Red Handed by Jessa Wilder

The ride to the stadium felt shorter this time since I knew where we were going. There was three times as much traffic though, and it took us longer to get inside. Rush didn’t bother parking in the lot with the rest of the crowd. Instead, he drove around back to the same security entrance Beck had used last time and flashed a badge at the guard.

“How’re you doing?” the guard said to Rush as he rolled down the window to flash his entrance badge.

“Good, you?” he replied.

“Fine.” The guard spotted me sitting in the back and gave me a little wave and a smile of recognition. “Hey there, I thought I might see you today. Wish your boyfriend luck for me.”

“Uh, sure will. Thanks,” I said awkwardly.

“Told you,” Sophie hissed, not quietly enough. “Everyone knows something is up, even that guy.”

Nico met my eyes in the rearview mirror, his expression unreadable, and I flushed bright red.

We parked around back near a line of four or five similarly armored cars. “Who’s are those?” I asked.

“Investors mostly,” Rush said. “This isn’t going to be a full stadium, it’s all invited guests. These are people who wanted to avoid going through metal detectors.”

I snorted. “What’s the point of metal detectors if you have a way around them for the people who need to carry guns.”

“Legal liability,” Nico answered smoothly.

He wore big dark sunglasses and a black t-shirt, making no effort to hide the several weapons he was carrying. For once, his tattoos were on full display. He didn’t have as many as Beck and Rush, who looked like they were competing for who could have the least amount of uninked skin, but his crowned skull tattoo covered his entire bicep, bleeding into a half sleeve of black and grey shading. I really wanted to lean closer and examine what perfectionist-Nico would deem worthy of putting on his skin.

“Where are we sitting?” Sophie ran up beside me, her bleached blonde curls bouncing.

“Hang on, as much as I hate to say it, we should probably wait for your guys,” Rush said and grasped my arm as I walked by. It was like every ounce of energy was concentrated where our skin met. The contact sent sparks flying up my arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps. He let go immediately, opening and closing his fist as if burned.

“They’re not my guys,” I said mulishly. “They’re our father’s guys.”

That was semi-true. Patrick would take orders from me in Jimmy’s absence, and usually so would Connor, even if he was being an ass lately. I didn’t feel the Gentlemen needed a full debrief on the pecking order at Mount Summer, though. I hadn’t let my guard down that much.

“They’re a pain in the ass, whoever they report to,” Rush grumbled.

Connor and Patrick arrived within five minutes, and we all traipsed past the stairs where Beck had taken me down onto the field and up into the stands. I made my way toward a row of seats, but Nico grabbed my hand to stop me.

“Don’t be stupid, Raegan. We’re not sitting over there,” he said.

Rage bubbled under my skin at his words. “Then where are we sitting, Asshole?”

Apparently, we were headed to an air-conditioned box overlooking the whole arena. I wondered, not for the first time, why no one ever told me what we were going to be doing. The AC was so high I could have worn a jacket.

Over the next twenty minutes, other people filed in until the VIP box was completely full. Finally, just when I was getting antsy, an announcer appeared on the jumbotron welcoming everyone to the exhibition. I immediately ran up to the giant glass window that looked over the dirt track. Colorful flags marked the edges of different obstacles, each emblazoned with a different corporate logo. On the far end of the stadium, about fifteen riders stood with their bikes waiting to be announced.

My fingers drummed on the ledge as excited energy pumped through me. There was something about a stadium filled with screaming fans lined with posters of Beck that just did it for me. I hopped from foot to foot, excitement coming off of me in waves when someone stepped up beside me. Even without looking, I knew it was Rush just by how my entire body buzzed around him.

“You excited, Firecracker?” His voice was a low rumble that came deep from his chest. He was close enough that his words were private between us, and the hair on my arms raised at the intimacy. I tightened my fingers on the ledge of the window.

I kept my gaze dead forward, hiding any reaction his proximity caused. “Yeah.”

“Good. You’re in for a show.” He straightened beside me and placed his hand so close his pinky was a hair’s breadth away. The slightest motion would have us touching.

Connor glared at us from the corner of the room, but I refused to step away.

Nico cleared his throat loudly. “Rush!” he barked. “Unless you’re planning to provide the pre-race entertainment, cut that shit out.”

My cheeks flamed and I glared daggers at Nico. I was angry, partly for being called out, and partly because he was right. I wanted to cross that line. Rush wasn’t having any of it. He gripped my waist and upped the ante by flopping down into the seat next to Nico, pulling me into his lap.

I gasped and twisted to face him, hissing. “What the hell are you doing?”

His mouth dipped close to my ear, sending goosebumps up my neck. “You want to piss off Nico, don’t you?”

