Chapter 28
“What the hell are we all doing here?”
Dad’svoice echoed in the gymnasium of KilbornUniversity as he entered. The heavy metal doors crashed closed behind him, Ma, and Zade.
“Is everyone else here?” Kaleb asked, but he didn’t need to. We could hear them outside the doors. The drone of conversations going quiet as the doors shut. The bastards were probably trying to listen. Hell, I would be, too.
Ihad no fucking idea what Aodhán was up to, but I did know that he killed at least seven of his own men back there and if it weren’t for him, Becca might’ve been taken from us.
Infact, if we’d just listened to him in the first fucking place when he said we needed to go through that bogus construction zone instead of around it, four more of Dad’s men would still be breathing.
Thelines in his face had grown deeper somehow. As if he’d aged another five years in the forty minutes it took him to get here since we called and told him what happened.
“Why couldn’t we do this at the house?”
Hisrage filled gaze tracked to each of us, scanning for injuries he wouldn’t find. I’d already told him we were fucking fine on the phone.
Mostof the blood covering us was our own. Other than a few more bruises to add to the brutal canvas of our flesh, the ones of us who survived the attack would live to fight another day.
EvenKaleb, despite the fact he was still healing. At least the fucker sat down when I told him to, and he hadn’t moved since. WithBecca beside him, he sipped bottled water on the bottom bleacher, whispering with her and Aodhán.
“Your place isn’t safe,” Aodhán answered for me, pushing to his feet with a grimace. From the dried crimson staining the back of his head, I’d say he took a pretty hard hit, but he was doing a damn good job of hiding it.
“And this gymnasium is?”
“It was the only thing we could come up with on short notice.”
Mostlyempty this late on a Saturday and with only a handful of security guards we already had in our pockets, it was the best option.
Wewere even able to park most of the vehicles in the auto bays connected to the automotive tech shop, so they’d be concealed from view. As long as everyone was careful not to pull a tail and no one got lucky enough to see us pulling into campus, it would be like we’d vanished into thin air.
“Oh, darlin’,” Ma said, going to crouch in front of Becca, reaching her fingers to the angry bruise on her cheekbone. “That looks angry. I’ll get you some ice.”
“Wait, Ma,” I said. “Aodhán has something he needs to say, and I think we need to listen.”
Dad’sgaze darkened.
“Oh yeah?” he said, his tone laced with sarcasm. “That so?”
“Yeah,” Kaleb answered, pushing to his feet. “It is, Dad. If it weren’t for him, we might not’ve made it here. Not all of us, anyway.”
Ididn’t miss how his eyes tracked back to Becca, and I wondered if he felt as fucking incompetent as I did when I realized they’d managed to drag her away. I’d had three of the Irish fuckers on top of me and every fucking time I got one of them off, somehow another two seemed to take his place.
I’dbeen stabbed at least three times, but they were shallow wounds. I barely felt the ones in my legs. It was the one to my gut that worried me, but no one needed to know about that. If it’d hit anything vital, I’d be dead or close to it by now which meant that a good stitch and a bandage was all it needed.
AndI deserved it anyway.
Dadsucked his teeth, throwing an arm out as he leveled his icy stare on Aodhán. “Let’s hear it, then.”
Imoved aside for him.
“Have you heard from Diesel up north in ThornValley yet?” Aodhán asked.
Damiengave his head one shake. “Not yet.”
“Last we heard they were saddling up and heading out,” Ma added, coming to stand next to me. “Why?”
“Shouldn’t they have been on their way by now?”
Mybrow furrowed. He was right. They should’ve been halfway here by now, but we hadn’t heard a word. Between coordinating getting the other families out of town, the attack, and moving everyone here, clearly no one thought to call and check in.
Itook out my phone and dialed, putting it on speaker.
Corvusdidn’t answer.
“TryDiesel,” I growled, and Dad took out his cell and thumbed out Diesel’s number by hand like the tech dinosaur he was.
Heanswered on the second ring. “Damien?”
“Hey, D, what’s your status?”
Icould hear shouting in the background. The rev of engines. Something wasn’t right.
“Phones are compromised,” came Diesel’s breathless reply and then to someone else, “Get that fucking shit out of the road!”
Matook the phone from Dad, pulling the receiving end closer to her mouth. “Diesel,” she snapped down the line. “What’s happening?”
