Well, I feel like my fingers are about to fall off because I have been writing all day – well it feels that way if you don’t count all the mini breaks I took, lol.

And I’ve had a few ppl ask if this is finished yet, the answer is no but to warn you all, it is coming to an end soon BUT the good news is (YES there is good news) I’m planning on continuing on with a second book once this is finished because I love all the characters too much, lol.

So anyway, hope you all enjoy this next chapter!......xo

(THIS ISN’T EDITED, I'm too tired right now and will go back through it later. )

~ ~ Chapter Thirty Five ~ ~

(Leila’s POV)

“These are freaking awesome De!” the grin on my face was huge as I turned to find Amberly, she stood out from the rest of the red, orange and yellow figures because she had her leg sticking out in front of her while she sat on the lounge, “You need to try them Ambo!” I laughed.

As of right now, I was walking around Darcy’s house with his heat sensor goggles on and I felt like a little kid trying out a new toy. They were so much fun but if anyone asks, I'm just trying them out and getting use to them.

“Such a child.” Amberly mumbled and I seen her colourful figure shake her head at me.

“I saw that.” I muttered.

“Hey girl.” Darcy called out as he came walking back into the lounge room, “Could you find a use for a rocket launcher?” he asked in the most casual tone of voice that it was almost disturbing.

Lifting the goggles up and sitting them on my forehead, I stared at him like he had lost his mind as my eyes ran over the large and long piece of metal in his arms, “Are you serious?” I knew the answer before he even looked up with a frown.

“Yeah...” he trailed off then ran one hand down the side of the metal in an almost loving way. Shaking my head my eyes met Amberly’s and we rolled them together with a small smile each, boys and their toys.

“I guess we could blow up any cars they arrive in?” I suggested as I pulled the goggles back down and started walking around the lounge room once.

“Yeah...cars.” Darcy mumbled to himself as he sat the rocket launcher down on the single chair and looked down at it.

I get the feeling he is not going to do anything the way I want him too, he is going to go in there tonight with guns raised and firing like there is no tomorrow but I also can’t complain, Darcy’s has been a big help since Baden put me on the bus. Baden. Sighing softly I pulled Amberly’s phone out of my pocket and scrolled through the photo albums until I found a photo she took of us two – which I had no idea she had even taken until I seen it last week.

I miss him and I hope he is okay and not too angry with me but the way I see it is, the sooner Gianni goes down and is out of our lives for good, the sooner we can all start getting on with ours and considering I have what he wants the most – Amberly, then he might back off the boys a bit.

Not that I will ever let Paul get his filthy hands on my sister again, I’d die first before that happens.

Fingers clicking directly in front of my face broke me from my thoughts, blinking and shaking my head a little I looked up at Darcy who was standing there with a frown, “Focus girl, focus. If you miss him that much, go visit the boy.” He smirked.

Narrowing my eyes at his tormenting, “You know I can’t.” Well technically I can but it just meant Baden wouldn’t let me go again and then my plans for tonight would be ruined because I'm not there but then again, Darcy pretty much came up with the plans with me, so I guess he could easily replace my spot. No, I want to do this. I need to do something other than sit around and staring blankly at a wall.

My back pocket began to vibrate and pulling Amberly’s phone out I could see Caveman’s name flashing on the screen. Glancing over at her on the couch she looked so depressed that I answered the phone, “Hey, I’ll just get her for you.” I quickly smiled as I walked over to Amberly.

“Thank you.” Caveman grunted rudely making me shake my head, some people will never change.

“Ambo, your man’s on the phone.” I called out softly before kneeling down alongside her.

She turned to look at me with a surprised face, “Jeff?” she yawned, she’s been doing that a lot lately – yawning and sleeping but then again, she doesn’t have much else to do with one leg and one arm in an annoying cast.

“Yeah, just don’t tell him where we are, okay?” I pleaded with my eyes and she nodded then I handed her the phone and her face lit up immediately.

