Chapter Nine
We ended up waiting because the girl told us there were at least eight guys inside and gave us a basic layout of the building.
Her and her friend were the only other people besides the Kingsmen.
Now we were closer, she looked about seventeen and was wearing a black dress that barely covered her ass and knee high patent leather boots.
Her make-up, tears and snot was smeared across her face as she stared at us, trembling.
“Is there a woman being kept here?” War demanded.
“I… I… what… Don’t hurt me,” she stammered.
“Are these scumbags holding a woman here?” he repeated.
“I don’t know. I don’t…. No, I haven’t seen anyone but… please, please, oh God don’t kill me.”
While he was talking I grabbed the guy War knocked out and dragged him away from the building.
Last thing we needed was him waking up, but I had no way to easily subdue him.
We needed to make this quick. Spotting another dumpster that had a catch on the outside, I pulled him over there.
It took a while, but I got him thrown inside and locked the lid down.
When I got back to them, the girl was on her feet and no longer had a gun to her head.
War held it down at his side. She was shaking so bad, I thought she might pass out.
“Look, we’re not going to hurt you but we need to know if the Kingsmen are holding a woman here?
Dark hair, about five ten. They’ve kidnapped her, okay?
We’re just trying to find her, get her back safely. ”
“Did you kill Ant?”
War gave me a look. “Ant?” he shook his head. “No, we don’t kill people for no reason.”
“What’s your name?” I asked her, trying to calm her down but she refused to tell me. “If you have seen a woman they’re hiding, you need to tell us? We’ll let you go.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone… I just came here with my friend tonight… to party and get some…. dr-drugs. He said I had to do… that to get it,” she sobbed.
“Take it from someone who knows,” War told her. “Hanging around guys like this is not safe for you. He was abusing you, for drugs. You’re young, don’t be stupid. Stay away from them.”
“My friend is in there,” she sobbed. “She went with one of them to another room.”
God knew what was happening to her. “We’ll make sure she’s safe,” I reassured her but doubted that would be the case.
“Just get the fuck out of here,” War said. She started to walk away but he stopped her, took her purse and pulled out her phone. She protested so he showed her the gun. Her friend and her phone forgotten, she ran away. War rolled his eyes. “She’ll be back.”
I shrugged. “Do we really give a shit?”
He blew out a sigh. “Where’d you put the guy?”
“Locked him in a dumpster. But he’ll make noise when he wakes up. They’ll also want to know where he went eventually.”
A sound behind us had us both spinning around.
Dirt came out of the darkness with Ink and a few other guys, there were now twelve of us.
I recognized some of the guys from the Middletown Chapter in Delaware, who’d stuck around after the funeral.
He looked like he wanted to beat the shit out of us.
War had them come over and filled them in on what we knew, he wasn’t about to explain himself.
Dirt took a call and told whoever it was we needed a diversion so we could go in while they were confused, and we’d hit them from all sides.
After listening Dirt’s face broke into a smile.
I kept my eyes out on the area beyond us and noticed another person jogging closer to the main warehouse.
I’d recognize that head of white hair anywhere.
“Not very stealthy,” I commented dryly.
“It keeps him happy…” Dirt grinned. “Everyone ready?”
Casper used that precise moment to detonate a bomb he planted on one of the bikes, a nice touch, especially as it blew up more than half of the bikes parked beside it.
After a moment, there was some shouting from inside and the doors pulled open, men spilling out shouting about the bikes.
They weren’t paying attention to anything else.
I only hoped we managed to find someone who could tell us where Waverley was.
Or we would find her in here. A horrible thought suddenly hit me that if she was here, they might do something to her.
We all ran at the men who had come outside, easily taking them out, I punched one guy so hard he bounced off the wall and slammed onto the ground.
The fire was still raging, and I wondered what the hell Casper had used, it brought back memories of another time, when Casper blew up a bunch of high school kids cars. Now I knew we’d made an enemy of Andrew Reinhart that night and that thought pissed me off even more.
Gunshots filled the air and I ducked back to find cover, holding my gun up. It was hard to differentiate between our guys and theirs, I didn’t want to hit anyone on our side by mistake.
