Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
WREN
"We need to split up." Aidan scrubbed his face with his hand. He looked tired. As tired as I felt. As tired as we all were.
None of us would walk away until this was done. "Lex, you go that way with them." He gestured toward a couple of players who had appeared out of the trees shortly after Gus' death. They'd become separated from the rest of us and missed out on the fun.
If you could call it fun.
"Finley, take Javey, Phoenix, Tiger, Bray and Wren and go that way." Aidan pointed.
"Sinclair goes where I go," Javey said. His mouth was set in a firm line. If Aidan tried to send her off in a different direction, he'd follow.
Evidently, Aidan was in no mood to argue.
"Fine, take her too. Coast, Orion, Elenna and me, will go this way.
Nicholas knows we're here, but not that we're alive.
Let him assume we're Gus. He'd have no reason to sneak around.
Don't do anything wild, but stay in touch and keep your eyes peeled.
" Sure we'd do what he said, he turned and led his group into the trees.
"Come on," Finley said. He started off in the direction Aidan had indicated. "Let's find this dickhead before he finds us. Preferably before the other groups find them."
"This isn't a competition," Sinclair said.
Javey, Phoenix, Tiger and Bray all looked at her with raised eyebrows.
She held up her hands in surrender. "Sorry, it is a competition. I should have remembered who I was talking to. You guys are competitive for a living."
Phoenix snaked an arm around her and tucked her in close to his side while they walked. "Don't say you don't want to find them first too."
"As long as someone finds them," she said.
Phoenix let out a sigh like she just didn't get it.
"Don't fight it," I told her. "They're guys, and professional hockey players. Whatever they do, they have to win."
"She gets it," Finley said. "I've always said redheads were especially smart." He offered me a fist bump without breaking his stride.
I grinned and bumped my fist against his. "I know right? I've been saying that for years, but no one seems to believe me."
"She's not joking," Bray said. "I don't know how many times she said it when we were growing up. Although, I seem to recall it had something to do with having a pussy."
"That too," I agreed. "Women are amazing."
"Some more than others." Javey shot Sinclair at half-lidded glance.
"Are you trying to make me blush?" she asked with a laugh.
"He's trying to remind you of the truth, because you don't seem to remember it for yourself," Phoenix said. He gave her a similar look. They were adorable together. The three of them and Coast.
"That is not a problem Wren has," Bray said. "She has a very healthy ego. Ouch." He rubbed his ribs where I elbowed him. "Hey, it's not a bad thing."
"It is when you say it like that," I told him. "I am not conceited."
"Definitely not," Tiger agreed.
Bray stifled a laugh when I threatened to elbow him in the ribs again. "Fine, I'll be nice. As long as you don't suggest we need some kind of dorky group name. Like the Searching Kangaroos."
I pulled a face at him. "You're such a drongo." The affectionate Australian slang for ‘idiot’ was perfect for him. "Anyway, I was going to suggest the Redhead Brigade."
"You were not." Sinclair laughed.
"No, I wasn't," I agreed. "Because I'm not as big a dork as my stepbrother."
"Yes you are," Bray said. "We're at least on equal footing in the dork department."
I flipped him off and started to say something, but I was interrupted by a scream of sheer agony.
"Lex!" All thoughts of finding Nicholas were immediately driven out of my mind. I turned toward the sound and started off at a run, staggering through the trees and tripping every few steps.
I barely registered that Sinclair and the guys were right behind me.
I barely registered anything. All I could think about was getting to Lex, and what happened to make him scream like that.
Lex screamed again. He was definitely close at this time, the pain in his scream doubled.
I sprinted across a narrow track and back into the trees. A handful of metres later, I skidded to a stop on the edge of a clearing.
Lex lay on the ground, his broken wrist held close to his chest. His expression was a mask of pure agony. The players who went with him lay dead on the ground, the backs of their heads all but gone.
Nicholas Fiorelli was standing over Lex, a handful of goonholes arrayed behind him.
"Fucking prick," Tiger snarled. He raised his gun and aimed it at Nicholas.
Rather than flinch, Nicholas kicked Lex in his broken wrist.
Lex screamed out for a third time.
Tears poured down my cheeks. The sound ripped my heart straight out of my chest.
"You're outnumbered," Nicholas said.
Several more goonholes moved out of the trees behind us. Each held a gun to our heads.
"What do you want?" Finley called out. For once, he wasn't smiling. The cheerful Irishman was gone, replaced by cold, ruthless fury. He sounded a lot like Aidan right now.
"I want you all dead," Nicholas said. "Every one of you is responsible for the deaths of my family."
"You're responsible for Sawyer’s death, dickhead," Phoenix said. "And Celine."
"Geneva is responsible for her own," Tiger added. "She could have stayed in her lane and lived a long and prosperous life. But she had to go and attack the arena."