It wouldn’t have mattered if we were at the motel still and she gave in to his demands and told him where we were but for them to find out we have been staying at Darcy’s house will cause unnecessary fights. It’s not like we purposely went and ran to Darcy or anything, he found us and we just started working together to try and find out where Paul is, so we thought it was easier for us girls to crash at his house for a little bit.

With a sigh I headed into the kitchen, the goggles propped back up on my forehead as Neil looked up at me with a grin on his face, “Sex appeal right there Lee.” And he looked me up and down before his eyes rested on the goggles.

Looking down I released I was in my pyjama shorts still with a black singlet on, my hair was in a messy bun, basically I looked like a dag with a really cool gadget attached to my head. Smiling, “I know.” Then with a wink I walked over to the fridge and helped myself to an energy drink.

“Those goggles are wicked though, ay?” Neil grinned again, turning around to look at me.

Nodding, “Hells to the yeah.” Then I sat down across from him at the kitchen table where he had an array of guns spread out, some pulled apart as he wiped them down with an old rag while others just laid there so silent and still.

“Darcy’s just stepped out; he’s getting his hands on a bullet proof vest for you.” Neil spoke as he clicked bullets into the magazine one by one.

“Isn’t he getting you guys one too?”

“Nah, we’re tough and don’t need one. You know Darcy is always a little over protective of you anyway, so you’re not going to be able to come unless you wear it.” He smirked with a teasing tone.

“Yeah, yeah – hey, is that a sniper rifle?” confusion laced my voice as I spotted the long thin looking rifle with a small two legged stand underneath it and a scope on top before looking back at over Neil.

“It sure is, I'm going to be in position with it so if anything goes wrong – you have my backup.”

Nodding with a small frown on my face, I didn’t like how they are thinking along the lines of ‘if anything goes wrong’ because I don’t plan for anything to go wrong but it is a good idea to have a backup plan. Not that I think I really approved of the original plan and if there was any other way – I’d be all ears but we can’t think of anything else that doesn’t involve extreme measures. We went Paul Gianni dead or gone forever, we want the entire Gianni crew broken up and never to be fixed or repaired.

It was a win win for all of us but still, I have this bad feeling that it might not end up well for everyone involved and I can only hope that no one is seriously hurt.

“We’ve got a few others coming along too, three will be in place around the park like me and two will be on ground level with you and Darcy.” Neil continued speaking, rattling on about parts of what was happening tonight that I was only just hearing about.

Thanks Darcy for leaving me in the dark, I thought sarcastically to myself.

 “I'm going to lay down for a bit, rest up.” I mumbled and pushed away from the table with my drink in hand and walked out to the lounge room where Amberly was still gushing on the phone to Caveman with all her ‘I love you so much and miss you’ talk.

Rolling my eyes I grabbed a cushion and dropped it on the floor in front of the TV and laid down on my stomach, folding my arms under my head as I skipped through the channels for something good to watch.

“Lee-lee, Baden wants you to call him.” Amberly broke my concentration of the lion chasing down a gazelle on the documentary of world’s best predators. They really should have humans on this thing because we hunt and attack each other like there is no tomorrow.

“Yeah, later tonight.” I mumbled, eyes wide as the lion clawed into the gazelles back thigh and dragged it down before going for the throat and latching on.

“Lee-lee, he said now.” She called out louder but I wasn’t really listening and she could tell, “She’s watching some stupid show about lions on TV.” I faintly heard her say from behind me.

The next predator was the great white shark, I love sharks; they scare the crap out of me but are amazing to watch on TV.

“Leila!” Amberly suddenly shouted; looking over my shoulder at her I shot her an annoyed look and she smiled as she rolled her eyes, “Have you heard anything I’ve just said?”

“Baden wants me to call him?” I offered, I didn’t think she had said anything else after that.

Amberly pinched her lips for a brief second, “You’re hopeless when documentaries are on.” She muttered with a small smile on her.

Shrugging I turned back to face the TV in time to watch a shark attack a chunk of meat that was hanging off some special hard foam block to try and measure the impact of his bite. The crew on the boat going crazy with excitement as the great white leapt out of the water and tackled the measly amount of meat back down into the water.

