CHAPTER NINETEEN

           LUCY DOWNED THE LAST OF HER WINE IN A SINGLE GULP AND PULLED A FACE AT THE AFTER TASTE IT LEFT IN HER MOUTH. Wine was not a drink she enjoyed very much but she doubted drinking Beth's cabinet empty was going to do her any good.

"You do know that I have other drinks, right?" chuckled Beth.

"I'm too tired to get drunk tonight." huffed Lucy, resting her sock covered feet on the coffee table as she watched Annie come back with another beer. "Your sister will be drunk enough for all of us."

The youngest of the four let out a scoff and gaped at her friend as she forced herself in between her and Ruby. "How dare you? I can handle my liquor, unlike you, asshole."

The brunette raised her brows and met the strawberry blonde's gaze before they burst out laughing. Annie was already pretty far gone and only grumbled in response as she slid lower onto the couch and shoved her face into the inside of her hoodie.

Ruby was not paying attention to either of the woman as she watched the screen of the tv with interest. Their favourite show was on and she was heavily invested. The Real Housewives of New York echoed through the room and the woman groaned loudly when one of the woman did something stupid.

"You can't turn those camera's off, man." she whined, closing her eyes.

"Okay, you guys." Beth sat up and put her glass on the table with a sly grin as she looked at her friends. "I did something."

"That never ends well." shot Lucy as Beth narrowed her eyes at her.

"Yeah, what did you do?" demanded Annie as her face popped up from behind her hoodie. "What happened? Is it gang friend?"

"Tell me there is not another man up in that tree house." prayed Ruby.

"Wait here." she was giddy as she jumped from the couch and disappeared down the hall towards her bedroom. 

"I don't like that look in her eye." stated Annie.

Both Ruby and Lucy hummed in agreement at her statement and the latter pushed herself off the couch to get herself a can of soda from the fridge. Ruby stopped her with her empty glass. "Oh, wine me up."

The brunette was about to take it from her when the back sliding doors slid open and she looked down the barrel of a gun. Lucy gasped as she fell back onto the couch, eyes wide as she stared up at the weapon. Her heart palpated from fright and she slid her gaze towards Rio who looked positively livid at all of them.

He held his forefinger to his lips and shook his head as Annie let out a small whimper at the other gun that was pointed at her.

Mick held Ruby and Annie at gunpoint and as Lucy looked towards the man holding the gun to her head she wanted to cry. Juan's eyes softened as he looked down at her but the weapon stayed right where it was, with his finger on the trigger.

"What are you doing?" asked Lucy, voice coming out a little rough.

The man with the eagle tattoo slid his gaze over to her but she could not read his expression. Just then Beth's voice rang through the home. "I want you guys to be honest. Kind of love it, but maybe it's over the top."

The sound of her heeled boots on the wooden floorboards sounded closer and as she rounded the corner she stopped in her tracks, eyes wide as she looked at the intruders.

"Not over the top at all." said Rio, holding his golden plated gun in his hand. He pushed himself off the kitchen counter and stalked towards her with a glare as she held onto the necklace she had wanted to show them. "What is that? Is that Emerald cut?"

He grabbed the back of her neck harshly and lifted the piece of jewellery with his weapon, trying to get a closer look at it.

"Please put down the gun." said Beth, surprisingly calm.

"How much of my money did that set you back?" demanded Rio, pressing the barrel against her throat.

"This isn't your money."

"Oh, see, but it is."

"What are you doing? I thought we were past this." said Beth, trying to meet his gaze but his eyes were still examining the necklace she had spend a fortune on. This had to be some sort of mistake because she genuinely did not know what was going on.

"Me, too." he retorted as his finger nearly pressed in the trigger. "But you bitches just keep stealing from me."

The strawberry blonde glanced towards her sister first to see she was crying with her hands held out in front of her as Mick stepped closer towards the two of them. Ruby was in no better shape but Lucy's face was blank as she watched the scene unfold, though her eyes flickered to Juan every now and then.

