"What do you mean I'm not coming with you?" I asked Vincent, my arms crossed as I blocked the door out of the apartment.

He leveled me with a glare. "Juliette, I love you. And I know that you can handle yourself, but Henry knows how much you mean to me. I'm not letting you get caught in the crossfire."

"After everything we've gone through together, after how much I have done and given for these people, you don't have any right to take this from me."

His forest eyes were blazing, that muscle in his jaw ticking. "I know. But you do remember that you nearly got blown up less than a week ago?"

"Of course, I do," I seethed. My aching bones barely let me forget it. "But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be there. I should be at your side when we finish this."

"He asked if you were going to be there for the final trade off," he said, coming forward to rest his hands on my shoulders. "We've kept him at bay by using Jack's phone to make him think he's still alive. But I don't know what he has planned for you, and I don't trust it. Please, just let me end this for us."

I knew his heart was in the right place. And I also knew that I had done more than enough. More than I ever thought I was capable of. I had proven time and time again that my place was at his side.

But I was also impulsive, and I knew that was what he was most worried about. More than what they had planned for me – and I was as sure as he was that there was one – he was worried about what I would do to keep him safe.

I hated when he was right.

Letting out a deep sigh through my nose, I dropped my stance. Vincent's shoulders relaxed in answer. "Who're you taking with you?" I grumbled.

"We're keeping it small. It'll be the main three, and then a handful of others just in case."

"We'll take good care of him, sugar."

I about jumped out of my skin at the sound of Lucas's voice. The smile on his face was anything but kind when I whirled on him.

"Twenty-eight," we chorused.

"Make it twenty-nine," I hissed, aiming a punch at his gut. He sidestepped me with ease, chuckling as he caught me in a headlock. Not wasting a second, I spun out of his hold and tackled him to the ground.

We both knew he only went down because he wanted to.

Vincent muttered something about working with children as Arkin and Brandon stepped into the apartment as well. They all stopped to watch as Lucas and I fought for dominance. With Jack being – well, dead – Lucas had stepped in to continue my training. It was nice to have time to spend with him again, but it was even better to have the opportunity to kick his ass every now and then. He outmatched me in weight, but what Jack had taught me about using my size and speed to my advantage still held true.

Just not this time.

Lucas laughed as he pinned me. A heavy groan escaped my lips an instant before Lucas's weight vanished. Gentle hands hoisted me up, and Brandon glared at his friend before checking me over.

"She's still recovering from a bomb, genius. Take it easy."

Lucas and I both rolled our eyes, but I let Brandon finish his inspection. When he was satisfied I wasn't going to fall apart, he took a step back. He was still glaring at his cousin, and I turned to Vincent and Arkin and motioned to the two with a kind of 'help me' gesture. They just shook their heads at me.

Some help they were.

Brandon opened his mouth – more than likely to spew something foul at Lucas – but I stepped in between them. Brandon's blue eyes met mine, and I raised my brows at him. He dropped his shoulders with a huff.

"You done?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be training yet."

"Spare me. What's the plan for tonight?"

Brandon dropped it, and they proceeded to lay out the trap they had planned for Henry. It was simple, and solid. Nothing that I had to worry about. But still, something in my gut twisted. While Lucas and Brandon were talking, my eyes drifted to Vincent. He was studying the others, for once not focused on me. There was no tick in his jaw. No tension in his stance. If Vincent wasn't worried, then I definitely shouldn't have been.

But I couldn't shake this feeling.

In what seemed like a matter of minutes, we were headed downstairs so they could leave. I leaned against the outside wall of the warehouse as they loaded the cars with what they were taking from here. The rest of the shipment was already at the exchange point. A few of the gang said hello to me as they walked past, but I could barely manage to nod at them in return.

"What's wrong, princess?" Vincent asked, coming to a stop in front of me. He reached up and brushed a loose strand of my hair behind my ear.

"Something doesn't feel right."

"Nothing has felt right about this deal for a long time. But we're almost done. What more could happen?"

"You should know better than anyone not to say shit like that."

He grinned at me, forest eyes sparkling as he cupped my face. "I'm coming back to you. I promise."

I pushed up on my toes, claiming his mouth in a kiss. The softest groan rumbled through him, more purr than anything. When we broke apart, he pressed his forehead to mine.

"You had better."

He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead before he headed to the Escalade and got in. The boys climbed in with him, and then they were gone, leaving only one more nondescript SUV in the parking lot that would follow behind them. They were waiting a bit to leave, and would take a round-about path to the exchange, that way it wouldn't be as obvious that they had brought back-up.

I stared at the open hatch on the SUV for a few minutes as members filtered in and out of the warehouse.

