"They better realise." Ice lowered his hands and stepped back. "They know what's going on. We've kept them informed."
"And yet—" Storm gestured at the man hanging from the chains.
"I'll get that screwdriver," Ice said.
"Wait." Ramsey's voice was low, but with urgency that made us all stop and look at him. He turned to frown at Jay. “Did you think catching this asshole was too easy?"
Jay frowned back at him. "We're fast, highly skilled footballers, but now you mention it, it did seem a bit too easy. He waited until we saw him and then took off. We chased him a couple of blocks before we caught up."
"So?" Storm asked. "He didn't know what he was doing. He wouldn't be the first amateur in this city to get in over his head." He could have been talking about himself, but he was as confident in his own abilities, as always. No one would say Storm Keller wasn't a cocky prick. Or the rest of them, for that matter.
"But you weren't there," Ramsey said slowly. "Neither was Atlas."
"If you don't get to the fucking point, you can hang by chains beside this asshole," Storm growled. He wouldn't have carried out that threat, not to Ramsey, but his patience was clearly running thin.
"The point is, Chelsea was virtually alone," Ramsey said. "With Jay and I taking off after this prick, that only left Frost and Dallas. Two are a lot easier to deal with than six."
"Three," Sadie said.
Ramsey turned to her. "You were incapacitated."
Storm's grey eyes widened and his face paled. "Are you trying to say this dickhead was a distraction?"
"He might not have been the one to pull the trigger." Ramsey shrugged. "But yes, he was there to draw us away." He ran a hand over the back of his head and let his eyes glaze, going over the afternoon's events in his head. Clearly frustrated he'd missed something that was right in front of him. Someone watching and waiting to make a move.
Instead, he'd fallen into the trap along with the rest of us. I didn't blame him, but he looked pissed off at himself.
I felt my own face pale. "Why? Why would anyone do that?"
"Any number of reasons," Ramsey said. "But I think that's the point. Someone was trying to separate us to get to you."
If it wasn't for Storm and Frost on either side of me, I might have sat down hard on the floor. As it was, I leaned against Frost, letting him support me.
"What does anyone want with me?" I asked, my voice higher than normal.
"That's what we're going to find out," Atlas said. "We’re not going to get anything useful out of him are we?" He jerked his thumb towards the man who dangled from the chains, his face half turned up towards us.
"Probably not," Ice said, his voice tight. His expression was thoughtful, but furious. He turned to the man. "Last chance."
If he looked at me that way, I would have been trembling in my shoes. My brother could be sweet and threatening at the same time, but when he was like this, he was downright dangerous. There wasn't much he wouldn't do at the best of times. Staying out of his way when he was quietly menacing was wise.
The man finally looked up. "That guy is right. I don't know anything. I was paid to stand there until they saw me, then run."
"Who paid you?" Storm asked.
"He didn't give me a name. He handed me the money and told me where to stand. He gave me the gun, but I never used it. Don't even know how. He said I'd be paid extra the longer I distracted you. I needed the money." He sagged back down.
"What did he look like?" Atlas demanded.
"It was dark, I didn't see his face," the man said. "I swear, that's all I know."
Ice rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand. "Someone stays with Chelsea from now on. The more of you, the better. When you play away games, she stays close to you. Don't let her out of your sight for anything except playing."
"No one is going to come after me when there's a crowd around me like that," I argued. A café was one thing. The infirmary and out on the footy field was another.
"It's that or I lock you up for your own safety," he said. He wasn’t bluffing.
"We'll keep an eye on her," Frost said firmly. "No one is going near her but us, not for anything." He squeezed me tight like he’d never let me go again. If they could, they'd probably take turns handcuffing themselves to me.
