A week later Derek called me down to the weapons cache, he said that he and Ashley had worked with Miguel to develop a way to load the minigun onto one of the trucks so that someone could shoot it while being protected and keep the driver from getting shot. I met up with him and Miguel at the cache, grabbing the keys to the garage Miguel told me to grab the minigun and the bullets to work on making sure that the plating was right. When we got to the garage Miguel lead us towards the back and took the covering off what he was working on, standing in front of us was glory in the form of a truck, it looked like if a pickup and a military-style hummer had fucked while high as shit.
"Holy shit!" Derek voiced my thoughts, to the letter, as Miguel turned on the beast and revved the engine.
"If this thing was a person I'd have already stripped, mate."
"For once, I agree with you entirely," I heard behind me and saw Jack joining us, Miguel got out of the car and looked proud with his work, and I entirely understood, I loved the thing already and I had just seen it.
"Alright, Jake take the minigun and follow me, Jack and Derk get in, we're gonna leave in about twenty minutes," Miguel said, climbing into the bed of the truck, he unlocked a gate inside it and pointed to a section of the area that was about a foot in width and told me to stick the barrel of the gun through it. I did so until the base of the barrel was touching the slit, and Miguel starting screwing the gun onto a swivel mount, closing the hatch again he explained how the thing worked, what it was made of, and a bunch of other shit I didn't care about, it worked, and that's what mattered.
"-Because the opening is a complete circle the gun and can be turned in a complete circle, and because of how the swivel works with the rest of the cage you can aim up and down as well, nothing is out of sight for this beast."
"Nice work, Miguel, how about we go take this animal for a test drive?"
"Let's do it, no shooting though, I still need to work out some of the kinks with the cage."
"Dammit! Fine, I call shotgun though!" I said, getting out of the bed of the truck I walked over to the passenger seat and saw Derek sitting in it, so I pointed a shotgun at him.
"I. Called. Shotgun! Out of my seat, now!" I yelled and he got in the back, I joined Miguel in the front and we pulled out of the garage. I turned on my phone and started playing "American Beauty/American Psycho" By Fall Out Boy, Miguel continued driving while Derek, Jack, and I sang along to the song. We drove around San Antonio all day, stopping to get gas a couple of times, and practiced all three routes we would take during the heist, but no matter how much I begged Miguel wouldn't let me shoot the minigun.
"One of these days, I'm going to shoot that minigun, Miguel. You won't stop me," I said as we made our way back, Miguel wanted me to wait to be able to use it, meaning I had to face my greatest foe again: patience.
"You can shoot the gun, just not yet, I have to make sure that everything is in working order before you can, sorry dude," He said as we pulled into the garage, Jack and I left the car and went inside, leaving Derek to discuss the best's hydraulic systems or some shit like that. We got inside to see everyone busy doing their own shit, Ashley was doing some kind of nerd math with Jacob, a friend of mine that had deep connections and was usually helping everyone, Nicki and Jade were talking to Jilliene about something, and when we walked in they all looked over at us and started smirking. Something told me I didn't want to know what they were talking about, Jack got the same impression and led the both of us over to the range, where Johnny was practicing his shots. I took out my hand cannon and put on my earmuffs before turning on the targets game that Derek bought. It was electronic and set up targets at random times at random places on the course, If I didn't hit the target, Johnny did, we were in sync and at the end of the five minutes we had a perfect score.
"Nice shootin', JJ. Lemme get a turn," Jack said and took Johnny's place, He took his own hand cannon out of the holster and pulled on his ear muffs. We locked eyes and told Johnny to fire up the targets, he did and we started shooting, when two targets came up, we shot them down before another two could join them. When the clock reached zero we had gotten a perfect score in a minute and a half less than Johnny and I had.
"Nice job, guys, imma go find Der, talk later," Johnny said and left, probably to go ride Derek, and we followed him inside and met up with Nicki and Jade.
"Y'all wanna go grab some grub?"
"Yeah, sure, maybe you could invite Alex, make it a double date," Jade said, receiving glares from me and Jack, Jade knew that Alex was a touchy subject, but then again we deserved it, didn't make us hate it any less.
"See you at Mamacita's?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Jade said, and Jack started towards the garage, I glared at Jade one last time before running to catch up with Jack. When I got to our pickup, Jack was already in the driver's seat, so I walked around and got in the passenger's seat and pulled my beanie and bandana on, I didn't need Jack seeing my face all red.
"I'm driving on our way back, Asshat."