Rio let out a scoff and stepped away from the older woman with a shake of his head. "You think you can slip in fake cash with the real and think I ain't gonna notice?" 

"No," defended Beth." no it's not possible. We have a system."

"No! Me too." He clenched his teeth together in anger as he paced around the room. He was a bomb ready to explode and Lucy wanted to be anywhere but there.

"No, we know what is real and we know what is fake!"

"Oh, me too!" he growled with a humourless laugh. "You tried to rip me off a hundred G's?"

"What? No!" shouted Beth in desperation.

"I sweat to god we would never do that!" added Annie, panic written all over her face as she and the two other woman began to beg for him to listen to them. "We didn't take anything!"

The brunette's hand started to get clammy and the sound of her breathing got heavier the longer the weapons were drawn. To say she was scared for their lives was an understatement. She moved her gaze back towards Juan and glared at the man. He furrowed his brows and she noticed he slid his finger off the trigger.

"Maybe it was one of the woman?" tried Ruby as the sisters shot her a glare in warning. "Maybe one of them didn't was the money? And just turned in her surveys and didn't go shopping."

"What woman?" Oh, he was pissed.

Beth pursed her lips in hesitation and admitted, "We couldn't was the money quick enough, so we had to outsource."

Rio fell silent for a moment, a silence that made her so uncomfortable tears had sprung to her eyes. He tilted his head to the side and snarled, "You shared my business with other people?"

"None of them actually knows anything." said Ruby with a grimace.

"Yeah," added Annie hurriedly. "they're just woman who think they're literally shopping."

Rio shook his head in silent disbelief and met Lucy's gaze for a brief moment. He gave her that same look of rage as he did the other woman and now she really did want to cry.

"Which one of your lady friends screwed me?" he demanded.

"How could we know?" shrugged Beth as she looked to them for help.

"I'm gonna need a name." He was calm now, but perhaps that was even worse than the rage he was known to show.

"Why?"

"To handle it."

"Listen ..." said the strawberry blonde as she tried to reason with him. "there could be any of thirty people who-"

"And you're gonna give me a name." he repeated with a hiss. "Or i'm just gonna pick one at the next PTA mixer."

Rio glanced at Juan and Mick and tilted his head to the door, taking long strides out of the home and disappearing through the back door. Juan tried to meet Lucy's gaze as he lowered his weapon but she would not look at him and they too, disappeared from the home.

The brunette let out a shuddering breath and pressed her nails into her palms to ground herself. Annie pressed herself to her sisters side.

"Lucy? Are you okay? I'm sorry you had to see that."

"What do you think?" she shot, pushing herself to her feet. "We just almost got killed. I told you this was a bad idea, that something was going to go wrong but you didn't want to listen to me."

"We have it under control -" tried Beth.

"Clearly you don't." retorted Lucy, stalking towards the hallway to slip into her shoes. "Call me when you're done with this shit."

None of her friends said anything as she stormed out the door and made her way towards her car. The woman slammed the door closed and let her head drop against her steering wheel. Lucy closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing. 

Her passenger door opened and he slid inside the vehicle with ease. She turned her head and mustered all the anger she could in her scowl she send his way as she sat back upright.

"Don't ever point a gun at me again." she said with a clenched jaw. 

"Just needed to give 'em a scare." he shrugged.

"You scared me!" she glowered and let out a shaky breath. "I though I was going to die in there. You know that I have nothing to do with this."

"Look," he shot, his eyes narrowed as he turned his body towards her. "those bitches need someone to set them straight if they keep stealing from me. They've lost me a hundred G's and i'm gonna need it back. I could have done way worse than this."

"I bet you could." she huffed, staring out the window. 

He reached toward her face and grabbed her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him. His eyes darkened and he kissed his teeth as he looked her over. "Don't be like that, ma."

"I want to go home." she uttered, not in the mood to argue.

"A'ight." he nodded his head slowly and retracted his hand from her face and with him he took the heat from his body. "Get out. I'll drive you."