Chapter 18 - Analise

    I had fun at the dance. For the first time in a long time, I had fun at a school function. And it was nice. All too soon, however, I had to return to real life, and Paul picked me up from the dance. I had my dark clothes and ski mask stashed in my locker and grabbed them on the way to the car, changing in the back seat on the way to the job.

I was worried about the job going wrong, but I kept telling myself to be confident. The way the plan was laid out there was almost no way Drew and I would come face to face with one another, since he was in the first phase and I was in the second to last phase.

Paul went over the plan once again, making sure I knew every detail. For the first portion, Drew and Tuck would go to the club Cara was going to with her friend. They were to separate the two friends with their charm and good looks; Tucker was assigned to the friend, and Drew was assigned to Cara. Once they got them separated, they were to slip something into Cara's drink to knock her out - nothing dangerous, of course.

Then Kevin and Jerry came in for phase two. They were to pose as taxi drivers, and show up just on time to pick up the friend and Cara. Of course Cara's friend would be driven home, Tuck in tow, by Jerry. Then Jerry was to drive Tuck to where we were going to be holding Cara. Kevin was to drive Cara and Drew straight to where we were holding her, but Drew was to leave then; he'd be needed later.

Paula and I were needed for phase three. We were the girls of the group who could hold our own the best in a fight, so we were to basically babysit Cara to make sure she stayed tied up and non combative. If she started to get feisty, the two of us were responsible for subduing her and making sure she stayed put.

Phase four is where Drew came back in, and Roy and Paul were the main attractions. They were going to set up a live feed, pointed straight to Cara, so that the Northsiders knew they were serious. They were going to approach Buck, Nev, and Trey, the top three members of their gang, show them the live feed, and make sure they knew to back off. The guys were then going to make sure they complied by making a trade; fifty grand in exchange for his sister safely returned. They knew they wouldn't go to the cops.

Quincy, the muscles of the group, was needed for all the phases and served as the bodyguard of all of us in case they had any guys watching over Cara. We were sure they most probably didn't, but just in case, we wanted to have him as a safety blanket. He was on call, but as long as no one alerted to needing him, he'd be at the warehouse with Paula and I.

If everything panned out perfectly, we'd each get a couple grand, which of course I wasn't complaining about, and our territory back. We were worried that the more they expanded, the more of our members they'd try to take down, and we couldn't have that.

I was driven straight to the warehouse, where Drew was set to arrive soon. I pulled my ski mask on, in case Cara recognized me, and Paula followed suit. When we went through the large wooden door, I looked around. There was a chair with straps attatched to the two front legs, and adjacent was a computer desk and a couple chairs around it. There was also a camera set up right in front of the chair in the middle of the room.

We took a seat in the computer chairs across from the chair Cara would be tied to, checking and double checking the time to make sure she wasn't supposed to be here yet. We had to have impeccable timing for this to work.

When the guys pulled up, we heard the doors to the taxi's slam shut. I glanced out the window to see Jerry, Tuck, and Kevin exiting the vehicles, dragging a very sluggish Cara with them. I saw Drew get in one of the taxi's front seats, peeling off as soon as the door was shut. I released a breath of relief, glad he didn't decide to change up the plan and come in. I walked over to the camera the guys had set up, checking to make sure it was recording live, and it was.

Kevin opened the door while Jerry and Tuck struggled to carry Cara, and Quincy rolled his eyes, going and swiftly taking her into his arms. He put her in the chair, binding her hands behind her back with rope and duct taping her mouth. then he strapped her legs to the straps built into the chair, and nodded in satisfaction. "There we go."

Quincy, Jerry, and Tuck took a seat next to Paula and I. Quincy called Roy, putting it on speaker and we heard them banging on a door.

"Open up, Buck!" Paul called with a growl. We heard the door open and who I'm assuming was Buck asking what the hell he was doing there. "Nev and Trey there with you? We've got to talk."

"We're not talking with you," A voice I recognized as Nev's spat.

"You sure about that?" Roy's amused voice came through the receiver. "We've got something of yours you may want back."

There was silence, and I'm assuming they showed the live feed on Drew's phone because I could hear three collective gasps. "What the hell did you do to my sister!?"

We could hear a struggle ensue and we all locked gazes, eyes wide. I was about to ask if the call had dropped before we heard Buck ask, "What do you want?"

