Chapter Twenty-Two
“Fuck me,” I breathed out.
The man who had just had a gun pointed at my face fell sideways, his head snapping unnaturally hard before he hit the floor.
My heart had stopped beating in my chest as I stared down the barrel of that gun, knowing my life was over.
I hadn’t had an epiphany, or seen my life flash before my eyes, I’d just known in a second it would all be over.
“You stupid bastard. I’ll fucking kill you if you get yourself killed.”
I looked up at War after he hissed that nonsense at me. Despite the stupidity of what he just said I could see the fear and panic in his eyes as he stared at me. I was seconds from getting my head blown off. If my best friend hadn’t come back for me, that would be me down there.
I looked about at the three dead men laying around us, then up at Mace who was staring at War in as much shock as I was. Both of us had believed this was game over.
“Help me move them. Hurry the fuck up.”
War grabbed the guy he’d shot and started dragging him deeper into the trees.
Mace didn’t waste any time and went after the first guy.
I pushed my gun into my pants and grabbed the arms of the third guy and started dragging him after War.
Once I got him behind a large group of dense bushes, dropping him on top of the other guy, I helped Mace pull the final guy in.
War was back out brushing the ground with his feet to hide the drag marks.
“Once it’s clear, we’ll move them. No one can know we were here. Ballistic’s called it in and the Sheriff’s on his way, we’ve diverted the cops to where the meet was, so we’ll have a chance to move those guys before the cartel or the cops find them. We just need to hope the cops clear them out.”
“Someone is hanging back?”
“Rail and Hammer.”
They were both ex-military guys, used to covert ops, still I felt uneasy knowing they were hiding out there. Even with the cops on our side hoping to disperse everyone.
War double checked the area to make sure our quick cover up would hold. It wasn’t great, but it would have to do. He bent and picked up the shell casings, then grabbed one of the cartel guys’ guns and tossed it at Mace, he caught it easily, surprise registered on his face.
“Let’s go,” War headed into the trees, still holding his gun up just in case.
I followed behind him, Mace keeping pace with us.
We hadn’t heard anymore gunfire after I shot the second guy.
War’s gunshot might alert people to where we were, so we needed to move fast. War wasn’t stealthy about it either, he damn near ran and we moved quickly, keeping up.
There was no time to ask questions. Eventually we came out onto a fire road where a truck was waiting.
Casper was behind the wheel, and he started the engine as soon as we ran out into the road. His hands slapping the steering wheel to hurry us up. War jumped in the passenger side, and I grabbed the back door and clambered in, moving over so Mace could follow me.
Casper was a fucking maniac behind the wheel of a car but right now, I was glad for it. The more space we put between us and that clusterfuck the better.
“What the fucking hell was that?” I snapped out.
“That,” War looked over his shoulder at me.
“Was nearly a fight over who was going to take Nytro out first,” he said.
Casper chuckled and I glared at him. “Before you ask, we don’t know what the fuck they were doing there but when we spotted them coming in, we pulled back.
Last thing we need is them seeing us. If they think they’ve taken out the Kingsmen they’ll back off, no need to come at us. ”
“You were fucking stupid coming back for us.”
“Pretty sure you ought to be thanking me,” War arched a brow, then grabbed onto the handle on the roof as Casper took a sharp turn way too fast and had to spin the wheel to compensate and get us back on the road. “Take it fucking easy,” War told him.
“Sorry,” Casper said, not sounding sorry at all, in fact there was a small grin on his face. The guy was fucking insane.
“You put yourself in danger,” I told him.
“You want me to apologize?” War shouted at me.
“For saving your fucking life. If I hadn’t doubled back, both of you would be fucking dead right now, and they’d see your cut and know you weren’t Kingsmen, so they’d come after us.
That’s the only reason I did it, not to fucking save your sorry ass or anything. ”
“Piss off,” I punched his shoulder when he grinned.
“And I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have come for the Devil’s,” I muttered.
The cartel didn’t discriminate when they killed, in the moment, but even they weren’t stupid enough to come out of those woods and go after us.
Their job was in the woods tonight, nothing more.
I leaned back, tipping my head onto the head rest, staring at the roof of the truck.
My heart was racing a mile a minute and I felt like I was going to throw up.