“We met some of your friends,” he said in a dangerous tone, and I could tell he was moving away from the noise to hear us better.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You’re on speaker,” Dad explained. “What do you mean you met them?”
Afrustrated sigh came through the other end. “They must’ve figured you’d reach out to us, Damien. We were ready to go hours ago but we can’t leave.”
Myblood fucking boiled in my veins.
“What?” I snapped.
“We can’t leave,” Damien repeated. “They slashed all the tires. Every fucking one of them. We’re working to replace them, but two of the three roads out of ThornValley are completely barricaded with a fucking city block worth of scrap metal, busted glass, and trash. Like they just dumped a whole goddamned trash barge onto the roads. We’re working to move it, but?—”
“And the other road,” I interrupted. He said two of the three ways out of the town were blocked.
“The bastards are manning that one. They have snipers up in the apartment buildings and a roadblock set up. Looks like they made some kind of a deal with ThornValleyPD. Fuckers are going to regret it when this is over.”
Iwondered where they might’ve gotten that idea?
Ipinched the bridge of my nose, the pounding in my chest moving to thud behind my eyes as my skin heated.
“You can’t push through?” Ma asked.
“Not without losing men. I’m sorry, Sloane. We’re doing everything we can to get out.”
Everythingthat didn’t involve destroying ThornValley. Diesel wouldn’t destroy his town or allow any harm to come to the people in it. After everything that happened there last year, they’d accepted him as an unofficial mayor. He’d made promises. Promises not to allow any violence or violent crime into the town while he ran it.
It’dbeen going well. The people felt safe. He wouldn’t jeopardize that, and we couldn’t expect him to risk killing innocent people to get out. Not when this wasn’t his fight to begin with.
“Keep trying,” Ma said.
“You know I will,” Diesel replied. “I’ll contact you from a burner when there’s anything new to report. Don’t call me on this line again.”
Theline went dead when he was done, and Dad snatched the cell back from Ma to curl it into his clenched fist. “Fuck,” he muttered through his teeth.
“How’d you guess?” Becca asked, and Aodhán turned to her. “Because it’s what I would’ve done if I knew the Saints had other chapters nearby.”
“Or you told them we had help coming,” Dad said in a lethal tone.
“He didn’t,” Becca bolted to her feet despite Kaleb trying to get her to sit back down. “He saved my fucking life out there today, Damien. All you’ve done is put it at risk.”
Iflinched. It was a low blow, but maybe one Dad needed to hear to get him to shut the fuck up and pay attention.
Untilan hour ago, I wasn’t sure I could ever trust Aodhán, either. But he saved Pikey in the minivan. Kaleb said he might’ve saved him when he shot down the Son about to absolutely stomp on his still-healing chest wound.
…and he saved Becca. Brought her back to us.
Killedhis own men to do it seemingly without blinking.
Isaw the murder in every one of his movements as he pulled that Son back from trying to stuff Becca into the trunk of a car. Watched him snap the guy’s neck without blinking.
Watchedhis dark expression break with an emotion I wasn’t even sure if I was capable of when he saw she was all right.
Andthen kissed her.
Shedidn’t stop him, but in that moment, I was beyond expecting her to. I’d already given her my permission and this was a man, no matter his past or where he came from or what he’d done, he was a man in that moment who had earned her love maybe more than I ever could.
Dadstared at Becca like she’d physically hit him, and I knew the fucking feeling.
“Fine,” Dad said finally, his attention back on Aodhán. “Kaleb said you wanted to talk so talk. I’m listening.”
“We need to make a move now.”
“Now?” Becca asked, the surprise and concern clear in the pitch of her voice.
Aodhánnodded darkly.
“After he’s just taken out several more of our men?” Ma asked.
“And with Diesel stuck in ThornValley?” Dad pressed.
Aodhánnodded again. “You’ve lost men. So has he. But right now, we have two things going for us. 1: he still hasn’t managed to replace everything I blew up at his storage unit.”
“How do you?—”
“I overheard one of the guys saying to conserve ammo when they attacked us. He’d never give that order unless he had to. He doesn’t do ‘frugal’ with anything. And 2: right now, as far as we know, he has no idea where we are.”