“I thought we were enemies.” My eyes searched his. There was a shift between us I wasn’t quite ready to face.

A muscle clenched in his jaw. His eyes bored into mine with an intensity that called to me. I felt the hairs on my arms raise and my blood pulsing in my veins. Every inch of me tuned into him. His voice was rough, and I felt his chest vibrate against my arm. “Get up then.”

Fuck…he was calling my bluff. He knew I didn’t want to break the connection, but he was still making it my decision to stay. I clenched my teeth, staring at him. “Truce. For now.”

He nodded. “For now.”

I turned on his lap, back pressed against his chest, and shivered as his breath met the sensitive skin of my neck. I shifted with the feeling and his large hands grasped my hips holding me perfectly still against him. What the hell was I doing?

Both Nico and Connor glared, but with different levels of intensity. If I had to guess, Nico just didn’t like me. Connor, however, was another matter entirely. His expression was an open book, and I couldn’t believe I had ever been blind to the issue before. He was jealous. Livid, even. I needed to put an end to that shit real fucking soon.

I didn’t have time to dwell on it any longer though, because an announcer's voice boomed through the stadium, reading off racers’ names and numbers. The roar of engines filled the stadium, and one after another lined up at the starting line. I scanned for Beck’s orange bike and found him looking toward us. A thrill shot through me, and my entire body was alight when the flag flew and they took off down the track. Goddamn, it was fast. They took each corner at breakneck speed, only to follow it up with jumps that were at least ten feet high. I didn’t know much about the sport, but Beck was obviously winning.

The crowd chanted his name, and I wanted to do the same, but in a completely different context. Beck killing it out there had me panting. This mix of risk and adrenaline was like an aphrodisiac setting me on fire. My eyes were glued on him as he took a corner sharper than any other rider and my heart dipped at the same time as his bike. A spike of fear rippled through me, but he recovered without missing a beat and came out the clear winner.

Rush chest rumbled against my back. “He’s going to be so pissed he missed seeing you like this.”

“Like what?” I tried to turn in his arms but couldn't take my eyes off the race.

“All hyped up to watch him.” This time his rough voice was pressed into my ear, and I had to stifle a moan. These guys were driving me out of my mind.

I recognized Sadie’s name when they announced her and her face popped up on the jumbotron, waving as she mounted her bike. I hadn’t realized she and Beck both raced for Red Bull—like a pair. Jealousy roared in my stomach, hot and angry.

“They should be almost done,” Rush told me.

“Can we go down and see him?”

“He’ll come up here with some of the other riders.”

I looked around at the people who had filled the VIP box behind us. Mostly corporate business looking types—certainly no other gun carrying girls sitting on tattooed guys’ laps. I met Sophie's eyes where she sat behind us, and she grinned, giving me a thumbs up. “Get it,” she mouthed.

Her pointing out what I was doing was like having an ice-cold shower. I jumped from Rush’s lap, and his hands let me go easily. That wasn’t supposed to happen, and we both knew it. The excuse of making Nico angry was flimsy at best. Nico was usually angry, no matter what was going on around him.

Twenty minutes later, after Beck had won and all the riders returned to their stalls, I was nearly bouncing up and down. I had to restrain myself from saying ‘fuck it’ and meeting him downstairs. Rush watched me with intense eyes as I hopped around the room, no longer able to stay still.

Beck jogged up the stairs, and into the box, wiping sweat off his forehead. Fucking Finally.

I jumped into his arms. “You were great!”

He caught me easily and my feet left the ground as he swung me into the air. “Thanks, baby. Did you have fun?”

I nodded, grinning. “It was scarier in person than on YouTube.”

“Nah. This wasn’t even a stunt exposition. Just wait until the X-games.” He winked.

Someone cleared their throat behind Beck, and he stiffened. I leaned around his shoulder to peek at the newcomer.

“Sorry,” Sadie said, not sounding sorry. “You’re blocking the door.”

Beck stepped aside but didn’t put me back on the floor. He grinned. “Our bad.”

Her eyes lit up when Rush walked up from behind me.

“Hey, Rush,” she said. “How've you been?”

“Fine.” He nodded, and wrapped an arm around me the second Beck slid me to the ground and went to talk to someone else. I gave her a smug ass smirk and one of Beck’s signature winks.

Her face turned a bright shade of red, but she didn’t back down. “We’re going out tonight. You should come, Rush.” Her sweet, syrupy voice made me want to gag.

“We’re busy tonight.” I answered for him. Like hell this was going down in front of me. Her eyes turned to slits when they met mine. Bitch didn’t know who she was fucking with. I let my smile broaden over my face and looked anything but sweet. “I’m sorry you lost your race. Thirteenth out of fifteen isn’t too bad, right?” I swallowed my laugh when she turned around in a huff and stomped away. What were we, twelve?

