Rivals 🌈 ✔

85 - Settling Things

"He's a fucking coward," Juice spat. Together with Raine and Mouse, he walked around Clay's house where they planned to force the back door. Chibs had stayed in the car. Ostensibly to keep watch, but Juice believed he was afraid of being caught and treated like a traitor before they had a chance to investigate things.

"As long as he doesn't turn on us if things go wrong," Raine hummed.

Mouse looked back and forth between them but said nothing. Juice knew she was struggling with negativity, yet she also understood where it came from.

He didn't like her going with them. He had failed to change her mind; with Raine being incapable of running, she'd refused to let the two of them go alone. "I am also capable of holding a gun if I have to," she'd said.

Juice was relieved that Clay and Gemma had broken up a few months ago, so he did not expect to find anyone else here. If Clay wanted to sleep with a croweater, he couldn't imagine bringing one home.

Beside him, Raine began fiddling with the lock until he could open the door. Frowning, Juice nudged his shoulder. "Did I get engaged to an experienced thief?"

Raine lifted the corner of his mouth and whispered: "You hack into systems, I break into buildings. We're a great team, aren't we?" He stepped inside. "That's what you get for growing up with Esai."

Juice shook his head chuckling as he imagined a teenage Raine breaking in with his friends. Later, he wanted to hear what they stole; now they could better focus on their task.

With the flashlights on their phones, the three searched the house. The phone Clay used for club business would probably be upstairs, hopefully, they wouldn't need it.

Juice sat down at the computer and started it. No password was needed. Clay's mailbox was full of spam and unread messages. He probably never looked into it. After scrolling for a while, he found the bills of his mobile phone. Knowing Clay, he never looked at those and hadn't created an account on the provider's website, allowing Juice to do that himself with a few clicks. Not much later, he clicked through the data, looking for the call history. They didn't have Cain's number, but he only had to focus on the numbers used the week before the guns were stolen.

Suddenly, there were creaks above him. Footsteps.

Immediately he looked over his shoulder; Raine and Skye also remained silent.

Maybe he's just going to take a piss.

Tense, he waited. No - he wasn't going to take a piss. Was that the creaking of the stairs? Juice shut down the monitor and computer case, looked around and hurried towards the back door. Skye and Raine did the same and they closed the door.

"You think he heard us?" Skye whispered.

"We barely made a sound. Maybe Chibs tipped him off," Raine hummed.

"Or he was in the mood for a midnight snack."

The light went on. Immediately, they ducked away from the window.

For a while, they waited. Juice didn't dare to peek inside. What was Clay doing? Juice started to doubt—had he turned off the computer? Was the office chair standing too far from the computer? Maybe there had been mud under their shoes and their tracks were now clearly visible on the laminate! He clenched his fingers and scraped the palm of his hand with his nails. 

The doorbell rang.

It startled Juice; he almost lost his balance. Raine put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a squeeze.