“That was pretty cool.” I mumbled to myself.

“It’s horrible and scary, what if that meat was a person? They would die.” Amberly gasped from behind me on the lounge.

Rolling over to smile at her as she still held her phone to ear while she was half taking to Caveman at the same time, “People die all the time Ambo, it’s a part of life.” And I rolled back to now see the sharks had been replaced with some deadly spider.

“That’s so morbid.” Amberly mumbled.

“It’s the circle of life – have you never watch The Lion King before?” I smirked teasingly over my shoulder as she shook her head at me.

“Shut up.”

“Still the number one catch phrase of the year.” I grinned before I turned back to face the TV.

“Just shush and watch your stupid show.”

“Ignore me and continue your lovey dovey talk with Caveman.” I smirked.

Amberly ignored me and I heard her talking about her arm and leg to Caveman, then she started reading him everything that was on her cast – well, all the stuff I had wrote on there, she left out what Darcy and Neil had wrote because we all know how Caveman would have reacted to that.

~~

Walking out of the bathroom after a long relaxing shower I had changed into dark blue jeans, black enclosed heelless boots and a plain black tight t-shirt. Darcy had told me to wear all black so if we need to we could blend in better with all the shadows as opposed to wearing white which would stick out like a sore thumb.

Think of the devil and he shall appear, I mused to myself as Darcy walked in carrying a black and thick looking vest, “Here, put this on.” He held it out to me as I eyed it up and down.

“It doesn’t look like it will be comfy.” I mumbled as I took it and found it lighter than what I had expected it to be, but it still had a bit of weight to it though.

“It’s not about comfort girl, it’s about safety.” He lectured with an eye roll directed at me.

“But I'm going to look like a loser wearing this over my shirt.” Especially since no one else is wearing one and since Gianni’s second level wasn’t expecting us, I doubt they will have vests on either.

“Put it under your shirt then.” He used that ‘duh’ tone on me and I narrowed my eyes before shooting him out of the room. The silly perv thought he could cop an eyeful but I shot that thought down real quick especially when I locked the door because he was immature enough to come bursting back in while I was changing.

Walking into the lounge room to cut through to the kitchen ,Neil and Amberly were on the couch talking about something before they both looked over at me and my best friend in the entire world started laughing as she pointed at me, “You look like you have no boobs.” She cried.

Scowling at her as I stormed past because she was right, this stupid vest made me look like a man.

“Damn! Now that is sex appeal Lee!” Neil shouted after me and they both laughed harder.

“Ha, ha, laugh it up.” I grumbled to myself as I stormed into the kitchen and glared hatefully at Darcy who just grinned back at me while five other guys turned and looked at me, some frowned, one smiled and one looked severely annoyed that I had just walked in.

“Boys, this is my girl-.”

“Ahem.” I cleared my throat.

Darcy rolled his eyes, “Boys, this is Baden’s girl and my best friend Lee.” He corrected himself and I gave him a small smirk before jumping up onto the counter alongside him while he stood and leaned on it with his back.

“Lee, these three with be with Neil.” And he nodded at the one who had smiled and two that had frowned, “And these two will be with us.” He nodded at the other one who had frowned and the one who looked like he didn’t want me here.

“hey.” I said to no one in particular and received a few ‘hello’s’ back and some nods, except from Mr Angry who glared at me for a moment before looking away.

“You working with Johnson crew now?” he growled.

Darcy shook his head, “Nope, I'm working with Lee and we are both working towards a common goal – take down Gianni. The same goal you want too.” He gave Mr Angry a pointed look.

“Hey De, what about Ambo?” I asked, looking slightly down at him as he turned to face me, our faces a little too close for a friendship and I knew if Baden was here he would go mental and pull me away or drag Darcy off but he’s not here and he should know he can trust me that nothing will ever happen, even Darcy knows that as he grinned at me.

“I’ve got a trusted friend coming to watch her.”

“Who?”