"It was one of you who killed her," Nicholas said. "And my brother Jamison. Once you're all dead, we'll be even."
"That doesn't work for us," Bray said. "We'd prefer it if you were dead." He was shoved forward a step by the goon whose gun was now pressed hard to the back of his head.
"Kill him," Nicholas said as though he was bored by this conversation.
"No!" The word was ripped from my lips so violently I barely knew it was coming. It tore out of me, leaving my throat raw.
Without thinking, I turned and fired a shot at the goonhole. The bullet struck his cheekbone, shattering it and the rest of his face before slamming into his brain and ending his life.
All hell broke loose.
Sinclair and the other guys turned and shot at the goons behind us.
At the same time, I was vaguely aware of shots behind Lex and Nicholas. I aimed and squeezed the trigger while waiting for a bullet to end me. If I was going to die here, I was going to take as many of them with me as I could.
No bullet came.
Aidan and Elenna came running out of the trees and helped us to dispatch the last of those goonholes.
When the final one went down, I whirled around to see Coast and Orion standing over dead goons, guns aimed at Nicholas. The bullets I thought would kill me must have come from them.
I sagged down in relief. It only lasted a moment, until I pulled myself together and trotted over to drop to my knees beside Lex.
He managed to sit up, but he was pale and cradling his wrist. "Assholes snuck up on us," he groaned. "I've decided he's not very nice."
I responded with a husky laugh and gently kissed his lips. "I agree. We need to get you to a hospital."
"I'm having déjà vu," he said. "Didn't we say that to you only a couple of days ago? Because of the same asshole." He looked up at Nicholas sharply.
"He won't be doing that to anyone else ever again," Tiger said. He knelt down beside Lex and fixed the sling, which was still hanging around Lex's neck. "Told you to keep it still."
Lex grunted softly. "I tried." He looked over to Aidan, who stood near Elenna, eyes on Nicholas.
Aidan raised his chin. "You know there's no way you're walking away from this alive?"
Nicholas raised his own chin, still defiant. "I don't know why I'm not dead already."
"Neither do I," Tiger said.
"Is this where we draw sticks to decide who's going to kill him?" Finley asked.
"No thank you," Elenna said quickly. "I've done my share of killing."
"Me too," I agreed.
"Me three," Sinclair said. "I'm not going to fight anyone here for it."
Tiger, Bray and Lex exchanged glances. Something passed between them.
With Bray and Tiger's help, Lex got to his feet. I handed him my gun and stepped back.
"On the count of three?" Bray asked. He nodded to Coast and Orion as well. They both looked down at Nicholas, their expressions grim but ready.
"One," Lex said.
"Two." Tiger's hand was firm on the trigger.
"Three." They all fired simultaneously.
We left Nicholas lying where he was.
Aidan said something about organising a cleanup in the morning, preferably before the police discovered the scene. Following the glare of the headlights, we trudged back up the track to the vehicles.
A couple of the guys carried the coach who was shot in the stomach, but was somehow still alive if barely conscious.
We were a silent group as we approached the vehicles. Each lost in our own thoughts, until we saw another two vehicles parked with the others.
My heart sank. Fuck, this wasn't over after all.
I was ready to rally any energy I had left, until the doors of each of the dark vehicles opened.
Hunter and Parker Brantley climbed out of one, and Caleb Brantley out of the other.
"We saw the crashed bus and came to find you," Hunter said. "It seems like you didn't need us after all."
Most of the second line and a handful of coaches were dead. We'd needed them, but it was too late for that now. We'd done exactly what they asked us to do, but we paid a fucking heavy price for it.
"Figures you'd turn up now." Tiger looked at them sideways, scowling in undisguised annoyance.
"Better late than never," Parker said lightly. He glanced over at Caleb.
Caleb regarded all of us, his eyes sliding from one to another, to another. "Nicholas Fiorelli?" He directed the question to Aidan.
"Dead," Aidan said. "He's the last of them." He held onto Elenna's hand like she was the only thing keeping him upright.
Caleb nodded. "Reuben will expect a report in the morning.
" He looked over to his younger brothers.
"You can have the team." Without another word, or gesture, he climbed back into his car and shut the door behind him with a thunk.
The driver reversed the car up the track and disappeared down the highway.
Hunter and Parker were both grinning like they won some kind of prize.
"The first order of business will be replacing some players," Hunter said. "And convincing the public the ones who didn't make it died in a terrible bus crash."
That figured. No one but us would ever know what went on here.
I supposed it was better this way. Some of those players' families didn't know what they got up to with the Demons. They wouldn't want to know.
Mourning their lost loved ones would be difficult enough. I didn't envy anyone the task of having to make all those phone calls.
I wiped tears off my cheeks. It felt like too many deaths in the family all at once. At some point, it might sink in that it was over.
Aidan nodded. "We can deal with that in the morning. Everyone get out of here."
No one needed to be told twice.