Chapter Thirty-Three
Celina
We’ve prepared as much as we can. I swear Alex has eyes in the back of his head; pulling this off won’t be easy. We need five minutes to clear the house. Sofia is waiting a mile away. Mak will have an address on Fernandez in the next thirty minutes. With the stunt she pulled with Cartwright today, the men have stayed occupied and out of our hair. If this crazy plan works, I’ll owe Mak a steak dinner. At least after I can comfortably sit down. I seriously doubt I’ll be able to talk Alex out of turning my ass red.
Melina is as calm as I’ve ever seen her. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her growing up in the house with her brother. If this caper works, she’ll never need to worry about him again.
Our plan to escape the compound hinges on getting over the outer wall of the property and making a run for Sofia’s vehicle. It’s the middle of the day and hotter than hell outside. The last thing our men will expect is us taking off on foot. I know by Alex’s demeanor, he’s aware we’re up to something. I’ve caught his speculative looks throughout the day.
Sofia had her own plan to get out of the clubhouse. None of us wanted to include her because of the twins, but she wouldn’t be left behind.
Melina and I work out in the gym and then hit the pool in our swimsuits. Sofia will have clothes for us to change into when we reach her car. We’ve put on our aqua shoes to keep our feet from burning on the pavement. It’s not the greatest way to haul ass, but to get away with this, it’s our only option. We don’t want to draw more suspicion than we already have.
The text we’ve been waiting for comes in from Mak. It’s Fernandez’s address. I quickly shoot a text off to Sofia, who remains on standby.
“You ready?” I ask Melina, tipping down my sunglasses so she sees my eyes. I need to know she’s determined to see this through.
Her face is grim. “Yes. Now or never.”
We causally stand up and walk toward the pool’s gate, which leads out into the main yard. Melina carries a chair, which we’ll need to get over the wall. Conspicuous much? We couldn’t come up with a better idea, so after we leave the pool behind, we start running. There’s a section of fence that we’re shooting for, but when we clear a large plotted area of oleanders, our attempt is thwarted. Alex is standing at the fence with his blasted arms crossed and a not-so-nice expression on his face.
We come to a halt, breathing heavily.
He holds up his hand in a stop motion. “Don’t say a damn word. Whatever you’re planning isn’t happening.”
Damn, damn, damn, we’re fucked. Even though it’s stupid, I look around for a place to hide. Melina has the same idea. With nowhere to go, we’re screwed. Melina’s shoulders drop in defeat.
From the corner of my eye, I see a large vehicle slam partially through the brick wall a hundred yards from us. “Down,” Alex yells and takes us both to the ground, covering as much of us as he can with his body. The first noise was a loud crash but there’s no doubt the second is an explosion. The ground shakes beneath us and debris rains down even from so far away. Nothing large, thankfully, or Alex would be hurt.
Men start running into the yard and chaos ensues. “Dammit. Get back into the house and to the safe room,” Alex shouts over his shoulder because he’s now up and running toward the huge whole in the block wall with his gun drawn.
A loud whistle makes us look toward the front gate, which is locked but unguarded as the guards run toward the explosion too. Sofia is outside the gate waiving us over. Melina grabs the chair and we’re off and running again. I ignore Alex’s shout and place my hands beneath Melina’s ass and push as hard as I can. She makes the top of the wall, half hangs from the other side and puts her hands down for me. I jump on the chair, and she slides from the wall pulling me. When we tumble to the other side, the entire front of her body is one huge scrape with patches of welling blood. Ouch.
“Hurry,” Sofia yells.
She’s in the driver’s seat of a huge truck with the passenger and back doors open. Melina ignores her injuries and we both run like mad women. My ass is going to hurt so bad when this is over and that pain will all come from Alex’s palm or God forbid his fucking belt. If he doesn’t throw me out first, that is.
After we slam the doors, the tires peel rubber. Alex runs after us and though I can’t hear what he’s saying, I know it isn’t good.
“The house is under attack. Should we really be leaving? They need us,” Melina shouts over the tire noise.
The heat of the moment might have made us do something really foolish, but we need to stick with the plan.
“The men can take care of themselves. Mak and Cori need us,” Sofia says before I can answer.
Fuck. Leaving Alex in this situation isn’t at the top of my list either. Sofia is right, though. The men can take care of themselves. With us gone, they’ll handle the explosion and come after us as soon as they can.
“Why did you drive in so close? I thought you would wait out of sight like we agreed.” Melina asks Sofia.
“The driver of the SUV suspiciously picked up speed as he approached the house and I didn’t like it. Thankfully, I charged after him. He jumped out of the vehicle before impact and I may have accidently run over his ass.”
“Accidently?” I ask with a wide grin.
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Do we have Fernandez’s address?”
“Affirmative,” I say. The women all turn and look at me and I shrug. “Affirmative seemed like the proper word.” I wait for their nervous laughter to end before continuing. “I plugged the address into Google maps before we left poolside.” I activate the map. “Google says hang a left.” Melina passes my clothes to me and we both wiggle and squirm to get dressed properly. For Melina it’s a T-shirt, jeans, and athletic shoes. For me it’s pure slut items, including high heels that she pilfered from some women at the clubhouse. The sizes aren’t perfect for either of us, but they’ll do.
I quickly text Mak and let her know we’re on our way. I don’t mention the explosion or hole in her wall. We need to end this shit today and the last thing she needs is more to worry about.
It’s time to find Fernandez. Payback will be a fucking bitch. Five bitches to be exact.