"Yes sir, daddy," Jack said in an overly sexualized voice, glaring at him, I gave him a look that said 'try me, I'll crush you', making Jack laugh and focus on the road, leaving me alone. I turned on the radio and "Novocaine" By Fall Out Boy started playing, I took off my bandana and rolled down the window to try and cool down, but eventually, I got bored, so I stuck my head out the window and let the wind blow my hair back. Jack grabbed me by my jeans and pulled me back in the car, much to my disapproval.
"I swear, you're turning more and more into a mutt every day."
"Shut up! It's satisfying, maybe if you tried it you'd know why it's so awesome!"
"I will never do that, it's humiliating and stupid," He said and I guess he had a fair point...but I didn't care, so I rolled the sunroof back and stood up so that I was outside the car again, "You're going to get hurt doing that you retard."
"Sue me. If I get hurt, I'll be having fun doing it!" Jack sighed and continued driving to Mamacita's and when we got there Nicki and Jade were already there, laughing at me being an idiot. I climbed out of the car via sunroof and walked over to where they were standing.
"You're a dork, Jake."
"I know, but y'all are stuck with me," I said and walked towards Mamacita's, with Jack walking up behind us. We got inside and I almost jumped for joy when I saw that Nathan was working, I wanted to see what Jade would do if Nate decided to flirt with Nicki. Luckily enough, he was our waiter for the night and when he led us to our table he looked angry.
"Get me a diet cola and a Coors Light, Nathan my boy," I said and everyone else gave him their drink orders, leaving us to talk about the previous time we came here. By the time Nate had come back, Jade was doubled over laughing and Jack was trying his hardest not to join her, He gave everyone their drinks and handed me my beer, but when I asked him about my cola he cracked open a can so that the soda sprayed in my face, "You better watch your back, punk, I would if I was you." I said and later found out that I was partially shifted, making him run off to the kitchen. I like a good practical joke, but soda from a can was a pain in the ass, both to clean up from my face but also my clothes.
"You should go to the bathroom, clean your face up a bit," Jack said, and I took his advice, getting up to go to the restroom. When I got to the bathroom it was empty, so I didn't have to avoid an awkward conversation as to why I was sticking my face in the sink, or so I thought. I had already rinsed off the soda when the door opened and another guy walked in and started laughing.
"Having fun there?" I looked up and was just about ready to slam the guy against the bricks, that is before I saw that it was Dylan, from Alex's pack.
"I guess you could say that, what brings you to my neck of the woods?..or city I guess," I said and continued washing my face, looking stupid in the process.
"Alex has been watching you, she's in the restaurant as we speak, I want to know why."
"Why don't you ask her yourself, I'm just as curious as you, D," I said, drying my face I noticed Dylan's scowl, I guess he didn't like the nickname.
"How do you not know?! She's following you!"
"I think you know exactly why she's following me, you did the same with Mark, I'm assuming?" I said smirking at him, knowing the answer already, weres that don't have the confidence or are just pussies, usually would stalk their mate before building up the courage to talk to them and/or confess.
"No comment," He said, blushing a deep red, and I took that as a yes, so I left the restroom and walked back to my table to see Nathan asking Jack what he wanted, so I decided to get some revenge. I grabbed a cupful of ice from the bucket full of it for a champagne bottle for some rich D-bag, and pulled out Nate's pants, dropping the ice inside. The reaction was almost immediate and exactly what I wanted, he jumped and ran away, yelling about how cold it was. Nicki and Jade started laughing, sitting down next to Jack, I got a glare from him.
"What's got your panties in a twist, Jack?"
"Umm two things: One, you're the panty wearer here, not me and two: I wanted my food."
"Uh-huh, sure," I said and tapped on my temple twice, telling him to go into a link. 'What's going on?' 'Apparently, Alex is in the restaurant, Dylan was in the bathroom and was supposedly just as curious about why Alex was following us.' 'He doesn't know?' 'Nah, that's the first thing I asked him, although I think he does know and he just doesn't want to tell me.' He nodded his head and shut off the link, Nicki and Jade were finally calming down and Nathan was walking back with someone who looked like he had a few too many deep fried, bacon-wrapped donuts.
"You! Are you messing with my employees?!?" The fat man asked me, it honestly took me a minute to respond because I was laughing so hard that it was hard to breathe. Eventually, I calmed down and told him that I had pranked Nathan because he sprayed a can of coke in my face, that took him by surprise, and when my friends said that he did, the fat man told Nathan that he was to serve our table with respect, because it was his last, and I almost felt bad for the guy...keyword almost.