Chapter 37 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
W e moved on foot, under the cover of darkness, the only sound the shhh of branches brushing thick canvas and the crunch of boots over dry dirt. My guys flanked me as we made our way, them with their guns out and aimed low, me with two of my blades in hand.
As much as I was tempted to use my new gun, I wasn’t acquainted with it well enough to choose it as my first line of defense. He’d get his turn if I lost my blades in battle, though.
I adjusted the sniper bag on my back, feeling the burn in the muscle across my shoulders from carrying it the four miles from where we parked back at a trailhead near the Lennox exit.
Grey wandered closer to my side. “Want me to take it?” he asked in a whisper, but I shook my head.
“We’re almost there.”
I could feel it. Mickey said it was about five miles in, and my body knew the distance from running my whole life.
As if on cue, I squinted into the dark, seeing how the terrain changed, sloping upward.
That was the hill. And somewhere below it, nestled in a small valley clear of trees would be the factory.
“Hey, Sniper,” a guy called Donny whispered, jerking his chin up and to the right. “This is us.”
Another guy with a sniper bag made his way over while the rest of them continued their careful pace through the trees. Diesel stopped at the head of them and the rest paused with him. He stared right at me, giving me a meaningful nod. Watch over my sons, he said without the need to speak at all.
I nodded back, and he twirled a finger in the air before butting his AK to his shoulder, continuing into the dark.
“Fuck, I change my mind,” Corvus said, his jaw clenching tight. His eyes looking brighter than ever with the black war paint slashed over his sharp features. “Maybe you should come with us.”
“You’re the one who convinced me to do this,” I argued, my whisper cracking like a whip. “I already agreed.”
He cursed, his gaze fixing on Donny and the other guy whose name I could never remember behind us. “You watch her fucking back,” he told them.
“We will.”
“Bones, I’m going to be fine. We all are.
And who do you really think will be watching whose back up there?
” I challenged, leaning into the darkness, letting it bring me the confidence I needed to do what we were about to do.
I was fucking fast . If anyone came up behind us, I’d be the one laying them out with my blade before either of these fuckers could even draw their weapons.
Corvus put his forehead to mine. “See you when it’s over, Sparrow.”
I nodded against his forehead, and he pulled back.
“Comms check,” Grey said, tapping his ear piece. “Come in.”
His voice echoed in my ear, and I nodded, tapping my ear piece. “I hear you.”
Rook and Corvus nodded, signaling that they could hear me in their ear pieces, too.
“Let’s move,” Donny said. “We need to be in position before it begins.”
Grey surprised me with a rough kiss before Rook stole me away with a first grip on my pussy through my tactical pants. I opened my mouth in surprise, and he used the opportunity to dive into my mouth with his tongue. I moaned into his mouth, and he bit my lip, drawing blood.
He released my wet cunt, and I blinked up at him, having to shake myself to get my focus back.
“Catch you on the flip side, Ghost.”
“Be careful down there.”
They turned away from me, falling into step with Hardin and Kaleb, the five of them moving like shadows through the trees. I watched until I couldn’t pick them out from the others anymore, and Donny nudged my forearm. “Come on, there’s nothing you can do for them from down here. Let’s climb.”
I sighed, sheathing my blades as we hiked the steep slope all the way to its summit, having to resort to digging my fingernails into the hard dirt and rock to get up the last fifteen feet to the mostly flat top.
Jagged rock made finding good spots to set up a challenge and peering down over the lip of stone, I knew trying to jump down and run into the action would be more of a challenge than I originally thought.
I would be more likely to roll down the steep face than run.
The other two snipers and I got into position, and I knew it wasn’t a mistake that they placed themselves to either side of me, Corvus’ orders to watch my back likely still ringing in their ears.
I looked down through the trees as I set up Big Red just like Grey taught me, able to see the outline of the factory in the ambient moonlight.
Cloud cover was pretty heavy tonight, which provided an added layer of cover we were all grateful for, but would also make everyone’s jobs harder. Including mine.