“Greg.” Darcy smirked.

Nodding my head in recognition I smiled back, Ambo will be safe with him, he is a pretty decent guy and I know he is and has always been loyal to Darcy so he wasn’t someone to worry about which is what we needed right now; even though I don’t personally trust him but I don’t really know him either but I trust Darcy.

Darcy walked over to the kitchen table and picked up a belt looking thing and walked back over to me, quickly lifting my leg up and resting my knee against his chest, pushed my jean leg up and he strapped the belt around my calf muscle with a smirk, rolling my eyes I nodded at it, “What’s this for?”

As I asked that question he pulled a serrated blade out of nowhere and slid it into the belt, a long flap came out from the belt as well to protect my skin from the blade before he pulled my jeans down again and held out a small handheld gun for me to take, “Tuck it in.” He nodded over my shoulder.

Taking the gun I tucked it in at the top of my jeans with an amused smile on my face, this still feels strange tucking a gun in but surprisingly I was pretty use to it by now. It is after all us or them and I prefer not to be making a trip to the morgue anytime soon.

“What kind of boots are you wearing?” Darcy asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked down at my feet, studying them.

“Boots?” I frowned, really not understanding his question.

The guy that had smiled at me when I first walked in came over to us and handed a small gun to Darcy who crouched down and lifted my jean leg up once more before tucking the gun down the side of my boot.

“I swear that safety better be on De because if I shoot my foot off I'm going to make you pay.” I growled as he stood back up and chuckled at me as he slung an arm over my shoulder.

“It won’t shoot you.”

“How do you know?”

And he lifted his leg up and showed me the same gun stuck down in his boot, “I carry this baby everywhere I go.” He grinned before turning to face everyone else, “Alright, we all know the plan? To catch and question.....then kill. We want Gianni’s location and we want it tonight people so no resting until we get it.” He ordered in a stern ‘I'm in charge so no arguing back’ voice which made me smile and feel slightly proud of him in a weird way.

Once everyone was loaded up, armed and ready we headed out to the lounge room to leave and cause some havoc for the Gianni crew. As much as I trusted Darcy, I felt safer with my boys around me and it felt weird to not have them here but soon, soon we all will be together again.

Walking over to Amberly to give her and hug and some reassurance everything will be fine because she looked pale and panicky about my safety, I sat down on the edge of the couch and smiled down at her, “Chill Ambo, I’ll be back soon and annoying you like there is no tomorrow.” I grinned.

She smiled back but it was fake and never reached her eyes, “You can’t blame me for worrying. Your going out tonight on a mission that is all my fault and Jeff is up to something as well but won’t tell me.” She sighed softly; worry still clear in her eyes but also slight annoyance with Caveman.

“Ambo.” I soothed as I took her hand into mine, “Firstly, you can’t be annoyed at Caveman for not letting you know since we have kept them in the dark ever since they put us on that bus and secondly, my mission is not stupid and then third and foremost – make sure you scratch this into your brain, this is not your fault and don’t ever let me hear you say that again. Got it?” I was serious and she knew it.

“Ambo got owned by Lee.” Neil sang as he walked past me and I quickly stuck my foot out to trip the little bugger up, he shot me a glare as he caught himself in time before he face planted the floor. “You’re so aggressive.” He muttered then walked out the front door.

“C’mon girl, this party isn’t going to start until we get there.” Darcy called out as he came walking back in with a very familiar tall, stocky and blonde haired man – Greg. Smiling tightly I gave him a nod before facing Amberly and giving her one last reassuring smile.

“See you soon.” I smiled and walked out, ready to start tonight and hopefully be that one step closer to Paul Gianni.

~~

Hiding in the shadows alongside Darcy I pulled the goggles down over my eyes and searched the surrounding area. We had eyes on the five Gianni men over by the benches, talking in hushed voices but Darcy wanted to know where Neil and the other snipers were located.

Looking around, I spotted the familiar heat pattern of a red, orange and yellow blub in the far distance, pointing in the same direction as I nudged Darcy, “One over there.” I whispered and then searched for the others and slowly pointed them all out.

