Lost and Found

Chapter Fifty-Two

Fast Forward - Noon, the day of the gang war

Roy's POV

"Where the hell is everyone?" Trubel asked as she paced around the warehouse.

"I don't know," I said. "You know, maybe this isn't a good idea. Let's just go back to the house." I was starting to sound like Trubel. Now that it was getting close to game time, I was really starting to think that this thing could go bad. I was especially worried that Trubel wasn't going to make it out of this alive.

"I'm not going back, we have to do this or else..." Trubel trailed off.

"Or else?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said quickly, sure that there were no other options. She was right.

"They'll be here," Orion assured. "They have to be."

"Do they?" I asked him.

"Unless they want to deal with Cash later, they should be," Orion clarified.

"It's not Cash they're going to have to worry about if they mess this up," I threatened. This was so frustrating! Everyone was already worried enough as it was! Would it have killed them to show up on time? Then again, we were gang members. We weren't really known for following the rules, and we'd done a lot worse than arriving to places late.

After about an hour of panicking and some reluctant phone calls to Cash and Andre, people started showing up. None of them had any excuse for their actions aside from, "I didn't feel like being ten hours early." Sure ten hours might have been overkill, but that was exactly the point. We had to guarantee that we would be at the warehouse before anyone else.

After everything calmed down, Trubel walked everyone through the plan again. This time, Andre's people weren't here; it was just Orion and me along with Zach and Julian. I wasn't really sure what they were doing here, but it made me nervous. What were they planning? No one had time to deal with them, so we all just went about our business, pretending that they weren't there.

After running through the plan, all of Cash's people took their positions in the surrounding buildings. Trubel came up to Orion and me and said, "Alright, time for you guys to get out of here."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Positive," she said confidently. I didn't move, and neither did Orion. "When the fight is over, can you guys pick me up?"

"Of course. Where were you thinking?" Orion said.

Trubel told us the name of a restaurant downtown; she said she'd be there at 11:00 or that she'd contact us if something came up.

"Promise?" I asked. God, it was hard saying goodbye to her! We hadn't really been separated since she joined us, and now I couldn't really imagine her not being around. But I shouldn't have even been thinking about that. Everything was going to be fine. She was going to carry out her plan, it was going to go great, and then we'd pick her up at the restaurant, right?

"I promise," she said earnestly. I could tell she meant it. "Now get out of here, and take those morons with you," she added, nodding in Julian and Zach's direction.

"Okay, I'll see you at 11," I confirmed.

"Good luck," Orion told her as he smiled at her reassuringly.

We told Zach and Julian to come with us. We saw them get into their own car and drive away before we left, too.

*************

Adalind's POV

"I know why you want to do this, but it's so dangerous," I told Nick. Of course, he only ever did dangerous things, but participating in some kind of gang war was really pushing it.

"It's going to be okay," Nick told me gently.

"I don't like this at all, Nick," I said, repeating myself for the thousandth time.

"I know, but it's the only way to get Trubel back," he said. "I have to do this."

I sighed and said, "I know."

Nick smiled guiltily and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tight. I wished I could stay in his arms forever and not have to worry about him every second of every day. "Just be careful," I told him.

"I will be," he said. He pulled away from me but kept his hands on my shoulders. "I won't be alone. I'll have Eve, Hank, and Wu with me," he reminded me. It was reassuring to know that his friends had his back. I knew they wouldn't let anything bad happen to him if they could help it.

"I love you," I told him.

"I love you, too," he said. He kissed me and told me he'd see me tonight before climbing into his car. I watched him back out and drive away, hoping that I wasn't seeing him for the last time.

I had to take a few minutes to regain my composure.

When I was finally calm enough, I called Monroe and Rosalee to tell them I was coming to the Spice Shop. We all had a lot to talk about.

*************

Eve's POV

I had told Monroe and Rosalee that I needed a day off from working at the Spice Shop. They gave it to me without asking any questions. After they agreed, I grabbed a duffel bag that was in the back room of the Spice Shop and put some weapons from the basement inside of it. Monroe and Rosalee didn't even ask me what it was when they came to the shop to take over. I told them that I'd see them later and then walked a few blocks down the street where Nick was going to pick me up. He was at the location right on time.

"Did you grab the crossbow?" he asked me as I climbed into his car.

"That and a few other things," I told him.

"Guess it's time to go looking for Trubel," Wu said, sitting next to me in the back seat.