Empty Bargains ~Jason McCann~

~9.04~

    Tyler snagged a kiss from me as I swept past him, buzzing about our room to get dressed.  I had twenty minutes until we left, and I’d been napping most of the day.  My feet padded against the wood floor, my hands sifting through stacks of folded clothes to pull together an outfit.

    Tyler stood next to the bed, hands in the pockets of dark jeans resting low on his hips.  He wore a light jacket, the hood pressed lazily against the back of his neck.  I tossed my shirt at him after tugging it off, then pulled on a navy long sleeve as Tyler threw my worn shirt into the laundry pile.  I did the same with my sweatpants, trading them for a pair of dark skinny jeans.  When I turned back to Tyler he was holding out a pair of black combat boots, and I smiled.

    “You know me too well,” I laughed, taking them from him and sliding the boots on.

    He kissed my forehead as I began lacing them up.  “I make a point of trying.”

    I rolled my eyes, pecking his lips again before standing and jumping a bit, testing out the shoes.  “Great,” I said, turning back to Tyler.  “Let’s head.”

    My legs moved forward, taking me to the door, but a hand stopped me.  Tyler grabbed my forearm, sliding his hand down to lace our fingers.  He pulled me back to him, holding me to his chest in a tight embrace.  I hugged him back, breathing in his scent.

    “I have something for you,” he mumbled into my hair.  Tyler pulled back, reaching around behind him.  When his hand came back around, my eyes went wide.

    “You’re giving me a gun?” I asked sharply, confused more than anything.  The guys hadn’t wanted me to use a gun if I didn’t have to; I’d never been in a situation I’d needed one before.  Of course I knew how to shoot and how the gun worked, but actually using one for something like this was a foreign concept.

    Tyler nodded.  “I am.”  He pressed it into my hand and looked into my eyes with his dark ones.  “If I’m not around to help you, this will.  I won’t let you leave here without it.”

    I looked down at the weapon, then slowly reached back to tuck it in the back of the waistband of my jeans.  Nodding, I hugged Tyler again.  His arms slipped around my shoulders gently, and I sighed.

    “I’m not going to get hurt,” I told him.  “It’s not going to happen.  I promise.”

    He smiled and kissed my nose.  “I know.”

~~~~~~

    A short time later, I was kissing Tyler goodbye as he and Sam took off to get closer.  The door of the land rover closed, leaving Markus at the wheel, me in the passenger’s seat, and Emmett in the middle row of the car.  My hand drifted to the gun tucked uncomfortably in the back of my waistband and my heartbeat fluttered a bit.  I was nervous, but I was excited.  This was the first run dealing with Jason they’d even let me come on.

    Markus cleared his throat, turning his head to me.  “Sam is going to shoot me a message with what he can see, and if it’s clear, you and I are moving around back to where they’re at.  As soon as we head up to the warehouse, I’m going to tell Emmett to bring the car around.  Tyler will stand guard while we gather what we can, and hopefully everything will go great.”

    I took a deep breath, looking out the windshield of the car.  The skyline was dark, almost pitch black.  We were pretty far out of the city or suburbs, but a few businesses were clustered around Jason’s place.  A post office was directly across the street from the Land Rover, closed by this time of night and lit only by a small outside lamp.  Small shops were connected all the way down the block, and a few streets down was a clearing that I knew held Jason’s house and warehouse.