Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
SILAS
My cell rang from my pocket, and I ripped it out, heaving a relieved breath while my pulse simultaneously skyrocketed.
“It’s Cash,” I ground out to the guys who were again gathered in the shop, giving the signal of the call’s importance.
I strode out the open bay and into the glaring daylight where it was quiet.
The last four days had been torture.
Blissful fucking torture but torture all the same.
Giving Brinley orgasm after orgasm that she insisted on delivering right back, all while knowing the time was fast approaching that I had to end it.
Holding onto it for a few moments more like a glutton, feeding on all her good when I knew I was only going to turn around and ruin.
Getting more and more attached as I did.
Both of us curling up sated and tangled in my sheets, waking up with my head buried between her lush thighs, sending her to those heights all over again.
I never took it beyond that, like not doing so would somehow afford the two of us some kind of amnesty from the coming pain.
I knew it was bullshit, but I couldn’t fucking stop. I accepted the call and brought my cell to my ear.
“Cash.” It was a low slash of urgency.
We needed to get this thing done, and the more time that passed, the more precarious the situation got.
“Silas,” he grunted in his abrupt way.
“Tell me you have news.”
Four days ago, I’d texted to update him on what had happened, fact that blood had been spilled. Another body buried deep in the woods and even deeper underground.
The definitive link the bastard had to Kent.
“Dereck called last night. We have a go three nights from now,” he said.
My guts tangled in a smack of antsy anticipation and something that felt a little too close to grief.
My attention whipped to the windows that fronted the lobby, no way to stop the trajectory. Mirrored and shimmery, my abhorrent reflection was the only thing I could see staring back.
There was no way to see the beauty through the glass, but I felt her moving around on the other side, anyway.
Likely plucking away at those keys, trying to sculpt Torque & Talon’s accounting into some semblance of shape. Actually making progress on the disaster when I really hadn’t anticipated her putting any real effort into it.
Not with the way I treated her when she first came here.
Hell, I was lucky she wasn’t sabotaging the whole damned thing.
I forced myself to turn away and focus on what was important.
The safety and deliverance of my crew.
Vengeance for my family.
The complete desolation of the foul repugnance that Kent Ellison propagated.
The monster had zero clue who he was messing with. Thinking he had the power to wield his control and we were just going to submit.
I couldn’t wait to see his face when I brought him to his end.
But there was something that clenched at the thought. A revolt coming on deep.
“You’re sure?” My teeth gnashed as I asked it.
“All his intel says it is, and everything I’ve found confirms it.
There are three different drops occurring on the same night.
I have full details and every meeting place.
Dereck said every man in Kent’s organization is to be on that night.
Three groups divvied out over the deals.
Additionally, there will be a large contingency standing guard at his compound, plus a handful at another safehouse. ”
My nerves rattled like a snake. “So we have to hit five different locations?”
We knew this was going to be the largest undertaking that we’d ever endeavored, but I didn’t have the full scale of it until then.
“That’s right,” he confirmed, a thread of uncertainty in his voice. Wondering if I really wanted to take this on. “Dereck said it’s a total of about eighty men, an estimation of ten involved in each deal, five at the safehouse, and the rest at the compound.”
“He’s sure that’s it?”
They all had to be taken out at precisely the same time. We couldn’t afford for anyone to alert the other, and we sure as hell couldn’t leave anyone as a witness.
Sure, there would be those on the fringes. Accomplices and associates. There was no way to strike down every connection.
But we were going for his inner circle. Ensuring that no one in his chain of command remained.
This would be unabridged and nuclear.
Rats included.
All except for Dereck.
Disquiet rolled through my guts. I was still more than skeptical that he could be trusted.
A deranged, perverted part of me hoped he wasn’t, then I’d have good reason to make him pay for what he’d caused Brinley.
“He’s betting his life on it.” Cash’s voice was rough.
I huffed a cynical laugh. “He’d better be sure he knows I’ll gladly collect.”
“He said he knows the score.”
“And you trust that?”
Cash scoffed. “Do I trust a sniveling dirtbag only out to save his own ass? Not a fucking chance, but right now, he’s the only real chance we’ve got. Question is, do you want to take that chance?”
Dread stuttered the fierce pulsing of my blood, one skipped beat as fear slicked my insides in sludge.
Not for myself.
But for my men who had stepped up. Every one of them pledging their loyalty and sacrifice. Taking my life’s obligation as their own duty.
Didn’t mean I viewed a single one of them as expendable.
Our bond had meshed us tight as family.
“It’s the only thing we can do.” I forced out my commitment to the operation.
“Okay then. Details are on their way.”
The documents would be sent to the secret shared folder that Cash and I often used to communicate.
He hesitated for a beat then added gruffly, “My crew is in.”
Surprise stumbled my steps before the refusal was rocketing off my tongue, “Not a chance, man.”
There were five of them in Sovereign Sanctum. Each one brutal. As savage and ruthless as us. Experienced in the type of delicate matters that we often undertook.
Wickedly skilled to boot.
Problem was, all of them had gotten their hearts tied. Married or were shacked up with kids.
No way I was letting them put themselves on the line.
“It’s already decided,” Cash said like there was no room for argument. “I’m in as deep as you, and if Kent catches wind that it was me and my crew who got your sister out, it won’t bode well for us. We need him gone just as badly as you do. Just as badly as this world does.”
Emphasis was gouged into the last.
Stickiness clogged my throat, the scale of this close to overwhelming. “You’re sure?”
“We’re in this with you. Same way as all the times you’ve been in it with us.”
Years of connections.
All the way back to the days of riding in the Iron Owls MC. When we rode for ego and greed and heedlessness rather than for the purpose we donned our cuts for now.
Blowing out a haggard sigh, I relented. “Okay.”
We sat in a beat of knowing silence before he hedged, “And the girl?”
Anarchy stormed my insides.
“She’s safe and clueless. I’m going to assign a seven-man detail to watch over her and the rest of my family during the raids.”
Rejection of the idea blared through my senses at no less than one hundred and fifty decibels.
Earsplitting.
Spirit and mind joining forces to shout at my soul that it wasn’t enough.
Howling at me not to leave her side.
It was the proof that I’d become so distracted I couldn’t see straight, heavy gray clouds sagging low from the heavens, distorting and disorienting.
Judgement skewed.
Exactly as Phoenix had accused.
I was nothing but a fool who’d gone astray.
I knew it, and I knew it was time I ended it.
I couldn’t go on like this for a second more. Pretending like I could keep her when she was elemental to our plot.
So I pressed on and dispatched the blow to my stupid, twisted heart. “Then after, I deliver her to her piece of shit brother.”