“We’re still outnumbered,” Ma argued, and though I could tell she was trying to listen, to understand, I could still see the wrath in her. The urge to tear Aodhán apart for shooting her son simmering just beneath the surface of a forced calm.
Shewas only holding back because he’d saved our asses more than once, now.
“More of my men will die,” Dad added.
…if not all of them,I thought to myself. Because that was what could happen. WithSéamas’ numbers and no backup, even if we did have a better store of weapons and ammo, it might not be enough. They could not only defeat us—they could eradicate us.
“They will,” Aodhán agreed. “But more of them will die anyway. Would you rather wait for him to recoup what I took from him? Would you rather wait for him to continue to pick you off one by one?”
Mashook her head. “ButDiesel?—”
“You can wait for him and his men,” Aodhán snapped. “That’s still an option, but then you’ll be up against my father at his full capacity, and you don’t want to see what that looks like, trust me.”
“Even if we did want to go toe to toe with the bastard,” Zade said, chewing on the inside of his cheek. Unlike my dad, Zade seemed to be really considering this—just as hungry for Irish blood as I was right now. “We still don’t know where he’s holed up. How would we even get to him?”
“We wouldn’t have to,” Aodhán said as if it were obvious. “He’ll come to us. If there’s one thing SéamasO’Sullivan can’t say no to, it’s a chance to be in the spotlight.”
Justlike I thought the first time I’d laid eyes on him.
Hewas a showman.
Hetook no pleasure in the things he did unless there was an audience.
“If you give him a time and a place—my suggestion would be here?—”
“Wait, here?” Kaleb blurted. “As in KilbornUniversity, here? You’re shitting me, right?”
“Would you rather take this into the streets?”
“Well, no, but?—”
“You know this place. The layout. Things we could use to our advantage. I assume since your dad is alumni and makes some hefty charitable contributions, he also knows the layout. There’s lots of open space but also lots of places that are easy to barricade with multiple exits. Places to hide, too, if necessary.”
Fuckerhad a point.
Andwith tomorrow being a Sunday, no one would be here save for a couple janitors, and we’d send them home with a couple wads of bills to pay for their silence.
Idid a slow turn, considering the gymnasium, thinking it might look good painted red.
“He could be right,” I said, and all eyes turned to me.
Iswallowed, slapping down that fluttering, chaotic thing in my chest until it lay flat before speaking again. “If we wait, the risk is greater. We should attack while Séamas is weak, even if we are outnumbered. This is our turf. We have everything we need right here. We can end this, Dad.”
Please. Let me fucking end this.
Dadthought about it, and I could tell he was really thinking.
“If we kill Séamas,” he said, watching for Aodhán’s reaction. “Will his men continue to fight?”
Aodhán’sgreen eyes shifted, considering. “Some will,” he replied. “Many won’t if they know he’s dead. They follow him not out of true loyalty, but out of fear.”
“Yeah, because he’s a fuckin’ dictator,” Kaleb muttered.
Aodhándidn’t disagree. “But he won’t show himself. Not right away. Not until he thinks he has victory close at hand or if he thinks he has a shot to take you out and make a spectacle of it.”
Thecalm way Aodhán talked about his father killing mine made my trigger finger twitchy, but I got the feeling he was only trying to be as honest as he could. And right now, it was what was needed.
“Do you think the smaller gangs will join us without Diesel here to back us up?” Ma whispered to Dad.
“Maybe. A couple for sure, but the ones we weren’t certain about we can’t risk contacting in case they go running off to the Sons to report.”
“A couple could make the difference,” Kaleb said, the eternal optimist. “We should get there here.”
Dadnodded.
“This shouldn’t be my choice alone,” he said. “I won’t ask my men to fight a war that they didn’t ask for—not outnumbered like this. It’s a fifty-fifty shot they won’t be going home. It should be up to them.”
Myteeth ground. We need every one of those men out in the hall. ButI respected him for not wanting to force them, even if I think I would’ve in the same situation.
Themetal doors opened, and his men flooded the gym. From the looks on their faces, I knew they were listening to every goddamned word from the other side of the door.
“You don’t gotta ask, boss,” Briggs said. “We’re in.”
“Get word to the other gangs,” Dad said, and the light was back in his cold blue eyes. Violent and bright. “Bring them in quietly and then get some fucking rest, boys. We finish this at dawn.”
Oofuckin’ rah.