Rush’s arm lifted from my shoulders, but he was grinning as he said. “That wasn’t very nice.”

His smile knocked the wind out of me; so rarely directed my way since our very first meeting. I shook my head to clear it. What the hell had he asked? “She had it coming.”

His smile grew. “Oh yeah? I’d like to hear that story.”

Sophie looked dead on her feet as she walked toward us. “Can we please g-go now?” She said around a yawn. She tucked herself into my side and rested her head on my shoulder. I looked up at Rush and gave him puppy dog eyes. It was a great night, but I was exhausted too.

“Yeah, go ahead. I’ll get the guys and we’ll catch up,” he said.

We barely cleared the door before Sophie said, “So…are we going to talk about it?” Her voice was far too sweet for her to be up to any good.

I raised a brow at her. “Talk about what?”

“The fact that you’ve got your pick of a very hot litter.”

My nose scrunched in the middle. “I’d prefer you refrained from using any animal references.”

She snorted. “Sooo, which one is it going to be? Wait! Let me guess. Beck? He has that super sexy obsessed with you thing going for him.”

I busted out laughing. She had a point. How the hell did he make crazy look so hot?

When I didn't immediately answer, she continued. “Oh, so it’s Rush and his intense mismatched stare?” She fake swooned and leaned harder against my side. “The hungry way he watches you would be embarrassing if it wasn’t so damn sexy.”

I peeked over my shoulder and made sure the guys were still too far to hear our conversation. They hadn’t come out of the booth yet, thank God. I would have died of mortification had they overheard this conversation.

Sophie sprung up on her toes. “Oh shit…is it Nico?” She fanned herself and I busted out laughing.

A loud crack echoed through the parking lot, and we froze. Then another, and another. Gunshots. Fuck.

I whipped around just in time to see a bullet bounce off the bumper of the car, way too close for comfort. Suddenly, everyone was yelling. I screamed for my sister as I heard my own name echoing from somewhere to my left. I couldn’t tell over the noise who had yelled for me, but it didn’t matter. Pulling my gun out of its holster, I darted toward the armored truck. Sophie, thank God, had the same idea. She crouched low behind the right rear fender, using the tires as a shield.

“It’s locked,” she whimpered at me.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Beck darted out of nowhere, reaching me and Sophie just as a bullet crashed through the window on the car to our right. Shattering glass all around us.

“Where is it coming from?” I screamed, spinning in a circle, holding my gun out in front of me.

“Above,” Beck panted. “Get under the car.”

Sophie immediately obliged, wriggling underneath the small gap between the bottom of the SUV and the asphalt. I, however, was not going to hide.

People in the stadium had realized what was going on and were running, like fucking idiots, toward the action. The sound was probably bouncing all over the place in the round arena, making it hard for people to tell where the gunshots were coming from, but in the confusion, the crowd was about to run literally right into the line of fire.

I peered toward the bleachers where the shots seemed to be coming from. Fuck. I couldn’t hit a sniper with a handgun from one hundred yards away. Thankfully, I didn’t have to. My eye caught movement to my left, and I spotted Nico on the opposite end of the parking lot. He was leaning around another car aiming a M24 Sniper Rifle up at something in the stands. Where the hell he had hidden that thing, I had no idea. It was fucking huge. He fired off three shots into the stands. I couldn’t see where they had gone, but the bullets raining down on the back of the range rover momentarily stopped. Huh. That’s not something they taught in business school school.

Out of nowhere, Rush ran up beside me. He held his keys in one hand and a gun in the other. “Get in,” he said quickly, unlocking the car.

I reached under the car and hauled my sister out by the shoulder, shoving her in the car in front of me. “What the fuck was that?” I screamed at Rush, too loudly, considering he was less than a foot away.

“Get in,” he repeated.

“I thought you guys were still up in the box. How did you get down here so fast?”

Rush made a sound of frustration and physically lifted me up, tossing me into the back seat after Sophie. I crashed into her with an “Oomph,” as he slammed the door behind us.

Tears rolled down Sophie’s face, smearing her eyeliner into long, black streaks. “What is going on?” she cried. “That’s twice in two weeks we’ve been shot at—”

“I know,” I said, biting my lip. I patted her on the back, having no idea what to say. She wasn’t wrong—nothing was normal anymore.

The driver’s side door opened, and Beck jumped in, keys jingling. “Are you okay?” he said as he started the car.

“Yeah. Where are the others?”

He grimaced at me in the rearview mirror. “They’ll meet us back at the hotel, but we need to get you both out of here.”

“Why?” I asked desperately

Beck frowned, his hands shaking on the steering wheel. “Later, Little Thief. I promise.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

He sighed. “I know.”