“Good, they are ready and position.” Darcy mumbled back as we realised the five of them had us completely surrounded in a safety blanket of sniper rifles and night vision.

Mr Angry and the other guy should be on the opposite side of us to the men in the middle, which meant we would be approaching them from both sides and hopefully get the advantage of surprise on them. Though this is a well thought out plan, I knew there were so many opportunities for error, like if Gianni started shooting at us immediately. We needed one of them at least alive.

Darcy’s phone vibrated from his pocket and he glanced down at the message under his jumper so the glow wouldn’t be seen from anyone else then looked at me with a grin and nodded, “Let’s go.” He whispered and jumped to his feet, slinging his shoulder over me as we walked out of the trees together all casual and like the ‘perfect couple’ again.

I swear he is hinting at something since both times I’ve done something like this with him, he insists on throwing the couple look in there somewhere but to give him credit where it is due, it doesn’t make us look like a threat so we should get pretty close to the men before they realize what is going on.

Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans as we walked along the path that led right to the benches a few yards away I could already see one of the men look over at us in the dim lighting from the park light post, “You see the one looking?” Darcy asked as he leaned in closer to my ear and I nodded, “That’s Frederick, his the main one we want, so try not to kill him.” He teased with a soft chuckle.

“Pfft, you should tell yourself that.” I shot back quietly with a smirk.

Darcy reached around my back with one arm and took hold of my hand, pulling it behind my back for me so it won’t look suspicious as I reached for my gun and pulled it out but kept it hidden from view as we got even closer. I spotted Mr Angry leaning casually against a tree on the other side watching us all since all the men were now looking mine and Darcy’s way.

“Least we know how to pull a crowd.” I joked lightly and Darcy grinned.

“I knew my good looks would come in handy for something one day.” He smirked.

Rolling my eyes, “Uh-huh, I'm sure it’s you they’re looking at.” And a moment later my statement was confirmed when one of the guys wolf whistled at me, “Seriously, I'm in jeans and a t-shirt with a flat chest, some guys are just natural born pigs.” I grunted and Darcy chuckled then looked back up at the one who had whistled – Frederick.

Darcy’s hood of his jumper was pulled down to block most of his face so none of them could recognise him right away, “Like what you see, ay?” he called out in a mocking tone.

The Frederick guy stepped forward with a sneer, “Sure do and I'm going to take what I see.” He growled, his eyes undressing me where I stood.

Leaning in closer to Darcy so I could whisper in his ear so only he could hear, “Let him come close enough so I can pull the gun on his head.” Darcy shook his head instantly, then shot the man a side look and sighed loudly before nodding.

“I’d like to see you try and take her.” He egged Frederick on.

Frederick glared hatefully at Darcy as he lunged forward and attempted to grab my arm but I dodged him at the last minute, spun around so I was now standing alongside him with the gun held in my hands to the side of his temple and the familiar and echoing ‘click’ made everyone freeze, including Frederick as he tried to glare at me.

Darcy pulled his hood back and Frederick sneered, “Druggie Darcy!” he practically spat his name.

Darcy just smirked, “Yup and meet my dear friend Lee – you know, the one holding the gun to your head?” he asked cockily as he had his own two guns trained on the four other men and Mr angry and the other man were also in on the show with their guns raised and pointed, ready for any kind of retaliation.

“Hi, Frederick.” I smiled warmly and spoke in a kind voice.

He went to move and I shoved the gun harder into his temple, so he quickly raised his hands but I wasn’t stupid enough to think we were set just yet, “A fucking girl? Really Darcy, you’re resorting to hiring females now?” he snarled angrily and shot Darcy a dirty look who grinned back.

“Oh, she’s not any old girl Fred, Lee, care to explain?” Darcy glanced at me with mischief in his eyes.

Smiling, I leant forward and looked up into Fredericks cold hard and seriously pissed off face, “Hi, I'm Baden’s girl, Leila and your going down.” His jaw dropped and his anger intensified.