His to Steal

Ch. 17: Ammo

I scoff and run a hand through my hair. "Oh man, I know she's still pissed at me. No question about that. She smacked me in the right in the face before I left to meet you."

Ezra's eyebrows jump to his hairline. "Damn. Well, at least she isn't hiding it. That's a plus, I suppose. Just be careful."

I nod. "I will." Before I can say anything else, he stretches his arm out and stops me from walking any further. I look at him and ask, "Are we here?"

"Yeah. That's it right there," he mutters, gesturing across the street to a rundown, abandoned warehouse.

"Classy. Maybe now would be a good time for you to tell me what it is we're doing here, since you seem to be done doling out relationship advice," I say with a sidelong glance in his direction.

He ignores my smartass comment. "So, since Anthony thinks I have no interest in anything to do with the business anymore, he sometimes lets things slip in front of me. And the other night, when he finally answered my phone call, we went out for a beer. He may have had one too many, and he told me that Jason was running some kind of scheme out of this warehouse."

I raise my eyebrows. "What kind of scheme?"

"He didn't tell me," Ezra says, shrugging. "Just told me that it was something Xavier and the rest of them don't normally deal in, and that it made him pretty nervous. It seemed like it was something he'd tried to stop, but of course he'd been outvoted, as per usual where Xavier and Jason are concerned."

"They're idiots." I squint at the warehouse across the street and see that the parking lot is crawling with what looks like armed guards. "How the hell are we supposed to get in there?"

Ezra strokes his beard slowly, like he's coming up with the greatest plan in the history of plans. "That's the thing...see, I was hoping you'd have an idea."

I nearly laugh out loud and manage to stifle it behind my fist. "Me? I didn't even know what I was walking into until five minutes ago. How in the hell would I have an idea?"

He throws up his hands. "I don't know, man! You're smart! Figure it out! I got you the intel and got us here. The least you can do is figure out how to sneak us in."

"This is ridiculous. We are like fucking Beavis and Butthead over here with our heads up our asses," I say, bending over at the waist and placing my hands on my knees, nearly hysterical with laughter. "Okay, okay. Listen. How about this? We sneak around to the back and see if there's at least a window that's open and maybe we can hear something? That way we don't leave with nothing."

"All right, it's worth a shot." As we walk as casually and inconspicuously as possible around the block, Ezra shoots me the side-eye. "Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, kicking at a rock on the sidewalk, avoiding his stare.

"I mean why are you doing any of this? Risking even being here right now? This is basically enemy territory for you. The Ring and the Gospodari don't exactly play golf together on the weekends. Why do you care what The Ring does?"

When I finally look over at him, the way he looks at me tells me he already knows. The fucker just wants me to say it.

I stop and lift my hands in surrender, slapping them against the sides of my thighs. When I speak, my voice is desperate, and I hardly recognize it.

"Because I'm in love with her, okay? I was when I left her, and I forced myself to forget her for the past three years because it's what I had to do. But the moment I saw her again..." I blow out a breath that rattles my lips. "It all came rushing back. Every feeling I ever had for her. It came back with a fucking vengeance. I can't let anything happen to her, Ezra. And I have this sinking feeling that whatever that shithead is up to...it's something that's going to affect her. And over my dead fucking body will he hurt her."