Fuck this, I thought.

* * * * *

He's going to kill you, I scolded myself. Vincent is going to lock you in a padded room and never let you out again.

As I crouched behind the metal shelving, one knee digging into the concrete, I had a pretty good view of Vincent and Henry. It would have been safer for me to stay behind, but my I could not shake this sick feeling in my gut. I had no way to explain it, but it hadn't dissipated the whole way here. How I had managed to pull off hiding in the cargo hold of the SUV and getting back out without detection was beyond me, but I wasn't going to question it.

The men in the center of the room began arguing. Henry looked enraged. His weasel-like face was turning red and bordering on purple. Vincent, on the other hand, was the picturesque vision of calm. At least to the naked eye. But I knew him. I could see the muscle along his jaw twitching erratically as he spoke through clenched teeth. He was very near to losing it.

A door at the back corner of the warehouse opened. As the person moved forward, that gut feeling finally started to make sense.

Sebastian looked almost jovial with that bounce in his step. Shrinking back away from the opening I had been peeking through, I placed my hand over my heart. It was way steadier than I thought it should be. What the hell was he doing here? Arkin had been looking for him incessantly since Jack's death. We hadn't found a trace of him. Steeling myself with a deep breath, I inched back to where I had previously been sitting.

Lucas was the first to notice Sebastian. He nudged Vincent before nodding towards the now smiling man. If I thought Vincent was angry before, it was nothing compared to the rage I could see boil up into his forest eyes. His jaw set into a hard line as his eyes narrowed the smallest fraction of an inch.

Please don't do anything stupid, I pleaded in my head.

Unfortunately, I couldn't hear them from where I was. But I knew the boys like the back of my hand. From their rigid postures and stoic faces, they were itching to get their hands on Sebastian. But we needed to play this smart. There was no way for us to know how much either man knew about Jack's death. Or about how much we knew because of it.

Sebastian and Vincent were chest to chest. I had always thought that Sebastian was stunning, but seeing him toe to toe with the man I loved, and knowing what he had done, I couldn't find a single attractive thing about him. He made my stomach curl. As I watched, I could watch whatever conversation they were having starting to deteriorate. Vincent's jaw was ticking faster and faster, and Sebastian's smile had long since vanished. I could see the malice sparkling in his onyx eyes from here. With a sneer, he leaned down and said something into Vincent's ear.

The room exploded.

Vincent's fist connected with Sebastian's cheekbone in less than the time it took for me to blink. Lucas grabbed Vincent and they flattened themselves to the floor as Henry's men opened fire. My men scattered, searching for cover.

Cursing under my breath, I moved to the back of the row of shelves as a bullet pinged off the metal that was my only protection. I needed a gun. Spinning on my heel, I ran back to where the cases of guns we had brought with us were still sitting. Sifting through them as fast as I could make my arms move, I finally located a Glock I was comfortable with.

The magazine was empty. A few more came up with the same result.

Why hadn't I been informed of this part of the plan?

Resisting the urge to scream, I threw the gun down and sprinted back to my previous post. Glancing around the end of the shelving, I saw that the gun fight had only slowed a small amount. Vincent peaked out from behind a stone pillar across from my position. Searching the rest of the room, I could see Lucas and Brandon creeping towards the final two shooters: Henry and one of his cronies.

Where was Sebastian?

Frantically running my eyes over every inch of the room, I finally saw him. He raised his gun and aimed it directly at the back of Vincent's head as he slunk closer to him.

No.

The thought echoed throughout my head. I couldn't lose Vincent.

Not after everything we had been through. Not after how far we had come.

My legs moved before I even gave them permission to. My body crashed into Vincent's with a bang as a sharp sting tore through my shoulder.

The sound was enough to gain the boys' attention. They turned their guns on Sebastian and fired without hesitation. I saw him crumple to the ground, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"God damnit, Juliette," Vincent seethed. With a gentleness only he was capable of, he pulled me into his lap. He placed his hand on my shoulder and another stab of pain flew through me.

Had I hit the ground that hard?

Lucas and Brandon skidded to a stop and fell to their knees on either side of us. "Oh, no, Jules," Brandon murmured.

"Go get the car. Now," Vincent ordered in a harsh, strained voice. The boys nodded before hustling off. Once we were alone, Vincent's forest eyes bored into mine. "Why, Juliette? Why couldn't you listen, just this once?" he asked, water shimmering in his eyes.

"Because I'm not letting you do this shit alone, you idiot," I ground out. The adrenaline faded from my veins all at once, leaving way for the searing pain in my shoulder. The sheer panic on Vincent's face was the last thing I saw before darkness overtook my vision.

___________________________________________________________________

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