After about ten minutes of more twists and turns, Casper slowed his driving a little as he pulled onto the road proper, and the adrenalin had me crashing.
It was late, not a lot of cars about, but I did see headlights pull out behind us and for a moment my pulse spiked again.
“It’s Ink and Raptor,” War said, clearly sensing my rising panic.
“Where is everyone else?” I straightened up in the seat.
“Back at the compound, we had to get out of there. There were too many of us to hang around.”
“Cops,” Casper said as a row of police cars came around the corner, their lights filling the dark road, but they weren’t blaring their sirens. He slowed and pulled to the side slightly, letting them pass by, they were going so fast our car rocked as each vehicle flew past alongside us.
I glanced back and saw Raptor doing the same, allowing the police to get by. War took out his phone and called Hammer letting him know the cops were heading to the other end of the forest and they had to get those guys out of there fast.
“Can the two of them deal with it, there are three bodies?” I asked.
War just looked over his shoulder at me. “It’s Hammer.”
Oddly enough, I knew what he meant. We didn’t have anything to worry about.
“What about Nytro?”
We both turned to look at Mace. “Pretty sure they did the job for us, but the Sheriff will confirm once he’s got control of the scene,” he paused as if thinking about whether he wanted to continue.
“One of them got away though. We saw a bike speeding out of there, but we couldn’t show our hand and go after him. ”
Mace’s jaw clenched. I glanced down and saw the gun was still in his hand, resting on his lap with the barrel facing the door. He saw where I was looking and after a tense stare off, he handed me the gun.
I took it, only slightly surprised by that move. The whole plan had gone to shit and for now, we weren’t even sure if the guy we needed dead, was dead.
“What about the guy out by the cabins?” I asked.
“Dead,” War told us without turning around. “We took him out before the cartel showed up.”
“And all of our guys got out?”
“Yep.”
I zoned out once I knew everyone was safe and stared out of the window as Casper raced back to the compound.
I didn’t really give a shit about what Mace was thinking, there was only one thing running through my head right now and that was Waverley.
As much as I was pissed at War for coming back and putting himself at risk, if he hadn’t…
I’d be fucking dead right now, no doubt about it.
And Waverley would have had to come to terms with that. I couldn’t stand the thought of her hurting over me. It gave me a better appreciation for her worrying. She had good reason.
I wanted to call her, but it could wait until after we knew for sure what went down tonight.
We got back to the compound quickly and when we pulled to a stop King came out of the clubhouse.
He gave War an angry look, but he grabbed my shoulder tightly, giving me a nod and letting me know in his own silent way he was glad I hadn’t died out there.
His eyes flicked to Mace who had got out of the truck too but was staying close to it.
He looked around at the brothers who were out here too, seeing how they were eyeing the Kingsmen in our midst.
He didn’t care what they thought because he called him over and headed inside. He yelled for me and War too and we followed. Down in the basement the rest of the council were already seated, a few boxes of takeout food and some beers on the table in front of them.
“You were having a fucking party while we were out there risking our lives?” War said, as he grabbed up a beer for himself.
“We knew you were alright, jerk off,” Dirt told him. “Ink let us know when you guys came out of the forest.”
Ink entered the room at that moment, and he grinned widely. “Just spoke to the Sheriff,” he said as he passed me and Mace, who were still standing on the periphery as the rest of them sat around the large meeting table.
I was feeling a little weak kneed and the smell of the Indian food was making me nauseous, but I’d never let on. It wasn’t every day you stared down the barrel of a gun, certain you were about to die. The fact everyone was being so, normal, about things was freaking me the fuck out.
“And?” King’s voice rose out above the other men’s conversations. Everyone went quiet.
“So far they got four men in Kingsmen cuts and six unidentified, a couple of vans were seen leaving the area, but he let them go.”
King nodded, which meant he’d told the Sheriff not to get involved in chasing after anyone from the Mexican cartel. “How long till we get an ID?”
“Shouldn’t be too much-” Ink cut off when his phone buzzed in his hand. He unlocked it and swiped through what I assumed were pictures. He looked up at Mace and waved him over. After a few moments hesitation, Mace walked past me and took Ink’s phone.
“Fisheye, Brick, Juice and Rebar.”