Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
JAVEY
None of us gave a shit whether we agreed on anything in the past or not. Coast and Phoenix were as pissed off as I was, determined to get Sinclair back.
We all fumed quietly on the way to the warehouse, where we secured weapons before getting back onto the bus.
Aidan looked like he might suggest some people sit out, but he didn't and no one would have accepted anyway.
I appointed myself to keep an eye on Tank and BJ, both of who seemed just as excited as the rest of them. Them, not me. Excitement wasn't uppermost in my mind.
Cold fury, vengeance and focus, along with a sliver of fear that Sinclair was already dead.
I didn't let that sliver in too far. I couldn't afford to. That would mess with my focus and replace it with despair.
If she was gone…
I gripped the gun in my hand a little tighter. Shoved away the thought and let the words Aidan was speaking filter into my brain.
"They may be expecting us," he said as he paced up and down the aisle of the bus. "I'm banking on them not realising we'll be so quick. Whatever their endgame, they won't get past us."
"Fuck no they won't," Coast agreed.
"Just let them try," Tiger grunted.
"They won't even get to try," Phoenix said.
"They should be kissing their asses goodbye as we speak," Bray called out.
Aidan nodded. "Yes, they should. We'll be stopping a block away and walking from there. We need to be subtle."
Yeah, a bus with 'Dusk Bay Demons' written down the side would be anything but subtle.
Personally, I would have kept us on here and driven straight through the front of the building. If there wasn't a chance we'd kill Sinclair too, I'd suggest it.
Not that Aidan would agree to it. Using the bus for this was one thing, damaging Demons property was another.
The bus drew to a stop by the side of the road. Aidan gestured for us to follow him off.
Gravel crunched under my shoes until I moved over to the grass. I stood in the shadows near a tree and waited, watched as the bus pulled away.
"You good?" Phoenix asked gruffly as he came to stand near me.
"I will be," I said. "Once we take out these assholes, everything will be peachy."
"Who uses words like peachy?" Coast teased, but his tone and expression were tense.
I shrugged. "Usually not me." I didn't want to admit the pressure was getting to me. "You got a problem with that?"
He grinned. "Nah, brah. No problem at all." He patted my shoulder. He made to step back, but then gave me a quick bro hug, then gave one to Phoenix.
The one they shared lasted a little longer than might have strictly been necessary. It was about time Coast realised there was something between them.
"Okay." Aidan held a gun loosely in his hand.
Orion stood with him, his usual unreadable expression on his face.
"You know what to do. Stay close and don't do anything stupid." Aidan's gaze slid to Coast, before taking in the rest of us. He even lingered on me for a moment or two before moving on.
We moved as quietly and carefully as over twenty guys could. I stayed close to Phoenix, but kept part of my attention on Aidan and the rest on Tank and BJ. If they were going to pull something, it would happen soon. Not yet. Not while they were outnumbered. But soon.
We moved down the quiet road.
It was dark, apart from a flicker of lights up ahead. Every so often, I glanced back over my shoulder.
The further we went, the higher we climbed, revealing the lights of Dusk Bay spread out behind us. I would have preferred to share the view with Sinclair and have a picnic.
I made a note to do that once we got her back. Maybe the other two guys could join us. I'd figured the details out later.
We approached a large house set back from the road. Not one of the cliffside mansions, but big enough.
It was surrounded by a tall fence, but the gate was currently ajar. A glance at Aidan confirmed that was his doing. He had someone on the inside. Someone with enough guts to leave the gate open, but who still wanted to keep their presence a secret and was nowhere to be seen.
Or they snuck out through the gate and were long gone.
Either way, we slipped through the gate and back into the shadows, moving as quickly as we could. If anyone glanced out a window, they wouldn't miss seeing a bunch of us filing through.
None of us would rule out the possibility they were lying in wait and this was a trap.
"Here's where Reuben sending us help would have actually helped," Orion whispered to Aidan.
Aidan glanced at him and grunted in response. Apparently that was a sore point for them.
I can't say I was too surprised Reuben hadn't sent help. If this went badly, he and Caleb could say they knew absolutely nothing about it. If it went well, they'd happily claim credit.
Sometimes I wondered why any of us were loyal to either of them. Then I remembered they'd probably have us killed if we weren't. Threats of death were usually effective motivation.
"We've got this," Coast whispered. "We don't need help."
His confidence buoyed my nerves. That and Phoenix gripping my hand and giving it a quick squeeze before he let it go. Getting to know the goalie was one of the biggest surprises in all of this. Like me, there was a lot more to him than he let on.
"Just as well, because we ain't getting any," Tiger said. "Let's do this."
