turn away from him, vomiting the Gatorade and crackers I had earlier. The red color looked like blood which made me throw up even more. Once my stomach heaved a few times, I realized Boogie was rubbing my back. As much as I wanted to take comfort in him right now, I slapped his hand away.

“If you didn’t just jostle me around, I wouldn’t be throwing up, Ass.” I got into the car, not looking at him, laying down slowly as my stomach churns again.

“Ally.”

“Go fuck yourself, Boogie. I’m not in the mood for your macho bullshit,” I said as my lip trembled. “I can handle myself.”

He sighed and after a minute he walked away.

Guilt sat heavily on my chest again. He was being an ass for no reason, but we were in this mess because of me.

Giving up Christmas Town was starting to sound more and more appealing.

Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this life, but I also didn’t want to be just Boogie and King’s girl.

What the fuck was I supposed to do?