Page 50 of Intent to Kill
Tia slipped inside Paul’s white van and startled when Dan slammed the door shut behind her. Crouched down low, she struggled in her heels and eyed them all curiously. “That’s it? Just the five of you?”
Adam gritted his teeth but restrained his comments. It wasn’t just the five of them, but they were more of a force than any amount of people he could send.
“Hey, the five of us are pretty dangerous, love,” Dan said.
Mercedes leaned over the front seat to hit Dan on the arm. “We’ve got people inside and out.”
“I’m going out on a limb trusting you here, don’t fuck this up,” Tia said, jabbing her pointer finger at them.
“We won’t,” Adam said, not even bothering to look over his shoulder as he loaded ammunition into the guns on his lap.
“Head on in,” Mercedes said. “We’ll listen for your signal.”
Tia sighed in doubtful agreement. Before disappearing out of the van she paused to give them one last glare. The subtext was clear. You’d better be as good as you think you are.
“She’s still pleasant,” Dan said, sarcastic undertones dripping from his voice. He slid the door shut again and took his seat in the back.
“Alright, team, let’s rally,” Adam said. He turned in the seat to look at his friends. “Paul, Mercedes, you’re with me at the bar. Carlos, you’re posing as security. Dan...” Adam rubbed at his forehead. “You’re posing as a customer.”
“Fuck yes!” Dan’s eyes twinkled as he fist-pumped the air.
It was a wise move. Any other job and Dan probably would’ve been distracted anyway.
Dan piled out of the van, walking to the club entrance and nodding at the security guy. One of theirs now. The guy whispered something in his earpiece, and then all the red lights on the security cameras stopped blinking.
After Dan secured the entrance, the rest of them filed inside.
The Neptune Club was exactly as he remembered it. Red pulsing lights. Green neons. Girls dancing on tables and poles in the center of the room. Though they looked a lot less happy than when he had been in charge... No, he could put his ego aside. They were probably just mourning their latest dead friend.
Dan perched in the front row, smiling like a loon. Adam caught Carlos rolling his eyes before taking up his position as security with the others on their team.
Adam, Paul, and Mercedes headed to the bar.
A few minutes later, Blake’s rowdy parade of goons came walking in, thrusting themselves at the girls unashamedly as they took up residence near the front bar. They managed to down two rounds while waiting for Tia, harassing as many girls as dared get near them.
“Something’s not right,” Mercedes said. “Tia should be out here by now.”
Adam narrowed his eyes. The men looked far too comfortable to wait, which was unlike any Blake man, and wasn’t a good sign.
“I’m going to check it out,” Mercedes said. Adam pinned her with a frown, but she shook him off. “I know my way around.”
“I don’t like this,” Adam said to Paul once Mercedes had disappeared behind the pink gossamer curtains.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Paul said, sipping his drink. Even Dan, from his position perched near the front of the stage, had stiffened. Tia was supposed to be out through the front as soon as they entered the club. She wasn’t supposed to linger in the back, and more importantly, it was unlike her to leave her girls alone.
* * *
Mercedes rounded the back corners that she knew so well from her bartender days. The rooms had clearly been refurbished, but the layout was exactly how she remembered it.
Turning another corner, she nearly bumped into a young redheaded girl.
“You seen Tia?” Mercedes said, keeping her tone soft despite her distress.
The girl answered without hesitation, pushing her lipstick around on her lips and heading toward the entrance to the club. “Alley out back.”
Fuck.
“Why?” Mercedes tugged at her elbow to stop her.