In spite of the cold, sweat trickled down my forehead. Pure nerves. When the adrenaline kicked in, those would dissipate. For now, I had to shut them away and stop them from getting the better of me.
'I love you too.'
Sinclair's words echoed around and around in my head. And the way she smiled. The way she smelled. The way she sounded when she came. The taste of her lips.
I needed to feel her body under my hands. On my tongue. I wanted her curled around me. I needed her more than I needed to breathe.
If I died here tonight, it would be worth it as long as she was safe.
But I'd do whatever I could to make sure that didn't happen.
I wasn't going to miss out on the rest of our lives together.
I wanted to spend at least the next seventy or eighty years reminding her how special she was. She was my forever.
"We're going around the back," Aidan whispered.
Any other time, someone would have made a smartass comment in response. Tonight, we simply followed, keeping to the shadows as we moved around the large house. We stepped away from the lights and into the deepening darkness.
Our feet barely made a sound on the neatly mowed grass. Little more than the occasional swish, apart from the crack of a twig here or there. The shuffle of leaves. Animals running from us and hiding.
Yeah, I'd run and hide from us too.
"Anyone else have a bad feeling about this?" Phoenix whispered.
"Nope," Coast whispered back. "I don't have time for bad feelings. Let's get this done."
Phoenix muttered something unintelligible under his breath, but didn't slow.
"We've got you," I said as close to his ear as I could without stopping. "We'll get her out of there together."
I sensed his surprise and nod of agreement. "Yeah, we will. Then we're going to have a nice long talk and get drunk."
"Sounds like a plan." I inched closer to the forms I knew to be Tank and BJ.
Tension seemed to ooze off them more than it was of the rest of us. Either they were up to something, or they realised they were being closely watched.
Whatever it was, they knew there was risk to them. That might make them desperate and desperate people make mistakes.
That realisation put me even further on edge. Mistakes and guns usually didn't end well.
If it wasn't for the need to be quiet, I'd consider dispensing with them right now to make sure a mistake didn't happen in my direction. Or in the direction of Phoenix and Coast. Especially not in the direction of Sinclair or Wren.
I had to remind myself it wasn't just my woman whose life was at stake here. Wren was important to Sinclair, which made her important to me. They were both the priority.
"We've got you too," Phoenix whispered.
"Yeah, we do," Coast agreed. "Whatever happens, we're brothers now."
Later, his words would sink in better, but right now they floated on the surface of my mind, making me feel a part of something in a way I hadn't in a long time. Like somehow I was even more of a Demon than I was before. Less of an outsider and more…
Connected. An insider rather than an outsider watching from the stands. Later I'd tell him how gratifying it was to hear that, but it might make his ego even bigger. If there was room for growth. Knowing him, he'd find a way.
"Quiet," Aidan hissed.
We were close enough to the house that they might hear our whispers. Even over the sound inside. Some kind of sporting event on a big screen. It didn't sound like hockey. Probably some kind of football. My guess would be rugby union. Something involving tackling, judging by the commentary.
A couple of voices inside the house jeered. Apparently they didn't like the umpire's ruling, or the commentator's commentary. Standard couch jockey stuff by the sound of it. We were all guilty of it from time to time.
I tried to remember if the Dusk Bay Smashers were playing tonight, but I couldn't. Keeping up with our roster of games was hard enough, without keeping up with theirs. I tried to catch a game whenever I could.
Before I played hockey, I played rugby. Now I preferred to watch, but I knew a few of the guys on the team. I saw them around places like Hazards often enough, as surrounded by jersey chasers as we were.
We reached a smaller back door. The kind that led into a laundry, rather than the wide one that led to the pool area. That was a bit further on.
I glanced over, but it was covered by a heavy curtain. Only slivers of light escaped here and there. I bet it was a lot warmer inside than it was out here.
I barely finished that thought, when a couple of drops of something landed on my face. I thought it was raining until I saw a sprinkling of white drifting past and melting on the ground.
Just what we needed, snow. From the look of it, it wasn't going to be heavy, but it was going to make us colder. Was Sinclair warm? She better be. If they weren't keeping her comfortable, they'd have her three guys to answer to.
I'd happily keep them warm by setting them on fire. It wasn't something I'd ever done before, but, you know what they say, there's a first time for everything. Especially when it came to my woman. Nothing was off the table or off-limits. Nothing.
Aidan pulled something out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock. Of course the head coach of a professional ice hockey team knew how to pick a lock. Our coach anyway. The rest were probably normal. Maybe.
The lock clicked and he pushed the door inward.
One by one, we followed him inside.