Chapter 23 Bear
BEAR
Where the fuck had this badass chick come from?
I watched Margot from behind as she suddenly gained control of her body.
Like, whatever war she had been fighting with herself had suddenly been won.
Her hands stopped trembling. Her body became stronger.
Her shoulders were rolled back, and her gun stance was better than it had been when I found her struggling in the hallway.
And while every part of me wanted to throw her over my shoulder and drag her out of that damn warehouse, I also knew I risked my own death if I did that.
Especially if she could put that gun to my back.
“Bear, what’s going on?”
“Bear, have you found Margot?”
“Where’s Sutton, Bear? Do you have eyes on her?”
“You guys need to get to the van. I have to get out of here.”
“Toxin, if Bear isn’t back with the girls in two minutes, get the hell out of here.”
“Now wait just a fucking second.”
I ripped my intercom out of my ear so I could concentrate.
I’d fill them in later on what was happening.
Right now, though, we had a woman to track down.
Sutton’s cries became hoarse. And soon, I knew her voice would give out altogether.
I fought the urge to reach out for Margot and pull her back.
Back into my arms, where I knew she was safe.
Oddly enough, though, I trusted her judgment.
When she told me she could pull off something like this, I trusted her on it.
Every once in a while, we’d turn down a hallway and see a couple of guys there keeping a lookout.
Margot would look up at me and I’d look down at her.
Then, together, we’d take them both out.
One by one, we picked them off. Taking out their legs and putting bullets in their shoulders.
I grinned every time it happened. Margot had officially won the war between her gun and her profession.
Take them out, but not kill them.
What a woman.
Margot tracked Sutton’s sounds like she was a fucking scented hound. She’d raise her hand every now and again, then listened to the whispers in the air conditioning around us. I’d never seen her like this. I’d never seen Margot so determined, so bold, and so brazen.
Had we not been taken gunfire, my cock would’ve been hard.
The way we were going wasn’t toward the garage, though. And that made me wonder. As I filled Margot in on which hallways were dead ends and which weren’t, a thought occurred to me. A thought that made me both sick and hopeful for the situation.
What if one of those assholes found where the kids exited in the woods?
It was possible. If their main point of entry was the woods, but their goal wasn’t to harm the children in the first place, then it was possible they had a lookout.
Someone who pinpointed how we got the kids out of the warehouse in the first place and theorized there was a basement.
After all, even we had to file schematics with the city. Which were public record.
Was it possible these men were that uniform, though?
“Stop struggling, you bitch.”
I heard something akin to the butt of a gun coming down against bone before Sutton groaned out.
And I leapt forward in order to keep Margot in line.
Her eyes filled with blood. A need for vengeance.
And while part of me wanted to give it to her—or take it for myself—I knew Cage would want it more than us.
Something I was more than happy to give him.
“We only get him if we do this right,” I murmured.
Margot didn’t turn around to look at me, but she did draw in a slow breath.
A sobering breath. One that calmed the shaking of her body as I held it against me.
I reached over to a pad on the wall and flipped up the door.
I punched in a code, watching as the lights dimmed.
A hissing sound happened in the distance, and all of a sudden the man stopped walking forward.
And as Margot turned her eyes up to mine, I winked at her.
“Only one way in or out of this room now. Basement exit’s sealed,” I said.
“I could fuck you right now, you know that?” she asked.
“I’ll hold you to that later.”
A gunshot rang out, zipping by my head. I hit the floor as we sat on the first landing of the basement stairs, and I wrapped my arm around Margot’s stomach.
The last thing she needed to do was go rushing into a firefight.
But she didn’t move. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t twitch.
I watched her get on both her knees. She wrapped her hands around her handgun.
I leveled my own gun over her shoulder, taking aim at the man’s exposed shoulder.
“Ready when you are, gorgeous,” I murmured.
“I got his knees,” Margot said.
“And I’ve got his shoulder.”
She drew in a deep breath before squeezing the trigger, and before I could blink my eyes, she had both of his knees taken out.
I sank two into his shoulder, forcing him to release Sutton.
She quickly scrambled away from the man, lunging herself up the steps to get closer to us.
I watched Margot open her arms for the hoarse woman.
I watched Sutton collapse into Margot’s grasp as the two of them stood up.
Then, I quickly led them up the stairs.
“Come on, we really have to get out of here,” I said.
Margot settled into a rhythm as we raced for the garage door.
The second men came into her view, she stopped, breathed, and pulled the trigger.
One bullet, maybe two, and she had them on their knees.
Never killing, but always paving us a path forward as my gun hovered over the girls.
Ready to put bullets in skulls if those men even thought about charging us.
“You sure you’ve never fired a weapon?” Sutton asked hoarsely.
And even though I chuckled at the statement, Margot remained as serious as ever.
“We need to get into the van and get out of here. I’m running out of magazines. And I can’t shoot this semi-automatic rifle for shit,” she said.
I swallowed down my laughter as we kept traveling down the hallway. Around the corners. Weaving our way through this insane funhouse of hallways until we finally got to the garage door.
Like the powerhouse team we were.
“Sutton!” Cage roared.
Margot released her, watching her stumble into the arms of the man she loved. She bolted down the hallway, catapulting herself at Cage as Diesel appeared. His eyes found my dangling intercom off my shoulder and he tossed me a look. But all I did was shake my head.
Now wasn’t the time to start nitpicking things.
“You’re hurt. What happened?” Cage asked.
I watched him swipe his thumb over Sutton’s forehead as Margot cleared her throat.
“There’s a man in the basement not quite dead if you want him. He hit Sutton with the butt of his gun,” she said.
