Chapter 31 – Ava Jade #2
“ Watch out ,” Grey bellowed, knocking me to the floor, the air stolen from my lungs as another line of gunfire punched holes in a long line down the side of the wall right where my fucking head had been.
I crawled closer to the opening and made a snap decision.
They weren’t going to stop coming.
Even as slowly and carefully as they made their advance down the dock, they’d be on top of us in the next two minutes, the group quickly growing as more vehicles arrived, Dead Men and Aces walking shoulder to shoulder, heel to toe.
We needed to stop their advance.
There wasn’t time or the equipment required to blow the dock, but there might have been something else I could do.
I tore myself from Grey’s grasp, my dress tearing as I ran like a shot back the way we’d come.
“Sparrow!” I heard Corvus call after me, but I wasn’t stopping.
This had to work.
A gunshot sent me dropping to my knees as I slingshotted myself through the office door.
“ Jesus. ”
“Oh my god, Aves! You said! You said you would announce yourself.”
Her hand shook on the gun. “It’s okay. You did good.”
I grabbed the sniper bag from the floor next to the bar and took off. “Just keep doing what you’re doing!”
She shouted a stream of curses after me, but I was past hearing her, rushing to the back of the building.
“AJ, what are you doing!” Grey shouted, but no one followed me as I shoved through the back door to the shouts of the teenagers huddled against the wall.
“Hold still,” I told the tallest looking one, stepping up onto their back to get a handhold on the old rusted ladder that was busted off at the bottom.
I hauled myself up, my shoulders screaming their protest until I got a foothold and cleared the top of the ladder, throwing my legs over onto the roof.
I kept low as I raced over the debris, avoiding the soft looking spots where water was puddled, algae foaming around the edges.
My fingers fumbled with the zipper only for a second before I got it down, pulled out the sniper and yanked the tripod free, feeding bullets into the slot like Grey taught me.
I cocked it back to the sound of a cry below, my heart in my throat. It wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t one of them.
They’re fine.
I lifted the barrel over the wide edge of the roof, butting the rifle to my shoulder, staring down the scope, adjusting it.
There was a flurry of movement as the enemy reached the entrance to the Docks and I heard Rook’s throaty bellow as he went ape on the ones who’d managed to get inside.
I was too late to stop them, but I wouldn’t be too late to slow the flow.
I breathed in, settled on a moving target, breathed out, and fired.
He jerked back, falling in a heap.
Heads snapped up.
I took aim. Fired again.
Again.
Two more shots.
Reload.
It wasn’t enough.
They were still coming. Pouring over the docks like ants.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I reloaded, lifted back onto the ledge.
Found a face I recognized.
I twisted the dial on top of the gun, turning on the red dot sight. It pierced Lenny Ace square in the chest.
I saw the instant he noticed, his body going deathly still as he stared down at it, hands raising.
He shouted something, but I couldn’t hear him from here.
Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I squinted, trying to keep it from getting in my eye, keeping steady.
Like dominos, the Dead Men and Aces stopped their advance. Guns were lowered.
“Stop!” I heard Lenny this time as he shouted, still raising his hands ever higher as three more gunshots inside the warehouse below me signaled the deaths of three more of his men.
My finger brushed the trigger, the darkness within beckoning, whispering violence in my ears. Kill him.
Kill him.
All shooting ceased, and I breathed slow out a small opening in my lips, my arm starting to shake from holding the heavy weapon steady.
If I killed him, one of two things would happen.
Either they would all disperse, or I would have created a martyr. Given the Dead Men’s leader a chance to double the size of his gang by taking in Lenny’s as his own.
There was the other option, of course. I could hold until Diesel got here. Clean up this mess for good.
My phone vibrated forcefully against my left tit, and I jerked, almost losing my aim, but able to right it again.
Carefully, I held the sniper in place with one hand while I fingered out my phone with the other, tapping blindly at the screen until the call was answered and on speaker phone.
“Sparrow?”
“I’m a little busy at the moment, Bones. Call me back later?”
“Don’t shoot.”
I ground my teeth.
This fucker tried to kill my guys.
He’d gotten each of them shot on fight night.
Those wounds had yet to heal.
He didn’t deserve to live.
“Sparrow?”
“He needs to die.”
“Can you hold?”
Fire flooded my belly. “Yeah,” I gritted out. “I can hold.”
But Lenny Ace, waiting for the others to do all the work for him at the far end of the long dock, stepped backward. One small step.
I dropped the barrel of the sniper half an inch and shot the pavement at his feet before immediately lifting it back to his chest. He started, lifting the leg nearest the smoking ground like a fucking flamingo before setting it back down.
His mouth moved, and I strained to hear what he was shouting.
“What the fuck is he saying?”
“He wants to leave.”
“Fuck that.”
“ Sparrow, ” Corvus warned. “If you kill him, the rest of them are going to rush the pier. The Dead Men didn’t join with the Aces to lay down arms and give up whatever they were offered.
If Lenny’s dead, they’ll try to take it and more.
They won’t ever get another opportunity like this. I need you to hold .”
I growled my frustration, stroking the trigger, a shiver rolling down my back.
Just a little more pressure and we could kiss this bastard goodbye for good.
Was Corvus right?
Hold, the rational part of my brain argued, buffing my biceps and shoulder, lending them more strength to keep holding the long weapon in place.
But the darkness was still whispering, and I wanted to feed it the blood it craved.
“Five minutes,” Corvus’ promised. “They should be here in five minutes, Sparrow. Hold.”
The wind quieted enough that the next time Lenny Ace’s vile mouth opened I could hear him. “We’re going to leave,” he shouted, his voice echoing across the lake.
Fucking coward.
“No one else needs to die tonight,” he continued, his voice cracking, arms beginning to lower. “I’m going to back up now.”
“The fuck you are!” I roared, uncaring if he could hear me or not.
Lenny took a step back.
“ Corvus ,” I hissed.
“Don’t, Sparrow. It’ll be a bloodbath. We can end this another time. On our terms.”
I clamped my mouth shut, breathing in and out rapidly through my nose as I watched Lenny slip back a step. Then another.
Someone opened the side door of a van a few paces away from him and climbed inside, beckoning for him to follow.
NO.
We were not going to let them get away.
“Diesel and the others can stop them on their way out,” Corvus promised, but if Dies was still five minutes away, they could take the dirt road leading around the Deadwood. They could get to the highway before he could intercept them. They could get away .
I watched Lenny through the scope as he dragged his foot another step back, but it wasn’t his movement that made me do it.
It was the look in his eyes as he tipped his head up, the moonlight catching on a wicked gleam there.
Carving a little gray shadow where the edge of his lips were creased in a vile smirk.
No.
I don’t fucking think so.
My arm tightened on the rifle, I breathed in. Breathed out.
And shot Lenny Ace through the heart.