All around me I could hear shouting and guns firing.
I sprinted past the bikes on fire and a small part of me wept for their ruin, but it wasn’t enough to stop me in my tracks.
I got to the door and ducked my head quickly around to see what was inside.
I counted at least six men out here so that meant there were two more and the girl, if what the other girl said was true.
I held my gun up next to my shoulder, finger through the trigger guard. War stopped on the other side of the door and looked at me. He started counting down from three using his fingers then we both ran inside. We weren’t alone. The men outside were all down so the rest of us spilled into the room.
I followed him inside and immediately had to take cover as a guy standing in the middle of the vast space fired wildly around himself.
“Fuck,” I grunted, dropping to my knees behind a huge metal box.
The place was set up with couches and tables, and there was a kitchen area near the back of the room. I didn’t see anyone but there were a few doors off the room. We spread out to start checking them, both for Kingsmen and Wave.
Another explosion rocked the side of the building and debris from the ceiling rained down around me. Jesus Christ, Casper needed to chill the fuck out before he collapsed the damn place with us inside.
Looking up to make sure nothing fell on my head, I spotted a metal staircase that led up to a mezzanine level and a couple of rooms. I ran towards it, keeping an eye out for hiding Kingsmen but didn’t encounter anyone. I could hear our guys shouting out to each other as they cleared rooms.
I ran up the metal staircase, slowing when I reached the top, keeping my gun up.
Anyone could be up here. Glancing over the metal railing I saw we’d caught one of the Kingsmen.
He was down on the floor with his hands behind his head.
Dirt came out of another room with the girl who was sobbing, and half dressed.
I figured the guy they’d caught had been the one with her.
Dirt was being gentle with her though, but I was sure he’d searched her already.
I moved slowly along the walkway until I got to the first door.
I listened at it but didn’t hear anything.
Touching the handle, I checked it wasn’t locked and slowly turned it, then pushed it in and went in low.
The room was empty, it had a desk and chair and some filing cabinets but didn’t look as if it was recently used.
There was trash all over the floor and I spotted a couple of used condoms and grimaced.
These guys were fucking animals. The disgust quickly turned to fear for Waverley.
The second room was empty too. Shit, she wasn’t here.
I hurried back out to go downstairs when something made me turn around, a prickle of awareness making me duck into the open doorway of the first room.
A bullet hit the wall where I’d just been heading.
Running feet hit the walkway, as whoever it was came after me.
I moved away from the door, got down behind the desk with my gun up, just as a guy came barreling into the room.
His face was a mask of rage. I fired but he managed to duck out of the way before I could hit him.
Then he suddenly jolted forwards and red bloomed on his white t-shirt, a look of total shock on his face.
His gun dropped out of his hand as he fell forward again.
He dropped to the knees, then fell, slamming his face into the floor. War stood behind him.
“You good?” he asked.
My hands were shaking from the adrenalin, but I nodded. He hadn’t got a chance to get a shot off. I stood up as War stepped over the body, reaching down he flipped him over, stared at his face, and checked the patch on his cut.
“It’s him, their Sargent-At-Arms. Mad Hog,” he said.
I moved to stand over him. The shot had gone through his heart. He was deader than fuck. We looked at each other, knowing it had to be done because he could have killed me, but War just killed one of the Kingsmen’s officers.
“Is he dead?” Dirt stood in the doorway.
“We got everyone else, there is no sign of her here. Who is that?” he stepped into the room, then whistled as he recognized him and put his hands on his hips.
“I’ll call Hammer. The guy downstairs gave up some information.
” He dismissed the dead officer at his feet, but we all knew this was bigger than anything else that happened recently.
“He was one of the guys in the van when they took her. Said they went to a house in Dover.”
“Dover, that’s East,” I said with a frown. “Everything else has been pointing South.”
“Yeah, probably why Kansas lost them, we were looking in the wrong direction,” Dirt said.
“Let’s go then,” War kicked the downed Kingsmen, making my lip twitch. “We don’t have time to wait for Hammer, those explosions won’t have gone unnoticed. We need to burn the whole thing.”