Once Big Red was in position, I hunkered down in the dirt, lying out against the cold earth.
“In position,” Donny said, his radio crackling.
A jolt of electrifying panic shot through me, and I rushed to look through the scope, making sure I had the angle I wanted. My breaths fogged in the air, stomach packing the dirt with each deep inhale.
My finger trembled as I rested it next to the trigger and I willed myself to calm down, blowing out a slow breath, tapping into that hyper focus still hovering just out of reach.
The factory loomed a couple hundred yards down the bank, settled on the flattest stretch of earth, surrounded on its left and back sides by trees set twenty paces back from the brick exterior.
To the right, a long dirt drive was choked up with tens of vehicles.
In front, where my sights were trained, a flat expanse of crumbling pavement stood between the large entry doors of the factory building and the tree line.
I looked all around, trying to find Diesel or my guys or anyone in the trees, but they were doing their jobs well.
I couldn’t find a single one for almost a full minute until I spotted Mickey getting into position, creeping forward through the trees to on the (direction) side.
Which meant my guys were somewhere out there, behind the building, readying their grenades.
I swung my barrel to the right, trying to find the other team, instead I found a King.
He reached into the open driver’s side window of a car and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
He plucked one out and put it to his lips.
Ten feet away, a Saint crept up on him from behind, using the parked cars as cover.
The air froze in my lungs as I watched, praying that they could take him out quietly. Quickly. Before someone noticed. I had a clean shot, but the echo would be worse than whatever sound the guy might make as he died.
The Saint rushed forward all at once, gripping the King around his face with a palm over his mouth.
My eyes gaped wide as his neck snapped and the Saint set him down easy.
I realized it wasn’t just any Saint. It was Hardin.
I watched him drag the body out of sight before darting through the maze of parked cars to the back of the building.
Damn. He was good.
“Get ready.” Diesel’s voice came over the radio, and I turned my sights back to the front doors, peering over the edge of the hill to find a line of Saints crouched like boulders along the tree line, waiting. Ready.
Goosebumps rose on my arms and that next level focus snapped into place as I watched Mickey race forward from the left and the other team rush up from the right, dipping between cars to get to the side of the factory wall.
My body tensed.
The bang bang bang of the grenades went off like dominos, echoing through the night. Vibrating in the air. Screams followed and orange light exploded out the sides of the factory, smoke rising up to the sky.
The front doors burst open, and just like Diesel said they would, the Kings rushed out, coughing and spluttering. Some injured, others with their weapons raised, ready for the fight they seemed to at least have some inkling was coming.
They were all armed to the teeth, but as Diesel and Damien led the charge from the trees, they were caught entirely by surprise.
Gunfire sounded like firecrackers in the dark, and I watched as one King fell, then another.
Waiting for my guys to join the fray. Looking for one specific face amid the absolute massacre.
Everyone was on strict orders not to kill Carson if they could help it. We wanted to take him alive. But I wouldn’t complain much if he had a few non-lethal holes in him when they handed him over.
Donny fired next to me, and a King with a grenade in his hand went down before he could throw it, blowing himself and the guy next to him into pieces.
My guys came through the smoke, charging forward like gods of war personified.
Rook slit the nearest King’s throat with a swipe of his arm and roared in the spray of blood as Corvus pumped two bullets into two more Kings and Grey narrowly dodged an attack by the third, getting his arm around the guy’s head.
He pulled up sharply, and the body attached to it slumped.
He discarded the King, kicking him out of the way as they continued the charge.
Fuck, they were beautiful.
Shit!
Diesel fired the last round in his mag and it dropped to the pavement. He bent to reload and a King behind him lifted his weapon, aiming it at the back of Diesel’s head.
I fired, and the King’s head exploded, raining brain matter over Diesel’s back. He gave a two finger salute our way before taking out another King in his path with his brother now tight at his side, watching his back.
I swiveled back to the guys, but they were doing just fine, dispatching justice like the cruel Saints they were.