“He what now?” Cage glowered.
“Not now, please. Please don’t leave me,” Sutton said breathlessly.
She clung to Cage, and I knew that was the only reason why he didn’t bolt down the hallway toward the basement that very second.
He wrapped his arms around his woman before scooping her up, watching her back out toward the garage.
The two vans were ready to go, with Toxin driving one and Ryker in the other.
Cage passed Sutton off to Saint as Diesel stood at my side, giving me the one-two with his eyes.
Then, he nodded his head.
“Let’s load up Margot and get them out of here,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere unless Bear’s with me,” she said.
“I can make that happen,” Diesel said.
“I’m not leaving you guys behind,” I said.
“Well, we have to do something. Because these vans are gonna fucking run out of gas before we can get out of this damn garage!” Toxin exclaimed out the window.
Margot whipped around and looked at me, her eyes wide with determination and fire.
“I’m not leaving you guys. Whatever business you have to do here, I can help,” she said.
My eyes flickered over to Diesel before his head fell back with a groan.
“Fine. Okay. Margot, stay with Bear every step of the way. I’ll fill you in on what we’re about to do. With the first thing being clearing this damn warehouse of anyone that might still be alive,” Diesel said.
“I’m not killing anyone. But I’ll down them for someone else to kill,” Margot said.
“Like me,” I said plainly.
“I don’t give a shit how you do it, just get it done,” Diesel said.
Our president waved his hand in the air and the vans pulled out of the garage.
Gone were the rest of the women and the children, being raced off to some other destination that was undisclosed to all of us.
Margot looked up at me as my hand settled into the small of her back.
But my nostrils flared. I wasn’t happy with her decision, but she’d held her own so far with me bringing up the rear.
All we had to do was pick off the rest of the men.
Then, I could convince her to get the fuck out of dodge.
“Saint, Cage. You guys head for the basement. Grave and Brewer will take the roof and be on the lookout for anyone else coming out of the woods or up the damn cliffside. Bear and Margot? Take the front set of hallways. Toward the front door. I’ll bring up the back set of hallways toward the bedrooms with Knox.
Rock, you find your way into the woods. Pick off anything you see worth picking off.
Then, we’ll see about cleaning this fucking mess up,” Diesel said.
“You’ve been very quiet these past few weeks, Knox. Want to talk about anything?” he asked.
We all turned our heads toward the man and watched as he cocked his gun.
Watched as his darkened face clouded over with confusion.
He readied all of his weapons before his eyes met Diesel’s, and we all sat on pins and needles.
We knew something was up with him. He’d been very quiet and distance since all of this started happening.
And while we weren’t in the best position to pry, if Knox wasn’t in the right mindset to get this done, he needed to be dismissed.
And Diesel knew that.
“Talk to us, Knox. Otherwise—”
“You don’t have to dismiss me,” Knox said.
“Then, why have you been so quiet?” I asked.
He sighed. “Look, I’m not supposed to say anything because Monroe doesn’t want me to. But we’re pregnant.”
“Oh, my gosh! Congratulations!” Margot exclaimed.
“Yeah, well. Not for Monroe. She’s pissed we’re in this situation, and I can’t blame her.
She couldn't enjoy her pregnancy two and a half years ago because we were in some deep shit, and she can’t enjoy it now.
I just wanna get this shit cleaned up so she can experience the joy of being pregnant for once.
If there’s any joy to be had in it,” Knox said.
We all grew dangerously quiet before I reached out, placing my hand onto Knox’s shoulder.
“You have my word, we’re getting out of this sooner rather than later,” I said.
“You’ve got mine, too,” Cage said.
“And mine,” Diesel said.
He nodded his head before he sniffed through his nose, wrinkling it up. He nodded his head before he tucked his gun behind his back, then reached around for his automatic weapon. He readied it and cleared his throat, then found Diesel’s eyes with his own.
“Ready to clear this place?” he asked.
Then, Diesel dismissed us to tend to our duties.
I guided Margot through the hallways we were supposed to be clearing.
And, luckily, there was no one else to pick off.
It didn’t take us long to secure the ammunition and weapons closets, locking them down so no one else could get into them.
She crept like a professional. Her eyes stayed trained ahead.
She cleared all her corners with me having her back, and it didn’t take us more than fifteen minutes to get all the way to the front door.
Then, Margot reached for the door.
“Maybe you can go help Rock while he’s—”
“Margot, no!”
I saw the shadow move like lightning. The second she opened the door, the figure moved into position.
I saw Rock across the road already, slowly taking aim as the door ripped open.
The man, dressed in an all-black suit, pressed his gun into Margot’s stomach.
I watched that wild smile crawl across his face as I took aim at his head, ready to blow his fucking brains out.
And I did. I pulled that trigger and watched his brain matter splatter all over the front porch.
But not before he pulled his own trigger. Sending a bullet soaring through Margot’s stomach.
“No!” I roared.
I hit my knees just as the man’s body tumbled off the porch.
Rock rushed back across the road, talking to someone on his cell phone.
All I heard was Piper’s name before the world around me fell silent.
Because all I could focus on was the blood Margot coughed up.
The horrendous gurgling sound as I pressed my hand deep into the wound in her stomach.
The only good part about all this was that there was no exit out of her back.
“Margot, stay with me. Don’t—don’t close your eyes,” I said.
But all she did was shiver. Cough. Splatter blood all over me as Rock yelled into his cell phone.
“What’s going on? What the fuck is happening!?” Diesel yelled in my ear.
“Margot’s been hit,” I whispered.
And as I gathered her into my arms, her blood poured against my body.
Blood that should’ve been pumping through her heart.