"We want you to stop trying to come into our territory," Paul said, his voice dripping with venom.

"And we want fifty grand, for our troubles," Roy explained.

"And if we don't?"

Paul spoke next. "Then we don't return Nev's sister, safe and sound."

"I'll kill you guys, do you understand me? I'll-"

"You'll what?"

"I'll go after Loughty's sister," he threatened, sounding smug. I could almost picture his creepy smirk. "And damn is she a hot piece of ass-"

The sound of flesh on flesh sounded next, and I could hear Drew letting out a string of curses so I could only assume he was beating the shit out of Nev. My eyes were wide, though, and I had four sets of eyes on me. Quincy put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "We won't let them get you, Ana."

"You won't touch my sister!" Drew yelled viciously.

"You touched mine!"

"As a warning," Paul told him. "Unlike you guys, we don't always have ill intentions. She hasn't been hurt."

"It's probably not even live," Buck tried calling their bluff, scoffing. "You probably did that and recorded it and set her free."

"Wake her up," Roy rasped into the phone.

Paula shot out of her seat, a wicked grin on her face. She adjusted her ski mask, making sure it completely covered her face, before sauntering over to Cara. She looked into the camera that was recording the live feed, waving her fingers mockingly towards it in the form of a sarcastic wave before using them to slap Cara. Cara came to immediately, eyes blazing. "What the fuck!?"

"Cara!" Nev shouted.

Paula came to sit back down beside me, and I gave her a curious look, mouthing 'why'd you slap her?'

'Always wanted to,' she mouthed back with a cheeky grin. I put my hand over my mouth to avoid a laugh from escaping.

"Nev? What the hell? Where am I?"

"You motherfucker!" Nev shouted desperately. "Let her go!"

Cara looked around frantically, eyeing us sat at the table before snapping, "Who the hell are you guys?"

Quincy took the phone off speaker so that she would no longer be able to hear her brother, and she started thrashing around violently. She locked eyes with me and hers were blazing dangerously. "Let me go you fucking psycho's. I'll kill you."

"No can do, Cara," Quincy sardonically said, shaking his head. "We've got a job to complete and we intend to complete it.

Cara was actually very pretty and I remembered seeing her on one of the jobs Drew had brought me to growing up. She had long blonde hair, bright green eyes, and a great figure. It was kind of how I wished to look. Being born with boring brown hair and shit brown eyes always got to me.

Right now there was a snarl on her pretty face though, aimed right for Paula. It's as if a lightbulb went off in her head, and she nodded knowingly. "Paula Phillips. Of course you'd be involved."

"What makes you say I'm Paula?" Paula asked, but the gig was up. She knew about her.

Cara laughed. "I'd recognize your manly voice anywhere."

"You little-"

Paula went to lunge for Cara, but I put a hand on her shoulder, efficiently stopping her from pouncing. Now was definitely not the time. We had a job to do, and we were going to do it right. That job was to safely deliver Cara back to her gang, so long as they did what we said.

She ought to have considered herself lucky that it was our gang that got ahold of her. If any other gangs did, they would have just killed her. We weren't totally terrible people, though, and tried not to kill people without a reason. Paul was a better person than Buck. I'm not so sure Buck would have done the same if the rolls were reversed.

I was worried for retaliation, of course I was. I knew Paul would have his guys watch over me, that much was clear. And I was almost always home with Drew anyways, so it's not like they'd approach me when I live with him. But it was still something I was going to keep in the back of my mind.

I could handle myself. I'd made that clear time and time again. But what I wouldn't be prepared for would be getting ganged up on, or having a weapon used against me. I didn't own a gun, nor would I because the thought of them made me queasy. I wasn't against them, but I personally couldn't hold or own a gun. Not unless absolutely necessary.

Cara looked around at all of us, her eyes wild. She groaned, struggling against the binds before shaking her head submissively. "You just wait, Southsiders. When I get back there, we will retaliate and it won't be pretty for any of you. I. Don't. Play. Fair."

The emphasis on each ending word made me cringe inwardly, but I didn't show it. I wasn't going to show that Cara of all people made me nervous, because she didn't. I could handle her one on one. It was her lackeys I wasn't too fond of.

Suddenly, Quincy pressed something on his phone, slamming it down and locking eyes with me. I gave him a questioning glance, and he nodded his head towards the door. "It's done. Bring her back."